Fans of narrative-heavy episodic video games mournfully poured one out when Telltale Games collapsed in 2018. Since 2004, the studio had slowly built a name for reviving beloved franchises, bringing Sam & Max and Monkey Island again to gamers, in addition to long-dormant film franchises like Back to the Future and Jurassic Park.
Recommended VideosBut issues really went stratospheric with The Walking Dead, which nailed the comics’ tone and delivered a very emotional and remarkable trek via a zombie-infested USA. It snowballed into an enormous hit, and Telltale promptly started hoovering up licenses to inform extra tales in that mildew. But in its rush to recreate The Walking Dead’s good fortune it overreached, spread its workers too thinly over too many video games, and ultimately imploded.
Now it’s back! Kinda. In 2019, LCG Entertainment relaunched Telltale Games and now we’re on the cusp of Telltale’s first authentic recreation in four years: The Expanse: A Telltale Series, a prequel to Syfy and Amazon’s seriously acclaimed sci-fi drama.
The first episode will land on July 27, with 4 extra dropping at two-week periods. So, what better time than to seem back on the corporate’s lengthy again catalog and pick its ten best video games?
10. Back to the Future: The Game (2010-2011)
Back to the Future: The Game landed a 12 months prior to The Walking Dead and is a extra puzzle-focused traditional adventure recreation than the rest on this checklist. But whilst it might be a little clunky and graphically dated it stays a very amusing game and, given that Back to the Future tales are scarce, it’s an extraordinary opportunity for lovers to take a go back and forth in the Delorean with Marty McFly and Doc Brown.
Back to the Future additionally boasts an excessively sturdy voice solid. Christopher Lloyd reprises Emmett Brown, and though Michael J. Fox couldn’t voice Marty, he no less than shows up in the fifth episode to briefly voice Grandfather McFly and some other futuristic Martys. We have a comfortable spot for it and nearly wish Telltale hadn’t utterly abandoned this template after The Walking Dead hit giant.
9. Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series (2017)
Generally regarded as a rushed recreation that suffered from developer fatigue, I think Guardians of the Galaxy is somewhat underrated. The recreation takes roughly equal inspiration from Marvel comics and James Gunn’s 2014 movie, turning in a knockabout journey with a advantageous voice cast (Nolan North’s Rocket is a particular highlight) and some killer needle drops.
That stated, the behind-the-scenes state of affairs at Telltale used to be clearly taking its toll. The sequence feels like it was once made on a restricted funds, has common minor system faults, iffy sound engineering, and the characters aren’t reasonably as fascinating as their MCU counterparts. That mentioned, it’s some distance from a foul recreation and made us snigger out loud several occasions, so we will’t hate it an excessive amount of.
8. The Walking Dead: Season Two (2013-2014)
Telltale was once flush with money and basking in critical acclaim after The Walking Dead, so understandably were given immediately again to paintings on a 2d season. You now keep an eye on the young Clementine, who was once the main supporting persona from the first season. Unfortunately, Season Two is a vintage case of adverse 2d album syndrome.
As some distance as post-apocalyptic zombie adventures move it’s high quality, though pales compared to the emotional heights of what got here ahead of. One specifically irritating characteristic is that regardless of which choices you make you’ll regularly feel briefly railroaded again to the core story beats – as an example saving a character in a single scene just for them to die anyway a few mins later. It’s now not a nasty time, simply an underwhelming one.
7. Batman: The Telltale Series (2016)
I’ll always have a soft spot for Telltale’s take on Batman, if only as a result of you'll select to act in an especially un-Batman-like method. The studio’s first try at tackling the Dark Knight is a quite amusing journey through Gotham City, though as this is a very well-defined character, your possible choices generally encompass selecting violence or intelligence to resolve issues.
It turns out to be much more pleasant to select violence, especially if you are making a point to at all times select the most abrasive and perilous thing to say at all times. That path results in a tale through which Bruce Wayne appears to be slightly trying to hide his secret identity and Batman himself is a perilous lunatic. It is after all imaginable to play a more sedate Batman, but c’mon, have some a laugh with it!
6. The Walking Dead: The New Frontier (2016-2017)
By 2016, the creaky tech powering Telltale’s video games was once a topic. Considering its titles depend on gazing emotional nuance, let’s just say the moderately marionette-like graphics let the voice forged do the heavy lifting. The New Frontier was once supposed to change that, updating the tech to convey it extensively consistent with what mid-2010s avid gamers anticipated.
