The Walking Dead: Season Three

The Walking Dead: Season Three
Developer(s)	Telltale Games
Publisher(s)	Telltale Games
Distributor(s)	Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Composer(s)	Jared Emerson-Johnson
Series	The Walking Dead
Engine	Telltale Tool
Platform(s)	Android iOS Microsoft Windows OS X PlayStation 3 PlayStation 4 Xbox 360 Xbox One
Release date(s)	Episode 1 ‹See Tfd› WW: December 20, 2016[1] Episode 2 ‹See Tfd› WW: TBA 2017 Episode 3 ‹See Tfd› WW: TBA 2017 Episode 4 ‹See Tfd› WW: TBA 2017 Episode 5 ‹See Tfd› WW: TBA 2017
Genre(s)	Graphic adventure
Mode(s)	Single-player

The Walking Dead: Season Three, also known as The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series - A New Frontier, is an episodic point-and-click graphic adventure based on Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead comic book series developed by Telltale Games. It is the sequel to The Walking Dead and The Walking Dead: Season Two, with the first two episodes set to be released on December 20, 2016, and a retail season pass disc edition planned for release on February 7, 2017.^[2][3][4] The game employs the same narrative structure as the past seasons, where player choice in one episode will have a permanent impact on future story elements. The player choices recorded in save files from the first two seasons and the additional episode "400 Days" carry over into the third season.^[5] Clementine (voiced by Melissa Hutchison), who was the player's companion during the first season and the player-character in season two^[6] returns as a player-character along with another player-character, Javier Garcia (voiced by Danny Ramirez).^[7]

The game takes place in the same fictional world as the comic, with the zombie apocalypse having occurred. The main characters of the game are original characters, however due to time skips in season two and between seasons two and three, the timeline is caught up to where the comics are and Robert Kirkman has hinted at a crossover between the two mediums. He stated in an interview "I think that there will be some more comic book elements that we'll be working in in some interesting ways. I don't want to reveal too much, but it'll definitely go hand-in-hand with the comics a little bit more than Season 2 did."^[8]

Gameplay

This season will have two playable characters as opposed to one, as seen in Season One and Season Two. This feature was previously used in other Telltale games, such as Tales from the Borderlands, Jurassic Park and Game of Thrones among others.

Similar to the previous seasons, The Walking Dead: Season Three is a point-and-click adventure game. The player, in control of Clementine or Javier, can direct the character around the environment, examine and interact with various scenery elements and collect and use objects to advance the story. The player can also initiate conversations with non-player characters via conversation trees. Certain replies from other characters may offer the player multiple choices to select from, including the option to stay silent, with a limited amount of time to make the selection; if the player does not select an option, the conversation will continue as if they had stayed quiet. Such choices can affect how the other characters will later react to Clementine which can influence later events in the story. Other scenes are more action-oriented, requiring the player to complete quick time events to avoid Clementine or her allies from getting killed. If the player fails these events, the game will restart at the start of such scenes. Such action scenes may also require the player to make a key decision within a limited time frame, such as which of two characters to save from attacking walkers.

The player's choices and actions will impact story elements in later episodes; for example, a character that the player does not choose to be saved will not appear in later scenes. Season Three will incorporate player choices made in previous games in the series through existing save files; Telltale states they will offer multiple options for how players can bring in previous saves into the game, including for players that have switched their choice of platform prior to Season Three. Telltale will also provide a separate tool for players to "quick-create a tailored backstory" and create a save file from which to start the new season with. Players may also opt to use the default backstory that Telltale has created as the basis for the game.^[9]

Synopsis

Setting

The Walking Dead: Season Three follows on the first game, and coincides with events of the comic, in which a zombie apocalypse has occurred, turning humans that are bitten or die into zombies, or "walkers"; the only way to stop this conversion is to damage the brain. The game is set an unknown amount of time (likely three years following its predecessor).

The third season features several new characters, as well as others returning from second season. Clementine is this time accompanied by Javier Garcia (Danny Ramirez), while continuing to look after the baby from last season, Alvin Jr. Other new characters include Hector Garcia (Carlos Antonio), Kate (Shelly Shenoy) and Eleanor (Kelly Crowder).

Plot

Certain decisions made by the player during both this game and the preceding Season One, its add-on "400 Days" and Season Two alter specific details. In the trailer, Clementine is shown to be missing most of her left ring finger. Telltale confirmed that this would be determinant based on player choice.

Episodes

The game is separated into five episodes, like the first and second seasons.

Development

When Telltale Games acquired the right to make video games based on The Walking Dead comics, they signed a contract for a "multi-year, multi-platform, multi-title" license.^[11] This license went into effect after the success of the first season of The Walking Dead, when Telltale commissioned a second series of games based on the franchise.^[12] The first season was considered highly successful, helping to revitalize the adventure game genre which had been in decline since the mid-1990s,^[13][14] with Telltale being recognized as one of the top development studios in 2012.^[15]

During an interview on IGN's Up at Noon, writer Gary Whitta teased more The Walking Dead from Telltale sooner than later. "You won't have to wait for season two to play more Walking Dead", he claimed. "I can tell you what you already know, which is season two is coming. There's not much to say because it really is very early... it's a way off", said Whitta. "But, knowing that it's a way off, and knowing that people are hungry for more Walking Dead there may very well be more Walking Dead from Telltale before season two. We may have a little something extra for you between season one and two". Whitta continued to tease that something is in the works right now "that will make the wait for season two slightly less agonizing".^[16] This was revealed at the 2013 Electronic Entertainment Expo in June 2013 to be an additional episode called The Walking Dead: 400 Days that is available as downloadable content for the first season. It introduces five new characters that journalists expect to carry into Season Two. 400 Days will use data about the player's decisions in season one, and decisions made in 400 Days will carry into Season Two.^[17]

During the Playing Dead interview of the finale of The Walking Dead: Season Two, Sean Ainsworth and Dennis Lenart stated that the third season is going to feature a "new angle" from the story.^[18] It was confirmed by Robert Kirkman that Clementine would return for Season 3.^[19] Robert Kirkman also said the game will almost be at the same point as current comic time line. He also said more comic-related events will happen. During a 2015 E3 Discussion with Greg Miller and Job Stauffer, Stauffer implied that Season 3 will be "a long ways off" and "considerably larger" than previous games.^[20] Stauffer hinted that some Comic Series characters will appear in Season 3.^[21]

A third season of The Walking Dead is expected to be released by Telltale in late 2016.^[22] Season 3 is planned to tie in all the possible endings that players from previous seasons may have taken, but as well as to draw in new players to the series. In an interview with IGN, Kirkman stated that the third season will bring the video game closer to the comic book's current time frame at the time of its planned release. This season will take place a few years after the second season, and will include a somewhat older Clementine along with AJ, the infant she rescues at the end of Season 2 and now a toddler.^[23][24][25] Clementine will be a playable character along with a new character, Javier.^[26] Telltale is working to adapt its previous data about player choices from the first two seasons, which were saved locally to a player's computer or console, to work with their new cloud-based saving approach, so that these previous choices will affect how the story in the third season will play out. Telltale is expected to provide more details around the 2016 Comic-Con.^[27] The game will use the updated Telltale game engine that it is using for its Batman game.

During the 2016 PAX Expo, Telltale revealed the third season will be released in November 2016, with the subtitle A New Frontier.^[28] Telltale later had to delay the first episode's release until December 20, 2016.^[29] Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment will publish retail versions of Season 3 as part of a deal with Telltale for Batman that was released in August 2016.^[30] The physical edition is expected to release on February 7, 2017, featuring the first episode on disc and download codes to obtain all future episodes of the series.

References

External links

• Official website