Fans of narrative-heavy episodic games mournfully poured one out when Telltale Games collapsed in 2018. Since 2004, the studio had slowly built a reputation for reviving beloved franchises, bringing Sam & Max and Monkey Island back to players, as well as long-dormant movie franchises like Back to the Future and Jurassic Park.
But things really went stratospheric with The Walking Dead, which nailed the comics’ tone and delivered an extraordinarily emotional and memorable trek through a zombie-infested USA. It snowballed into a huge hit, and Telltale promptly began hoovering up licenses to tell more stories in that mold. But in its rush to recreate The Walking Dead’s success it overreached, spread its employees too thinly over too many games, and eventually imploded.
Now it’s back! Kinda. In 2019, LCG Entertainment relaunched Telltale Games and now we’re on the cusp of Telltale’s first original game in four years: The Expanse: A Telltale Series, a prequel to Syfy and Amazon’s critically acclaimed sci-fi drama.
The first episode will land on July 27, with four more dropping at two-week intervals. So, what better time than to look back on the company’s long back catalog and pick out its ten best games?
10. Back to the Future: The Game (2010-2011)
Back to the Future: The Game landed a year prior to The Walking Dead and is a more puzzle-focused traditional adventure game than anything else on this list. But while it might be a bit clunky and graphically dated it remains a very fun game and, given that Back to the Future stories are scarce, it’s a rare opportunity for fans to take a trip in the Delorean with Marty McFly and Doc Brown.
Back to the Future also boasts a very strong voice cast. Christopher Lloyd reprises Emmett Brown, and though Michael J. Fox couldn’t voice Marty, he at least shows up in the fifth episode to briefly voice Grandfather McFly and some other futuristic Martys. We have a soft spot for it and almost wish Telltale hadn’t completely abandoned this template after The Walking Dead hit big.
9. Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series (2017)
Generally considered a rushed game that suffered from developer fatigue, I think Guardians of the Galaxy is a little underrated. The game takes roughly equal inspiration from Marvel comics and James Gunn’s 2014 movie, delivering a knockabout adventure with a fine voice cast (Nolan North’s Rocket is a particular highlight) and some killer needle drops.
That said, the behind-the-scenes situation at Telltale was clearly taking its toll. The series feels like it was made on a limited budget, has frequent minor glitches, iffy sound engineering, and the characters aren’t quite as interesting as their MCU counterparts. That said, it’s far from a bad game and made us laugh out loud several times, so we can’t hate it too much.
8. The Walking Dead: Season Two (2013-2014)
Telltale was flush with cash and basking in critical acclaim after The Walking Dead, so understandably got straight back to work on a second season. You now control the young Clementine, who was the major supporting character from the first season. Unfortunately, Season Two is a classic case of difficult second album syndrome.
As far as post-apocalyptic zombie adventures go it’s fine, though pales in comparison with the emotional heights of what came before. One particularly frustrating feature is that no matter which choices you make you’ll often feel quickly railroaded back to the core story beats – for example saving a character in one scene only for them to die anyway a few minutes later. It’s not a bad time, just an underwhelming one.
7. Batman: The Telltale Series (2016)
I’ll always have a soft spot for Telltale’s take on Batman, if only because you can choose to behave in an extremely un-Batman-like manner. The studio’s first attempt at tackling the Dark Knight is a fairly fun ride through Gotham City, though as this is a very well-defined character, your choices generally consist of picking violence or intelligence to solve problems.
It turns out to be much more satisfying to choose violence, especially if you make a point to always choose the most abrasive and threatening thing to say at all times. That course results in a story in which Bruce Wayne seems to be barely trying to hide his secret identity and Batman himself is a dangerous lunatic. It is of course possible to play a more sedate Batman, but c’mon, have some fun with it!
6. The Walking Dead: The New Frontier (2016-2017)
By 2016, the creaky tech powering Telltale’s games was an issue. Considering its titles rely on observing emotional nuance, let’s just say the somewhat marionette-like graphics let the voice cast do the heavy lifting. The New Frontier was intended to change that, updating the tech to bring it broadly in line with what mid-2010s players expected.
