The Walking Dead Games in Order: The Correct Way to Play
The year 2012 brought us unbelievable video games like Borderlands 2, Far Cry 3, Dishonored, Mass Effect 3, Persona 4, and more. Amongst these amazing titles that set the foundations for future video games that we know and love today, The Walking Dead stood out from the rest. This interactive, adventure game which seems more like a graphic novel, showed us how adaptations needed to be done, the unbelievable story of the characters, strong narratives, and player choices that impact the game severely.
We will present you with The Walking Dead Games in order, all details about each season, and maybe mention the impact of the situation around the Telltale Games at that time, and if those events influenced the content and release of the game. Moreover, we will mention some other non-canonical games under The Walking Dead game, and research the similarities between the notable The Walking Dead TV series and the game itself. There is plenty to talk about, so let’s start! What is the correct order of playing the Walking Dead games?
The Walking Dead Games in Order to Play
- The Walking Dead: Season 1 (2012)
- 400 Days DLC (2013)
- The Walking Dead: Season 2 (2013-2014)
- The Walking Dead: Michonne mini-series (2016)
- The Walking Dead: A New Frontier (2016-2017)
- The Walking Dead: The Final Season (2018-2019)
As you can see from the list, each game presents the season of The Walking Dead which is similar to TV show formats. Each season, besides DLCs, Final Season, and Michonne, has five episodes that were released monthly. This was quite an innovation when it came out because players controlled the protagonists and with point-and-click gameplay and each scene where they could choose the paths of their characters, The Walking Dead games seemed like a TV show whose outcome was determined by players’ in-game choices.
Because the gameplay is similar to the TV show format, The Walking Dead is full of dialogues and already mentioned point-and-click gameplay, where a player can explore different areas, and find items that are mostly important for future situations. Dialogues and exploring are probably the most important parts of The Walking Dead, and the player’s interactions with other non-playable characters in the game will open up so many options and conversation trees that lead to different outcomes.
The Walking Dead is a game adapted from the comics of the same name, and mostly features the same characters from the series, however, the main character in the Walking Dead, Clementine, is an original character that first appeared in The Walking Dead Season 1 of Telltale Games. The same goes for Lee Everett, however, these characters are set in the same universe and The Walking Dead comic book series. Glenn, who we meet in the comics and TV show, has a cameo in the game, interacts with the players, and later on, presumably, rescues Rick Grimes from the walkers – the scene we saw in the first episode of The Walking Dead show.
All in all, some characters are directly from the comics and the show, and others are original characters, but they are all in the same Walking Dead universe, which includes games, TV shows, and comics.
The Walking Dead Games in Order to Play (Fully Explained)
1. The Walking Dead: Season 1 (2012)
The first season of Telltale’s The Walking Dead game has five episodes, which were released periodically until the ending. The episodes include:
- “A New Day”
- “Starved for Help”
- “Long Road Ahead”
- “Around Every Corner”
- “No Time Left”
The first episode starts as a prologue where players learn the controls and the premise of the game. In the first scene, players meet Lee Everett, a history teacher, who is being taken to prison when the police car hits a walker and crashes off the road. Lee finds himself attacked by the walkers, and the story of the Walking Dead starts there. The episode also introduces us to a little girl called Clementine, who found herself alone in her family home, after her parents went on the trip to Savannah. Lee saves her life, takes her with him, vows to take her to her parents, and later meets Hershel Greene, an owner of a farm, who already provided shelter to Kenny and his family, Katja and Duck.
A lot of bad things happen, and the team realizes that the situation is getting worse day by day.
The second episode starts three months after the outbreak (the first episode), and the situation is getting worse. Resources like food and electricity are no more and tensions between the group members are growing fast. Larry and Lilly are paranoid and the lack of resources does not help at all. Another person joins the group, a teen named Ben, who is rescued by Kenny and Lee after being attacked by walkers. After a few disputes, the motel crew is greeted by brothers Andrew and Danny St. John who are wandering around looking for the gas.
