Walking Dead is quickly becoming a juggernaut in popular culture. What started as a comic book phenomenon went on to have a television series on AMC and now it also has a video game. Unlike other popular zombie games this will not be a typical action oriented game. Instead the game will be somewhat like an RPG. Story oriented and based purely on the choices you make with some action in between. If anything it’s like a Choose Your Own Adventure. The game will be episodic with part one “A New Day,” being released first. There will be a total of five episodes.
Lee on the ride to prison.
In the Walking Dead you will be playing the character Lee Everett who is in a police vehicle being escorted to prison when an accident causes the death of the driver. Lee finally wakes up and after a brief scuffle with the undead he leaves the scene of the crash. Lee ends up finding a house to escape his pursuers and meets up with Clementine. Along the way they’ll meet others who are also trying to find a safe haven to escape the madness until the military hopefully fix the whole situation. The story itself will take place prior to the events of the comic books so you’ll be meeting characters from the comic series such as Glenn and Hershel in the first installment.
The gameplay is fairly easy even in the action sequences. On the screen you’ll be able to move Lee within the environment he is placed in and use any tools he may have on hand. The cursor on the screen will tell you what may be available for you to interact with whether it be an item or a person. The real interesting aspect lays in the dialogue and the choices you make during specific points in conversation or action sequences. Depending what you say or do will affect what happens during the course of the game. If you lie the person won’t trust you, if you saved them from a zombie they’ll remember how you helped and may give you a hand later on. But the game won’t just let you sit there for a few minutes during some of these moments and let you make up your mind. Sometimes you’ll have 0nly seconds to decide. Not deciding on time could mean your life.
This babysitter is so losing her job.
I honestly didn’t expect the game to be as good as it was. As I mentioned before it’s not a complicated game but it is very engaging. Just like a volume of the Walking Dead comic once it was over I hated to see it end. I wanted more. The same was the case for the game. There was even a trailer for the next episode when the game ended. Just keep in mind the game is short. Only a couple of hours long, but the Walking Dead is fairly inexpensive. The developer Telltale did a good job of making it very interesting and engaging. The game isn’t scary but the ambiance in the game is good and you’ll be looking around ever corner expecting a zombie. The animation and designs were well done as was the voice acting. The cursor was bit too large if anything but not a big deal and after a while I got used to it. In the picture above you’ll see an example of the cursor which is basically in the shape of the D-Pad. At the bottom you’ll see the hammer which you have to select to bash that zombie’s head in. If you are a fan of the series then this is something you may want to take a look at. As it stands I will need to play it again just to see what other decisions I can make and what the outcomes will be.
The first episode is currently available with the other installments to be released at later dates. Walking Dead is download only and available on Xbox 360, PS3, PC, Mac OS, and iOS. The price for each episode is about $5.00. Well worth the experience.