The Walking Dead: A New Frontier

The Walking Dead: A New Frontier (also known as The Walking Dead: Season Three) is an episodic graphic adventure game based on Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead comic book series developed by Telltale Games. It is Telltale's third season of its The Walking Dead series, with the first two episodes released on December 20, 2016, and a retail season pass disc edition released on February 7, 2017. 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. Clementine (voiced by Melissa Hutchison), who was the player's companion during the first season and the player-character in season two returns as a player-character along with another player-character, Javier "Javi" Garcia (voiced by Jeff Schine).

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.

Telltale Games announced a fourth and final season titled The Walking Dead: The Final Season that was released in August 2018.

Gameplay
Similar to the previous seasons, The Walking Dead: A New Frontier is a point-and-click adventure game. In contrast to previous seasons, there will be two playable characters: Clementine, the heroine from the previous games; and Javier, a new character introduced this season. Players can direct the current character under their control 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 the player-character which can influence later events in the story. Other scenes are more action-oriented, requiring the player to complete quick time events to prevent the player-character or their 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. A New Frontier 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 A New Frontier. A New Frontier will not be released on the PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360, but players that have saves from Season Two on these platforms will be able to download a patch on those consoles as to upload their saved game to Telltale's servers, and then access that from their new choice of platform. Telltale will also provide a separate tool for players to "quick-create a tailored backstory" for Clementine to this point, with a possible 42 different variations, 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.

Setting
The Walking Dead: A New Frontier 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 primarily set four years after the apocalypse began.

The protagonist of A New Frontier is Javier "Javi" Garcia (Jeff Schine), a former professional baseball player. His group consists of Kate (Shelley Shenoy), the second wife of his brother David (Alex Hernandez), and David's children Gabe and Mariana. He later meets Clementine (Melissa Hutchison), a young teenager surviving on her own, and a major protagonist from the previous two seasons. She continues to look after the baby from last season, Alvin Jr. Also returning from the previous seasons are Kenny (Gavin Hammon) and Jane (Christine Lakin), whose fates are depending on the player's decisions from the previous season. Javi's group meets new characters from the idyllic town of Prescott, including their leader Tripp and town doctor Eleanor (Kelly Crowder). The first episode's trailer includes the group meeting Paul "Jesus" Monroe (Brandon Keener), the ambassador of the Hilltop community from the comic series. The trailer also describes "The New Frontier" as another group of survivors that have become twisted due to past events.

Plot
Javier is living with his parents and extended family in Baltimore at the onset of the walker epidemic. The family includes his brother, David, and David's two children, Gabe and Mariana, and second wife Kate. When Javier and David's father dies of cancer, he turns and bites their mother. David takes her to the hospital, but doesn't return. After several months, Javier and Kate agree it is time to move on, and they set off on the road with Gabe and Mariana.

Four years later, in the game's present, the four have a run-in with a group of men led by Max and Badger while scavenging for supplies and gas from a junk yard. Javier is driven away from the others, but is rescued by Clementine. She offers to help in exchange for their family truck, and takes him to Prescott—a fortified community within an old airfield—where he is introduced to Tripp, Conrad, Francine, and Eleanor. Tripp and Eleanor agree to help rescue Javier's family. In the rescue attempt, Mariana is killed by Max and Badger's men, and Kate is critically wounded, but Javier's allies manage to repel the attack. Kate is rushed back to Prescott, while Clementine identifies one of the attackers as a member of The New Frontier—a large group of survivors she had once met—claiming they were once good people, but have since become twisted and distrustful.

Kate is stable, but needs proper medical attention. Suddenly, Max and Badger appear at the gates of Prescott—having taken Francine as a hostage—and demand Javier turn himself over. Regardless of Javier's response, Badger kills Francine and unleashes a horde of walkers into Prescott, killing its inhabitants. Only Javier, Clementine, Tripp, Conrad, Eleanor, Kate, and Gabe make it out alive. They regroup on the road, and Eleanor suggests they go to Richmond, Virginia, where she heard a sizable survivor camp can be found. A horde of walkers separates the group, and Eleanor drives ahead with Kate, while the others meet Paul "Jesus" Monroe, who offers to lead them through a shortcut via a train tunnel. Jesus reveals that the New Frontier controls Richmond; after their past encounter, the group fear for Eleanor and Kate's lives. During this time, Clementine warns Javier that she used to be a member of the New Frontier, and will stay outside the city when they enter.

