“The Walking Dead – Michonne, Episode 3: What We Deserve” Review

After what was probably the most action-packed episode in Telltale’s version of The Walking Dead, things get mellow again before a predictable yet gruesome ending to the finale. What Is It? As you’d expect, the finale picks up immediately where…

A negotiation with a bag over someone’s head. Yeah, that’s not gonna go well.

After what was probably the most action-packed episode in Telltale’s version of The Walking Dead, things get mellow again before a predictable yet gruesome ending to the finale.

What Is It?

As you’d expect, the finale picks up immediately where the second episode left off.  The story’s main antagonist, Norma, and her crew are out to get Michonne after the treachery she caused escaping Norma’s threshold.  With her brother Randall in tow, the group now has a bargaining piece to prevent anymore unnecessary bloodshed in Sam’s family home, but as any Walking Dead fan would expect, things never go as planned.

Meanwhile, Michonne is still dealing with her inner demons of her past as she keeps seeing her children and her old apartment, mentally damaging her.

Why Should I Care?

The Michonne miniseries doesn’t do anything out of the ordinary when it comes to standard Telltale mechanics, and while the pilot episode suffered from a lack of action and its short length, it does something different that fans of The Walking Dead can appreciate.  It gives players a different sense of control over certain situations.

The guy you have in custody is nothing short of a real jerk.

Unlike the first and second seasons of The Walking Dead, much of the game’s tough decisions rely on your encouragement of (or lack thereof) others compared to Lee and Clementine being relied upon with every little situation.  Everybody into the lore knows Michonne can take care of herself, but never has she had to make decisions for the good of a group.  This allows us to really see a different side of her.

To further put this into perspective, take the latter part of the finale for instance.  As stated earlier, having Randall being in Michonne’s possession gives her a bargaining chip to negotiate terms with Norma in terms of keeping others safe.  In my first playthrough, I kept trying to get her to give in to small demands, and as it turned out, things still went south.  That’s The Walking Dead‘s formula, but at least it felt authentic.

Another factor that separates the miniseries from the rest is that there’s a clear connection to Kirkman’s graphic novel.  There are decisions to be made in the game that seem like they’d affect Michonne’s well being, but as far as we know–Michonne isn’t dead in the canon (yet).

What Makes It Worth My Time And Money?

Aside from how the story is told, again, as a whole The Walking Dead – Michonne is just your typical Telltale game, but more so than any of the games before it, it’ll probably appeal more to viewers of the show and readers of the comic book.

As important as Michonne’s backstory may be to the central plot, they were still awfully distracting and sometimes boring.

The frustrating part is that despite already having experience in the current generation with Game of Thrones, the game still suffers from technical issues that have plagued every Telltale game since the original Walking Dead games.  I played Xbox One version, and the hiccups in between chapters were really bad–so bad that the performance actually affected my experience.  It eventually got its act together in middle of the game, but it’s still unfortunate.

Be that as it may, if you’ve already started with the first two episodes, you really have no choice but to finish here.  But if you’re expecting the fast-paced action of the previous episode, you’ll probably leave disappointed.  We’ll for sure see this cheaper sometime before the year ends, so you might want to wait on this.

Reviews Of Previous Episodes of The Walking Dead – Michonne:

• Episode Two: Give No Shelter
• Episode One: In Too Deep