videogamescritic
← all games
no image

The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series - The Final Season Episode 3: Broken Toys

Skybound Games · released Jan 15, 2019

Point-and-ClickPCPlayStation 4Xbox OneNintendo Switch

After years on the road facing threats both living and dead, a secluded school might finally be Clementine and AJ’s chance for a home. But protecting it will mean sacrifice. In this gripping, emotional final season, your choices define your relationships, shape your world, and determine how Clementine’s story ends.

76
VGC Score
·No trend datalow confidence
74%
Press
84%
Player sentiment
59
Ratings

How this score was computed

The VGC Score is a weighted blend on a press-comparable 0-100 quality scale. Steam approval rates are first calibrated (95% positive on Steam ≈ 89.5 quality, since Steam approval skews high). Press and tracked creator reviews each count ~2x a player review and share one cap against player evidence (creator buy/skip calls pool into an approval rate, calibrated like Steam approval); all-time sentiment is capped and halved (it's context, not verdict); reviews of the current build carry the most weight when a fresh patch anchors the window; and a 'typical game' prior keeps small samples from pegging the scale. Because press reviews and Metacritic user aggregates describe the launch build, their weight decays as the game ages (3-year half-life after a 1-year grace). That's how a game that launched rough can outgrow its old reception once updates win players over. Reviews under 2h playtime (the refund window), non-Steam activations, and free copies are downweighted.

ComponentPositiveQuality (0-100)Weight (pseudo-reviews)
Press reviews (Metacritic)7420
All-time Steam reviews0
Metacritic user ratings8430
Post-patch Steam reviews (trust-weighted)0
Calibration prior (typical game)7250

Scoring window: last 30 days (no significant patch detected) · 0 reviews sampled · 0 total reviews in window · weighted 0 up / 0 down · computed 5h ago · full methodology →

Press & Creators reviews (19)

Individual verdicts from outlets we track: scored reviews first, most trusted outlets first among them. The small badge is each outlet's trust score: how well its scoring history aligns with players.

  • 80
    trust 69Jan 15, 2019

    Featuring a sweeping narrative experience and barring a few caveats, the penultimate episode Broken Toys might be the best yet for The Walking Dead: The Final Season.

    read full review ↗
  • 75
    trust 63Jan 14, 2019

    The Walking Dead: The Final Season episode 3 carries over Telltale Games’ swan song well with a deeply emotional, complex story of grief and redemption. Despite an overreliance on callbacks and technical issues, Skybound Games brought the series back to focus after certain doom, setting up a compelling and gripping finale.

    read full review ↗
  • 80
    trust 61Jan 15, 2019

    Episode 3: Broken Toys continues to improve and is paving the way for one hell of a finale. In spite of its annoying technical issues, players should look past that and see the fantastic piece of work that’s been put together there. Broken Toys isn’t perfect, but its dialogue is superb, its pacing is fluid and its gameplay is fun and engaging.

    read full review ↗
  • 75
    trust 61Jan 21, 2019

    Broken toys is to remember especially for two beautiful central sections and for the tumultuous ending, but in the end it remains the "same" Walking Dead episode as ever.

    read full review ↗
  • 76
    trust 60Jan 31, 2019

    Episode 3 has left me wondering what's going to happen, but passively so. I couldn't imagine feeling this way when I began the season, but obvious setbacks for the team have likely hindered inspiration and execution. I want to laud their efforts and sing their praises, especially considering everything that has happened, but the facts are that Episode 3 has only given the series buoyancy, which is hard to accept at this point in the season. While it is a positive experience, I can't help but feel lukewarm about poor Clementine's fate in this harsh world.

    read full review ↗
  • 85
    trust 59Jan 14, 2019

    The Walking Dead was worth saving. The usual Telltale caveats about polish and quick time action scenes apply, but this is exciting, powerhouse storytelling, packed with fantastic character work and edge-of-your-seat cinematic moments. The Walking Dead: The Final Season Episode 3 lines up the sights for a bloody good finale, let’s hope Skybound nails the headshot.

    read full review ↗
  • 60
    trust 58Jan 14, 2019

    I remain invested in The Walking Dead as it nears its conclusion, now just two months away. Though the move to Skybound hasn't improved the technical reliability of the Telltale Games experience, the artists, writers, and voice actors continue to present a story that remains suspenseful, delivering some great individual moments, even if it sometimes pads the run-time to reach them. Beyond that, it's just nice to see you again, Clem.

    read full review ↗
  • 80
    trust 58Jan 29, 2019

    The climax is one of the better actions scenes that The Walking Dead has put forward, and it delivers for the most part. I was a bit upset at the end, as there is at least one senseless death that seemed thrown in just to remind you that any choice you make has consequences, but there were also some really great moments, including one that calls back to Lily’s father Larry, and his incredible death during the first season. For the first time that I can recall as well, you are given the option to knock out the Raiders instead of simply ending their life, and I wonder how that will play into the overall narrative as this train comes to the end of its track.

    read full review ↗
  • 85
    trust 58Jan 23, 2019

    Outside of those small technical issues, the third episode of The Walking Dead: The Final Season still manages to reaches many of the highpoints of the series’ earlier seasons with a great blend of tense action and poignant character moments. While some might have expected a bit of a snag with the behind-the-scenes troubles that occurred midway through its season, The Walking Dead hasn’t lost a beat in the second half of its final season, and in just a few months from now we’ll finally get to see the conclusion of Clementine’s story. Based on how “Broken Toys” plays out, I’m looking forward to the end of Clem’s tale as much as I am anticipating it to be a heartbreaking finale.

    read full review ↗
  • 90
    trust 54Feb 13, 2019

    ‘Broken Toys’ does a great job of setting up what will hopefully be a thoroughly gripping finale. There are plenty of callbacks that diehard fans of the series will relish, but the emotional beats keep everything grounded. Minor visual quirks can sometimes take you out of the experience, but they’re not enough to derail your overall enjoyment of the episode.

    read full review ↗
  • 70
    trust 53Jan 14, 2019

    The mere fact that The Walking Dead: The Final Season, Episode 3 'Broken Toys' exists is cause for celebration.

    read full review ↗
  • 73
    trust 53Jan 22, 2019

    The more the soul shatters, the more difficult it will be to put the pieces together again.

    read full review ↗

…and 7 more tracked reviews.