The group finds Kate near the gates of Richmond, and demand the guards to let them in for Kate's sake. They are met by the town's chief of security, who to Javier's shock, is his brother David. David takes Kate and Gabe to Dr. Lingard for medical attention, while the others are kept in quarantine. David later comes to escort Javier around Richmond, explaining that after he went to the hospital, he could not get back into Baltimore, so he eventually took up the role as head of security for the New Frontier. David introduces Javier to Ava, his second-in-command, and to see a recovering Kate, who secretly warns Javier that David seems untrustful. David then takes Javier to see the New Frontier's leadership council, which includes himself, Dr. Lingard, Clint, and Joan, so that he may argue his case to stay in Richmond. While there, Max arrives and accuses Javier of stealing New Frontier supplies and killing his men at the junkyard. While David seems to accept Javier's story, Joan orders that Javier and the rest of his group to be evicted. They are given meager supplies, which includes a map from David to a nearby warehouse.

There, they are shortly joined by David, who admits that something may be wrong with the New Frontier. Clementine accuses David of being responsible for the death of the infant AJ; in flashbacks, Clementine and AJ were forced to travel on their own before meeting Ava and being invited into the New Frontier. When AJ became deathly ill, Clementine attempted to steal medicine from Dr. Lingard in order to save his life. When David discovered her plot, he took AJ away from her and exiled her from the New Frontier. In the present, David admits AJ made a full recovery and is somewhere safe in Richmond with Dr. Lingard. The group overhears Max, Badger & Lonnie in the warehouse, and find that it is full of supplies taken by force from other communities, including Prescott and the Hilltop. Badger is killed in retribution by Javier while David interrogates Max, who admits that Joan had made orders behind David's back to raid other communities.

Jesus takes his leave to warn his own group about Joan while the others return to Richmond to confront Joan and rescue Kate, Gabe, Eleanor, and AJ. However, Joan turns on David and labels him as a conspirator alongside Javier, and makes plans to hang David at the town square the next day. Javier manages to escape confinement and organizes his group to try and expose Joan and turn the people of the New Frontier against her, as well as set off to acquire a stash of weapons and a truck to escape once they have rescued David. Clementine and Javier meet up at the hospital and learn that AJ is being kept at a ranch outside of town from Dr. Lingard, who demands they kill him by injection in exchange for information as he can no longer cope with the New Frontier's actions.

At the hanging, Joan calls out on Javier, accusing his group of being responsible for many past losses. She reveals she has captured Ava and Tripp, and demands Javier determine who to spare; regardless of which he picks, Joan betrays him and kills the one he choses, despite Clint's attempt to negotiate peace. The player has the option of killing Joan or trying to negotiate a deal, either choice leading to a firefight among the survivors during which Javier manages to free David. Kate, who had stayed with their escape vehicle, races into the square with the truck, but it is struck by a Molotov cocktail, and she loses control and crashes into one of the city's walls; the truck explodes, and walkers start to pour in through the breech. Kate survives and rejoins the group, who barricade themselves in an apartment building full of survivors and contemplate on how to save Richmond.

David becomes suspicious of Javier and Kate's closeness, and the group becomes wary of David's growing aggression. The group decides to acquire a bulldozer that can help barricade the blockade to prevent the herd from proliferating. Along the way on the overpass either Tripp or Ava dies, depending on Javier's choice earlier. As they acquire the bulldozer, David views Richmond as a lost cause and suggests that they leave the city to the walkers and return home, to which Gabe reluctantly agrees, but everyone else heavily disagrees with. After Kate reveals her feelings about Javier, David attacks him. Whether or not Javier decides to fight back, walkers begin to close in on them, allowing David to leave in a truck with Gabe. Kate decides to man the bulldozer to help save Richmond; Javier and Clementine decide whether to help Kate or pursue David. The choice made can result in Javier losing Kate, David and/or Gabe. Jesus arrives with backup from the Kingdom to help the survivors round up the walkers and lead them out of Richmond, saving the town.

