In the last articles for Episode One and Two, I took a lenient approach to my review. For my next installments, I’m not going to hold back much. From this point on, the general mechanics, graphics and overall gameplay have already been discussed. All of the episodes are the same in those regards. The only thing to talk about now is the storyline and how your choices change things.
I was very disappointed in the first two episodes, due to your choices not really making any difference in the story. Now, after having played the third episode a few times, you can start to really see how your choices matter. At the end of Episode Two, depending on your choices, we either have a decent size party or we could be down to Javier, Tripp, Kate and Gabe. We also find out that Clementine was a member of the New Frontier and Javier’s brother (Kate’s husband), David, is their leader!
After David takes Kate to the hospital, Javier and the gang are thrown into a cell. We meet up with Eleanor and get to fill her in on Richmond being overran by the New Frontier, Javie’s brother, David, and the fact that Kate is David’s wife. That last bit took Eleanor by surprise. A little back and forth between our friends brings us to where David walks in to take Javier to go see Kate. On our trip to where they are treating Kate, we talk to David about what happened to Mariana. This is also where David finds out about how she died and by whom. Continuing our walk, we learn that David isn’t the sole leader of the New Frontier. We run into David’s right-hand soldier, Ava — you might remember her from crashing with Clem in that trailer in the woods with AJ.
We finally make our way to Kate and Gabe. David appears genuine in his excitement to see Kate and Gabe. Kate, on the other hand, is pretty adamant about not staying with David. Some of the options you are presented with throughout this section feel a bit forced, like being introduced to Dr. Lingard as the person who helped Kate and one of the other leaders of this community. Moving forward in our story, we leave Kate in Lingard’s care to go meet the remaining members of the leadership council.
Walking in on Joan and Clint arguing over who’s prepared food is better. David had asked you to keep what happened at the junkyard to yourself. Now is the moment when you get to make that choice. Regardless of your choices here, you and the gang are going to be thrown out of Richmond. David packed us a bag with some goodies and a map. Now, that’s all fine and dandy, but, why doesn’t anyone ever take the bag! I mean, seriously. It’s the Zombie Apocalypse and a big ole duffel bag like that would be useful. I digress…
So, using the map, our little group makes tracks to a warehouse David had marked past the Safe Zones. Once we make it to the warehouse and get inside, we learn that Richmond not only looted Prescott, but many other communities. I’m actually wondering how Richmond got this far without running into the Saviors. Badger totally looks like the type of douche to openly join them. You get some pretty good options on how to deal with him. The options for Max are not quite as satisfying as the ones for Badger, but necessary. After everything is over with at the warehouse, we make a plan to get back into Richmond. Jesus comes to the realization that his people are most likely dead and leaves us to update his people.
Once we sneak back into Richmond, David instructs us to get Gabe and Kate back to his place. Kate, again, makes it painfully clear which actions she wants you to take. Depending on your choices here will really affect who helps you in stages later. One way or another, Javier crashes a meeting of the council where David confronts Joan and Clint. This is where David and Javier are thrown into the cell we were so fond of in the beginning. On to Episode Four!
In conclusion, the storyline of this series has definitely gotten better in this episode. There were a lot of lip-sync issues and a few glitches, but overall, this was a solid addition to the series.