The Walking Dead: Michonne: Episode 3 - What We Deserve
Score: 80% Publisher: Telltale Games Developer: Telltale Games Media: Download/1 Players: 1 Genre: Adventure
Previously on The Walking Dead: Michonne: The Walking Dead: Michonne: Episode 3 - What We Deserve wraps up the mini-series that follows one of The Walking Dead's main characters during her time away from the main group, but a lot has to happen in this episode to wrap up everything that has been put in motion since In Too Deep. Over the course of the past two episodes, Michonne and her new friends have come afoul of a rather large and well-organized community that has spread across a bay by making a floating town of boats and bridges. When Michonne discovers a pair of teenagers who were stealing from this group, the leader, Norma, immediately lumped Michonne and her friend Pete in with the thieves. While Michonne, Pete, and Sam (one of the two kids) did escape from under Norma's thumb, it left her community in a bad way and by the time that Sam leads the others to her home and supposed safety, Norma's brother, Randall, is able to track them down and incite some mayhem of his own. When Randall is captured, you are given some choices as to how well you want to treat him, but what you learn early in What We Deserve is that Norma isn't far behind and she might have a thing or two to say about the state her brother is in when she gets there.
The Build Up: A major portion of The Walking Dead: Michonne: Episode 3 - What We Deserve is about adding to the suspense as Norma and the rest of her crew approaches. Normal tells Michonne and Pete that she has the rest of Pete's crew, and while she wants to trade them for her brother, she makes it clear that any damage done to Randall will be duplicated on her hostages. Needless to say, even if you chose the "safest" options with Randall, he is still a little worse for wear, so one of the biggest issues Michonne and friends have to deal with is hiding how badly Randall might be hurt. This, coupled with helping Sam's family work through their most recent losses and attempting to fortify the house, means Michonne will be busy before Norma shows up. Then there are the growing visions that Michonne has to contend with. This entire mini-series has had the katana-wielding walker killer dealing with her survivor's guilt and the fact that she simply doesn't know what happened to her kids. She has been chasing phantoms of them and flashing back to her old apartment often in all three episodes. Needless to say, this is a distraction she doesn't need in the times to come, but she keeps getting pulled into these episodes and has to fight to get back out again.
The Pay Off: While most of The Walking Dead: Michonne: Episode 3 - What We Deserve is the calm before the storm that is Norma's arrival, when Norma does appear, the game quickly changes into the action-centric (well, as action-centric as a Telltale game gets) situation that ends up being a mad-dash to the final scene. It should come as no surprise that the negotiations with Norma don't go all that smoothly, but when a herd of walkers appears before everything can get resolved, the entire situation becomes a mad house. What results is probably one of the most action-packed sequences in the Telltale Walking Dead series to date, and considering some of the events that Michonne had to get herself out of in the last two episodes, that says something.
Next Time on The Walking Dead: The Walking Dead: Michonne: Episode 3 - What We Deserve ends Michonne's mini-series and it seems like it takes her story up to the point of going back to Rick's group. While a third season of the main series has been confirmed, it isn't really clear if this three-episode adventure will have any effect on Clementine's story. Given that this mini-series takes place a lot further into the zombie-apocalypse than the main seasons have been, it's hard to see that there will be any connection, unless Clementine's story continues with a lot of time passing between Season 2 and 3. As for the Michonne series as a whole, given the main character is a known and practiced fighter, it should be no surprise that there has been a good bit more action in these three episodes than in the other The Walking Dead games. That being said, there is still a lot of story in this collection, even if it might feel like a whole lot got packed into this episode so it could be wrapped up before the final battle. If you are a fan of the comics, but you haven't really gotten into the main game series yet, and find the two seasons of story to be too daunting, The Walking Dead: Michonne might be what you need to get your feet wet and try out the gaming style. You don't need the choices from the past games for this, and who knows? Maybe your choices here will affect Season 3 if you should choose to pick it up when it comes out.
-J.R. Nip, GameVortex Communications AKA Chris Meyer
Related Links: The Walking Dead: Michonne - A Telltale Miniseries on Steam Game Vortex's The Walking Dead Coverage
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