#Gaming: The Walking Dead: Episode 1 PC Review
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#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @violent_gamer
Zombies, choices and drama, that's what The Walking Dead is all about. It puts that all into a point and click adventure, the kind of game Telltale Games is known for. The graphics are stylized and inspired by the original The Walking Dead comics. The combat is handled through quick time events, which many people hate, but they are handled tastefully and professionally. The Walking Dead game is a five episode series, the first part of which just came out on Tuesday the 24th for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3. A new episode will be released once every month following that initial release. The first episode costs $25 and lasts 2-3 hours, but when you purchase the first episode you are really purchasing all five episodes, so you are really purchasing 10-15 hours of gameplay. Episode 1 focuses greatly on choices, constantly notifying you when a character takes note of your actions and gives you plenty of options to piss people off, help them, save them or let them die. For now it is difficult to tell if your choices truly matter, but once the rest of the episodes come out we will see if your choices truly matter.
One of the first things likely to disappoint you in The Walking Dead: Episode 1 - A New Day is the graphics. Some of the character models are believe-able and are detailed, but there are plenty of zombies and a few people who look bland or hastily designed. This is especially evident when a zombie horde is shown. When a single zombie is shown it will often look quite good, but when they have a horde there are so many zombies on the screen that they didn't bother to detail them or the graphical engine cannot handle having a bunch of highly, or moderately, detailed zombies on the screen at once. Overall the graphics may detract from the experience every so often, but for the most part they do their job and make the world feel moderately believe-able, which is something very important for a game focused on character interaction and story.
The Walking Dead's story is one of its better points. You play as Lee Everett, a man who may or may not be killer, which you learn plenty about throughout the first episode, and you get to choose what kind of person to make him throughout the game. The game starts as the zombie outbreak is starting to spread all over, but you are specifically just outside of Atlanta, one of the main cities in start of The Walking Dead show/comics. To my surprise I like parts of the story in The Walking Dead game better than The Walking Dead television show. I especially enjoy the relationship they build up between Lee and the girl you meet very early on named Clementine. They make it easy to get interested in the back-grounds of all the characters you meet and they make it so constantly have choices, some of which are tiny, like backing someone up in an argument, while others are massive decisions that involve saving someone's life. I also appreciate that they make some conflicts between characters feel plausible, sure it's a zombie outbreak, but some people are assholes and some people just won't get along. There are gimmicky moments every so often, but they really did a great job with the voice acting, animations and script to make it easy to invest in the story. I cannot wait to see what happens next and what new characters will surface.
Last Comments
The Walking Dead: Episode 1 is not for everyone. It doesn't have mind blowing graphics, it doesn't have innovative mechanics, it doesn't have a super attractive combat system, but it does have a great deal of strength in story, tone, environment. It does make a point and click adventure feel interesting once again. Only one episode is out right now, another one due on May 24th, and that's all your going to get for $25, but in four months time all of the episodes will be out and it will be a fairly lengthy game with a ton of choices. No one knows if your choices truly matter just yet and the series will be broken or made by how your choices affect the story down the line, but based on the first episode it does look like your choices really do change things and create a different story line. If they can fix up the graphics a little, fix a few of the technical problems, like sound glitches and crashes, then the series could end up becoming one of the best point and click adventure games in a very long time. I don't recommend it wholeheartedly just yet. Wait at least until the second episode comes out, and our review, to see whether or not your choices in each episode do interact in significant ways.
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Read the full review and check out the game in action over at Violent Gamer.