The dairy farm incident happens and leaves huge consequences for the team. Lee and his crew learn a valuable lesson of trusting other survivors.
The third episode sees the group dealing with the aftermath of the events that occurred on the farm and struggles on how to survive with the resources being scarcer. Kenny and Lee decide to visit the drugstore in Macon once again and scavenge for more supplies. On the journey to the drugstore, Kenny and Lee stumble upon hard decisions and everything goes awry in the motor inn. Bandits attack the Inn, the truth about someone stealing resources resurfaces and the crew hits the road to save themselves.
Tensions reach their high and some characters are left behind. Kenny loses the ones he loves the most, and after that the crew needs to find a way to get to Savannah. Christa and Omid join the team and Christa’s delicate situation of her being pregnant will be important in future games. Group continues their journey to Savannah.
The fourth episode introduces new characters that the protagonists meet in the Savannah, and Kenny’s original idea of getting a boat to get away from the ruined land of Georgia is the main mission of the team. Since the third episode, Clementine is talking to the mysterious person on her walkie-talkie and that worries Lee greatly.
Another walker attack forces the crew to hide in the local mansion, and Lee with Kenny find out some shocking truths and realities of the outbreak that left people dead. The Team decides to go to Crawford, a shelter with many supplies. They find out more shocking details about that place, more people die A mysterious man shows his face, more people lose their lives and Lee suffers fatal consequences. Clementine is kidnapped.
The fifth episode brings all the drama, and boy does it bring it well. Lee finds a man who kidnapped Clementine and saves her and the remaining surviving members of the team struggle to go through the new wave of walkers that came to Savannah. Everything the player chose in the previous episodes is paying off in this one, and one of the saddest and most emotional endings in gaming history happens at the end of The Walking Dead Season 1.
All choices the player picked are displayed in the post-credit scene and compared to all other players. The Walking Dead Season 1 introduced us to amazing game mechanics, characters, style, and an open ending that left us waiting for more Walking Dead stories.
2. 400 Days DLC (2013)
In 2013, a DLC was released after season 1 of The Walking Dead and it focuses on five different protagonists: Vince, Wyatt, Russell, Bonnie, and Shel. We want to talk about it thoroughly like the show’s seasons but we will mention that the choices you made with Lee Everett in the Season 1 of The Walking Dead game are closely connected with the choices you make in the 400 Days DLC. This special episode is essentially a prologue of what can we expect in the Season 2 of The Walking Dead.
It is also important to mention that each character has the timeline a timeline of when their stories happen – “Vince’s Story” starts on the 2nd day of the outbreak, and “Wyatt’s Story” starts on the 41st day of the outbreak. “Russell’s Story” is set on the 184th day of the outbreak, Bonnie’s on the 220th day, and “Shel’s Story” is set on two different days – the 236th and 259th day. Each character’s story is connected in the epilogue of 400 Days, where survivors, regardless of how the player chooses their paths, meet and set a campsite where Tavia, a member of the settlement that will be one of the main locations in the Season 2 of The Walking Dead, will try to recruit some of them.
Your choices will determine if all of the surviving members of the campsite will join the settlement in Season 2. This DLC’s timeline is set during and after The Walking Dead Season 1.
3. The Walking Dead: Season 2 (2013-2014)
Season 2 of The Walking Dead has five episodes as well and is probably the most exciting and best game of the series. The episodes include:
- “All That Remains”
- “A House Divided”
- “In Harm’s Way”
- “Amid The Ruins”
- “No Going Back”
This time, the player character is Clementine, who’ve we met in the first season. She lost everyone she knows, including Lee, and tries to survive through the awful walker outbreak that took over the whole world. The first episode starts with heavily pregnant Christa, Omid, and Clementine stopping for refreshments at Gil’s Pitstop when a strange girl Michelle tries to rob Clementine. Omid tries to stop her, but the girl shoots him and kills him. Christa goes in and without hesitation kills the girl.
Cue to sixteen months later, no longer pregnant Christa and Clementine wander through the woods. Visibly solemn Christa talks about a shelter called Wellington they need to reach for safety. Bandits attack them and Clementine gets separated from Christa. This is the last time we ever see Christa in The Walking Dead game, not knowing what happened to her.
