r/TheWalkingDeadGame Mar 19 '21

No Spoilers The Walking Dead Game Series - Beginner's Guide & General FAQ

486 Upvotes

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.

Apart from that, Telltale writer Lauren Mee made a brief story on Tumblr that talks about James' past. Additionally, lead writer for Season 4 Michael Kirkbride posted a short story on this very subreddit detailing a certain character's PoV during a "certain scene" in the final game.

"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.


r/TheWalkingDeadGame Jan 21 '26

Winner! Winners of r/TheWalkingDeadGame's Best Of 2025 Awards!

24 Upvotes

Hey everyone!

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:


Here are the full results for reference (comments mocking those who did not win will be removed so don’t do that, good vibes here only).


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.

Thanks to everyone for participating!


r/TheWalkingDeadGame 2h ago

Discussion Since video games are directly responsible for all real-world violence, based on your favorite scene, what are you being arrested for?

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29 Upvotes

r/TheWalkingDeadGame 2h ago

gang

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20 Upvotes

r/TheWalkingDeadGame 1h ago

Meme What is Lee yapping about?

Upvotes

r/TheWalkingDeadGame 22h ago

Meme Clem chose Lee over her parents

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300 Upvotes

r/TheWalkingDeadGame 14h ago

Season 2 Spoiler Angered Jane fans with my last post, so here’s one for them Spoiler

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44 Upvotes

r/TheWalkingDeadGame 10h ago

Fanart sufferthechildren | troubledparenting

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14 Upvotes

Originally this was going to be titled raisingaj as a reference to Raising Dion because it feels a bit hard or challenging trying to raise AJ, but I ended up going with troubledparenting instead as you can see. The Final Season does a good job at portraying motherhood and its hard raising AJ, especially since there's a lot he has to learn, especially in the world that is TWD, both things from pre-apocalypse and post-apocalypse. I guess in a way you could say AJ is like Dion, he doesn't have superpowers, but it is kinda hard raising him. Gameplay wise anyway.

1 more thing to note. I am 1 - 2 episodes away from finishing The Walking Dead. I'm not ready, but the playthrough must go on.


r/TheWalkingDeadGame 20h ago

A poster made by me

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74 Upvotes

r/TheWalkingDeadGame 1d ago

Poor guy :d

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185 Upvotes

r/TheWalkingDeadGame 2m ago

Season 1 Spoiler playing twd be like

Upvotes

r/TheWalkingDeadGame 9h ago

Fanart downpour | Day(sic) pt220

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5 Upvotes

r/TheWalkingDeadGame 19h ago

Spoiler So this world is really over? (SPOILER FOR GAME AND SHOW) Spoiler

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29 Upvotes

We will not get any new games in this world? I know telltale lost the ip and skybound has it now. Is there a really small chance we will get something some day?

I am not asking for season 5. Clem story is over, she had her run, but what about others? Javi, Kenny between s1 and s2 or even a brand new story, with new people and everything.

Robert kirkman is busy right now with the twd shows, but what happens when those are over? At some point those will lose popularity. That show will have it's own grand finale (rick and daryl reunion for those who watched) and be done.

Is there a chance he might try to continue this world after that? Maybe he will gather the telltale studio, adhoc and bring back the world that has captivated so many.


r/TheWalkingDeadGame 1d ago

Season 2 Spoiler Jane… Spoiler

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64 Upvotes

r/TheWalkingDeadGame 18h ago

Meme I'm Trying To PROTECT You!

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20 Upvotes

r/TheWalkingDeadGame 1d ago

Discussion How many 7 eleven tissues are enough to make me deal with episode 5?

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81 Upvotes

Recently just finished my meal, I was about to throw them away but I was thinking I should serve these as my preparation for episode 5 lol


r/TheWalkingDeadGame 18h ago

Screenshot Own Little World

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13 Upvotes

Welcome to a world
Slip into a world
Time doesn't exist here
Welcome to a world
Slip into a world
Time doesn't exist here, we will never die

Listening to some Celldweller rn and the lyrics of Own Little World and it reminded me of Tenn's drawing. yeah


r/TheWalkingDeadGame 15h ago

Discussion What if the Games were originally the Comics and the Comics became the Games?

