Based on the best-selling comic books (created by Robert Kirkman) that also gave rise to AMC's hit TV series of the same name, The Walking Dead episodic video game series has been developed and published by Telltale Games since season 1 debuted in summer 2012 - and has enjoyed its own success, as part of the larger franchise. Centering around the journey of the young Clementine as she comes of age in the zombie-apocalypse, the series has to date encompassed two seasons of five episodes - in addition to the supplementary add-on episode 400 Days that was released between season 1 and season 2 in 2013. (There was also the three-episode miniseries Michonne, centered around the eponymous fan favorite character, released earlier this year.)

Fans of the Telltale video game series inspired by The Walking Dead have been fairly devoted to its personally told narrative that allows players to make decisions in its world that always feel morally weighted and consequentially important - even as the surrounding narrative features a largely predetermined cinematic structure. What's more, with a December 2016 release date officially set for season 3, which will be subtitled A New Frontier, Telltale has just dropped an extended trailer for the new episodes soon to come.

In the footage featured above, potential players can get their first look at what Clementine has been up to since the conclusion of season 2 - wherein an incredibly critical decision was made on the behalf of the player with a number of different outcomes, dependent on a wide array of choices made throughout the preceding two seasons. Additionally, longtime players can get their first look at new supporting protagonist Javier, whose own personal backstory proves to be in line with that of a much older Clementine.

Tracking the trajectory of Clementine as she came of age in a world gone to rot in Telltale's The Walking Dead season 1, followed by the tumultuous journey undertaken on the behalf of a young girl bearing a kind of moral gravity better suited to someone well beyond her years in season 2, has resulted in what is perhaps one of the most intimately told stories within the larger Kirkman zombie apocalypse canon. AMC's Walking Dead TV series continues to draw big (though now diminishing) ratings, but in Telltale's hands the inherent melodrama of The Walking Dead property often comes off as more subtle, nuanced, and ethically complicated than on its TV counterpart.

The extended trailer for The Walking Dead: A New Frontier comes replete with a noticeably cleaned up graphics layout - and lays the groundwork for a heart-churning central narrative to come. Wherever players last saw Clementine, season 3 promises to return them to her world in a big way.

Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead: A New Frontier releases December 20th for PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PC, iOS and Android.

Source: Telltale Games