The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series - A New Frontier Episode 3: Above the Law

 PlayStation 4
User Score
4.7

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 27 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 27
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 27
  3. Negative: 12 out of 27

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  1. pavi132
    Mar 31, 2017
    3
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. So this is a game about a story that is impacted by your choices. Or at least it's supposed to be, right? You'd be wrong, and here's why: Throughout this episode, the game forces on you this made-up relationship between you and your sister-in-law, Kate, with everyone telling you or implying that they thought you were hooking up with her. And she herself comes on to you soooo strong. All of this even if you make every possible choice to deny having any relationship with her throughout the entire game thus far. It's maddening. Why give me these conversation choices just to completely render them irrelevant? If Telltale really wants that to be part of the story, then they shouldn't have even given us options to try and push for that to NOT be part of the story. I don't want anything to do with Kate. Period.

    The next issue I have has to do with the contrivances of the writing. In this episode, problems could be solved with another sentence or two being spoken. Instead, characters stay silent. Specifically I'm talking about Javier talking to the leaders in the church about the events leading up to this episode. You, once again, are denied choices. In this case, it's the choice to fully explain yourself and what occurred before-hand. The writing does this because, logically, if he explained himself, the leadership would understand and the game wouldn't progress. So the only ways to force progression are to make the leadership illogical in their actions OR, the choice they went with, force the player-character to keep silent on these issues, even though a few words spoken could save everyone in the game the entirety of the conflict. If this wasn't a game driven PURELY by it's story, it could get away with it, but this is a game that is based entirely around it's writing and characters to carry it.

    Lastly, the wait between episodes was far too long. I found myself having difficulty remembering all the events of the prior two episodes and, because of this, it becomes nigh impossible to care or become invested in the story and characters. The argument could be that I should have just waited for the game to come out in its entirety, but that defeats the entire purpose of episodic content. A good episodic game allows you to discuss the game with others, get invested in the characters, make predictions about what is going to come next, etc. "Lost" for example, was a TV show built on this concept with people constantly discussing the show and making predictions between episodes that kept it fun and exciting even outside of watching the show. A good episodic game should build up between episodes , getting the player excited to see what's next with the next episode releasing at the peak of excitement. When the wait is too long, the hype builds up and then crumbles, leaving nothing but apathy in its wake.

    My emotions during this episode ranged from apathy at the events and characters to anger at the forced relationship with Kate that I made very clear through my choices I didn't want. I felt no excitement, no fear, no shock, nothing. The 3/10 I'm giving this game is generous considering its shortcomings.    … Expand
  2. 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 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    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
  3. anterolol
    Apr 6, 2017
    0
    Clementine isn't playable and only gets 10% of the entire screen time. Javier is bland and has a boring story. Episodes are 60 minutes long, down from 90 minutes in season 2 and 120-150 minutes in season 1. The writing is atrocious.

    If you have any respect for Clementine or Lee, don't buy this game. It destroys everything from the past 2 seasons.

    This is an insult and a betrayal to all fans.

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
69

Mixed or average reviews - based on 8 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 8
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 8
  3. Negative: 0 out of 8
  1. CGMagazine
    Apr 25, 2017
    50
    By the end, I was just making whatever contradicting choices I could, mostly in a bid to cause drama because I care so little for the characters and the events of their story (with the exception of Clementine of course). Everything feels so rushed (I actually timed it this time, it takes one solid hour to clear this episode), each episode ends in disappointing abruption rather than an intriguing cliffhanger and none of it feels genuine. By this point, I honestly don’t think episode four or five will redeem this season for me.
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  2. PlaySense
    Apr 8, 2017
    85
    Don't let the slow start of the episode fool you; this is quite a ride, ending on a spectacular cliffhanger that will leave any fan desperate for more.
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  3. NZGamer
    Apr 6, 2017
    60
    Unfortunately, this episode’s strengths are all in superficial places. Nobody comes to a Telltale game looking for technical prowess, and plot is only a tiny part of what makes a good story. I hate to say it, but Above the Law falls flat in the places that matter most: the characters and depth that underpin everything else. Without that, the episode is particularly forgettable, which doesn’t bode well for an episodic series that’s already struggling with its release schedule.
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