Shorter Episodes: Episodes are only 1 - 1.5 hours long, which are much shorter than S1's episodes
No hubs/puzzles: Remember back in S1 when you had to give food out to people in the motel and could talk to your fellow survivors? Or how about when you were at the St. John's and could build a swingset for Duck? Moments like these are almost non-existent in ANF. Heck, episodes 3 and 5 don't even have hub worlds where you can move around on your own (I don't count the zombie garage door scene in EP3 since you have a time limit). S2 had this problem as well but it's much worse in ANF.
Clem as a side character: For the record, I think Javi is a great character and don't mind at all that he is the main character instead of Clem. The main problem is that this season can't decide if it wants to be for newcomers or for veterans since Clem is shoehorned into the game. I sided with Clem throughout the entire game because I know what type of character she is based on the previous seasons. This ruins any type of immersion with Javi since I care more about Clem than anyone else.
Easy/One-sided choices: One thing I love about TT games is having to decide on a difficult choice and seeing what other choices people did and their reasoning for it. With the exception of choosing between Tripp or Ava, every single choice in this game was incredibly easy for me to make. Gee, the awesome character that I've known for two seasons accidentally killed a scumbag who tried to attack me. Should I side with her or not? Or how about when a guy is threatening both said awesome character and my nephew at gun point. Should I agree with him and betray my friends or just shoot him so Clem still likes me? There's a reason why some choices were chosen by +90% of players.
Bad animations/glitches: The beard guy you fight in EP4 does not have any facials expressions. The same can be said about the one lady that points a gun at you in EP5 after she lost her family. Where are the emotions? Also there are tons of obviously reused character models that they didn't even bother trying to hide it. This really distracted me from enjoying the overall game.
Clem's EP1 flashbacks: This has been talked about to death so I won't really talk about it, but man were these just terrible.
Choices matter less than ever: Choose to hit the road in EP1, you still get caught by Max in the trailer. Choose to surrender to save Francine and she still dies. Choose to not join the NF as Clem and she'll still join. Choose to reject Kate and be bros with David and the latter will STILL fight against you because the plot demands it. Remember back in S1 when you could either fight Kenny or talk to him so that he stops the train? I'm not saying S1 is the greatest masterpiece ever, but it feels like choices don't mean anything nowadays in TT games. The only sort of exception to this is the choices that decide who Clem follows in EP5.
Really dumb moments: Specifically Gabe's Conrad outburst and David fighting with you if you rejected Kate. Both of these scenes were just terribly forced. Also there are some other minor silly moments like Javi being able to shoot Joan without anyone being able to kill him, as well as Badger shooting Francine but letting Javi run off.
Bad writing: Sort of already stated but the writing in this game was really bad. When choosing who to follow in EP5, Clem flat out says "you're going to have to choose who you care about the most" and even "just follow your heart" which no normal person would say in that scenario. Sometimes when Gabe dies, Clem will say "[something something]... until I met you" which sounds like something out of fanfiction.
Misleading dialogue options: [Tell him off] = "YOUR WIFE IS LEAVING YOU!" Help me find her! = "Shut up, for once, and help me find her!" There was another one in EP4 where you say something about your wound and then Javi just randomly insults Gabe for how he handled the bearded guy.
Forced story/dialogue options: When David is saying he won't let what happened to Mari happen to Gabe, the options you can say are: "her death is on you!" "you should've come back" and "we raised her, asshole." Why can't you say "we'll all protect each other"? EP5 in particular forced you to be anti-David even if you didn't want to (such as when you can't side with him in the apartment scene). S2 sort of had this with Arvo (specifically when Kenny grabs Arvo during the gunfight) but it's much worse in ANF.
Tons of plotholes/dumb character moments/unexplained storylines: Max, Lonnie, and Joan/Clint are never heard or mentioned from again when they're last seen. Jesus thanked me for helping Richmond even when I went to save Gabe and just opened a gate (not to mentioned that I shot Joan which started the walker infestation in the first place). After Javi indirectly destroys Prescott and is involved with a fishy murder, Tripp quickly takes orders from him and even says "you're the boss." Joan is probably the blandest villain in any TT game. Also Ava's EP5 death is so hilariously terrible since David just forgets about it in 20 seconds.
So much removed content: I've been looking at some beta content (such as the slaughterhouse and proper closure on Joan/Clint) and can say that the game probably would have been much better if these were implemented.
In short, this season was fairly medicore at the start but episode 5 ruined any chances of this season becoming decent. I hope TT does not make the same mistakes they did with this game because after ANF, I'm not sure if I want to even bother continuing Clem's story.
* The lies: I guess this isn't directly on ANF, but the people advertising it. They said it would be their biggest season yet...wrong. They … moresaid Clementine would be a co-playable character...while not a complete lie, it's also not true. They said no character would take a back seat...wrong. They said Ties That Bind was too big for one episode...wrong, it comes out to about 2 and 1/2 hours, which was the length of an average S1 episode. Our endings would play a big role on ANF...again, half true. There are some changes to Clem's physical appearance and actions, but largely, she's the same, and the way they resolved the endings is one of the worst things I have ever seen in a Telltale game. The original description of this game said Clem was on a journey for revenge...wrong, she was never out for revenge once throughout the game, in fact, her main arc was just trying to get AJ back, not outright revenge. God knows what else I'm forgetting.
* A… [view original content]
I thought A New Frontier was mostly fine. Except for two things.
Clementine's personality. At least, to a degree. Like when she was mad and accidentally killed the guy who sold her the bullets. She was all blindly angry and wanted to lie afterwards. I thought this went against everything Lee taught her and how mature she already was in Season 1 and 2.
Also, her attraction/relationship to Gabe seemed forced and unnatural. I have nothing against Clem having a relationship, but it has to be written better next time.
Comments
pretty much everything tbh
In short, this season was fairly medicore at the start but episode 5 ruined any chances of this season becoming decent. I hope TT does not make the same mistakes they did with this game because after ANF, I'm not sure if I want to even bother continuing Clem's story.
I thought A New Frontier was mostly fine. Except for two things.
Clementine's personality. At least, to a degree. Like when she was mad and accidentally killed the guy who sold her the bullets. She was all blindly angry and wanted to lie afterwards. I thought this went against everything Lee taught her and how mature she already was in Season 1 and 2.
Also, her attraction/relationship to Gabe seemed forced and unnatural. I have nothing against Clem having a relationship, but it has to be written better next time.
I would also like to mention: