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

 PC
The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series - A New Frontier Episode 1: Ties That Bind Part One Image
Metascore
81

Generally favorable reviews - based on 35 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
7.1

Mixed or average reviews- based on 242 Ratings

Your Score
0 out of 10
Rate this:
  • 10
  • 9
  • 8
  • 7
  • 6
  • 5
  • 4
  • 3
  • 2
  • 1
  • 0
  • 0
  • Summary: When family is all you have left…how far will you go to protect it? After society was ripped apart by undead hands, pockets of civilization emerge from the chaos. But at what cost? Can the living be trusted on this new frontier? As Javier, a young man determined to find the family taken fromWhen family is all you have left…how far will you go to protect it? After society was ripped apart by undead hands, pockets of civilization emerge from the chaos. But at what cost? Can the living be trusted on this new frontier? As Javier, a young man determined to find the family taken from him, you meet a young girl who has experienced her own unimaginable loss. Her name is Clementine, and your fates are bound together in a story where every choice you make could be your last.… Expand

Trailer

Play Sound
Please enter your birth date to watch this video:
You are not allowed to view this material at this time.
The Walking Dead: A New Frontier - Ep 3: Above the Law Trailer

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 30 out of 35
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 35
  3. Negative: 0 out of 35
  1. Gaming Age
    Dec 20, 2016
    100
    These two episodes start off strong, the new cast additions seem solid, and I'm excited to see where this entry takes Clementine.
  2. Wccftech
    Dec 20, 2016
    90
    Unlike some of the episodes in previous seasons, there wasn’t a moment I found myself waiting for particular boring sections to end.
  3. 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.
  4. GameSpew
    Dec 20, 2016
    80
    A fantastic introduction to The Walking Dead: A New Frontier. The story is incredibly well created, still managing to feel fresh despite the amount of baggage its carrying from two previous seasons of diverging narrative.
  5. 3DJuegos
    Jan 11, 2017
    80
    Classic gameplay and a strong story. A Telltale game.
  6. GamingTrend
    Dec 28, 2016
    80
    The Ties that Bind Part 1 is a great start to a new entry in Telltale’s excellent series, one that does just enough to feel fresh.
  7. games(TM)
    Feb 21, 2017
    50
    A plot slower than a walker. [Issue#183, p.81]
    All this publication's reviews

See all 38 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

Write a Review
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 27
  2. Mixed: 11 out of 27
  3. Negative: 6 out of 27
  1. Daniel_Ahab
    Dec 20, 2016
    10
    I don’t have a clear sense of where the season as a whole aims to go just yet, but “Ties That Bind Part I” is one of Telltale’s strongestI don’t have a clear sense of where the season as a whole aims to go just yet, but “Ties That Bind Part I” is one of Telltale’s strongest openers in recent memory. Scenes feel carefully constructed in their camera direction and editing, and Telltale avoids the pitfalls of its most egregious past issues — only one environmental exploration sequence temporarily slows things down — but for the most part the episode moves along at an exceptional clip. But that’s not just thanks to Part I’s style. Smart characterization and writing for Javi and his family, plus the return of Clementine, add weight to a largely unfamiliar but already engaging new frontier that I can’t wait to continue to explore.… Expand
  2. GameCritic121
    Mar 10, 2017
    10
    I don’t have a clear sense of where the season as a whole aims to go just yet, but “Ties That Bind Part I” is one of Telltale’s strongestI don’t have a clear sense of where the season as a whole aims to go just yet, but “Ties That Bind Part I” is one of Telltale’s strongest openers in recent memory. Scenes feel carefully constructed in their camera direction and editing, and Telltale avoids the pitfalls of its most egregious past issues — only one environmental exploration sequence temporarily slows things down — but for the most part the episode moves along at an exceptional clip. But that’s not just thanks to Part I’s style. Smart characterization and writing for Javi and his family, plus the return of Clementine, add weight to a largely unfamiliar but already engaging new frontier that I can’t wait to continue to explore.… Expand
  4. Piruz
    May 7, 2020
    9
    What TV series and movies should be like, lol. Super entertaining, intense and interesting [3]
  5. runner
    Apr 30, 2023
    7
    In short:
    +Revamped graphics & animations
    +Cool soundtrack as usual +Finally choices have *some* actual consequences. Even ones from    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
  6. 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    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
  7. 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.
  8. OfficialMonkey
    Apr 6, 2017
    0
    TL;DR - Offensive to S1 and S2 players.
    Rest in bloody peace: a series which once used to be great.
    Short 60 minute episodes (and the    TL;DR - Offensive to S1 and S2 players.
    Rest in bloody peace: a series which once used to be great.

    Short 60 minute episodes (and the awful story makes it even worse), Clementine is playable for 5 minutes per ep, false advertisting pre-release, this is Javier's story for whatever **** reason even though we never asked for this and just wanted a GOOD continuation of Clementine's story (but this is an ABYSMAL continuation - this shouldn't even be called S3), The story is awful, and Clem is just a side character shoe-horned in when she was pretty much the main character for the previous two seasons. This isn't Clem's story, this is Javier's story - so this shouldn't even have Clem in it if Telltale wants to tell Javier's story so badly because she's just shoe-horned in and a side character. All the false advertising pre-release doesn't help either. Her being in every bloody advertisement also doesn't help. We played as Clementine in Season 2 and shaped our Clementine, and now Clementine is a supporting character again plus her personality doesn't change at all depending on your choices last season. Easy choices and deaths don't affect you because there is not enough character development and the game just pushes you forwards without any chance to talk to characters like in Season 1 (and even S2). This review would be too long if I talked about every issue, but SOME of the main issues are up there. SOME of the main issues. S2 choices don't **** matter for ****    … Expand

See all 27 User Reviews

Trailers

Awards & Rankings

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

Current PC Games

Full List »
8.8 ALFA: Antiterror
8.3 Stellar Tactics
6.7 Mon Bazou
All Current Games »