Last September, narrative adventure game studio Telltale Games announced a “majority studio closure,” during which they laid off 250 employees in preparation for the company’s shutdown. The next month, Telltale officially began liquidation, with its various assets being sold off. Since then, Telltale’s games have been slowly but surely disappearing from various digital retailers. Some of their games have disappeared from Steam, some from the PlayStation and Microsoft Stores, and most recently, GOG announced that all Telltale games will be removed from their platform soon. With Telltale gone, the future of many of their games is uncertain, as it’s not entirely clear which of their games will have their rights bought by other companies so they can continue to be sold. In fact, some Telltale games, like Tales of Monkey Island and Back to the Future, have already disappeared almost completely from digital storefronts. Since the amount of time any of Telltale’s games will still be available is up in the air, now’s as good a time as any to stock up on as many of these games as you can to ensure that you’ll still have access to them should they disappear from all storefronts in the future. Here are some of the company’s greatest games (that you can still buy as of May 23, 2019) that you should prioritize picking up while while you still can.
Sam & Max
Here’s a fun fact: Telltale founders Kevin Bruner, Dan Connors, and Troy Molander used to work making adventure games for LucasArts and one of their reasons for leaving the company to start their own was because LucasArts’ next Sam & Max game was cancelled as the studio started to wind down when audiences began losing interest in adventure games. Not long after Telltale was first founded, they received the rights to start making Sam & Max games themselves, and the result is pretty great. The three Sam & Max games that Telltale made definitely trend more towards the point-and-click style of adventure games that LucasArts was known for, as opposed to the more narrative-driven approach Telltale would later come to adopt, but these three Sam & Max games are full of heart and humor and are definitely worth checking out if you can find them.
- Sam & Max Save the World is currently available to purchase from Steam, GOG, and the Microsoft Store.
- Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space is currently available to purchase from Steam, GOG, the PlayStation Store, the Microsoft Store, and the iOS App Store (all episodes available separately).
- Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse is currently available to purchase from Steam, GOG, and the PlayStation Store.
Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People
If you grew up with internet connection during the 2000s and made a hobby of watching Flash animations, you likely know about HomeStarRunner.com. If you don’t, you owe it to yourself to watch all of their animations immediately because they’re hilarious. The creators of HomeStarRunner worked with Telltale to make an official game and, like the Sam & Max games, it’s more point-and-click adventure than narrative adventure, but the characters and situations they get into are hilarious and certainly worth experiencing, especially if you’re a fan of the original animations.
- Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People is currently available to purchase from Steam, GOG, and the PlayStation Store.
The Walking Dead
Luckily, Telltale’s greatest series probably isn’t going anywhere any time soon. Shortly after Telltale shut down, their five Walking Dead games (four main seasons and one mini-series) were removed from various digital fronts, but once Skybound Games acquired the rights to the games last year, they’ve been available to purchase again and will likely continue to be for the foreseeable future. Which is a relief, because these games (most of them, anyway) are way too good to simply disappear. However, due to a deal that Skybound came to with Epic Games to ensure that The Final Season could be finished (the game was in mid-development when Telltale shut down), the PC versions of these games are now exclusive to the Epic Games Store. Even though you probably don’t have to worry about these games disappearing from digital storefronts any time soon, you should still pick them up anyway, because they’re amazing.
- The Walking Dead: Season One is currently available to purchase from the Epic Games Store, the PlayStation Store, the Microsoft Store, the Nintendo Switch eShop, the iOS App Store, and the Google Play Store.
- The Walking Dead: Season Two is currently available to purchase from the Epic Games Store, the PlayStation Store, the Microsoft Store, the iOS App Store, and the Google Play Store.
- The Walking Dead: Michonne (mini-series) is currently available to purchase from the Epic Games Store, the PlayStation Store, the Microsoft Store, the iOS App Store, and the Google Play Store.
- The Walking Dead: A New Frontier (Season Three) is currently available to purchase from the Epic Games Store, the PlayStation Store, the Microsoft Store, the iOS App Store, and the Google Play Store.
- The Walking Dead: The Final Season (Season Four) is currently available to purchase from the Epic Games Store, the PlayStation Store, the Microsoft Store, and the Nintendo Switch eShop.
It’s also worth noting that Skybound will be releasing the entire series in a single package called The Walking Dead: The Telltale Definitive Series later this year and pre-orders for it end on May 31. You can pre-order a bundle from Skybound’s website.
The Wolf Among Us
Shortly after the unprecedented success of the first Walking Dead, Telltale had to prove that they weren’t a one-hit wonder, and they did so by releasing The Wolf Among Us, a neo-noir story based off of the comic series Fables. Although a second season was in development and unfortunately cancelled upon Telltale’s collapse, the first game is still excellent as a stand-alone experience and is definitely one of the company’s finest works.
- The Wolf Among Us is currently available to purchase from Steam, GOG, the PlayStation Store, the Microsoft Store, the iOS App Store, and the Google Play Store.
Tales From the Borderlands
Along with The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us, Telltale’s more narrative-focused take on the Borderlands universe is often considered to be among the adventure game developer’s best titles. Tales From the Borderlands takes the humor, charm, and grittiness of the Borderlands series and transcribes it into a great game in its own right that can be enjoyed by both fans of Borderlands and those who know nothing about the franchise at all. Also, characters from this game are set to reappear in the upcoming Borderlands 3, so you might want to do some catching up if you haven’t already. Tales From the Borderlands has started disappearing from digital stores recently, but hopefully 2K Games, the owner of the larger Borderlands franchise and who the rights to Tales From the Borderlands reverted to once Telltale shut down, will get that fixed up soon. In the meantime…
- Tales From the Borderlands is currently available to purchase from GOG, the PlayStation Store, the Microsoft Store, the iOS App Store, and the Google Play Store.
Batman
Telltale made two narrative adventure games based off of the caped crusader and while the first one is pretty good, the second season, entitled The Enemy Within, is Telltale at its narrative-branching finest, with a season finale that plays out very differently depending on the choices you’ve made up to that point. The Enemy Within also has the distinction of being the last full game Telltale released before their collapse.
- Batman is currently available to purchase from Steam, GOG, the PlayStation Store, the Microsoft Store, the iOS App Store, and the Google Play Store.
- Batman: The Enemy Within is currently available to purchase from Steam, GOG, the PlayStation Store, the Microsoft Store, the Nintendo Switch eShop, the iOS App Store, and the Google Play Store.
