Mark Twain once said, "History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes." That could be the theme of the fourth and final season of Telltale's Walking Dead series. The callbacks to previous seasons, especially the parallels between this season and the first one, are too numerous to count. They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but much like the relationship between The Force Awakens and A New Hope, that flattery doesn't always stick the landing.

The Final Season is spread across four episodes. Those episodes are of varied quality, but most are generally quite good. The overarching theme is Clementine's efforts to mould AJ into the survivor he needs to be. As a parent, I can relate to that challenge, even if I'm not actively preparing my children to survive a zombie apocalypse...yet. This mirrors the first season, where Lee is tasked with doing the same thing for Clem. The dynamic between Clem and AJ is probably the most engaging part of the game as it is the best-written part and provides for the bulk of the meaningful choices that this series is known for.

Clem and AJ start their journey alone but quickly end up joining a band of rag-tag children occupying the boarding school they once attended. These children make up the bulk of the supporting cast and offer some variety, even though they aren't nearly as interesting or well-written as Clem and AJ. The cast is rounded out by the villains, a group of raiders from a neighbouring community with their sights set on the school's occupants. The big bad, too, is another callback, and their place in the narrative does make some sense.

Visually, the game is an iterative improvement over the previous seasons. Some care and attention have been placed on the graphical fidelity and trying to match the game's art style more closely with the comics. However, Telltale's famous janky animations have not been improved, for better or worse.

Sound is nothing to write home about, but it does what it should. Most of the characters are well-acted and believable, but the sound effects aren't anything special. There's been no dramatic improvements in impact since the first season. The music is quite good, with a few decent pieces used to add emotional weight to scenes.

The most significant changes have occurred in gameplay. The play style is now less point-and-click and more over-the-shoulder—more Gears of War than Monkey Island, if you will. This makes the action more frenetic, but it can be a little jarring going from the other seasons to this one. Once I was used to it, I found it made the game feel more modern. I liked that, but it may not be to everyone's taste.

Finally, I need to talk about the ending. I'll avoid spoilers as much as possible. As I said in my final episode review, the ending didn't land with me. I get why they chose that ending, and I'm not unhappy with it, but I don't think they earned it. The game sets up a real gut-punch ending as another callback to the first season and then does a complete 180, and yeah, nope, it all goes away. This creates a massive plot hole that goes completely unexplained. And then yadda yadda, here's the ending we want you to have. It just feels like the ending didn't earn the payoff, and by not closing that plot hole, they missed out on what could have been some compelling gameplay. It might have been enough for a fifth episode and would have provided a more satisfying ending.

Telltale was having issues at the time, so perhaps I'm being too critical. And almost nobody closes out a well-loved series in a way that feels satisfying to everyone. But I see a missed opportunity, and I can't help but feel a bit disappointed. It's a great game, but it could have been even better.

The final episode of the final season is another well-written episode with some good tense and exciting moments, some poignant character development, and a feeling of weightiness (whether real or imagined) to the choices you made throughout the season. It also serves as a conclusion to both the season and the series as a whole. That conclusion left me with mixed feelings. In the final act of this episode, they set you up for a gut-punch ending but don't have the stomach to follow through on it. This creates a plot hole large enough for a herd of walkers to pass through, but on some level, I get why they chose to end the series that way. It just feels like the ending didn't earn its payoff, and by not closing that plot hole, they missed out on what could have been some compelling gameplay. It might have been enough for a fifth episode and would have provided a more satisfying ending. TellTale was having issues then, so perhaps I'm being too critical. And almost nobody closes out a well-loved series in a way that feels satisfying to everyone. I see a missed opportunity, and I can't help but feel a bit disappointed. It's good for what it is, but it could have been better.

The second episode of the final season is a bumpy ride. On one hand, it feels much more developed than the first episode, with more twists and turns, reveals, and overall plot development. On the other hand, it sometimes feels rough, as if it could have used one more edit in the writing room. The big plot points are interesting, and some are quite exciting, but the narrative that holds those plot points together doesn't stand up quite as well. It's better than the first episode of this season but isn't as good as some of the standout episodes from previous seasons.

The second episode of the final season is a bumpy ride. On one hand, it feels much more developed than the first episode, with more twists and turns, reveals, and overall plot development. On the other hand, it sometimes feels rough, as if it could have used one more edit in the writing room. The big plot points are interesting, and some are quite exciting, but the narrative that holds those plot points together doesn't stand up quite as well. It's better than the first episode of this season but isn't as good as some of the standout episodes from previous seasons.