Telltale made a huge impact on the gaming industry, first by being one of the few developers to keep the point and click genre alive, then later by being one of the pioneers in popularising narrative adventure games.
Great writing, strong characters, and clever choice-driven storytelling contributed to the rise of the popular developer. They gained their strong reputation because of a steady stream of hits that came after the first season of their Walking Dead adaptation blew everyone away. However, it's not all been perfect, as with any developer that has a large selection of titles, they haven't all been winners.
This list attempts to separate Telltale's best work from the stuff worth forgetting.
10 Best: The Walking Dead: The Final Season
With everyone understandably focusing on the closure of Telltale at the time, the final season of The Walking Dead games was overlooked, even though it was the only one to live up to the first.
Having Clementine look after and guide a little kid in a similar way to what Lee once had to do with her, gave a nice full-circle feel to her arc. Also, making what you said and did as Clementine directly affect how little AJ behaved, created an interesting dilemma as you wanted the kid to be able to survive without you, but you didn't want him to turn into a cold-blooded killer like many of the villains you'd met in the series.
9 Worst: Jurassic Park: The Game
Telltale's narrative-focused games live and die by their characters and plot. In Jurassic Park: The Game, the narrative boiled down to a group of people trying to escape the park, which could've been fine if they gave you a reason to care about the people escaping.
While there was a litany of characters in the game, it switched between them so often that there was never an opportunity to spend extended time with any of them, making it impossible to show that they were any deeper than the one-dimensional people they were on the surface.
8 Best: The Wolf Among Us
When discussing the best video games based on comic books, The Wolf Among Us should be right up there. Twists, red herrings, and compelling characters, this game had them all, as Telltale crafted a genuinely intriguing mystery surrounding the death of a girl called Faith. Even people who had no knowledge of the Fables comics were gripped by the narrative.
Additionally, it would be a crime not to mention the action scenes with Bigby in his Wolf form, as they were some of the most visually stunning sequences Telltale has ever put together.
7 Worst: The Walking Dead: Michonne
Telltale has proved in some of their other titles that controlling and making decisions with already established characters can work. However, The Walking Dead is all about who lives and who dies, and this game's ties to the comics meant everyone who read them knew that Michonne was going to survive all three parts and return to Rick Grimes' group.
Michonne's invincibility wouldn't have been such a problem if the other characters in the miniseries were strong, but they were all very unremarkable, and it's difficult to even remember them.
6 Best: Batman: The Enemy Within
While Telltale's first Batman game was a solid effort, it's sequel The Enemy Within raised the bar. It was the storytelling that set this one apart as it managed to weave multiple excellent arcs together.
Bruce Wayne infiltrated an evil group named the Pact filled with some of Batman's greatest villains, John descended into a villain Joker or a vigilante Joker depending on how you treated him, and Alfred lost faith in both Batman and Bruce Wayne. All three emotional arcs were fully developed and flowed together brilliantly over the course of only five episodes.
5 Worst: Law & Order: Legacies
Speaking of intriguing mysteries, there's none to be found here. The cases in this crime drama adaptation were not engaging, and they weren't helped by the game's plodding gameplay.
You spent most of Law & Order: Legacies talking to people and then remembering what they said, to use later. Conversation heavy gameplay might be what Telltale titles are known for, but it only works when it is accompanied by great characters and strong writing, which were both absent here. Telltale has done a lot with numerous different franchises, yet it seemed that they didn't know how to bring Law & Order into the video game world.
4 Best: Tales From The Borderlands
Tales From The Borderlands was so fantastic that it was one of Telltale's best efforts while also being one of the best installments in the Borderlands series.
The game's use of humor is a big reason why it was so great, as the five episodes were brimming with laugh out loud moments, from visual jokes to funny comments. Thankfully though, the title's comedy didn't detract from the wonderfully written emotional moments that occur during the five episodes. Mixing funny dialogue with more serious lines was made possible through strong voice acting performances from the cast, particularly Troy Baker as Rhys and Laura Bailey as Fiona.
3 Worst: CSI: Fatal Conspiracy
2 Best: The Walking Dead (Season One)
This was the game that took Telltale to the upper echelons of the gaming industry and brought narrative adventure games to the forefront.
Telltale's first season of The Walking Dead told an outstanding story that went to many dark places and was full of twists and turns. It was an incredibly tense experience as you felt like any wrong choice would spell the demise for one of your favorite characters. Lee and Clementine and the relationship between them were so well written that they are still two of the most beloved characters Telltale has produced. They then used the duo's likability to create one of the most emotional endings in gaming history.
1 Worst: Minecraft: Story Mode (Season One)
After hits such as The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us, and Tales Of The Borderlands, Telltale released the more kid-friendly Minecraft: Story Mode.
Appealing to children doesn't automatically make a piece of media bad, as the likes of Pixar and Disney have shown that it's possible to write captivating stories that interest people of all ages. However, Minecraft: Story Mode failed to do that, instead the game was filled with cheesy dialog, and included a dull plot. The only thing the game had going for it was the art style, which originated in Minecraft.