The Walking Dead Game Review

Episodes 1 through 4 available on Playstation
Network, Xbox Live Marketplace, and PC

Everyone loves zombies, this is just fact. Zombies have appeared in many media outlets like movies, television shows, video games, books, etc., and an apocalypse of the undead is the most likely scenario for the end of the world according to many people. There's just something about flesh-eating humanoid figures that's scary, funny and cool.  The Walking Dead was originally a graphic novel before it premiered on AMC where it initially only had six episodes but has since turned into one of the biggest franchises on television. So when I heard TellTale Games was making a Walking Dead game, I was a little skeptical but my fears were soon destroyed as I dove into the interactive world full of walkers.

The Walking Dead Game takes place before the events of the show, and the visuals are based on the graphic novel. It looks like the comic has been brought to life in beautiful cel-shaded graphics, with character emotions and a fully voiced cast. The game has been separated into episodes, five in total, for roughly $5 a piece, or if purchased on most outlets like the Playstation Network or Xbox Live Marketplace there is a package available to purchase all five episodes ahead of time for a discounted price and each will be available to download as they are released monthly.  I did the latter option and it was the best $20 I've ever spent (saving me $1 on each episode.)

You control Lee Everett, an ex-convict who suddenly finds himself thrust into a world gone to hell where the dead walk the earth. He discovers a young girl surviving on her own and he decides to watch after her to ensure her safety. As they travel to find safety they meet other survivors and plenty of non-survivors. The episodes are each about 2-3 hours long and I guarantee you will make some level of emotional investment in the story.  You will care about the characters and the story, you will think about your decisions rationally and how it will affect your story. Everything you do will be to protect the people you care about or to punish characters you dislike. The game is a sort of exploration with point and click aspects similar to Heavy Rain. You move around environments but you can interact with other characters and certain preset environments and objects and when certain things are examined, or you've completed a task the story will progress.

Another aspect of gameplay is decision making.  Many characters will engage you in conversation and you will have a limited time to choose your reply. The things you say can affect how a character thinks of you, and also change how you act around others.  If you tell someone a lie, you need to remember what you told them because it could come up later.  Also the decisions you make in each episode will carry on to the next episode. If you stick up for a character, they'll remember your loyalty later on.  If you screw someone over, they're gonna remember that too.

In general the game's downsides aren't many but for a maximum of $5 each the flaws can be overlooked. Things like loading times between scenes while the autosave occurs, or small pauses in video are a small nuisance that remind you you're playing a game, which is unfortunate because you really get drawn into the environment and if it weren't for those subtle reminders it would be a great interactive experience that lets you feel like you're a part of the action. Some of the situations in the game are frustrating because you know what you want the end result to be, but you have to make the right in-game decisions in sequential order, to get the characters to do what you want. There also aren't in-game hints to help you when you're stuck. But for such a low price, I promise this game will keep you entertained.

Since this is set up in five episodes, I won't review it like a normal game but I'll just give a brief summary of each episode so far with a score of up to 5 for each episode.

Episode 1:  A New Day
The first episode in the series introduces us to our protagonist Lee and Clementine, a young girl left alone in the zombie apocalypse that Lee now looks after. You're first introduced to the concept of "walkers" and you will meet a group of survivors just trying to get by in a world gone mad.  This episode introduces you to the mechanics of the game, including conversational decision making, action sequences, and exploration. It has some slow moments, and the midway goals are frustrating to achieve because you know what you WANT to do but the game just wont let you until you do it their way. Some sections of this episode are a little laggy but overall doesn't take away from the experience.
[4/5]

Episode 2: Starved For Help
The survivors turn a motel into a makeshift fortress as a place to lay low for a while. Three months after the events of the first game, supplies and food are running low, the group is hungry and you have to make decisions on who gets to eat and who doesn't.  Who's more important to you? who needs their strength?  The survivors meet a couple of people from a nearby dairy and are willing to work with your group to help you get supplies and they invite you out to check out their place. There's also a group of bandits out in the woods who are stalking your group and harassing you and the people at the dairy seem to know about them. But these nice dairy farmers may have a few secrets... Most of the bugs seem to have been worked on in this game, and I don't recall seeing many long load times or screen glitches.
[5/5]

Episode 3: Long Road Ahead
This episode is probably my favorite so far because it really pushes your emotional choices.  You have to make some SERIOUSLY messed up decisions in this episode.  Someone at the motor inn is sneaking supplies to the bandits and its threatening the group. After some unfortunate circumstances, the group has to leave their safe haven at the motor inn, and find an abandoned train. The plan is to get it working and head for the coast. Surely there won't be any difficulties, right?
[5/5]

Episode 4: Around Every Corner
The group makes it to a city, and find themselves outnumbered by walkers. They find temporary shelter, and while scavenging for supplies and a boat, they encounter another group of survivors. Everyone works together to formulate an actual escape plan, and set out to gather supplies from a nearby community. The community is extremely dangerous and tensions within the group are already high due to some previous altercations.  This episode is unique in the sense that you have multiple decisions that will actually affect the number of people in your group, which is a very interesting concept.  The graphics in this one seem somewhat upgraded, and this is also the longest episode yet.
[5/5]

Episode 5: No Time Left
The end of Episode 4 left us with some very interesting questions about what's going to happen next, and Episode 5 does not disappoint. I did not physically time it but it felt like this episode was shorter than the others by a small margin. This is probably because you're so enveloped in the action. It's kind of hard for me to summarize this episode without spoilers but if you've played the first four episodes, there's no way you're going to miss this exciting, emotion-filled conclusion.
[5/5]

***Synopsis***
My reviews on these games may seem really high, but I promise it's for a good reason.  At the time of writing, four of the episodes are released, and I'll review the final episode when it comes out.

The Walking Dead game is an extremely good value and a wonderfully done game. Any fans of the series, or of zombies in general should definitely check this out!


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