After a series of events that get her injured Clementine is found by Luke and Pete, who are part of the community with other people – Carlos, Sarah, Nick, Rebecca, and Alvin. They put her in the shed not being sure if she was bitten by the walker or not, and Clementine takes it upon herself to treat her wound.
The second episode of The Walking Dead sees the first of the survivors dying, Clementine meeting the man named William Carver, who will try to interrogate her about the group that resides in the cabin. After that encounter, the group along with Clementine set out on the journey towards the north, during which they stumble upon many problems.
The crew spots a large lodge across the bridge and Nick, fueled by his fear, kills an innocent man, Matthew. Eventually, after looting and scavenging for the resources, the crew finally reaches the lodge, and a huge character from the first series, Kenny is among the crew. He and Clementine have a heartwarming reunion and Kenny lets the crew settle with the others.
Few shocking truths come into play and determine the rest of the episode. We see some characters from the “400 Days” DLC, namely Bonnie who in the end proves to be a decoy for Carver to find and bring his team back to his establishment, Howe’s Hardware store.
The third episode sees the crew back to the Howe’s Hardware, now Carver’s settlement, where he ruthlessly leads. Players firsthand can see Carver’s awful, inhuman tyranny and his superiority complex that he uses as an excuse to torture other people. Clementine and the crew are working nonstop, by Carver’s words, to survive the post-apocalypse world that was bestowed on their world.
Clementine, Kenny, and Sarita meet other survivors and inhabitants of the settlement – Mike, Reggie, Tavia (from 400 Days), and Jane, who seems distant and strange at first. Carver claims that he will not tolerate weaklings and Sarah shows first signs of crumbling. Another character falls by Carver’s hands and he is unhinged. The prisoners start planning the escape from the compound.
The fourth episode is full of action once again and picks up immediately after the events of the last episode. As we already gathered, this episode brings full-on grief as well. Clementine learns a lot about herself and Jane teaches her a lot of skills that will be critical in the future. Group scatters, gets together, and ultimately one by one disperses, with only a handful staying alive.
Another group scrambling to survive confronts Clementine and the others, and even though one by one everyone is dying, one new life comes to the apocalyptic world.
The fifth episode is the last one of The Walking Dead season 2, and it broke our hearts. The weather, people, walkers… everything is against Clementine, and her allies. The quote “keep your friends close but your enemies closer” comes into full effect, and Clementine’s mental strength is tested massively in this episode.
Alvin Jr. is the only thing keeping the group together, and after a few unfortunate encounters, some survivors go their own way, while some succumb to the unbearable winter. Clementine needs to make one of the hardest choices of her life, besides deciding on Lee’s faith in the first season, now with the small, innocent life in her hands.
Season 2 has one of the most stressful and emotional endings in gaming history since it tests the player’s morality and the idea of living in a post-apocalyptic world. A player must choose the ending that seems the most suitable to Clementine’s story, which will determine her state in the next seasons of The Walking Dead.
Personally, Season 2 has the strongest story and characters in the whole series – a rare sequel that actually surpassed its predecessor.
4. The Walking Dead: Michonne Mini-Series (2016)
- “In Too Deep”
- “Give No Shelter”
- What We Deserve”
This standalone mini-series follows Michonne and her journey between issues #126 and #139 of The Walking Dead comic book. That time marks Michonne being away from Rick Grimes and Ezekiel and her becoming part of Pete’s crew. During that period, Michonne is in a really tough state, which prompts her to kill herself but is stopped by Pete, another survivor, at the last second.
The crew is captured by the group that is stationed in the Monroe compound, and Michonne with the help of the allies, escapes, manages to confront Monroe’s leaders Norma and Randall, and manages to attract a massive amount of walkers.
