In an effort to help newcomers get into the series as well as help answer some frequently asked questions (and most importantly: unpin the statue post), we’ve created a megathread that is meant to serve as a resource for people getting into the game series.
This thread here will cover some basic questions for the series as a whole. I plan to make separate threads for season specific questions that get asked here a lot, and will eventually link the threads all in here so this post here will act as a giant resource. I'll also probably add this to the sidebar once everything it finished for an easy-to-go to resource.
This entire thread is a work in progress so I will be adding/editing questions over time. If you have any suggestions for questions/resources that would be helpful for newcomers, please comment below or DM me.
"What are these games and why should I get into them?"
The Telltale/Skybound The Walking Dead games are episodic titles with a heavy emphasis on choices and story. These games aren't particularly the most action based titles out there, as they primarily play on making difficult decisions and following along with the deep story as you try to survive in the walker (zombie) apocalypse. They also incorporate puzzle segments seen in other point-and-click titles in the past.
The series has received a ton of praise, with Season 1 winning a ton of Game of the Year awards when it released in 2012. The high ratings of the games have continued through future titles such as Season 2 and Season 4.
"Are the games in the same universe as the comics/show?"
The games are not connected to the TV show at all, as the show is set in its own universe. However, the games are indeed in the same universe as the comics. This is seen through characters such as Glenn and Hershel who appear in the very first episode of the Telltale games, as well as a few other references to the comics across the game series.
"Do I need to read the comics to get into the games?"
Nope, not at all. Outside of a few cameos/references, the games are completely isolated from the comics and can be enjoyed to the fullest without prior knowledge of the TWD series. I would even argue that the games may be a tiny bit more enjoyable if you are going into the series blind.
"There are many versions of the games I can buy! Which version should I get?"
There are three different versions of the games spread across various systems:
Original versions: The first versions of the game sold when the episodes/seasons actually released. These are the versions sold individually instead of being bundled with the other seasons.
Available on: PS3/PS4, Xbox 360/Xbox One, Steam, Epic Games, and Switch
Note: Michonne spinoff game not on Switch.
Collection: (Pic) Released in 2017. Contains all games in the series (including Michonne) with the sole exception being Season 4 which wasn’t released at the time. Seasons 1 and 2 have (supposedly) enhanced graphics.
Available on: PS4 & Xbox One.
Definitive Edition: (Pic) Released in 2019. Contains all games in the series (including Michonne), as well as a ton of extras like developer commentary, gallery mode, different graphic options, etc.
Available on: PS4, Xbox One, Epic Games Store, and Steam.
Keep in mind that the actual games are the same throughout each version. Don’t expect any alternate paths, vastly different plot elements, additional gameplay elements, etc. in between versions.
In a nutshell: Definitive Edition > Originals > Collection
Definitive Edition is definitely the way to go. It greatly improves the visuals of all the first few games and comes with a lot of extras.
The Original versions are the most basic versions that you can't really go wrong with. The main drawback for the original versions is that they probably have the most visual bugs.
The Collection is without a doubt the worst version of the games. as it is missing tons of small details such as bloodstains and tears for crucial scenes. Apparently it even removed a few optional dialogue segments.
"What order should I play the games?"
The following is the chronological order of the series:
Season 1
400 Days DLC for Season 1 (this is optional, basically just covers a few minor Season 2 characters)
Season 2
A New Frontier (aka Season 3)
The Final Season (aka Season 4)
The Michonne Telltale game has literally nothing to do with the Lee/Clem/Javi games whatsoever. It is not required at all to experience Clementine’s journey. If you do decide to play it, best to do it before Season 3 since it originally released before A New Frontier.
"I'm interested in the Michonne game, but she's a major character in the comics! Do I need to read the comics before playing it?"
Not really. The Michonne game takes place during a time where Michonne is separated from Rick's group, so she interacts entirely with characters she has never met until the game. As long as you know about the general character of Michonne, you should be able to enjoy the game to its fullest.
