The Walking Dead, inspired by Robert Kirkman’s comic books, premiered its original AMC show in 2010. That show has since concluded after 11 seasons, but spawned a number of spin-offs that have even taken to starring individual key characters, such as The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon. So while these characters and the universe of The Walking Dead are still going strong, GameMill and AMC have found a unique opportunity to harken back to the show’s early nostalgia in its first four seasons with The Walking Dead Destinies.

The Walking Dead Destinies’ ‘What If?’ premise is exciting due to how many permutations of actions and decisions players may be able to see through, especially if fans of the show have any lingering gripes with choices that Rick or anyone else had made. Being able to make new choices and create ripples in the show’s established canon will make for some interesting consequences along the way, including whether Shane stays alive or not in The Walking Dead Destinies. Still, because The Walking Dead Destinies is largely oriented around player choice in this way, it’s a shame that Telltale wasn’t the studio to develop it.

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The Walking Dead Destinies Easily Could’ve Been Telltale’s Story to Tell

GameMill may be perfectly poised to develop The Walking Dead Destinies’ adaptation of the show. However, Telltale made a name for itself predominantly through its extensive series inspired by the IP. Season one of Telltale’s episodic The Walking Dead adventure alone demonstrated resoundingly emotional narrative beats between Lee and Clementine, and Clementine would then lead the series as its most prominent protagonist.

Besides the show itself, it’s arguable that Telltale’s The Walking Dead is the most memorable piece of content to have stemmed from the IP, even if it too had earlier seasons that were more popular or revered than its later ones. Indeed, Telltale games are nestled in the niche of less actual interaction and more player choice in terms of heavy dialogue options that branch into different narrative consequences.

Something players say to someone might affect someone else, and fans are often forced to choose between appeasing one character over another in order to carve out a distinct story path. The fascinating part of playing through all four seasons of Telltale’s The Walking Dead chronologically is that players’ save files can carry over into subsequent seasons.

Otherwise, players have the option of choosing key choices when they start a later season with a fresh save file. This gives Clem’s journey connective tissue in each season with choices players make proving to be profoundly important, even if some moments are scripted and unavoidable.

Telltale has obviously had a ton of internal controversy and its monumental studio closure a handful of years back. Telltale has been fairly quiet since its relaunch and has recently put out its episodic adaptation of The Expanse while fans eagerly await The Wolf Among Us 2—which currently seems to have its own troubling controversies—but it is obviously not the same studio it was when it had all of its original team from Telltale’s The Walking Dead.

On the other hand, having a relaunched Telltale return to The Walking Dead might be a tone-deaf point of contention that would only serve to exhume those memories of the studio’s previous collapse. Regardless, in an ideal scenario, it might’ve been Telltale taking the reins on The Walking Dead Destinies and applying its iconic cel-shaded visuals and narrative-shattering dialogue options to the established canon of AMC’s The Walking Dead.

The Walking Dead Destinies is set to release on November 14 for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

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