There is not that much to say for the mini-series because, even though Michonne is also part of The Walking Dead game universe, it is not connected to the main Walking Dead game’s story. Michonne does not have anything to do with Clementine’s journey, but it is cool to see legendary Walking Dead characters adapted to the game. The Walking Dead comic books and TV show fans would be pleased to play this special mini-series, and if you are interested, definitely play it between Season 2 and the incoming Season 3 of the Walking Dead game.
5. The Walking Dead: A New Frontier (2016-2017)
- “Ties That Bind – Part 1”
- “Ties That Bind – Part 2”
- “Above the Law”
- “Thicker Than Water”
- “From the Gallows”
The Walking Dead Season 3 was a highly expected game when it was announced to be released in 2016. Fans could not wait for what happened to Clementine after the shocking and emotional ending of season 2. However, the Telltale Games decided to tell the story from a different point of view, and the Garcia family, more notably Javier, became the protagonist of the third season of The Walking Dead Game.
This was a huge surprise and fans were not really happy about this development – even though we got Clementine in this season, she was “degraded” to the supporting role. Another criticism was shorter episodes and treatment of the season two endings. Regardless, New Frontier is still a good season and Javier and his family are good protagonists of their story. Clementine, as usual, is a really cool character that we saw in earlier seasons, despite some accusations that she is a bit out of character at times.
The first episode introduces us to Javier Garcia, an ex-baseball pro player who argues with his brother David who is angry at him for not being home during their father’s passing. Garcia family lives in Baltimore, and we see firsthand their dynamic. We have Javi’s parents, his brother David, a very strict man who has two children, Gabe and Mariana from his first marriage, and David’s new wife Kate, who is under a lot of pressure as a stepmother and a new wife.
After Javi arrives, his deceased father reanimates and attacks them, which marks the beginning point of the outbreak. All in all, things happen – the family gets in the car and tries to go out of Baltimore, and David, Javi, and their family split up in the chaos. Then, the game shows us Javi, Kate, Mariana, and Gabe traveling four years later in the car, trying to survive the post-apocalyptic reality.
The second episode is full of action – Javi, Clementine, and his family are in big trouble after New Frontier, a notorious group that took over the well-known settlement Richmond attacks Prescott and releases a herd of walkers on the whole town.
The team including Tripp and Conrad meets Paul “Jesus” Monroe and tells them that the community of Richmond is under New Frontier’s tyrannic rule. Kate is fighting for her life, Clementine makes a decision and Javi does everything in his power to save his friend and lover. The end of the episode presents us with a huge revelation.
The third episode sees Garcia’s family waiting for their faith after accessing New Richmond, David welcomes his family with open hands but Garcias immediately see the true nature of the settlement. Kate is secured and treated for her wounds and David acts like everything is the same as it was four years ago.
All in all, Kate still questions David’s morality, Clementine demands answers and finds out there is still hope, Javi needs to decide between his family members, and most importantly, the truth about Richmond’s leadership is out in the open.
The fourth episode of The Walking Dead sees the Garcia brothers, David and Javi imprisoned by New Frontier. They manage to get out, and the game shows a few Clementine flashbacks, where we learn more about her. The group tries to escape the compound but needs to do everything in its power to manage that.
Finally, the fifth episode is what we were waiting for and in true Walking Dead passion, it is a nail-baiter. David shows that he is still unstable, Kate’s and Gabe’s fate is decided to depend on the player’s in-game choices, and Clementine acts depending on choices at the end of Season 2. Regardless, of the ending, Clementine decides to depart from Richmond in search of AJ, and thanks Javi for everything. He thanks her as well, and you can choose to invite her back to Richmond after she finds AJ.
In the end, the game tells us that Clementine’s story will continue which hints at the new season. Personally, the final episode seemed quite short which confirms the criticism that the game received. However, this season was good, and we saw teenage Clementine in action, which was really cool. All in all, Season 3 could’ve been better, but we won’t nitpick.
6. The Walking Dead: The Final Season (2018-2019)
The final season of The Walking Dead came in 2018, and brought us four episodes this time:
- “Done Running”
- “Suffer the Children”
- “Broken Toys”
- “Take Us Back”
As you can see from the title, this is the last Telltale Games Walking Dead game, and unfortunately, the development of the game went through a lot of struggles. Before the Final Season was released, Telltale Games announced that this will the last game created and released by them – one of the funders withdrew funds from the company which forced them to fire their game developers.