On that, it delivers, though the decision to once again make Clementine a supporting character perhaps isn’t ideal. Instead, you play new character Javier Garcia, picking up his story prior to the apocalypse and exploring his relationship with his brother afterward. It’s executed well, though the basic plot of a community thrown into chaos by backstabbing and greed is well-worn territory for zombie fiction and The New Frontier doesn’t add anything new. Still fun enough though.
5. Batman: The Enemy Within (2017-2018)
Telltale’s second stab at Batman continues on from the first game, though adds the Joker to the story. What makes this particular game sing is the very surreal relationship you can foster between these two mortal enemies. It’s essentially an awkward buddy drama, with the Joker and Batman becoming awkward friends before he goes off the deep end.
You can choose to antagonize the Joker and enjoy a more traditional Bat story, though in our playthrough Mr. J liked us so much he ended up becoming a bizarre Batman fanboy Joker hybrid, even as all of Batman’s allies were left scratching their heads as to what he sees in this deranged and emaciated clown. We always love a good Joker story, and The Enemy Within is quite unlike anything else in the Batman mythos.
4. The Walking Dead: The Final Season (2018-2019)
Clementine’s final adventure is almost as notable for the undead drama in the game as the behind-the-scenes chaos that almost saw it crash and burn midway through development. When Telltale shut down, the hammer came down so fast that Clementine’s voice actor Melissa Hutchison said they simply got a notice mid-way through a recording session to stop immediately.
Fortunately, The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkland stepped in to ensure that Clementine’s story had an ending, with his Skybound Entertainment offering former Telltale employees the chance to finish what they started. Many took the offer, dubbing themselves the “Still Not Bitten” team.
After all that, it’s a miracle that The Final Season turned out as well as it did and Clementine’s story does indeed end satisfactorily. Given that this is The Walking Dead, said ending isn’t exactly cheery, but we were left with a tear in our eye as the credits rolled.
3. Tales from the Borderlands (2014-2015)
At first glance Gearbox’s Borderlands franchise is an odd fit for Telltale Games. The core games are almost exclusively focused on collecting an arsenal of bizarre weapons and then using them to decimate legions of enemies. But bubbling away under that has always been a rich seam of comedy, and Tales from the Borderlands not only captures that but improves upon it.
It’s also notable that you don’t need any prior knowledge about Borderlands to enjoy this and it functions perfectly well as an offbeat sci-fi romp with some killer jokes (and some light parodying of the Telltale formula). A successor, New Tales of the Borderlands landed in 2022 from Gearbox, though sadly failed to capture the same magic.
2. The Walking Dead (2012)
Excuse us while we grab a handkerchief, as even thinking about The Walking Dead‘s first season stirs up some serious emotions. Set shortly after the zombie apocalypse begins, you play as Lee Everett, who’s on his way to prison when society collapses. He soon meets the eight-year-old Clementine, with your ultimate task in the game keeping her safe and trying to shield her from the nightmare reality.
It’s a rough ride that doesn’t pull any punches (RIP Duck). The Walking Dead pioneered Telltale’s house style and, at the time, it felt like our choices really did matter and we were telling our own story. In retrospect, you’re just fiddling with the edges of the narrative, though we agonized over who to save and who we’d serve up as walker chow. The graphics are now very dated (and they weren’t great in 2012), but we’d love to see this get a full remaster to bring it up to modern standards.
Lee and Clem. They’ll always have a place in our hearts.
1. The Wolf Among Us (2013-2014)
This is the crown jewel in Telltale’s catalog, a game of such quality that it made the studio’s demise that much more painful. We already knew that Telltale could… well, tell a tale, but The Wolf Among Us also looked and sounded incredible. The game is based on Bill Willingham’s Fables series and is essentially a fairytale film noir, with you controlling Bigby Wolf as he tries to solve a series of mysterious murders.
It’s an awesome tale and Bigby is a fantastic player character: scary and competent but with a heart of gold. We were crushed when Telltale Games’ closure apparently doomed the in-development sequel, though, after a very long gestation, The Wolf Among Us 2 is apparently coming in 2024. We’ll believe it when we see it, but The Wolf Among Us remains the pinnacle of everything Telltale was trying to achieve, and replaying it just makes us miss the studio all the more.
Here’s hoping The Expanse: A Telltale Series nails this vibe. We can’t wait to check it out.