Game Review: The Walking Dead Season 1
Published: 12/9/2012 6:00 AM
Last Modified: 12/9/2012 7:22 AM
TELLTALE GAMES
Taking place in the comic book universe, Season 1 has you in the role of Lee Everett, a man on his way to prison outside of Atlanta when the zombie apocalypse starts to get underway. When things quickly start to get dangerous, Lee finds himself in the home of a little girl named Clementine. Clementine is alone and scared and it is up to you keep her safe as Georgia quickly becomes overrun with walkers.
This game will have you in control of Lee, but it is the emotional connection with Clementine that quickly becomes the driving force for the whole experience. Do you teach Clementine how to shoot a gun or do you choose to protect her innocence? Do you take food from a car or do you listen to her when she tells you that taking things that don’t belong to you is wrong? These are the kind of choices you have to make and Telltale Games makes sure to remind you that Clementine will remember these decisions you make and it will affect the way she sees you.
Clementine won’t be the only character to interact with. Throughout Season 1, you will come across a multitude of characters and your interactions with them will also be remembered. There is Kenny, the family man with a wife, Katja, and son, Duck, who is doing the best he can to keep them safe. Lily, the gruff woman who sees herself as the person to make tough choices in these grim times as well as many others who will offer you a helping hand or challenge you every step of the way. The characters of The Walking Dead are all greatly crafted. You can see and feel that these characters have ways of life they don’t want to give up and will fight tooth and nail with you to protect if you push them. You will fall in love with these characters. You will hate other characters. But you will feel something for each character you run into and that is truly the strength this game displays. Sometimes the best moments of the game comes from just listening to character input.
This isn’t your standard affair with a zombie game. You won’t spend the majority of your time just mindlessly gunning down walker after walker. This is an old school adventure game. You will be walking around areas looking for things to interact with such as a faucet to turn on, a cabinet to open or perhaps a spark plug to use. Telltale Games easily highlights these objects thanks to their cursor marks that can easily be located with crosshairs that you move with the right joystick while moving Lee with the left stick. With the crosshair, it will also indicate what can be done with each object such as pick it up, use it or simply look at it with Lee giving a small little voiceover of what the object is and how he could use it or not.
But do not take that to mean this experience will be completely void of action. There will be numerous times where the game will put you in quick time events where you have to fight off a walker from devouring your flesh by frantically pressing buttons. These moments are always suspenseful and they are always surprising because they are greatly spaced and assorted throughout each episode. You may think you are safe at one point, but then a random zombie attack will leap out of nowhere and have you fighting for your life. The Walking Dead captures these moments perfectly with these kinds of situations. It shows players that come walker or human, there is always a threat out there and you must be ready at every moment for what may come your way. These situations can play out in a multitude of ways. While a scenario can quickly be played out at the edge of a knife or a bullet from a gun, another time may require more finesse and a quick mind rather than brute force.
With the zombie apocalypse, you can expect a good amount of blood to be spilled and lives to be lost. This is not for those squeamish against the sight of graphic violence. This is not a game for children. When you do run into a walker you will be jamming ice picks in their eyes and lodging axes in their brains. Not only walkers, but other survivors as well will pose threats to you and times may come when you will have to choose between you or them.
And it is choice where this game excels at as well. As stated before, you will be giving choices on how to interact with your fellow survivors. Do you feed them with what little food you have? Do you side with the friends you have? Do you cut off a limb? These are some of the choices Lee will have to make and not only does it shape you as a player, it also affects the people you decide to help or snub? Remember that choice you made in Episode 2? Well, it may help you in Episode 3 or it may come back to bite you in Episode 4. Telltale Games clearly states that these choices matter and will dictate how the story will turn out in the end.
The Walking Dead Season 1 is one of the best games I have had the pleasure to experience this year. Fans of the comic book and TV show alike should play this game. It is a tale of horror, survival and loss all excellently executed within five appropriately-length episodes. You will be greatly immersed in every minute of it and by the end of it all will be left in tears. And you will have loved every minute of it.
Rating: 9.5/10
Written by
Chris Moore
Web Production Tech
