“The
Walking Dead” is an episodic interactive drama
graphic adventure developed and published by Telltale
Games. It is based on Robert Kirkman's “The
Walking Dead” comic book series
and has been published on anything and everything it can get its
grubby little hands on, except Nintendo. I'm just going to say right
now that I have never read the comic books and I have never watched
the TV show. I will be reviewing the game on its own merits.
Just
started playing and I already got busted by the cops.
The
game opens up in the back of a police car as Lee
Everett, our primary protagonist. All we know at this point is that
it has to do with his wife. While the cop is driving he asks, “Well,
I reckon you didn't do it,” and we get four different dialog
options to choose from as seen in the picture above with a timer.
Fail to pick an option before the timer runs out and your character
will remain silent.
What's this? The
character actually recites what's
the dialog option says? That's a first. Usually I'd get some
variation like on Mass Effect, or there won't be any voices for my
character so it doesn't matter what I say. I can make Lee say
anything I want. I can make him say fuck. I'm going to make him say
fuck. Hey, Lee, say fuck!
Lee
opens his mouth to speak but goes silent
Aw.
You let the team down, Lee.
So,
the police officer is just yacking away paying no attention to the
patrol cars and the helicopters passing by us or the dispatcher
calling in for all available units. Eventually his inability to keep
his eyes on the road bites us both in the ass as a zomb– Ahem.
“Walker” strolls up along the road and causes us to crash. First
it was “runners” and now it's “walkers,” can't we just call
them zombies? Is that such a dirty word?
He's
dead, Jim.
Let's
recap, I'm handcuffed, my leg is broken, I still don't know what I
was arrested for; probably had the “Bonnie and Clyde” thing
going on with the misses and she left me to the police. I'll deal
with that later.
We
all know what's coming next, it's the same thing with every zombie
game. That first zombie encounter. In “Resident Evil” we were
shown a zombie eating a person, in “The Last of Us” we had– I
actually don't remember. Everything happened so fast. Anyways, what
does “The Walking Dead” have for us?
JESUS!
Hey,
man, all those things I said before? I was just ribbing you. You're a
good cop.
I'm
about as useful as Lee is himself at this point; I'm just crawling
back trying to get away and find a shotgun shell. A hell of a lot of
good that does me without a shotgun. I could throw it at him. Can I
throw it at him? No? I didn't think so. I wouldn't survive the zombie
apocalypse, guys, I'm not that observant. Because right after I get
my first game over I thought to myself, “It's right to my left,
isn't it?” And sure enough it was. Oh, and this is one of those
games that tell you you're dead on the game over screen. Nice.
It's
easy to see this whole thing transpiring in real life, being in a
hurry to get something you need with your life on the line and
messing up more than you'd like to admit. Right after I finally get
my hand on the shotgun I lose the shotgun shell and have to snatch it
up with “Zombie Cop” still closing in. Get used to dropping
things. I just put the shell in the shotgun, load her up, aim at the
walker's head and then FIRE!
“Are you
dead? HEY! ARE YOU DEAD?!”
Nah, he's
just sleeping. I'm sure he'll be up any minute now.
And that's
pretty much it for the first walker encounter. Our next big moment
comes when we find supporting character, Clementine, house after
being chased by a group of “Walkers” who are lured to you at the
sound of the gunshot and the smell of fresh blood. I'll take this
chance to go over how we move in this game, a little more
restrictive than we're used to. Can't move the camera around much
either. You can only go where the cursor will go. I feel confined,
like I'm in a tight space or something. Since it's like a storybook,
exploration and choices are more important than action, and harder
too. Quick Time Events are better implemented as well and don't feel
out of place. The closest I played to a game like this would be “The
Longest Journey” and “Dreamfall,” although “The Walking
Dead” feels more thorough.
The first
real tug on my heartstrings happen at Clementine's house and the
drama is persistent throughout the course of the game. So much so
that I chose to be quiet in one scene and scared Clementine. I can't
tell you how many times this game managed to make me feel like shit
even when I made decisions based on sound logic, or times where I
saw the timer counting down and couldn't decide what to say. Even if
someone pissed me off or did bodily harm to the group, the game
somehow found a way to make me feel bad for them. Everyone in the
main cast feel like real people which only makes certain moments all
the harder. I'd rather try to shoot walkers from a first-person
perspective and button mash than have to make those life altering
choices. At least during the first playthrough, some of it loses its
impact when you play it again. More on that later.
We have a couple of
moments where it's an either or choice and you don't have much time
to decide. I know at least one of them will get you a game over if
you neglect to make a choice, which is kind of disappointing when
you think about it. For a game where choices are important and the
consequences are heavy, you'd think the game would punish you with
more guilt each time you fail to make a choice.
That said, I'm sad to
say that a lot of the time your choices don't matter anyway. The
changes throughout the story are minor. I'll use the above picture
as the first example; the first time the game made me choose between
Ducky and Shawn ,I went with Duck. Just the way I was raised. When
things get bad look after the kids first. The second time around I
went with Shawn to see how the game would change, and all that
happened is that Shawn's dad doesn't hate you and all the guilt goes
to Kenny. Shawn still dies, Ducky is still rescued, and you still
drive off with Kenny's family.
At the beginning of
episode two you get a choice to saw off a guy's leg to save him or
leave him to die by walkers. Once again, it doesn't matter what you
choose. You still return back to the Motor Inn with Ben and a
wounded, and the wounded turns into a walker, and Ben stays with
your group. The story still has a definite narrative it needs to
tell and your decisions only make up a small part of that. Choosing
between Doug or Carley has more of a difficulty change than anything
else. Picking Carley makes the game a lot more easier in episode two
and three when you're being attacked by walkers, because Carley has
the gun. Doug sets up an alarm and uses a laser pointed to help you,
but dealing with the walkers in the latter two episodes are harder as
a result.