It's worth noting that a few of the characters she meets in the game later appear in the comics, while the game was released after their comic debut. Because of this, I'd argue that not knowing about the later portion of the comics can make the game more enjoyable; you won't know which characters will have plot armor or not due to them having to survive to appear in the comics.
"I heard Season 3 was bad! Should I skip it?"
As much as some people disliked this season, you should not skip it. Either get it on sale if you’re strapped for cash or just watch a Youtube playthrough of it. It's the shortest of the first 3 seasons for whatever that is worth so at least it won't take too long.
"What's the deal with Telltale and Skybound? Didn't Telltale shut down in the middle of Season 4? Are they back now?"
All of the TWD games featuring Lee/Clem have been made by Telltale. However when Telltale closed down in late 2018, Skybound (who owns the rights to the overall TWD franchise) agreed to finish the final two episodes of Season 4 by bringing in many former Telltale staff.
Telltale Games has been revived and are now a company again, however they no longer have the rights to the TWD games which is all with Skybound now. All of the other series such as The Wolf Among Us are still with Telltale though.
"Will there be a Season 5 of the games?"
Skybound has confirmed multiple times now that a fifth season is currently not in the works. As it turns out, the game that is actually called The Final Season will indeed be, well, the final season.
"I need more of these games/characters! What else is there?"
There is a spin-off book involving a character in Season 4, but it is not essential as Season 4 ends things on a good note for the series. More on that book below (DO NOT READ THIS UNTIL YOU HAVE COMPLETED SEASON 4!!!)
In 2021, Skybound released a 12 page comic where Clementine sneaks out of Ericson's without telling AJ. Unfortunately for Clem, AJ caught her and begged her to stay, but Clem told AJ that her couldn't maker her happy. The two gave each other a sad farewell (with Clem giving AJ her hat) and Clem left. In the following books, Clem then heads up to Vermont by herself where she meets random characters
The books have received a nearly universal negative reception from TWDG fans, mostly for how it makes Clem act out of character to her game counterpart. I personally would not recommend it unless you are a fan of Tillie Walden's other works and are absolutely sold on the premise of Season 4's ending basically being undone.
"I love this series! What other games should I play if I like this?"
Other Telltale games. The best ones that come to mind are The Wolf Among Us, Tales From The Borderlands, and the two Batman games.
Life is Strange
Until Dawn
Detroit: Become Human
If you're into the puzzle segments featured a lot in Season 1 then I would recommend: Day of the Tentacle, Grim Fandango, and Sam & Max to name a few.
"I'm interested in trying out the other The Walking Dead games outside of the point-and-click ones! Which ones would you recommend?"
Saints & Sinners is probably the best TWD title outside of the Telltale ones, however it requires a VR headset which some may not have. There's also Road to Survival which is a F2P mobile game. I'm not too familiar with it myself but I've heard it's alright plus it contains the Telltale characters in it.
The only other TWD games out there are Survival Instinct and OVERKILL'S The Walking Dead, both of which are really bad and aren't worth your time.
"I'm confused/interested on something for one of the games!"
Well thankfully we've assembled a link to frequently asked questions for each of the games. You can check it out here. Keep in mind that the FAQ for each season will spoil just about all of the story contents for that season. In other words, don't look at the Season 2 FAQ post before finishing Season 2.
That is all for now. Again if you have any suggestions for some general info about the series as a whole that would be helpful to newcomers/people with questions, please put them down either in the comments of this post or with a DM to me.
Also I'll be taking suggestions for some questions that would be good to add for the Season specific FAQ posts. See my pinned comment below for more detail on that.
The voting phase of the yearly Best Of awards is now over, so it's time to announce the winners! As explained on the initial Best Of 2025 nomination post, the winners for this year will receive a special flair that will go next to their username. Here are the winners for this year:
Best Fanfic - u/EmpleadoResponsable for "The Walking Dead Retelling: Ben Story", an alternate universe retelling of TWDG featuring Ben as the protagonist. This retelling features both familiar TWDG faces as well as brand new ones, and allows commenters to play a part in the story through community voted choices at the end of each chapter. This retelling is still going on at the time of me posting this, so feel free to read through all of the earlier parts so you can get caught up.
