The Walking Dead: A New Frontier - Episode 4: Thicker Than Water (PlayStation 4) Review

With the conclusion of episode three, the truth of The New Frontier has come to light. Ignoring the cluster-fudge from the middle of the episode, and extracting out just the pertinent plot points: the seemingly cordially dear, old Joan has actually been secretly leading raids on other outposts, releasing walkers into helpless civilians and taking every last scrap they had gathered up. Trying to bring this to the people of Richmond doesn't go over particularly well either, as it seems Joan has a strong hold on the populous and Team Javi ends up either imprisoned or in hiding, scattered through Richmond.

There's a more coherent and enjoyable narrative making a welcomed return with this episode. Finally, all of the pieces of the story are beginning to come together in preparation for the finale. There are an awful lot of pieces, though, which means ultimately many of the elements get trimmed down and cut short. Clem pops in for the briefest cameo. Evil villain Joan gets little screen time and the extended members of the cast all feel quite unnecessary at points. Did Tripp really need a scene where he talks about his feelings?

The flashbacks of this episode are a mixed bag, too. Clem's feel quite unnecessary, a strange development considering how great they've been thus far. Javi's, meanwhile, gives further insight into his relationship with his brother - some welcomed insight, in fact, glimpsing an older brother threatened by his little brother's talent, success and fame, showing a little brother who was often arrogant and flaky. The characters have been one of the best aspects of this season. Not the supporting cast… Oh, god, no… Those have been a pile of predictable one-dimensional personalities. The main cast, though: Javi and David, Kate and Clem. Even the annoying little bag of angst and hormones that is Gabe. Well developed, well voiced and well written, they add a lot to the quality here.

That quality is needed here on another episode that has abundant technical issues. The freezing and crashing from episode three returns, and they've brought friends! This time there are strange graphical bugs too; zombies glitching out through walls, strange pop-ins of objects as camera angles change, and more.