The Walking Dead
Defeat zombies in a game based on the television show
An episodic, serial video game based on the popular comic series by Robert Kirkman
The Walking Dead video game is something of a pioneer in the industry, releasing shorter mini-games as episodes periodically instead of having players purchase one larger game. The Walking Dead is an adventure game, but instead of using puzzles as its main draw, the game zeroes in on story telling and character development to appease fans. Tell tale games is the publisher and keeps track of player decisions from episode to episode and uses that information to influence the story as they release more episodes. There are currently 5 episodes released in the series across every platform including PC, Playstation, Xbox and even mobile devices.
Game Play
The game focuses on story telling and as such there really isn't a combat system. Instead the game provides an environment where the player needs to interact with different people, locations and items. Decisions that the player makes effect how NPC's view the main character as well as how the game progresses. In each episode there are five points where the player is given the chance to make a significant decision. These decisions will effect the plot of the game and ripple from the current episode into all future episodes. Telltale games also keeps track of all the answers to these major decisions and the writers use this information in order to guide their writing for future episodes. The game is played from a third person point of view.
Presentation
The Walking Dead is about the story. Players adopt the role of Lee Everett as he tried to keep a small band of survivors alive among a Zombie apocalypse. Clementine is another main character, a young girl that Lee rescues early on and then helps care for throughout the series. The game is award winning because of its emotional story and hard hitting events, forcing players to choose between two terrible paths in order to progress. Robert Kirkman, the creator of The Walking Dead comic, had a hand in the original story for the video game and the game happens along a similar timeline as the comic series. the gritty and dark story is complimented nicely by a gritty art style and the complete package is extremely compelling.
Pros
- Gripping and emotional story
- Episodic nature is unique and fresh way to experience a video game
Cons
- Emphasis isn't on combat or puzzle solving. If you want to shoot zombies, this isn't your game