Fed up with the oversaturation of zombies in popular media?
Then this is the game for you! Honest! I was bored of all the TV shows, films
and games that were all cashing in the zombie phenomenon. I had even watched
some of the TV series adaptation of The Walking Dead graphic novel. Yet this
title stands out head and shoulders above the crowd. So how did a game based on
the same graphic novel covered in zombies capture my interest?
Easy, the game is all about the characters; the human interaction
in the desperate situation of a zombie apocalypse and how it pushes everyone to
their limits. You play the role of Lee, an African American who starts his
story in the back of a police patrol car. You’re on your way to jail, but
slightly bizarrely, the game initially hides the reason behind it.
It makes you first few interactions with other survivors slightly
dicey, as you have to decide whether you reveal or hide where you were heading
at the start of the outbreak. And they’re not easy decisions to make. The game
makes it clear that your decisions will affect the outcome of the story. But you
never know who will become a long-time companion that you have to rely on, or someone
you just meet in passing. Lying to a friend could have severe consequences
further down the line and impact the choices you have to make. Thankfully, you’re
not left in the dark for too long. Lee’s past is revealed part way into the
first episode and becomes a really interesting issue to handle.
The gameplay is predominately point and click adventure with
a dash of quick time events (QTEs). Now QTEs have definitely received their
fair share of flak for being annoying and unexpected, requiring you to memorise
button presses just to progress. So The Walking Dead sensibly side steps a lot
of the problems with some simple design choices. All QTEs in the game rely on
the same button presses and are used consistently for action sequences. They’re
also short lasting only a few seconds at a time, so if you fail and get reset
to the start of the event, you don’t feel unfairly punished.
That shortness also adds to the tension, whether it’s
fending off Walkers in a frantic attempt to escape, or having to deal with some
of the hostile survivors. It’s by far the best implementation of QTEs I’ve
seen, although there were still a couple that didn’t immediately make sense. In
one instance, I had to fail the first QTE, to then save Lee in a second. But
that wasn’t explained at all. So I spent a minute madly mashing the button
before I gave up out of boredom because I thought it might be a bug.
The action sequences are sensibly dotted throughout the
story, yet they are definitely not the focus of the game. It’s all about the choices
you make in conversations, how you steer the group and what you think is the
best option for survival. It’s also about who you care for, which characters
you like and those you hate. The first survivor you meet is Clementine, a little
girl who’s lost her parents. Lee realises that he’s going to have to take care
of her, and so you become her guardian.
I’ve never cared so much for another character in a game. Even
though Lee isn’t her dad, I felt that I had to take care of her, no matter
what. And that’s a testament to the quality of the writing. She’s not some
annoying tag along escort quest character. She actually acts like eight year old,
with her own personality and capabilities. There’s often moments where you’ll
rely on her to get through a tough spot, rather that constantly having to
protect her. It forms a natural team between her and Lee.
Then there are your enemies. Your other group members have
their own clear opinions on the best way to survive, and you’ll be caught in
the middle of it. You won’t be able to keep everyone happy, so you’ll have to
choose your conversation options carefully. Some of the best story moments are
when you’re presented with the tough choices. You will be in situations where
you have to choose who lives and who dies; and if someone has been working
against you, can you take the high road and save them?
You don’t always get a lengthy amount of time to weigh up
your options. Sometimes you’ll be forced to react to events in conversation,
adding to the pressure of the situation; fearful of what happens if you take no
action, which is often a valid option. Silence can speak louder than words on
many occasions. The only problem is it can be a bit harsh on slow readers.
There are two options for the point and click element of the
game. You can play with all the intractable elements highlighted or revealed by
mousing over them. There’s never a large amount of objects to interact with at
any one time, but I would recommend playing with highlights on. The points you
can click on are often fairly small and there’s no point in handicapping
yourself. The point and click portions are fairly linear and only use a few
objects at any one time, so there’s never a complicated puzzle to solve, though
this lack of complexity may be a bit of a disappointment to point and click
fans. I only had one moment where I had to walk around and click on everything
to progress, which was satisfying for me as I hate getting stuck when the
design logic isn’t clear.
Currently, a complete story is told over the five available
episodes. Telltale Games are becoming masters of episodic content, as each episode
provides a complete chapter of the story that concludes, but also leaving a
cliff hanger teasing upcoming events. There’s a new DLC episode ‘400 Days’ in
development which will allow you to play other characters and see their
perspectives of the apocalypse. The events of the first five episodes will then
continue in season two, with a current release date scheduled for later this
year. As an excellent story driven game, it’s good to hear that more content is
on the way, but it does raise the issue of when will the story conclude?
All in all, I can definitely recommend season one, even with
a further problem discussed within the spoiler alert below. It will provide an
excellent story driven experience that runs for around ten hours total for the
first season. It’s left me looking forward to both the upcoming DLC and season
two.
So the final problem of the story that can only be discussed
with spoilers:
Spoiler Alert!
You would expect The Walking Dead to have multiple diverging
paths with plenty of endings, given the amount of serious decisions you have to
make; but that’s not the case. Really there’s only one ending at the end of the
first season of five episodes. How you get there can be quite different and the
journey is definitely the heart of the game. Yet it robs the game of replay-ability
and it’s exactly the same issue suffered by the Mass Effect trilogy. Telltale
Games have stated that your decisions will carry over into season two, so it
may only be a catch for now.