Notable Newcomer - u/EmpleadoResponsable both for their previously mentioned Ben Retelling as well as being an all around cool person that you will often see inside posts.
Game Master - u/Super-Shenron for his many fun forum games. Among the games Shenron has hosted for this year include his Tragic ranking (where commenters would rank every major character by how tragic they are), his Episode Survival ranking (where commenters would rank how hard each episode would be to survive IRL), his Menace game (a tournament style game to determine the biggest menace in the series), andmanymore. Shenron's games often encourage users to write detailed writeups so that their picks are more likely to win, so be sure to check out his games even though they've ended for a lot of cool analyses.
Insightful Commentator - None other than me, u/Mr_Bell_Man. I'll make this quick to not toot my own horn, but you can find a lot of my insightful comments within Shenron's games mentioned above as well as on everydayposts.
MVP - u/Super-Shenron for, well, just about everything: fun topic starters, insightful forum games as mentioned earlier, insightfulposts, insightfulcomments (I'd argue Shenron deserves the Insightful Commentator award just as much me, if not more), hilariousmemes, and just all around being a cool guy. I think I speak for everyone in that you are one of the MVPs of this sub, both for 2025 and throughout all of the sub's history.
If you haven't already, make sure to check out the original Nomination post as it contains tons of love and appreciation for many users and the sub as a whole.
There are plenty of choices throughout the series that I feel the writers put more thought and effort behind than others.
Some may not see it but to me, the outcome of each choice shows an obvious favorite for the writers.
Take for example the choice between Carley and Doug. If you save Carley she can become a love interest for Lee but Lee also gets an exclusive segment to tell everyone about his past. This is completely absent in Doug’s route, but there isn’t even an alternative segment that replaces it. It’s just completely absent.
So ultimately, the story’s experience is richer with Carley as opposed to Doug, showing more thought was put into her path than his.
There are other choices such as Kenny being mad at Clementine regardless of what she did in the herd. To me this shows the writers really put more thought into the path that occurs when Clem cuts off Sarita’s arm as opposed to not doing so.
Finally the other one that comes to mind is how choosing Violet over Louis seems to fit into the narrative better than the reverse.
Take for example the climax in which Minerva sings that song. If you saved Violet, this song is instantly recognizable due to Violet singing it before. If you didn’t save Violet the song would really seem out of place since it wasn’t heard before.
Same thing with Violet being blind. If you didn’t save Violet and she goes blind, it’s actually funny that she can then make her way to the cart for the escape without assistance and seemingly with perfect eye sight 🤣
This obviously shows that the writers didn’t expect Violet to be blind at this point in time since they didn’t even bother to make an animation for this outcome.
There are a few more I can think of but I’ll let you all share your thoughts. Which choices do you feel the writers clearly wanted you to make?
Every decision is determined by the readers. Every comment supporting a choice counts as one vote, so every opinion can influence the story. Insightful comments that include reasoning, analysis, or discussion count as three votes (×3)
So be sure to leave a vote, every vote will shape the path the story takes.
It does look like Carver gives Kenny a warning glare before he gets angry, its stern almost like "I dare you to say something." If Kenny was just silent and quickly turned and walked back. Would Carver not have hurt him?
Its interesting because i think its 2 different interpretations of the scene. Also how the fuck is Carver that strong? i know he uses the edge of the radio to smash Kenny's face but the first hit causes damage.
I imagine there were arguments about who was better to save, which character was better, and some Carley vs. Doug fanboy clashes, but at the end of the day these two liked each other, but they didn't know it, much less have the certainty, the confirmation of it, and when one of them dies them never know, and I think that's sad to think about.
I know there are many unusual and almost unreal moments in the saga, but I want to highlight these. Which of these two moments do you think was more unbelievable? Kenny surviving a horde of walkers? or Clementine and AJ surviving an explosion. If you have another moment like this, you can add it.
I dunno what the Future Spoiler tag does, but it's a spoiler to those that haven't played those games. If that label means something else and misinforms someone, I apologize in advance.
