The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series - A New Frontier Episode 1: Ties That Bind Part One

 PC
User Score
7.1

Mixed or average reviews- based on 242 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 139 out of 242
  2. Mixed: 65 out of 242
  3. Negative: 38 out of 242

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  1. strav
    Dec 26, 2016
    5
    As Telltale games go, this one feels especially cheap. I don't mind a game where the story and decisions relative to it are and the crux of the game play mechanics but this entails that the script must deliver. Unfortunately, this is were this episode fails: most of the story is rushed up, bold, scotched taped with an overall quality far below what I've seen from other telltale's titlesAs Telltale games go, this one feels especially cheap. I don't mind a game where the story and decisions relative to it are and the crux of the game play mechanics but this entails that the script must deliver. Unfortunately, this is were this episode fails: most of the story is rushed up, bold, scotched taped with an overall quality far below what I've seen from other telltale's titles (Wolf Among Us, Game of Thrones, Walking dead season 1 & 2, Borderlands). I'm keeping up only in the hope that some other writers and directors will step in and improve the whole thing. As a side note: the new visuals are appealing but meh... the old style was lovely.… Expand
  2. muzmuz
    Jan 13, 2017
    6
    The first episode of The Walking Dead season 3 start off a bit bland, out of place, and dishes off an unnecessary drama right off the bat. Even so, if you looked at A New Frontier on a fresh new perspective, you'd enjoy it somehow.
  3. Termin8ter
    Apr 18, 2017
    5
    The Walking Dead: A New Frontier has gotta be the last and definitive nail in the coffin for Telltale. They struck a gold mine with TWD, and did a good job with The Wolf Among Us, but every following game they made was just average slop. And now, here they are, back to continue the same Telltale tropes and misfires they have aspoused since 2012, and taken a step back to deliver forgettableThe Walking Dead: A New Frontier has gotta be the last and definitive nail in the coffin for Telltale. They struck a gold mine with TWD, and did a good job with The Wolf Among Us, but every following game they made was just average slop. And now, here they are, back to continue the same Telltale tropes and misfires they have aspoused since 2012, and taken a step back to deliver forgettable characters, and throw in some good old references to Season One to tug at our heartstrings and make us forget how bland and pathetic A New Frontier blatantly is. Clementine is a good character, but that's only because we've seen her seed planted in S1, and grown in S2, so no **** are we gonna care about her in her third chapter. But every other character (including the cardboard sheet you play as) is blander than hot chocolate mix mixed with cold water. Telltale, you had the opportunity to step your game up and fix the terrible tropes and flaws in your games in order to stay relevant, but that time has long passed. Enjoy losing profit and getting criticized. You brought this on yourself.… Expand
  4. FadingHope
    Jan 10, 2017
    5
    Obviously, all fans gonna buy it instantly, but stuff still needs to be said.

    1) Very bland main character, which is absolutely unforgivable in a game like this - compared to Clem and Lee, Javier is a **** joke, he's a complete push-over that has no depth, emotion or vibrance to him. That's the major complaint that for some may constitute reason enough to quit midway. 2) Just like    Obviously, all fans gonna buy it instantly, but stuff still needs to be said.

    1) Very bland main character, which is absolutely unforgivable in a game like this - compared to Clem and Lee, Javier is a **** joke, he's a complete push-over that has no depth, emotion or vibrance to him. That's the major complaint that for some may constitute reason enough to quit midway.
    2) Just like others wrote, choices you make don't seem to matter at all, they all lead to the same conclusions in the end.
    3) I love the graphics and animations though! It's an IMMENSE improvement on the last two series, really contributes to immersion.
    4) The story itself also falters, just like the characters. Predictable and boring, with walkers coming out of nowhere in hordes and the bad guys being so 2-dimensional you;d swear they are cardboard cut-outs.
    5) Finally, the game simply doesn't make you feel ANYTHING. It tries real hard and theoretically speaking, it does tick off all the boxes, but in practice, it just doesn't work, you aren't curious what's gonna happen next, you don't partake in their suffering, you willingly engender the lives of the main characters just for fun, etc.
    So yeah, a huge technical step forward which lost its soul along the way towards visual perfection.    … Expand
  5. JabberwocksBane
    Dec 20, 2016
    7
    The next season starts with a rather decent introduction of our new main characters. We have some time to know them but soon enough things go south.

