THE WALKING DEAD

Review Time!
Available on XBLA, Steam, iOS, PSN
Price: $25.00
Genre: Adventure/Survival-Horror

Sorry, did I spoil my overall opinion of this game in the blog title? Well, good! Here's my little spoiler-riddled review of The Walking Dead (available on PSN, XBLA, Steam, and iOS) but if you haven't played it yet and don't want spoilers here's my opinion again:

[BUY THE DAMN GAME YOU FOOL]

Alright now you have been warned.

[////SPOILER WARNING/////]

Let's get the inconsequential categories out of the way first, shall we?

Graphics

Brilliant, by an aesthetic standpoint. They are very Borderlandsy, and I don't know how else to describe them other than to say they are very much a Telltale-Games product. See, in Jurassic Park and Monkey Island and Back to the Future, the other projects they've adapted into a new adventure series have been underwhelming in this department because those other games were adapted from projects that had different art styles. However, with The Walking Dead, based off the popular graphic novel, it works because the art style looks like something out of a comic book. Give it some time and the art style looks absolutely stunning. However it breaks down a bit as soon as it all starts trying to actually FUNCTION. I like to call it "Oblivion Syndrome" because while it looks all well and fine when your just looking at it, when it operated you can hear the gears squeaking a bit. Everything moves sort of stiffly and animation jittering or going out of sync is not uncommon. Overall, not enough a problem to ruin the visual experience, but prominent enough that you wish it was ironed out. An added bonus from this art style is that it runs really well on PC without top-of-the-line rigs due to the stylized graphics.

Audio

Again... It hadn't really bothered me until I had actually reflected on the experience but the audio experience was mediocre to downright buggy. Voice and mouth movement are constantly out of sync, the zombie noises can get a bit grating and the voice acting has a lot to be desired. However all the characters are so well written and realised that wooden voice acting honestly barely detracts from the experience at all. It's not so bad that it's distracting, it's just a bit underwhelming and I think it's something they can work on in the sequels.

Alright now here come the biggies.

Gameplay

It's weird how much you enjoy the experience, because when you break it down to bare components it sounds awful. QTE riddled point'n'click adventure game with uncomplicated puzzles. No, no, the beauty of the game comes from the details as it does one thing right that very, very few have done well. It does moral choice. Around every corner, you have difficult decisions to make and pressure to do it fast. Your team is on edge and you strain to keep the peace. Oops, but Quick! Your leader's father is having a heart attack. You're in an enclosed room. Can he be saved? Your friend is going to kill the old man with a cinder block! The man isn't dead yet, but the moment he dies he's going to try to kill everyone! Do you attempt to save him? Can you talk your friend down at the same time? SHOULD you save him, or should you just finish him off for the safety of others? All these questions have to be answered simultaneously before anyone has the time to act rashly. The best part? Often times, like the time mentioned above, there's no CLEAR, correct, moral, and just answer.

Y'know, kind of like in real life. You just have to do what [you think] is best.

So that's the good. Now what about the bad? There's a lot of it, actually. The puzzle sequences, as mentioned above, are really underwhelming. The best and only one that requires any actual hard thinking happens in the very first episode in a motel parking lot. After that it's all very, very straightforward. Also, game, I don't care how much you say "The Story is Tailored by How You Play" because it isn't. The story is fantastic [get to that in a bit] but no matter how much you say otherwise, the story is always the same. What changes are the characters opinions and attitudes towards you. Very rarely do you actually really change the plot in who dies and in what order, but those choices that you do have to make in these areas are really REALLY hard.

and finally...

STORY

This... this is the big one guys. I- *sniff* it's so hard to express in words *whimper* but it's... it.... *squeak*
Waaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh! Wahhahhahahhahhh!

Sorry, I'll pull myself together. It's fantastic, start to finish. It's your standard zombie plot sure, but the real kicker here is how human, how alive, and how REAL each of these characters feel. Every last one of them will remind you of someone you know, and each one of them is interesting, sympathetic and... real. Every single one has an interesting or tragic backstory, every single one goes through a trouble during the course of the game and every single one you want to stay with all the way through.

Lee, the main guy, is a great character, both an intriguing character and also enough of a blank canvas that you can project yourself and your actions onto him. The other characters never feel like dead weight and have different personalities, likes and dislikes and problems. This once again is very potent when it comes to decision making. Your best friend's son is turning into a zombie. You have to finish the boy off before he turns. The only way is to shoot the kid in the head while he's still living. Can you do it? Can you kill the child of a character you know and love? Can you, in real life mind, bare to face the destroyed, defeated character that YOU did that to, after everything you've been through and suffered?

It doesn't feel like you've made your character do a hard thing that needed to be done and added +50 to renegade points (There's no morality tracker, thank god)

It feels like you've done a hard thing that needed to be done, and that it could have turned out differently.

If someone dies it's not +50 to experience.

If someone dies I honestly said, out loud, with no hint of irony, "There but for the grace of god go I." I'm not even religious. This game is THAT powerful.

And finally, Clementine. She's one of the best child characters ever created in all of media. If you've ever watched the show The Walking Dead, you'd know what a bad child character is. If you've ever played the game... *sniff* I KNOW IT'S HARD FOR YOU CLEMMY YOU'LL GET THROUGH *sob* Stay s-strong, girl, we're almost there *uncontrollable weeping* O cruel fate, why do you hate me so!

And the ending, oh the ending! WAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

God. I just lost my mind there. Erm, yeah. So the story is good.


Overall Opinion

When over analysed, the game is actually a bit crap. The graphics and audio are buggy, and the puzzles are infrequent and oversimplified. But the stuff that's there is just so good, that you don't stop and think about any of it. Just leave your critical mind at the door, disregard the occasional rough patch and prepare for the [emotional] rollercoaster of your life.

VERDICT: 9.5/10