Because of that, The Walking Dead game was not expected to be released, but game developers and old Telltale leaders made sure The Walking Dead gets a new and last season which will mark the end of Clementine’s journey. In the end, the game was released and the absence of the fifth episode was justified and fans did not mind.
Indeed, the fans loved the season and even critics praised the series for getting back to its roots. Even though there are fewer episodes than in previous seasons, Telltale prolonged the duration of each episode which matches the first two seasons.
The first episode sees teenage Clementine traveling with AJ – she found him after the events of the last episode of the previous season, and now are trying to survive together. After a few accidents, the two of them are found by the children and teenagers that reside in Ericson’s Boarding School, which was converted to a community for survivors. This episode is essentially setting everything up for the rest of the season – a player meets other kids of the Ericson community and some old wounds are reopened.
The second episode gets started with action and Clementine and AJ get exiled from the community after the events that occurred in the previous episode. Another rogue community wants to recruit children to fight their war, and Clementine meets a ghost of the past. A young man named James helps AJ and Clementine to come back to the Ericson community to treat AJ’s wounds and spend the rest of the episode earning the school’s trust back. Of course, a lot of things occur, and blasts from the past are shown to be an antagonist of this season. There is a possibility for players to explore Clementine’s feelings and emotional state, which shows us that she is, despite the world making children grow much faster, still a teenager.
The third episode shows Clementine and her group recovering from the team Delta attack and thinking of ways to rescue their three friends. Most of the episode is spent scouting and finding a way to reach The Delta hideout. Clementine once again asks for help from James who needs to help them lure the walkers toward The Delta compound.
However, The Walking Dead game once again provides us with drama, and a group from Ericson boarding school meets an old member that they thought they will never see again. Clementine needs to make a huge decision at the end of the episode.
Finally, the last episode of The Walking Dead series, is heartwrenching and fans of the game finally got to the point of seeing out Clementine’s story. The episode picks up right after the huge explosion and Clementine’s journey and all the choices the players have chosen until this moment in The Walking Dead series, reaches its peak.
AJ has a huge role in this episode and Clementine’s, or rather players’ trust towards him, gets paid off. Huge decisions have to be made, and our main heroine of the series Clementine gets a suitable ending.
All in all, The Final Season of The Walking Dead left us satisfied and, in the end, it was worth it.
How Many The Walking Dead Games Are There?
Of course, besides Telltale Walking Dead Games, there are other games set in The Walking Dead Universe. Games like:
- The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct (2013)
- The Walking Dead: Assault (2012)
- The Walking Dead: Road to Survival (2015)
- Overkill’s The Walking Dead (2019)
- The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners (2020)
- The Walking Dead: Onslaught (2020)
Most of these games adapted storylines from the notable AMC The Walking Dead TV show that puts all these characters in the same universe as Telltale’s Walking Dead. Moreover, the Road to Survival from 2015 even took the characters from Telltale’s Walking Dead and featured them in its gameplay.
However, The Walking Dead that we discussed in this article is adapted from original comics, and some characters, like Clementine, are added to the universe to enrich the original source material even more. The games on this list are mostly developed for mobile phones, and the last three ones on the list are developed for Microsoft computers and consoles like PlayStation.
You can definitely check them out if you want to experience surviving the apocalypse of The Walking Dead, but remember, some of them are mostly online survival games that you can play with your friends, which makes them quite cool, however, not very story-driven.
All in all, if we include non-Telltale Games, there are twelve official Walking Dead games released to this day. However, if you want to fully experience The Walking Dead world that depicts comics really well, we recommend Telltale’s version because their story brought us one of the best storytelling in gaming history.
Clementine’s story is truly remarkable and if you want to experience it to the fullest, check out our order above, and hopefully, you will feel the magic of The Walking Dead world.