    We also meet with older Clementine and we are presented with one flashback during this episode. The graphics are a definite improvement compared to other telltale games however the engine the game runs on will still need some optimizing    The next season starts with a rather decent introduction of our new main characters. We have some time to know them but soon enough things go south.

    We also meet with older Clementine and we are presented with one flashback during this episode.

    The graphics are a definite improvement compared to other telltale games however the engine the game runs on will still need some optimizing since the framerate drops every few seconds during the driving parts in the beginning but then mysteriously stays good and solid throughout the rest of the game.

    Overall the first episode presents some good choices and situations that would make it even a great episode worth replaying BUT it is INCREDIBLY short (1 hour for most, 1,5 if you really push it) and thus your decisions don't make you care enough to play through it again since this episode is too short to provide any meaningful resolution to them

    if you are desperate to play it then buy it but if you are short on cash I say wait for the second episode before jumping into the new season    … Expand
  6. Nobilis1984
    Dec 20, 2016
    7
    Criticism to Episode 1:
    At the beginning we get to know the new character. The is less interesting but still ok. In the episode, Clementine is also added. It is hard and burned. With weapons it can handle properly well.
    The Story of Episode 1 is ok but no more than average. Season 2 was also not better.
    Conclusion: An average story with new, weak and old, good characters.
  7. Suplex
    Dec 22, 2016
    7
    I love the Walking Dead and I love Telltale Games.
    The game puts you right on the action. Very dynamic game.
    The story is a little average for my taste.
    But I can't wait for the next episode.
  8. runner
    Apr 30, 2023
    7
    In short:
    +Revamped graphics & animations
    +Cool soundtrack as usual +Finally choices have *some* actual consequences. Even ones from previous season. +Clementine is a grown up badass +/- Clementine is mostly not playable +/- New characters, not as strong as the ones we knew +/- Overall story is hit and miss +/- Story involves a lot of flashbacks, which is a new method for the    In short:
    +Revamped graphics & animations
    +Cool soundtrack as usual
    +Finally choices have *some* actual consequences. Even ones from previous season.
    +Clementine is a grown up badass

    +/- Clementine is mostly not playable
    +/- New characters, not as strong as the ones we knew
    +/- Overall story is hit and miss
    +/- Story involves a lot of flashbacks, which is a new method for the series. It has its ups and downs.
    +/- Too much interactive movie, too little game

    - Writing can be rather weak and inconsistent
    - Underwhelming ending

    So if I could I would give this game around 6.5, but went for 7. I have personally enjoyed it for the most part, even though there were many mediocre parts. I've tried to keep in mind that it's fairly hard to compete with Season 1, and indeed this one doesn't reach the same heights.
    Luckily, although I've ran a lot into the opinion that this is the worst game of the series, I personally felt that this was a major improvement over Season 2.

    For The New Frontier, seemed to me like they've tried to get back to basics, in a way, to the formula of season 1: Clementine is no longer a controllable character (although she's probably the most interesting one), and we've got a lot of 'family' stuff going on. Without spoiling too much, I could say that a lot of this story revolves around family and taking care of each other in a zombie-apocalypse era, and Clementine gets to some extent a new "Father figure", although now she's more of a teenage girl..

    Anyway, this works OK for the most part, but the new characters can really be unlikable or uninteresting at times, although they all had their moments and I've ended up caring about them after all, in a way.

    Whether they've tried to be more like season 1 or not, this game is definitely not perfect - but I'll actually go first over what I think this game did well and way better than season 2:

    Graphics & animations had been revamped and I personally liked it. It all felt a bit more like a movie.
    Soundtrack is good as ever.
    Clementine is as cool as ever, and all grown up.
    After season 2 had a rather meaningless choices & consequences, season 3 did some better job at giving us a feeling our choices actually control something.
    No, it's not anything revolutionary, BUT things actually can go somewhat differently depending on your choices, and I think it's even worth more than one playthrough. The choices you made on Season 2 are mostly carried over by a series of flashbacks, which I guess was an easy way to not over-complicate stuff, but it was mostly ok and rather satisfying to watch things unfold. They do feel like they get in the way of the story at some points, though.

