The Walking Dead Review

Telltale Games promised a lot with The Walking Dead: a gripping storyline, decisions that affect current and future events, and an immersive gameplay experience that puts you in the middle of a zombie outbreak. The Walking Dead game is set to be released in a monthly “seasonal” format, with each consisting of several different episodes. With that being said, does The Walking Dead video game capture the drama and suspense of the hit television show or the comics that inspired it?

First of all, The Walking Dead is all about character development and drama – if you are looking for a run-and-gun zombie-blasting game, you should probably avoid this one. On the other hand, if you are a fan of the TV show or the comics, and you are interested in the further character development, this Telltale Games download may be just the right one for you.

This first download is #1 of 5, titled “A New Day”. You begin the game as a man named Lee Everett, being transported to prison in the back of a squad car. Lee may or may not be a killer – even at the end of the game, all of the details and events of his past are shrouded in secrecy. The characters in this game are really one of the best factors – sure the “action” scenes are fun, but what really kept me interested was the urge to learn more about the cast and each character’s back story.

Moving on, “A New Day” takes place around the same time as the comics, just after the initial outbreak – the characters are still putting together everything that is happening, so a lot of confusion ensues. During Lee’s transfer to prison, the car crashes, and Lee must decide what his next move is – what to do, and where to go. He seeks shelter in a house, coming across a young girl named Clementine, whose parents were out of town when the outbreak occurred. Lee takes it upon himself to look after Clementine – naturally I referred to myself in the game as her “babysitter”, keeping an eye on her and making sure she was safe. Though the game features mostly fresh faces, there are a couple of appearances from the show as well. I’ll leave those surprises up to you to discover.

Not only did I enjoy talking to everbody in the game, but I found that the dialogue is quite realistic and the characters are also relateable. In conversations you will see several dialogue choices on the screen, and it is important to pay attention to the responses you choose to go with – even the wording and tone of your choices can have an impact on the events that follow. At one point in a conversation with a certain character, I alluded to being with others during the initial outbreak. Just because I used the word “we” in conversation, when I later told the same character that I was by myself during the initial outbreak, I was gazed upon with suspicious eyes. During these important moments, a text box appears to tell you that the character you’re speaking to will remember what you’ve said to them – this feature is one of the biggest things that excites me the most about the next four games. I simply have to know how these conversation choices are going to play out in later instlalments; how characters in this first season will treat me or react to situations in the subsequent episodes.

Moving onto the combat, your actions also affect how other characters feel about you to a certain degree. Basically, using the left joystick moves your character around, while the right stick controls a targeting reticle that you can use to interact or attack. By placing the reticle over an enemy, you can attack them with kicks or whatever weapon is currently handy. Meanwhile, placing the reticle over objects or friendly characters gives the player interactive options. There is ultimately not a lot of combat featured in the game, but again, it’s all about the choices you make: the attitudes of other characters mean everything, similar to (but not as deep as) Quantic Dream’s Heavy Rain.

One of the things that Telltale promised was combat that made you feel like you were actually “there” in the zombie outbreak – so how did they accomplish this? Basically, when the character is under attack, the targeting reticle suddenly becomes difficult to control, forcing you to focus your attempts at moving it over the zombie’s head for the kill-shot. Hitting the “interact” button that appears upon the correct placement is not difficult, but it is nonetheless rewarding and satisfying when Lee manages to stab a zombie through the head with a screwdriver.

The graphics in “A New Day” follow a stylized, cel-shaded design, and Telltale Games has not held back anything in terms of violence seen in The Walking Dead comic books. Sure, some of the textures get blurry from time to time, but the character models are quite detailed, and the facial expressions are excellent. Watching characters in the game lose their loved ones – just the expressions on their faces – managed to bring an extreme amount of sympathy that I haven’t experienced in a video game for quite some time.

Telltale Games has effectively brought The Walking Dead to life in a video game form the way they could not manage to do with Jurassic Park: the characters are likeable and behave realistically, from the fear to the confusion. The drama of the show is portrayed incredibly well in “A New Day”, and I even went through the first season multiple times just to see how different dialogue choices would affect the relations with other characters.

The first “season” is also priced very reasonably (just 400 Microsoft Points/$5.00), as I clocked in at around four or five hours of gameplay time. The game is a great start for fans of the acclaimed series, and I am thrilled to see where Telltale takes this series over the next four installments.