there really needs to be a mid-thumb option or a star system because this entry was a 2 or 2.5 stars out of 5. great voice acting, improved graphics, i loved hearing garrus vakarian, i loved seeing clementine, and javi is a good protagonist to follow. he's everything i liked about lee without trying to be lee. the family dynamics were interesting and i'm sure it's relatable for a lot of people. i understand why telltale was trying to be less point-and-click and more action with their mechanics, but their narrative suffered because of it and they should've stuck to their strengths. i wouldn't have cared that clementine wasn't the main character if our choices from previous games carried over. sidelining clementine was a mistake; every decision i made had a bias that was heavily skewed towards her approval and her survival. all of the other characters were second-rate versions of the season 1 supporting cast and/or they were really annoying so i didn't care about their approval and survival. this game would have been a thumbs down if javi weren't a likable character but he barely saved it. clementine should've been written as a different character. an insignificant amount of lore and none of the choices we made in this game carries over to her game in the final season. 'a new frontier' was ultimately a disappointing amalgamation of recycled plotlines and character archetypes. it filled tiny pockets in clementine's story, but i don't care about it enough to do another playthrough like i did with its predecessors.

6.8/10

2024 edit: read the next part after you’ve played episode 3! hasanabi said in his season 3 episode 3 playthrough, “[the new frontier faction] is the most israel-coded encampment. overall culture based around fear of the outside—the “other”, constantly engaging in colonial endeavors, acting like everything internally in the colony is great. they steal land from people that were already living, breathing, and existing there. richmond wasn’t new frontier territory. they forcibly took it over. look at what they did to prescott! and they snipe children! this is how you create hamas.” i will never see this game the same. the writing is actually pretty solid with the way they handled the family drama and encampment politics. my decisions still hinged on clementine’s approval but there are clever parts to the writing so i bumped up the original 5/10 score a bit.

there really needs to be a mid-thumb option or a star system because this entry was a 2 or 2.5 stars out of 5. great voice acting, improved graphics, i loved hearing garrus vakarian, i loved seeing clementine, and javi is a good protagonist to follow. he's everything i liked about lee without trying to be lee. the family dynamics were interesting and i'm sure it's relatable for a lot of people. i understand why telltale was trying to be less point-and-click and more action with their mechanics, but their narrative suffered because of it and they should've stuck to their strengths. i wouldn't have cared that clementine wasn't the main character if our choices from previous games carried over. sidelining clementine was a mistake; every decision i made had a bias that was heavily skewed towards her approval and her survival. all of the other characters were second-rate versions of the season 1 supporting cast and/or they were really annoying so i didn't care about their approval and survival. this game would have been a thumbs down if javi weren't a likable character but he barely saved it. clementine should've been written as a different character. an insignificant amount of lore and none of the choices we made in this game carries over to her game in the final season. 'a new frontier' was ultimately a disappointing amalgamation of recycled plotlines and character archetypes. it filled tiny pockets in clementine's story, but i don't care about it enough to do another playthrough like i did with its predecessors. 6.8/10 [b]2024 edit: [/b]read the next part after you’ve played episode 3! hasanabi said in his [url= https://youtu.be/JfScfdSQX6o?si=3HX0NQhwjYCynMC5]season 3 episode 3 playthrough[/url], “[the new frontier faction] is the most israel-coded encampment. overall culture based around fear of the outside—the “other”, constantly engaging in colonial endeavors, acting like everything internally in the colony is great. they steal land from people that were already living, breathing, and existing there. richmond wasn’t new frontier territory. they forcibly took it over. look at what they did to prescott! and they snipe children! this is how you create hamas.” i will never see this game the same. the writing is actually pretty solid with the way they handled the family drama and encampment politics. my decisions still hinged on clementine’s approval but there are clever parts to the writing so i bumped up the original 5/10 score a bit.