All Playable The Walking Dead: Destinies Characters, Ranked

The Walking Dead: Destinies includes several characters from the popular zombie franchise that players can take control of to change the course of the story. Each of these characters has their own unique skillset, called “Natural Abilities“, which involves a ranged weapon of choice, and a preferred melee weapon. GameMill Entertainment’s title hasn’t been particularly well received and has been deemed one of the year’s worst games alongside another of the publisher’s IP-based games, Skull Island: Rise of Kong. However, the idea at its core was one that had potential.

[Warning: The following article contains spoilers for AMC’s The Walking Dead and The Walking Dead: Destinies]

The Walking Dead: Destinies takes place within the continuity of AMC’s The Walking Dead TV series, following the first four seasons, but allows players to change key moments from the show to create their own narrative. While this does mean that players won’t interact with major characters from later in the series, such as Negan, they will see some of the franchise’s major landmarks such as Hershel’s Farm and the West Georgia Correctional Facility. They will also have to either deal with or assume control of Season 3 and 4’s main antagonist, The Governor.

Related: Walking Dead Destinies: Release Date, Platforms & Details

11 Merle Dixon

Much like his brother Daryl, Merle is an expert tracker and hunter. However, his abrasive personality caused friction within the group, resulting in them leaving him behind, handcuffed to a rooftop in the TV show. Merle escaped the rooftop by removing his arm in the show and ultimately joined forces with The Governor at Woodbury in Season 3.

The Walking Dead: Destinies poses the question of what could have happened if Merle made it off the rooftop in one piece, and how his continued presence could have influenced the actions of his brother. Although he returned in an antagonistic role in the show, the decisions made in the game change the dynamic within the wider group of survivors drastically. Further decisions made while dealing with those in Woodbury can result in Merle assuming a leadership position, resulting in the deaths of other characters in extreme departures from the show’s storyline.

10 Lori Grimes

Early in the story, Lori is trapped between a rock and a hard place as she returns to her husband, Rick after he returns from what the group believed to be certain death, but deals with the fallout of her relationship with his former best friend, Shane. Lori discovers she is pregnant with a daughter, Judith in Season 2 of AMC’s The Walking Dead, and gives birth to her in Season 3 via an emergency cesarean, which tragically results in Lori’s death due to blood loss.

The Walking Dead: Destinies‘ website teases the idea that Lori could actually survive to see her children grow up. One of the game’s trailers also showed Lori holding Judith, suggesting that there may be a way for her to survive her emergency cesarean.

9 Carol Peletier

Carol has some of the best character development in The Walking Dead TV show, becoming one of the strongest survivors by the end of the series. While she still has to endure the abuse of her husband Ed, and the loss of her daughter Sophia in The Walking Dead: Destinies due to the game covering the earlier seasons, her pragmatism and resourcefulness become crucial for the survival of the group as the story progresses, building her up to become the hardened survivor of later seasons, provided the players’ actions don’t result in her death.

8 Glenn Rhee

Glenn is the main supply runner for the Atlanta survivors and is responsible for saving Rick Grimes and bringing him into the group. Glenn is determined to show the group the kind of man he can be, and his abilities are geared more toward stealth as he navigates dangerous walker-infested locations. The Walking Dead: Destinies follows Glenn’s storyline pretty faithfully for the most part, with him building a relationship with Maggie after meeting on her father, Hershil’s farm. However, some decisions made when negotiating with Woodbury can lead to a shocking early demise for the character.

7 Carl Grimes

Rick and Lori’s son, Carl, is aged between 12 and 14 years old in The Walking Dead: Destinies and is depicted as being brave, resourceful, and determined. He is on a journey to becoming an expert marksman with a keen eye allowing him to hit distant targets with pinpoint accuracy using his revolver. Whereas Carl survives in the comics and even serves as the protagonist of the final issue, he dies much later in the show, which many could assume would make him safer in The Walking Dead: Destinies.

