Telltale Games has come out with the newest episode in their Walking Dead series. While the two part opener was good, it needed to really develop our new protagonist in order to live up to the love that the games built up for Clementine or even Lee. Javier is certainly not unlikable, but can Telltale continue its line up of strong protagonists? Can they build up Javier without neglecting Clementine? How will the story of Javier’s group progress and what will be learned about this New Frontier? This mid season episode has a lot of answers and story to unbox. This episode has a lot of story points and character development to look at, and less gameplay aspects to talk about, so minor spoilers are to follow, but nothing that ruins the episode. I recommend if you have played the episodes up to this point, definitely continue despite the lacking gameplay
The episode opens up by diving into Javier’s past and how he began to lead the family after his brother David’s absence. We see thatKate is hesitant to take action against the walkers and the kids are hesitant to leave without their father, but you must make the hard choice of either staying and risking the walkers becoming too numerous and overwhelming or leave and hope that David finds the group later down the road. His conversations with Kate and the kids when deciding how to handle their uncertain future offer quieter, but essential moments that help enrich the characters and offers some insight into how they ended up in their present situation and why they might feel the way they do. Getting this insight and character development really shows how much Telltale cares about their protagonists for the Walking Dead and puts at ease concerns that may have risen about switching protagonists for this season. We see how hard it is for Javier to take the leadership role, how hard it is for Kate to protect her loved ones while seeing such gruesome sights and how hard it is for the children, especially Gabe, to leave their father behind.
We also get some insight into what has happened to Clementine and her time with The New Frontier. We see how she got her tattoo, how she became a loner again after finding some stability and what choices she had to make to save her only remaining ties to family. A major discovery happens concerning AJ and we see that Telltale has not given up on Clementine or her story regardless of the change of protagonists. Clem is still as interesting and even heartbreaking a story as ever. We learn more about the connection between Javier, Clem and the New Frontier and the title “Above the Law” becomes very clear as we go deeper into how The New Frontier works. As the trailer for the episode showed, David reunites with his family, creating some hard choices for the family. Do they accept David back? Do they side with the New Frontier now that they learn David is involved? You need to make your own decisions and judgments after some investigation and conversations. There are some interesting developments, but it soon becomes a bit convoluted and frustrating when dealing with some dubious characters. There were times I even went against how I normally would respond in order to take a more aggressive action as opposed to a diplomatic response because of my frustration. The plus side is that this lead to some interesting responses from those around me.
Overall, this episode was wonderful for the character development and bonding with our new protagonists, but somewhat lacking in the rest of the departments that would have knocked it out of the park. There is certainly no reason to give up on this season or The Walking Dead now, so play for yourselves and discover why some are “Above The Law”.
fter the team was introduced, they shortly fired up a mission for the game and Ian began to show off some story and gameplay. The team made sure to point out that their new Frostbite engine enabled for some beautiful views of space and mission settings and, fluid, impressive character animations. The change over to the Frostbite engine seemed to be appropriate for the feeling of a new start the team wanted to emphasize, which was mentioned multiple times in the panel. The characters are new and different, the story is more light hearted and the look is more advanced than the previous trilogy. While there were some throwbacks to the previous installments, such as mention of your Shepherd’s gender, loyalty missions and the like, the team wanted to start fresh and try to step forward trying new things for the series, even saying “it’s always exciting to start with a blank page”.
This game offers some of the most amusing physics I have seen since QWERTY. The characters offered all have their unique way of controlling and have their strengths and weaknesses as far as running the tracks. My personal favorite character to play was Earl and his tractor. I found myself not only able to control Earl the best out of the group, but found myself doing some rather fun tricks such as spinning in the air and successfully landing flips. John and Jimmy offered some of the most challenging gameplay, but also the most fun wipe outs. When you need to respawn, the wipeout was usually violent and absurd. Since Johnny and Jimmy are only on a bicycle, balancing them was slightly more difficult, but it was faster. I paid no mind to who I crashed into and injured on the way to the next checkpoint, but I also would fall to my demise many times with a lot of red splattering around me. Thankfully, you can respawn at the last checkpoint you reached. 
