Review for The Walking Dead: The Final Season. Game for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 14/08/2018
There are times in life when you feel like you have wasted your time. It is one of the worst sensations a person can experience, because it is accompanied by a vacuum in the chest, a feeling of helplessness and the belief that he has not learned anything from that experience. Whoever is writing this review experienced this mood as soon as the fourth and final chapter of The Walking Dead: The Final Season.
"Take Us Back", this is the name of the conclusion of the story of Clementine, is an episode to love or hate and that with its two hours in duration manages to discriminate in the player's mind between a successful work, albeit with its ups and downs, or a forced labor towards a one-way to please the fans devoted to the protagonist.
The author of this review lived about half of the episode with a vision clouded by tears, which then escalated into confusion and finally into anger mixed with disappointment. The Walking Dead: The Final Season brings all the knots to the head in "Take Us Back": episode slightly shorter than the others, sees the "bad guys" defeated, some dead, others injured, others still furious but still on the run. Clementine and her friends quickly leave the wrecked ship to return to the institute which is now their home; obviously the actors on stage depend on the choices made by the player up to that moment and, just as obviously, the way back is studded with setbacks, quarrels and real troubles.
It's a shame that a character like Tenn's surviving sister is treated with such haste, without hope of redemption for his actions (which instead is granted to many other supporting actors); it is a pity that "bad adults" are immediately forgotten and transformed into "now overcome danger", only because the protagonist was able to neutralize their main exponent; it is a pity that (if he is still alive) the figure of James, so tormented by pangs of conscience and still disturbing and ambiguous in his own way, ends up complaining and whining about decisions that do not concern him in the least, losing almost all of his charm.
Although with a shorter duration than the other episodes, "Take Us Back" it manages to be as verbose as it is empty: the feeling is that a brutal blow in the towel has been given to the whole narrative built over the course of three episodes, to focus on the personal drama of Clementine and AJ. Lee, a key figure for the survival and maturation of the protagonist, already appeared in the course of the previous episodes, this time is inexplicably ignored. The reason could be the - understandable - decision of the developers of focus on AJ, who is now also the narrator at the beginning of the episode.
That the passing of the baton between him and Clementine was inevitable was clear from the start of the season, as it was clear that the hashtag #StillNotBitten was not chosen at random to represent the message behind The Walking Dead: The Final Season; the obvious occurrence of certain events does not make them less painful anyway, thanks to one meticulous care in the directorial presentation of the final gameplay sections, not by chance extremely similar to the last episode of the first season both for context, atmosphere and shots.
The tears, for a lover of the series, comes merciless: every exchange of words between Clementine, AJ and the other characters brutally resurfaces, the dots come together, the memories of Lee's last words come back, his pallor, love and the protective instinct that prompted him to invest his last gasps in recommendations and advice for little Clem. The circle seems to close, the (almost always) realistic ruthlessness of the world of The Walking Dead spares no one, least of all children and this The Walking Dead: The Final Season has shown it all too well, with very young and very young deaths in the most atrocious ways and without any sugar cube to gild the pill. As usual, there are exaggerations and small suspensions of disbelief, but these are lightnesses present since the beginning of the series and which, in the fourth season, go practically unnoticed.
The haste with which almost all the narrative lines are closed takes a back seat to the conversation between Clementine and AJ, a child as intelligent as he is problematic and who is one of the very rare cases in which such a young protagonist is convincing and not annoying: sympathetic, in need of affection and human contact, but also cynical and calculating to the point of bordering on sociopathy, unable to express well what he feels and confused by the teachings of Clementine, who is aware of his ignorance, uncertain and frightened by a reality capable of terrifying anyone who is not a monster.
The decision to trust AJ's judgment or not determines what ending awaits the child at the end of the episode; however, The Walking Dead: The Final Season still holds a big surprise for players, the aforementioned discriminating factor that makes Clementine's entire journey an important, bittersweet memory or a useless investment of time and emotions.
You can buy the most expensive, excellent ingredients and use the best and most modern of ovens, but if you don't know the dosages and cooking times there is no good will to save the dessert you wanted to prepare: The Walking Dead: The Final Season was saved by Skybound after the failure of Telltale Games, revived on the developers' social networks, erected as a symbol of love for one's work and for the community.
Yet, the love message behind The Walking Dead: The Final Season could have been infinitely more powerful if only one dared more (not too much if you consider the bitterness of most of the endings of the previous seasons): no matter what happens to the people they love, they are always watching and protecting; pain and misfortunes cannot erase memories and feelings and as Clementine sees Lee in her dreams, in the same way AJ would never have felt alone even in the worst of situations, aware thanks to the teachings received that the girl would never completely abandoned. The conscience, the identity of a human being cannot be folded, killed or infected like his body and however lonely it may be, however horrible life after an apocalyptic pandemic may be, someone has loved someone else so much to sacrifice and ensure that the survivors can move forward and create a better world ... Because the life of someone you love always counts more than their own.
But Clementine is Clementine and she "hasn't been bitten yet". For this reason, a cheesy ending was preferred that would please the noisy minority and not the silent majority, the one who would have liked to see a more aware and less cheerful AJ improvised surgeon. Any kind of explanation of the latest events is completely absent, both in the form of flashbacks and of simple and concise dialogue or perplexity on the part of the supporting actors: everything is always perfectly normal in the eyes of all, except those of those who play. It is possible to line your eyes and enjoy the ray of sunshine and hope shown on the screen, letting yourself be guided more by the heart than by reason, empathizing with Clementine, AJ and their new friends, finally free (so it seems) from the threat of marauders and indeed, incredibly prone to meet other strangers sighted in the area, thus blowing the last bit of secrecy and cover of their home. The conclusion appears so botched and confused that Michael Kirkbride, developer and writer of the game, felt compelled to write a (however very forced) explanation of the events that occurred offscreen on Reddit.
Not a word is spent for the fallen, but since most of them are very young, it is understandable that certain realities are not the main topic of discussion before a hot meal; not a moment is invested to say goodbye to Lee, a character martyred and beatified too much during four long seasons, but who still deserved a better farewell. No doubt is raised about the basic functioning of a human body, assuming that AJ's plot armor extends by contact even to the people he cares about.
The person writing this review was deeply disturbed by the denial of what has always been The Walking Dead of the former Telltale Games, forgotten instead of a forced smile on the faces of the protagonists and not at all justified by the objective situation in which they find themselves. To get to this ending, the blood of dozens and dozens of characters was shed, some innocent, others less, but none of them received justice and Lee's death, published in 2012, is today even more difficult to send. down.
“Take Us Back” of The Walking Dead: The Final Season tries to make everyone happy, forgetting different characters and narrative lines along the way, creating an excellent final action scene but sweetening beyond all necessity a story born to be bitter. The story of Clementine was however destined to end and therefore there remains the doubt about different choices made by the writers, who have framed the young woman in a limbo of uncertainties wrapped in a tissue of hope and peace that has nothing to do with the world of The Walking Dead.
► The Walking Dead: The Final Season is an Adventure-Point & Click game developed and published by Telltale Games for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 14/08/2018