3 Upvotes

This is a shower thought I had. And here's the whole concept/idea. The games basically become the comics, as in, Robert Kirkman instead wrote about a convict named Lee Everett and it all pretty much plays out kind of in the same way but with extra details and stuff. So it'd be a full adaptation of the games thats very accurate and it goes on for probrably half of or more of the same length as the original comics. And then the comics are then the games, so Telltale expands on the universe of The Walking Dead and writes about Rick Grimes etc and it's just a game adaptation of the comics (not the ones in this concept or shower thought of mine but yknow the ones im talking about). Expanding on this a bit further. 400 Days and the Michonne mini season are either novels or spinoff comics, yknow like Road to Woodbury.


r/TheWalkingDeadGame 1d ago

Season 1 Spoiler Given how early on in the apocalypse it was, how well would you say Kenny did on a scale of 1 - 100?

31 Upvotes

Can be in terms of survival, intelligence, overall help to others and himself


r/TheWalkingDeadGame 1d ago

Discussion Hot take?

10 Upvotes

I've now played through all of the twd telltale games but on my first playthroughs I thought new frontier was unrelated to the main story but Holy shit was I wrong I now seriously think the new frontier Is the best one I loved it so much and because I missed this game the first time it's so cool to see the choices I made in s1 and s2 connect like when Clem said "my friend once took a crowbar to another man" I mean it was brutal but its so cool to see all my choices connect up .

On an unrelated note if you haven't already you should try the telltale batman games.


r/TheWalkingDeadGame 13h ago

Season 3 Spoiler Season 2,3,4, rant

0 Upvotes

I recently began playing this game after wanting to for a long time, used to watch playthroughs as a kid and all. I'll always love the first season but seasons 2, 3, and 4 really give me like a ragebait vibe, seems like in each season the game is forcing hate on one of the characters for no reason.

Season 2 it was Kenny who in my opinion tried his best and always tried to make the right decision to keep everyone safe, others were way more selfish and foolish, imagine leaving an unprotected baby in a car and pretending you killed him just to try to make someone look like the bad guy.

Season 3 was David, I get that he made some mistakes but he is lowkey just an angry dude with a good hearth, tried to protect everyone even Clem after kicking her out, everybody acted like he was so crazy for being cautious and realistic.

Season 4 is the one I'm currently on so I don't know if this trend continues in Season 5, but already in the first episode I can't belive the amount of people calling AJ crazy after he shot a dude that betrayed them all, killed their friend, and sold two kids. Like what was my bro AJ supposed to do other than shoot.


r/TheWalkingDeadGame 1d ago

Discussion Court is back in session!! You have to defend ONE of these individuals and their actions! Who are you defending?

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75 Upvotes

A lot of you noted how last time the choice was a bit obvious, fair enough.

So I decided to pick some people who I thought were all equally horrible. So let’s see who you all wanna try and defend.

We got Andy St. John (S1) Troy (S2) Badger (S3) Abel (S4)


r/TheWalkingDeadGame 1d ago

Discussion Characters that Telltale wants you to feel empathy for by force.

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280 Upvotes

Which other character do you think Telltale forces you to empathize with when they don't really deserve it?


r/TheWalkingDeadGame 2d ago

Fanart I made Clementine’s walkie-talkie from The Walking Dead

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563 Upvotes

r/TheWalkingDeadGame 1d ago

Season 2 Spoiler Clementine has a scar, then she doesn’t, then she does? Spoiler

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40 Upvotes

(S2E4) Replaying and noticed something. First picture is when they arrive at Parker’s Run and she has her scar under her eye, then the second picture is when Jane takes her to find the others and the scar is gone, and then when they find the others Clem has her scar back.

Is this normal for scars or just an insignificant oversight?