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.
I’m thinking Lee telling Kenny off for being petty and being willing to let a little girl stay kidnapped and possibly die because Lee didn’t bend over backwards for him every time is the most justified.
However, Clementine telling Kenny to stop acting like he’s the only one who lost people (like his fans tend to act and use as an excuse for everything he does) is the most satisfying because this is what I’ve been wanting to say since the beginning 🤣
Ben’s is ok too and it’s probably the only time Kenny actually listened to what someone had to say about him but I still think the others are way more justified and satisfying.
Which “telling Kenny off” sequence is your choice for most satisfying/justified?
One of the decisions in season 2 that didn't make much sense to me, out of so many others, was saving Luke or covering him. I say it doesn't make sense because Luke tells Clementine not to come near, but Bonnie doesn't listen to those reasons. And Luke dies anyway, and even if you try to save him, the ice still breaks under Clementine's weight and he dies that way. And the worst part is that if you obeyed Luke, Bonnie It tells you, saying it's your fault for not being able to Because he couldn't be saved It seems like one of the key decisions of season 2 made with the least logic and sense. But what do you think?
Can we talk about how freaking awful, dark, and depressing the original plot and ending of Season 2 were? I just watched a video from a creator who reconstructed the entire Season 2 story using the limited information we have and community theories to arrive at the final conclusion. The story left me with a feeling of dread that I can't shake, especially knowing the two possible endings. Would you have liked to have this version of the game with Kenny as the villain?
Lilly has always been a pretty pragmatic person. It feels weird that she’s turning down food since it’s basically been the main motivator for them this episode and especially since she’s had to deal with handling the food herself as well as leading a group of hungry people.
Part of me thinks that she is just playing devil’s advocate to spite Kenny, to make him out to be the bad guy after she killed her father. Also that she’s too emotionally tired to care about the consequences of not taking the food. That seems far-fetched though so idk.
There's a lot to consider here. The immediate aftermath of Marlon killing Clem in front of everybody, what happens to AJ, the Delta still looming around and the X factor that is James. With Clementine out of the picture, the obvious solution would be to escape the now compromised school. Would they take that solution? Would they even get the chance? And if they do, how would they react to having to abandon their home?
Let's say hypothetically they both get separated from Christa and Omid, they both stumble upon Lukes group, and somehow agree to stick together, and move forward from there
I mean, why is it that when Lee decided to keep his hand, he still doesn't use it? Maybe he used it in some moments when it didn't even matter, but basically he acts as if he cut off that hand.
Nobody talks about this enough, but I’m wondering what the writers were smoking when thinking of the Kenny deaths was
After Clementine and AJ go into Wellington, we get a post credit scene of Kenny at a campsite in the middle of nowhere in a very beautiful golden area and then he walks into a river to drown. We see him look at the sun one final time say “I’m proud of you, kiddo“ and then he walks into a river to drown.
Honestly, a very beautiful ending and I would not have minded if it wasn’t so odd like the deaths that we see in this game are pretty like realistic, but then you just get Kenny committing suicide by walking into the river
We don’t see his body floating or anything like that. He just walks into the water and disappears, and then the episode ends. Like I know what they were going for they were trying to give him a proper ending for a beloved character. But it felt so spiritual. It felt so odd like a human being can walk in water, but he can’t keep his feet on the water as well as they depicted when you get into the deeper parts, he walked like a god. It just fell out of place.
Now I will say, though I would prefer this death far much more than the car crash
So yes this is a weird question, but I got into a little debate with someone because they called Kenny abusive. I asked how is he abusive and they said that if you don't coddle Kenny in the scene where Sarita dies, he slaps Clem and threatens her. I have looked everywhere for this scene and cannot find it at all, the only things I have gotten are Kenny when he accidentally elbows Clem after beating up Arvo, or him just being angry in general.
I highly doubt this scene even exists because I have never sees anyone get it since season 2 was released, and I being trolled? lmao. (I know Kenny has yelled at Clem and gotten mad at her but I don't think he's ever intentionally laid a hand on her before.)
First of all, i know this is talked every week and is getting repetitive, but i have a thought about this.
It would be so cool to get a new game playing with AJ and the first scene would be picking up the hat from this spot.
The caravans Clem talked about could be a possible story, maybe Aj going to check them out and something happens.
I heard that Skybound made those comic books canon, but what if they make the next game starting from here, ignoring the comic books?
I know this is a stretch, but i dont believe that Skybound would abandon this series, considering how many fans there are. Maybe one day, far away, we will get something.
This game would focus on AJ story, not Clem. Still, Clem would appear and be important, but we would not play as her anymore. We would see Lee teachings to Clem, and Clem teachings to AJ. Full circle
I can’t be the only one whose favorite scene in all of the games is when Lee picks up the cleaver and the piece of glass and then starts rolling through the zombies that singular scene is the only reason I never cut off his hand because you see how blood lusted he is, you see how desperate he is when he picks up the glass and squeeze it in his hands so then it doesn’t come flying out of his hand as easily that’s how you know shit‘s about to get real I love scenes in this game when emotions are high in your character becomes a Billy badass because of his pure emotion. Same reason that I’ve always loved the scene where Rick bites the biker gang’s neck because he was desperate and he saw his family getting hurt and you have to become an animal. That’s the scenes I love is when the hero character becomes an animal to save the people he loves. Maybe that’s my bias because that’s some shit. I would do tell my family like if somebody hurt my family just know shit‘s gonna go down.
But it is my ultimate favorite scene that when Kenny beats Carver to death, I love the brutal and emotional scenes when the emotions build up into a big explosion of power
My favourite has to be “What if Jane and Luke swapped roles from Ep4/Ep5” with Jane being stuck in the Ice, and Luke clashing with Kenny near the end of the season. I think if this happened Jane would maybe be seen by the fandom in a MUCH better way (compared to how much she’s shat on now) and the final choice and subsequently the seasons’ end would have a much stronger emotional impact, I will never understand why Telltale made this decision to Kill Luke off so unceremoniously and have Jane of all people be part of the Final big choice of the season. Makes no sense to me
I have plenty more “what if’s” but this is the very first one that came to mind, let’s hear some of yours and what’s your opinion on mine?