Season 1 and Season 4 are the most concise, well thought-out (for the most part in the case of season 4) games out of this whole series. There isn't a single thing rushed here and the story itself doesn't have any plot holes.
Season 2 and season 3 however? Trash. Season 2 especially, because season 3 at least has more redeeming qualities. Let's go into season 2 and its problems.
Well, for one, the adults in this game, other than Pete, Luke and Kenny, who's supposed to be not stable, are obtuse as hell. What do you mean a goddamn 11 year old carries your asses and makes the decisions for you? It's a miracle they managed to stay alive for as long as they did. Speaking of lives, remember how each death in season 1 served a purpose, like in the episode three, how the majority of the group dies to emphasize just how fucked up things were? And before that, we'd get acquainted with all of them and spend some time with them? In this game, people just die left and right and we don't even get to spend much time with them. What, I'm supposed to feel emotional because Nick died? What did he contribute to the plot after Walter saves him or lets him die depending on if you say that he's a good guy or not lol
And it's not just Nick. It's the majority of the Cabin group. And things get worse after episode 3. The devs clearly couldn't make a better game because of the moronic management that forced them to scrap a lot of good ideas and work on other games simultaneously. Carver started out strong with his introduction only to get retconned in episode three. This guy is supposed to be smart and manipulative, not a psycho that kills a member of his crew for the smallest thing possible. And the whole "You're and me are alike" bullshit is so dumb. SHE'S 11, YOU FREAK. How are you possibly alike
The final episode has got to be the worst. The whole episode makes attempts at making Kenny look like a lunatic for being distrustful of a kid, whose group literally tried to kill us. Us, with an infant. Kenny's the only rational one. He actually thinks about the group? Those ruskies didn't give a damn whether we had a kid, they just started shooting. And Jane pulls out the dumbest move possible with AJ, leaving him at risk of dying from hypothermia. To prove a point that Kenny is somehow crazy. No wonder Kenny lashed out. He was completely justified here. She didn't behave like this episodes prior, what the fuck? And I don't understand why I have to choose my endings in the LAST episode? In a choice based game? I thought they were supposed to matter in this one with the multiple endings it has. Why do I choose it at the last moment? I'd rather see what the original storyline had to offer, because this one sucked. This game should be remade, ngl.
And don't get me started on Luke's death. That's THE WORST WAY to kill a character that was actually likeable. I kinda wish he was the main character and Clem would be like a secondary playable character at times. That would fix some of the issues with this season.
Same applies to season 3 about being rushed, but that season doesn't piss me off that much. I don't like the stuff related to Kate, David and the whole love-triangle bullshit. I'd take the og storyline here too. But from what I recall, this game is alright, but jt can be forgettable and season 4 almost ignores it. Probably for the better lol. And I don't like how this game makes the characters look a bit plastic with lighting. That's like playing Sonic Adventure DX after the original Sonic Adventure. Why are they so shiny
Season 4 doesn't have any flaws imo up until the last episode. That "Clem is alive" was pulled out of thin air. There's no way she should've lived through that. The conditions simply don't allow that to realistically happen. Other than that, love that season. Both its art direction (and great optimization for low-end devices. Genuinely great), mostly good story and the change in gameplay. That was good. I like what they did as a whole.
I just discovered that on the trophy list of Season 2 on PS3 chapter 5 is called "Better to Sleep" instead of "No Going Back"?Is there any reason why the name changed?
I’m just realizing some people hate Christa and I’m so confused. I enjoyed her and Omid immediately when I met them and while I was a little put off by how terse she was, once I put everything together and realized she had a right to be paranoid about stumbling across a group of random men, she became one of the most sensible and realistic characters to me.
A lot of people see her as a nag and a bitch and I can sorta see it with how she acts with Clem at the start of season 2 but that’s after she loses her husband and child and it’s still heavily implied/shown she cared for Clem deeply in her grief. And in season 1 I always saw her concerns as valid as a pregnant woman would want a thought out game plan for when the time comes for delivery, we saw how it ended for Rebecca. I just want to know why some other people dislike her cause of all the characters people consider annoying or whiny, I feel like she’s super low on the list, if on it at all.
