Saturation. It’s something I’ve been considering a lot recently because of the sheer volume of indie titles that have appeared on the market in recent months, but it's also something I feel now applies to Telltale’s games.

Throughout my 60 minute playthrough of What We Deserve I felt increasingly disinterested, both in the game's characters as well as my own actions. This has been a running theme for this mini-series and it's something I keep harking back to again and again in my reviews of these episodes; if the player has virtually no investment in the game's characters then something's seriously wrong.

People die. That's no great surprise - this is a Walking Dead game after all, but when you’ve only interacted with that character for all of two minutes you frankly don't care if they bite the bullet. It happened in the first episode and it happens again here and it's a serious problem; one that's amplified by the convoluted nature of the choices you're presented with.

For example, in the first act there's a flashback sequence that forces you to converse with a shipmate and make some hasty decisions on the fly. This act sticks out like a sore thumb and is an obvious (and lazy) plot device that clearly foreshadows a future event which will force you to decide this person's fate. 

Telltale's occasional exploratory sections are also few and far between in this episode. Furthermore, what little content you can find on these walks is almost irrelevant to the story at large. Gone are the days where you could strike up a conversation with random party members about almost anything; What We Deserve instead pushes you from one trivial plot point to another with haste, leaving you little time to think about the consequences of your decisions or the prospect of what's coming next. 

The action sequences, which I’ve frequently praised, are also the high watermark of this episode. Indeed, the action scenes in this episode are some of the best and most violent we've seen so far. Another aspect of the mini-series that I have come to appreciate greatly - the graphical style - is also as strong as ever. It holds up well and really serves to highlight Telltale’s strengths in the art department. But these two highlights simply don't outweigh the lacklustre character development and plot.

I wanted to love this mini-series as much as a did the main series, and after having recently binged watched all of the Walking Dead TV show from start to finish I couldn't get enough of The Walking Dead universe. The problem is, it's becoming clear that Telltale has taken on too many projects at once, and this has had a knock-on effect on the quality of the narratives, choices, and characters they're offering up.

Telltale's newfound ability to attract big franchises means the company is pushing out more games than ever before, but the quality of the storytelling has gradually declined as a result. At least that's how it feels right now. Telltale's earlier titles are often great examples of concentrated narratives and strong character development that really broadened the appeal of the adventure genre for the better. The Walking Dead: Michonne, from start to finish, has had neither of these and is one of the more disappointing titles I’ve played in recent memory.