It is hard to judge the first two episodes individually, so I chose to view them as one long episode. This time we are not following Clementine as a main character, but instead are playing a new character named Javier “Javi” Garcia and following his life and story beginning from before the zombie apocalypse leaves the world in shambles and disorder. Javier is the prodigal son of the Garcia family. Resented by his older brother, David and beloved by the rest of his family, Javier has made some mistakes with his life, but wants to pull his life together after a family tragedy and begin to truly grow up. Once the “muertos” begin to take over, Javier puts those words and intentions into action and soon he is raising his niece and nephew with his sister-in-law on the road, trying to keep ahead of the hoards of dead and make sure they have what they need to survive day by day while keeping the children’s best interest at heart (and maybe sneaking some adult fun at times). Along the way there are choices to be made and people who you must decide to trust or maybe even hurt. Will you decide to open fire or negotiate? Will you murder or show mercy? Will you take a stranger’s word on faith and hope they won’t turn on you? Will you stay at what seems like a safe location or keep moving? Even more important, how will you interact and treat Clementine? Has growing up in such a chaotic world so quickly turned her into your enemy? Or will she become a strong ally and even friend of your family and still show her good heart? What has happened to Clementine between season 2 and 3? All are wonderfully emotional moments and make for a wonderful story.
An interesting addition to the game this episode were the effects Lady Arkham’s drugs have on you. During moments where the drugs are acting up, you may be given the choice to make a reasonable reply to a character during a dialogue, but what actually comes out of your mouth is uncharacteristically violent or angry. You have no control over what you say during these moments and it adds an element of tension in the game. I found myself verbally shouting “That’s not what I meant at all!” when trying to talk to someone while the drugs were controlling me. Hopefully these responses won’t cause any long term effects on Bruce’s relationship with any of the characters. During all of this, you still need to investigate and figure out how Lady Arkham is transporting her drugs, what she plans on doing with them and how to stop her. You also need to try and control Harvey who is not on the best of terms with you and make sure the police are informed and make the best decisions. There is a lot on Batman’s plate and your choices could help or hinder him in his goal to get his life back from Cobblepot and Lady Arkham.
When I was younger, I played a lot of simple games. I clearly remember getting a CD with a collection of old games, including Dangerous Dave and Skunny the Squirrel games. In between playing Civilization games and Sims games and my NES, I played these quite often. These games weren’t the most sophisticated by any means, nor were they even great, but they made me smile and they were oddly relaxing and had short play times for when I wanted to play a game,, but didn’t have enough time to invest in a longer game (I was a busy kid with a bedtime, after all). After playing the Pirate Pop Plus, I can say, this game would have fit right in with those nostalgic titles I enjoyed in that obscure collection of odd computer games. It is not the most sophisticated, complex or story driven game, but it brought me a relaxing, enjoyable time.
oncerned, this was one I easily could see myself passing the time with during train rides and waiting in lines or relaxing in bed or on the couch with. The developers definitely displayed their sense of humor and showed great enthusiasm for their second game project. I also played 
Picking up where the last episode left off, Harvey is in the hospital, and his physical and mental state are taking a toll. Telltale addresses Harvey’s mental illness competently to explain his duality and compulsion to flip coins in search of a true fair result that is left up to fate. The game addresses how mental illness can affect friends and loved ones by seeing Bruce and Selina’s reactions to Harvey’s episodes, which include pleas for him to see his therapist and continue his medication. The game also allows you to chose how to interact with Harvey and help him cope with his illness. While the accuracy of his disorder may be questionable, the emotions captured by those involved were well done and add complexity to the story and make your choices harder to make, Should you take sympathy on your friend who is ill, but has hurt you? Do you chose love over friendship? These are all addressed in the game.
