After two episodes, it’s clear that The Walking Dead: Michonne mini-series has been nothing more than a good episodic series on the whole. However, the question remains, can episode three ‘What We Deserve’ raise the stakes and provide a top notch finale that makes the entire mini-series a worthwhile experience?
Previously, Michonne had escaped from her captors, with the help of occasional thief Sam and went on a relatively short journey to Sam’s family home. It all felt a bit rushed though, especially when the action simmered down; there wasn’t much time for conversation but Telltale Games still managed to tell more of the characters’ stories. Depending on your choices, and what you did to Randall, you may be in for a tricky ride in trying to work your way out of this increasingly volatile situation.
For some reason, this third episode kicks off with a flashback to when Michonne was on the ‘Companion’ boat. I’ll go out on a limb and say it was filler because nothing of worth came from this chapter. From then onwards, it’s all about waiting and preparing for the impending standoff with Norma’s crew. It all flies by pretty rapidly, and disappointingly, until the tense confrontation occurs and this is where the finale comes into its own.
Despite being bereft of fighting until the latter chapters in ‘What We Deserve’, it’s more than worth the wait. Once it kicks off, you’ll be shooting and getting up close and personal with all manner of moving targets – dead and alive. I’d say this is exactly how to choreograph a final battle of the mini-series. There isn’t much creativity in the QTEs once again but in a way that allows the gamer to focus more on what’s going down.
Normally, this is the part where I moan about the ever-present stutters when a button press is incoming, but for once in this collection of episodes, it all went rather smoothly. Kudos to Telltale for ironing it out in the end however, I’m going to predict we’ll still see it again in the future.
Something that truly bugged me throughout the short conversational moments, with basically the whole of Sam’s family, was the totally odd responses and changes in attitudes like these people were mentally unstable – though maybe that’s what they were going for. I just couldn’t understand how a character could show such gratitude towards Michonne before throwing a bitchy gaze her way not seconds later.
Credit where credit is due, I genuinely felt for Michonne when her hallucinations came to an end, when the real reason she feels guilty about her missing kids becomes apparent. I also got freaked out at times with some brilliantly jumpy periods during the episode; it was a real mind boggler. I wish we could’ve learned more about all the supporting characters, but for a mini-series focussed on Michonne, they wrapped up her story arc pretty well.
All in all, putting aside the confrontation itself, ‘What We Deserve’ was a bit of a letdown and once again came with a very short playtime of around an hour. Luckily for Telltale, the action and Michonne’s story wrap up provided enough entertainment at the end of episode three to ensure it wasn’t a failure. At times it felt like there were unnecessary sections, to the point where the developers could’ve just released one feature length episode in order to cover the main narrative. In contrast it probably needed additional episodes if the player was to gain a better understanding of the other characters.
The Walking Dead: Michonne mini-series episode three ‘What We Deserve’ finishes with a much needed bang yet is seriously hindered by all that comes before it. It’s a little over-priced for the whole series but good enough for fans of the TV show and comics to delve into.