On that, it delivers, although the decision to once once more make Clementine a supporting persona perhaps isn’t supreme. Instead, you play new character Javier Garcia, picking up his story prior to the apocalypse and exploring his relationship along with his brother afterward. It’s done effectively, regardless that the fundamental plot of a neighborhood thrown into chaos via backstabbing and greed is well-worn territory for zombie fiction and The New Frontier doesn’t upload anything new. Still amusing sufficient although.
5. Batman: The Enemy Within (2017-2018)
Telltale’s 2nd stab at Batman continues on from the first game, although adds the Joker to the story. What makes this actual game sing is the very surreal dating you can foster between these two mortal enemies. It’s necessarily a clumsy buddy drama, with the Joker and Batman changing into awkward buddies ahead of he is going off the deep end.
You can make a choice to antagonize the Joker and revel in a extra traditional Bat story, despite the fact that in our playthrough Mr. J favored us so much he ended up becoming a odd Batman fanboy Joker hybrid, even as all of Batman’s allies have been left scratching their heads as to what he sees on this deranged and emaciated clown. We at all times love a good Joker tale, and The Enemy Within is relatively not like the rest in the Batman mythos.
4. The Walking Dead: The Final Season (2018-2019)
Clementine’s ultimate journey is nearly as notable for the undead drama in the game as the behind-the-scenes chaos that virtually noticed it crash and burn halfway via development. When Telltale close down, the hammer came down so speedy that Clementine’s voice actor Melissa Hutchison mentioned they just got a realize mid-way thru a recording consultation to stop right away.
Fortunately, The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkland stepped in to make certain that Clementine’s tale had an finishing, along with his Skybound Entertainment providing former Telltale employees the chance to complete what they began. Many took the offer, dubbing themselves the “Still Not Bitten” workforce.
After all that, it’s a miracle that The Final Season became out in addition to it did and Clementine’s story does indeed finish satisfactorily. Given that that is The Walking Dead, stated finishing isn’t exactly cheery, but we were left with a tear in our eye as the credit rolled.
3. Tales from the Borderlands (2014-2015)
At first glance Gearbox’s Borderlands franchise is an odd have compatibility for Telltale Games. The core video games are nearly solely keen on accumulating an arsenal of peculiar weapons after which the use of them to decimate legions of enemies. But effervescent away under that has at all times been a rich seam of comedy, and Tales from the Borderlands no longer simplest captures that but improves upon it.
It’s also notable that you simply don’t need any prior wisdom about Borderlands to revel in this and it functions completely properly as an offbeat sci-fi romp with some killer jokes (and some gentle parodying of the Telltale formulation). A successor, New Tales of the Borderlands landed in 2022 from Gearbox, regardless that unfortunately failed to seize the identical magic.
2. The Walking Dead (2012)
(*10*)Excuse us whilst we grasp a handkerchief, as even fascinated about The Walking Dead‘s first season stirs up some severe feelings. Set in a while after the zombie apocalypse starts, you play as Lee Everett, who’s on his strategy to jail when society collapses. He soon meets the eight-year-old Clementine, along with your ultimate job in the sport protecting her safe and seeking to defend her from the nightmare fact.
It’s a rough journey that doesn’t pull any punches (RIP Duck). The Walking Dead pioneered Telltale’s house taste and, at the time, it felt like our possible choices in reality did topic and we have been telling our own story. In retrospect, you’re simply twiddling with the edges of the narrative, despite the fact that we agonized over who to save and who we’d serve up as walker chow. The graphics are actually very dated (they usually weren’t nice in 2012), however we’d love to see this get a complete remaster to deliver it as much as fashionable requirements.
Lee and Clem. They’ll at all times have a place in our hearts.
1. The Wolf Among Us (2013-2014)
This is the crown jewel in Telltale’s catalog, a recreation of such high quality that it made the studio’s loss of life that much more painful. We already knew that Telltale could… effectively, inform a story, however The Wolf Among Us additionally appeared and sounded unbelievable. The recreation is based on Bill Willingham’s Fables sequence and is largely a fairytale film noir, with you controlling Bigby Wolf as he tries to unravel a sequence of mysterious murders.
It’s a terrific story and Bigby is an improbable player character: frightening and competent however with a center of gold. We were overwhelmed when Telltale Games’ closure it appears doomed the in-development sequel, though, after an excessively long gestation, The Wolf Among Us 2 is it seems that coming in 2024. We’ll consider it when we see it, however The Wolf Among Us remains the pinnacle of everything Telltale used to be trying to achieve, and replaying it simply makes us leave out the studio all the more.
Here’s hoping The Expanse: A Telltale Series nails this vibe. We can’t wait to test it out.
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