Originally released in 2012, Telltale’s The Walking Dead was a massive success for the company and led to the rebirth of the point-and-click genre as a whole. Taking on the role of Lee Everett, players help guide Clementine through the zombie apocalypse, and successive games place Clementine front-and-center as she tries to survive while carrying on the memory of Lee and the lessons he taught her.

There are four mainline The Walking Dead Games as well as two smaller DLC titles, being The Walking Dead: 400 Days and The Walking Dead: Michonne. While each game has its own merits and each main title comes together to tell a cohesive, satisfying story, some stand above others as generally being more enjoyable and competently put-together.

6The Walking Dead: Season Two

The second season of Telltale’s The Walking Dead is the first to feature Clementine as the main protagonist, and it has its merits. Facing the zombie apocalypse feels much scarier as a young girl who can’t defend herself as easily as Lee, which leads to tense moments and creative problem-solving to keep Clementine alive. In the first episode, the group Clementine stumbles upon also has promise, and Season Two sets itself up as having a lot of potential.

Sadly, much of this potential is quickly squandered. Clementine’s group meets up with Kenny and his new squad, which sounds promising, but all this does is cause in-fighting between the groups and force players to choose sides. This season is also incredibly fast-paced, meaning players never get attached to new characters before they’re put up against all the horrors of the zombie apocalypse.

5The Walking Dead: A New Frontier

A New Frontier chooses to focus on an entirely new cast of characters that don’t impact The Walking Dead’s overall storyline in any way, although Clementine is still a side character with some relevance to the plot. Javi fights against the zombie apocalypse while also fighting to keep his family together, which only gets more complicated as his presumed-dead brother David comes back into the mix.

The combat in A New Frontier feels fluid and satisfying, and some of the new characters are welcome introductions, like Jesus and Trip. Some find the focus on relationships and the drama between Javi, Kate and David interesting, while others think it distracts from more important aspects of the plot. While seeing Clementine as a side character is positive, this season doesn’t add anything to the overall narrative, and skipping it wouldn’t subtract much from Clementine’s story.

4The Walking Dead: Michonne

The Walking Dead: Michonne takes after the original comic book series much more than the other titles. Michonne is a side title, originally meant to be downloadable content for the second season, that was released as a standalone so comic fans wouldn’t need to have played previous titles in order to jump in. This title follows Michonne and her adventures between issues 126 and 139 of The Walking Dead comic series, as she’s split from the main crew.

The atmosphere of The Walking Dead: Michonne is highly praised, as is Michonne’s development as a character despite only having three episodes total rather than the typical five. Similarly to A New Frontier, the combat also feels satisfying, and is noted as a high point. On the other hand, many players found this miniseries’ plot to be lacking, and the shorter episode length was also felt.

3The Walking Dead: The Final Season

Picked up by Skybound Entertainment following the closure of Telltale Studios, The Walking Dead: The Final Season is a satisfying conclusion to Clementine’s nearly ten-year-long story. The graphics and overall controls are greatly upgraded from previous seasons, and having Clementine be surrounded by a cast of fellow kids is refreshing, rather than having her be the only competent character in a group of fully-grown adults.

The Walking Dead: The Final Season is heralded as a return to form for the series, with its characters being one of this season’s strongest aspects. From Clementine and AJ to all the kids in the boarding school, it’s hard not to get attached, which only further deepens the impact of The Final Season’s heavy-hitting, emotional moments. The main complaints of this season are AJ feeling too grown-up for his age and some later aspects of the story feeling somewhat lacking.

2The Walking Dead: 400 Days

Rather than being a standalone title, The Walking Dead: 400 Days is downloadable content for the first season, which follows five unrelated groups of survivors and details how they came together as one larger group. Story-wise, it takes place at the same time as the first season, but none of its characters have connections with The Walking Dead’s main cast until Bonnie later meets Clementine in Season Two.

The Walking Dead: 400 Days consists of five mini-episodes, introducing players to five different survivors and explaining how they end up on their own before they all come together at the end. They’re all then given the option to come stay at Carver’s camp, and they can all be seen in the background at various points while being held prisoner by Carver as Clementine during the second season.

1The Walking Dead

Although Telltale’s original The Walking Dead is filled with graphical bugs and glitches, it’s also undeniably charming. The atmosphere is dark and tense, as players try to figure out how to survive as Lee Everett and keep Clementine safe. Lee’s own past is uncovered along the way, as he’s a felon who was on his way to prison right when the apocalypse first began, and this causes conflict with other members in the group.

The Walking Dead’s first season gives ample time for players to bond with the group before tragedy strikes, making everything more impactful. No other season has come close to having the heavy-hitting impact that Season One’s ending does, either. The final season comes close, but nothing can beat the emotional pain of guiding Clementine through Lee’s last moments alive and, choice dependent, instructing Clementine to shoot him so he doesn’t turn into a walker.