Decisions made in The Walking Dead: Destinies can, however, lead to the death of Carl. The game opts to take the moment in Season 2 where Carl was shot by a hunter named Otis while looking for Sophia. Whereas this results in the group of survivors going to Hershil’s farm for help and Carl survives in the show, Carl can succumb to his injuries and pass away based on the decisions Shane makes when looking for medical supplies at a FEMA shelter.

6 Philip “The Governor” Blake

While The Walking Dead: Destinies mostly has players taking control of the heroic characters in the show – with the exception of Merle, or T-Dog if players choose to change the latter’s fate – the game also puts them in the shoes of Season 3 and 4’s primary villain, Philip “The Governor” Blake. The Governor will do whatever it takes to maintain control and march toward his singular vision of the future, initially serving as the leader of Woodbury. Depending on players’ choices, they can have Blake become an ally to the group, or become surpassed by others keen to take control of Woodbury, making for an interesting change in direction for those familiar with his arc in the AMC series.

5 Theodore “T-Dog” Douglas

Theodore “T-Dog” Douglas is a practical and quiet man who wants to keep his people together. There was some criticism that the AMC series didn’t do much with the character prior to his death, with him having very little dialogue or screen time as his time in the show went on. The Walking Dead: Destinies, however, does a lot more with T-Dog’s story as the character can even rise up to become the Leader of Woodbury should players make decisions that lead him down an antagonistic path.

4 Rick Grimes

Much like the TV series, the first character players are introduced to is the Deputy for King County Sheriff’s Department, Rick Grimes. The Walking Dead‘s story begins with Rick ending up in a coma after a gunfight with escaped convicts, and upon waking from this, he discovers a zombie outbreak has spread across America. In the comics, show, and The Walking Dead: Destinies, Rick leads a group of survivors, and while players have the rather vanilla option of making the same decisions as Rick does in these other forms of media, they can carve a completely new path for a different narrative experience.

3 Shane Walsh

While Rick ended up in a coma following the gunfight, Shane witnessed the outbreak unfold firsthand and managed to gather and protect a group of survivors including Rick’s son Carl and his wife Lori, the latter of whom Shane also got involved with romantically. Upon Rick’s return, Lori went back to her husband, and Rick naturally started to assume more of a leadership role within the group. In Seasons 1 and 2 of the TV series, Shane finds himself questioning Rick’s judgment, and this doubt plays out in The Walking Dead: Destinies, which can lead to the same final confrontation between the two former lawmen.

In the series, Shane is killed by Rick as an act of self-defense and comes back as a walker before being shot by Carl. However, as other survivors began to die in later storylines, this left people questioning if the group would have been better off had Shane been in charge with his more ruthless approach to survival. As shown in The Walking Dead: Destinies‘ first trailer, players can find out exactly what could have happened if Shane’s final showdown with Rick played out differently.

2 Michonne Hawthorne

Michonne appeared in silhouette in the final episode of The Walking Dead‘s second season before becoming a regular for the rest of the series. Following the loss of her boyfriend and toddler, Michonne withdrew into solitude perfecting her swordsmanship and becoming a dark and ruthless warrior. While on her own, Michonne would mutilate walkers with her katana, removing their arms and jaw to make them harmless before keeping them on a leash close to her to keep other infected at bay.

Michonne eventually meets and befriends Andrea, which leads her to Woodbury and The Governor before finally joining up with Rick and the rest of the Atlanta survivors. The Walking Dead: Destinies has the option to have Michonne become more involved in the Atlanta group’s negotiations with Woodbury, with varying degrees of success depending on the player’s choices.

1 Daryl Dixon

Daryl Dixon was an original character made for The Walking Dead TV show and has become such a fan favorite he has received his own spin-off in 2023 after the main show ended. Daryl is an expert at hunting, tracking, navigation, and observation. He is also a skilled combatant and is adept with his crossbow and knife. Daryl is one of two characters who survives the events of The Walking Dead: Destinies regardless of the player’s decisions, the other being Judith.

Source: The Walking Dead: Destinies