I think it would have
meant more if you could actually save Shawn and end up at the drug
store with him and Hershel instead of Kenny's family. I know they
were following canon with this bit, but then why give you a choice
at all? At the beginning of episode two, your decisions should be
able to save the teacher and his students or leave them all to die. I
can think of a certain dinner
scene
that would mean a hell of a lot more if the person in question
already had his leg cut off with an axe than just inserting a new
character at the last minute to be used as fodder. And if you wait
too long to save either Doug or Carley, you should have to live with
both of them being dead. I know it's probably strange I'm advocating
for more drama in a game that probably won “Most Depressing Game”
of 2012, but if the whole point is changing based on how you play
I'd like to not feel like I'm playing the same game each time.
Episode three introduces a first-person shooting element by taking
you behind the crosshairs of a gun. At first I thought I was just
being a lousy shot during this scene, but turns out it was the
game's programming keeping me from taking out most of the walkers as
it only wanted you to choose to kill the girl or leave her behind.
Later on you're firing at bandits and walkers, and that's when my
poor marksmanship came into play. Thank God for the auto-save
feature. I can't count how many times it took me to get pass that
part during my first playthrough since I chose to save Doug the
first time around instead of Carley. The right analog stick got me
killed more times than anything else. When it isn't my aiming giving
me hell it's either that or the damn camera. Clementine would have
been a goner in episode four if it wasn't for Chuck. The FPS
elements can go crawl in a hole and die for all I care.
Another thing I hate is the way hand-to-hand fighting is played out
in this game. You need to look around for the right spot to click on
by the hands and do it before the other guy can clean your clock. I
didn't know where to look the first time so Kenny kicked my ass in
that train, and when I did know where to look I wasn't fast enough
and nearly got my head smashed in by Molly. Then there are moments
where you're performing a running jump and need to click on the
person's hand before you make that leap. I fell to my death, guys. I
survive walkers three episodes straight just to fall to my death
from a badly timed jump.
The feels. The feels!
Can I just say how much I love these two? The man who
wanted a family and the girl who lost her parents. How their
relationship develops is handled really well, and you have plenty of
chance to help it grow yourself. If there was one thing I could
never do, it was lie to Clem. She was the first one I told about
Lee's past. I was always honest and direct with her. Checked on her
regularly, kept her fed, and I fixed a swing for her. Made me feel
good. There are a lot of cutesy moments between them that left a
smile on my face.
Then there were the bad times, like when she ate a
person because I hesitated, and when she saw me kill a guy with a
pitch fork. In my defense, he was a psycho cannibal who was going to
kill and eat us, but still. I felt bad all the same. The game
quickly goes from being about surviving walkers to keeping that
little girl safe, and I don't want to think about what I would have
done to the rest of the group if the choices came between them and
Clementine.
The ending is the saddest and most intense ending I've
experienced. Watching Clementine pick up the gun and then hearing
the gunshot made my heart skip a beat. And believe it or not,
watching her just leave Lee there made me feel worse. What I like
about the end decision is that there's no simple “right or wrong”
choice. There's merit to choosing to leave Lee and there's merit to
choosing to put him out of his misery. Either decision is
heartbreaking and leaves Clementine traumatized for life. She can be
left with the guilt that her only remaining caretaker is a walker or
the guilt that she put a bullet in his head. You can spend your time
justifying your choice until you're blue in the face, Clementine is
forever changed.
Season One has five episodes overall and one bonus
episode titled “400 Days.” My game came with all of them already
installed. “The Walking Dead” gets more done in five episodes
than a lot of TV shows gets done in twenty-two. The first episode
felt so long I honestly thought saving Shawn or Chuck, and Doug or
Carley happened in two different episodes. All of the main
characters are fleshed out and get their chance to shine. And then
they're murdered! Even the star of the game isn't safe. Wow,
Telltale really ARE the perfect developers to make a “Game of
Thrones” game.
Even “400 Days” has good character development and
they didn't get as much screen time as the other characters did.
Shel and Becca are the ones that really stuck out to me, and part of
that is because they have each other to bounce off of. Shel is the
bigger, nicer, more sensible sister, and Becca is the younger, rash,
rebellious sister. It just works. Their scenario had the biggest
impact on me because of Roman (Fuck you, Roman!) forcing me to kill
a friend because they betrayed us. I don't like people making me
feel like I don't have a choice, so the moment I saw the car keys I
took off in the RV. Give me the choice between the gun and the RV?
I'll pick the RV every time. It's like what Lee said to Kenny back
in episode one, “You didn't have a choice. You think you do, when
you look back on it. But in a moment? When things are really out of
control? You don't have any choice.”
This game has a lot
of technical issues that come and go like a mood swing. Characters'
lines will be repeated, and load time lags at a critical moment.
One time in episode three it got so bad the cursor disappeared and I
couldn't go to the next room. I could see through the train's floor,
and when I talked to Kenny? The camera kept zooming into his arm. I
had to restart from my last saved point to bypass it.
Another thing that
annoys me is the game giving me the option to try something that they
know isn't going to work. So what do they do? Have Lee tell me. Why
are you giving me the option to do something just to have Lee say he
isn't going to do it? Just don't give me the option! Or better yet,
let me do something stupid and get a game over. I'll learn faster
that way.
Conclusion:
If “The Last of Us” is a
game in movie format, then “The Walking Dead” is a game in TV
format. We're shown through the narrative that a game can be an
episodic adventure where you find yourself as the star and be left
waiting in anticipation for the next one just like you would with a
show you love. And nothing will ever compare to that first adventure.
This is your story.
Get it.
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