    What went wrong, still?
    As I've already hinted, the characters and writings aren't as strong as we were used to by TellTale standards.
    The attempt to make a somewhat convulted scenes according to our choices sometimes turned out in an inconsistent writing, and characters could say things which are ridiculous and really out of context or simply wouldn't be said by a human being in such situation.
    Additionally, The New Frontier took one step further into making this series purely an interactive movie and nothing else. I've personally liked to have SOME gameplay elements to still feel this is actually a game, but here I felt rather passive most of the time.

    Last but not least, while the story had some strong moments here and there, unfortunately they didn't save it for the end. The last episode was mostly underwhelming, what was possibly the best thing about it was that there were actually plenty of possible scenarios according to your past choices. Also it was nice having a hopeful ending for a change, and not as dark as in previous two seasons. But besides that, it felt very meeh, mostly a big zombie fight with way too many qtes.

    Still much better than season 2, though. But this had potential to be something more.    … Expand
  9. visiblelight7
    Jun 24, 2018
    6
    I never played season 1 and my first try was finishing season 2(which was epic). I was really excited about playing this one but it was a HUGE miss....
    The first 2-3 episodes were good enough(7/10 ish) but its like the writing took a nosedive. The dialogue and the story became pointless and uninteresting.
    I've never played season 1(which everyone says was the best) so I know I don't    I never played season 1 and my first try was finishing season 2(which was epic). I was really excited about playing this one but it was a HUGE miss....
    The first 2-3 episodes were good enough(7/10 ish) but its like the writing took a nosedive. The dialogue and the story became pointless and uninteresting.

    I've never played season 1(which everyone says was the best) so I know I don't have huge standards... This season was mediocre. My favorite parts were clementine's story. All the other characters were pretty bad honestly... Whoever did season 3 should get replaced by the original people who came up with characters like Clementine, jade, Kenny and luke.

    I really hope season 4 is closer to season 1 and 2.    … Expand
  10. KepasaAmigo
    Jul 1, 2021
    5
    The game is similar to first one,but a way worse. Not my type of game. But some of you will definitely like it so.
  11. Gorbunov2004
    Mar 25, 2021
    5
    Так первое у игры очень большие проблемы с загрузкой между уровнем их слишком много второе игра очень сильно лагает. Раньше история в The Walking Dead была сосредоточена на Клементине а сейчас появился какой-то второй персонаж неизвестно откуда. За Клементину можно играть только в воспоминаниях. В игре просто нет той атмосферы которая была в первых двух частях.Так первое у игры очень большие проблемы с загрузкой между уровнем их слишком много второе игра очень сильно лагает. Раньше история в The Walking Dead была сосредоточена на Клементине а сейчас появился какой-то второй персонаж неизвестно откуда. За Клементину можно играть только в воспоминаниях. В игре просто нет той атмосферы которая была в первых двух частях.

Awards & Rankings

60
#60 Best PC Game of 2016
22
#22 Most Shared PC Game of 2016

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
81

Generally favorable reviews - based on 35 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 30 out of 35
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 35
  3. Negative: 0 out of 35
  1. GameGrin
    Feb 27, 2017
    85
    Perhaps the greatest shortcoming is the game’s stubbornness to shove Javi’s family as the player’s raison d’etre, when it’s clear that Clementine is a much more relatable and less frustrating character. The classic Telltale trap of unavoidable events is still there, but by now you should know what you’re getting into. If judged by what it attempts to do, rather than by what some sceptic players want it to be, A New Frontier’s harrowing first episodes smoothen most rough edges found in other games in the series in terms of storytelling. It just about manages to shake off the notion of being a rehashed concept, and become a beast that can stand on its own two feet, built upon the foundations laid by Lee and Clementine. Hopefully the rest of the season manages to sustain this level of quality.
    Read full review
  2. games(TM)
    Feb 21, 2017
    50
    A plot slower than a walker. [Issue#183, p.81]
  3. DualShockers
    Jan 30, 2017
    85
    Ties That Bind does an exceptional job at building a new world for The Walking Dead fans to explore while still integrating the components that made Telltale’s series a breakout hit.
    Read full review
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