The Walking Dead: Around Every Corner Review

Game Reviews
The Walking Dead: Around Every Corner Review
By Sean Booker
October 29, 2012 - 21:22

Studios: Telltale Games
Rating: M (Mature)
Genre: Adventure
Platform: Xbox 360, PS3, PC
Players: 1

There will be no spoilers for the fourth episode: Around Every Corner in this review.

Living up to the quality of the last three episodes in the series would be a daunting task in itself, but faced with being the penultimate episode probably put more pressure and constraints on episode four (Around Every Corner) than any other part of Telltale's The Walking Dead game. The installment is saddled with having to set up the grand finale and thus, a lot of what you'll find is more of a tease for things to come. And with some awkward padding the episode's truly great moments aren't able to stand as strong as they should be allowed.

Like past episodes, you will find yourself tasked with a number of grueling choices and circumstances to deal with. This is especially evident at the beginning of the episode as you find your way around the newly discovered location. And your interactions with these precarious situations are intentionally dragged on for a wonderfully chilling effect. There are some really good moments when the episode starts out and right at the end, but the middle portion doesn't quite hold up.

One change Around Every Corner has is a heavier focus on action set pieces. This is unfortunate because these moments always seemed lacking in the previous episodes and, personally, lead to the most failures. I will say that the set piece laid out during the episode's climax does work and feel better than the ones previous to it but it's still a shame that you'll end up doing two or three cumbersome ones beforehand.

Along with this there is moment that just seems to drag on a little too long. You're tasked with walking all the way through a building just to pick up something you need to progress despite having already trekked there once. And to top it off this section has an unnecessary jump scare that doesn't help the walk.

The last moments of the episode definitely help redeem its lacking middle section by forcing you to maintain your group. The game sets you up with a series of choices about whether or not you want to keep all your people together. Afterward you're even presented with an infographic detailing which percentage of players ended with which specific members. This was definitely a cool moment and set up a number of questions I look forward to answering in the finale.

Ultimately this episode definitely felt like it was more focused on cutting what it needed and setting threads in motion for the finale than it was on delivering a solid, contained narrative. Which is definitely unfortunate seeing as the previous three entries worked so well with the formula laid out. Despite my issues with Around Every Corner, I'm hoping it took a bit of a dive so that the concluding episode five will be that much better.

Rating: 6/10