The Walking Dead - The Final Season (PS4)

It's rare that a shuttered studio gets to dictate the final grace notes of their body of work, but that's the opportunity Telltale had with these final episodes, and it's one that was not wasted in any way. The Walking Dead ends not with a bang, but an accomplished sigh.

This finale is a fitting tribute to Clementine and her journey, but it also is inconsistent in quality and suffers from some narrative missteps that are impossible to ignore.

From the first moment that patrol car spilled convict Lee Everett into a ditch, to the final curtain fall on this climactic episode, players have enjoyed telling their tale of survival, friendship, bravery, and tragedy in a post-Walker world.

The Walking Dead's and Telltale's goodbye succeeds by closely examining the mother/son dynamic between Clementine and A.J.

Beautiful things are possible in the new world and the new ways to play that Telltale has laid out in Done Running. But something ugly and horrifying is likely to happen first, and it is going to be captivating to watch.

I'm intrigued to see where the story goes from here, as well as what final fate lies in store for Clementine and AJ. But now the season's setup has been established, it's time to get down to the business of stressful character drama, humourous conversational retorts, and that all-too-nagging feeling that, ultimately, you have minimal control over events anyway.

Meandering conversations and exposition make this first episode a slow, dull build.

The irony of a game about the zombie apocalypse dying an unnatural death only to be resurrected later shouldn't be lost on anybody, nor should the fact that The Walking Dead returns with a story that is very much about the latent humanity present in even the shambling corpses roaming the Earth.

Though the move to Skybound hasn't improved the technical reliability of the Telltale Games experience, the artists, writers, and voice actors continue to present a story that remains suspenseful, delivering some great individual moments, even if it sometimes pads the run-time to reach them. Beyond that, it's just nice to see you again, Clem.

We leave The Walking Dead on a Telltale firmly willing to make mechanical and tonal risks, nearly all of which pay off well in this episode, hinting towards a bright future we may never get to see. If this is the last time we see her, the fact that she, and this series, have become what they've become is maybe the closest thing to a Happily Ever After as can be expected from The Walking Dead.

We are merely one episode down in the final season of Telltale's adventure series The Walking Dead and already, deep in the forest, the shit has hit the fan. Having not been a part of their new community for more than 48 hours, already Clementine and Al have been thrust into high drama among their associates, holed up in an abandoned schoolhouse.

Outside of Clementine and AJ's relationship, The Walking Dead: The Final Season Episode 2 feels overly formulaic and dull.