Days later, Javier memorializes the ones lost and meets Jesus, who suggests that he steps up as Richmond's new leader. Having learned AJ's location from Dr. Lingard, Clementine decides to leave Richmond in order to find him. Javier gives her a haircut and bids her goodbye as she departs.

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. 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. The first season was considered highly successful, helping to revitalize the adventure game genre which had been in decline since the mid-1990s, with Telltale being recognized as one of the top development studios in 2012. 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". 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.

Telltale's Sean Ainsworth and Dennis Lenart stated that the third season is going to feature a "new angle" from the story. It was confirmed by Robert Kirkman that Clementine would return for Season 3. Robert Kirkman also said the game will almost be at the same point as the current comic timeline. 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. Stauffer hinted that some Comic Series characters will appear in Season 3.

Season 3 was 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. With the planned influx of new players and those that have transitioned off older consoles and do not have access to save games, Telltale provided a story generator tool that asks the player several questions as to customize a starting point for A New Frontier. These questions were developed by evaluating around 40,000 playthroughs that covered Season One and Two, and grouping the general pattern of choices made by players into a total of 42 distinct scenarios, from which they derived questions that would help guide a new player to fall in one of these sets. Bruner said they were more looking at patterns of behavior rather than specific decisions that had been made; for example, the decision whether to kill Lee at his request before he turns or leave him at the end of Season One was found to "representative of some pretty complicated motivations" of the sum of players' choices in the game, and thus wanted this story generator to capture the motivation rather than the result.

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. Clementine will be a playable character along with a new character, Javier. 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. 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. Telltale later had to delay the first episode's release until December 20, 2016. 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. The physical edition is expected to release on February 24, 2017 in North America and March 3, 2017 in Europe; it will contain the first two episodes on disc and digital codes to redeem the other episodes once they are available.

A Nintendo Switch version is scheduled for release in 2018.

Sequel
In July 2017, Telltale Games and Skybound Entertainment announced the fourth and final season titled The Walking Dead: The Final Season which is set to be released in 2018.

Reception
The Walking Dead: A New Frontier received mixed-to-positive reviews from critics with particular praise aimed at its new cast of characters, updated engine, pathos, and overall new direction. However, the short episode lengths and the treatment of the Season Two endings were both subjects of criticism. The game's story and Clementine's shift to a supporting role have both been met with a mixed response.

Episode 1: Ties That Bind Part One
Aggregating review website Metacritic gave the Microsoft Windows version 81/100 based on 35 reviews, the PlayStation 4 version 80/100 based on 10 reviews and the Xbox One version 78/100 based on 14 reviews.

Episode 2: Ties That Bind Part Two
Aggregating review website Metacritic gave the Microsoft Windows version 80/100 based on 33 reviews, the PlayStation 4 version 80/100 based on 9 reviews and the Xbox One version 78/100 based on 13 reviews.

Episode 3: Above the Law
Aggregating review website Metacritic gave the Microsoft Windows version 75/100 based on 29 reviews, the PlayStation 4 version 69/100 based on 8 reviews and the Xbox One version 73/100 based on 6 reviews.

Episode 4: Thicker Than Water
Aggregating review website Metacritic gave the Microsoft Windows version 72/100 based on 28 reviews, the PlayStation 4 version 65/100 based on 5 reviews and the Xbox One version 73/100 based on 4 reviews.

Episode 5: From the Gallows
Aggregating review website Metacritic gave the Microsoft Windows version 74/100 based on 23 reviews, the PlayStation 4 version 71/100 based on 5 reviews and the Xbox One version 64/100 based on 6 reviews.