Introduction
The Walking Dead is a game adapted from the massive hit comic book series by Robert Kirkman. Shambling zombie hordes persistently hound the player character, Lee Everett, and an ever changing cast of survivors throughout the five episodes in Season 1. Chronologically, the game takes place simultaneously with the events of the comics, though for the most part the survivors are all new characters (you do come across a few of the main characters from the comics, but they generally don't stick around for too long). Lee, being transported to jail after being convicted for murder, suddenly finds himself in the middle of the undead. One of the first survivors he finds is a little girl named Clementine, a smart but naive eight year old that Lee ends up playing guardian for. Along the way, Lee and the other survivors struggle with the walkers, bandits, supply shortages, and with an overall lack of just what they should do. Not everyone is going to make it...
Gameplay
The Walking Dead appears at first glance to be a typical adventure game, especially familiar to anyone who has played any of Telltale's previous point and click revival games (i.e. Sam & Max Save the World, Tales of Monkey Island, etc.). You move Lee around the environment looking for hotspots (not a pixel hunt by any means) to interact with to solve problems and navigate dialog with other characters.
The twist in The Walking Dead, the hook that makes the gameplay much more than just another adventure game, is that sometimes you're not allowed to take your time and really evaluate your choices. In dialog, some of your choices are limited by varying timers, forcing you to make snap judgements that could have life or death consequences in the heat of the moment. Characters will remember your decisions and the narrative branches in a way I haven't seen since Alpha Protocol.
Further, the intensity is ratcheted up with Panic Events that will test your reactions, accuracy, and QTE completion skills. Successfully navigating the Panic Events requires a fair amount of alertness, though you should be able to beat them even if you get caught unprepared. As for the QTEs, they're generally not offensive and are always the same one or two keys (you will mash the Q key a lot, sometimes followed by the E key), and they usually make sense as a game mechanic when they occur.
Thus, the normal, laid back adventure game (or more accurately, interactive story) puzzle solving is interspersed with super intense battles of reaction and snap judgment that are guaranteed to keep you on your toes.
Sights and Sounds
Presented in a stylistic comic book fashion, The Walking Dead is very unique and generally of good quality. The Telltale Tool is not the most sophisticated by any stretch, and while not quite on par with something like Borderlands 2 or TF2 technically, the look and feel of the comics is replicated impeccably. The characters are generally quite expressive, and convey emotions really well without resorting to forced dialog. The environments are well detailed and really well varied. Overall, The Walking Dead does exactly what it needs to on the graphics front.
Voice acting, as one might expect, plays a very important role in an interactive story like this, and the cast that Telltale put together is one of the highlights of The Walking Dead. The main characters Lee and Clementine are brilliantly cast and are totally convincing. The accents are on target, and never sounds like people in a sound booth reading lines. Some of the characters are weaker than others, but on the whole this is some of the best voice acting in recent times. You will be pleased by the nuanced, realistic, and powerful performances.
Stuff that sucks
While I did not experience any technical issues, there are numerous reports of people's progress disappearing as if they haven't played the game at all. There is supposedly a fix for this that involves copying a particular file from the game's My Documents folder to the Steamapps folder that has to be done every time if the bug affects you, so be prepared for minor annoyances if you're unlucky. I haven't heard anything about a permanent fix from Telltale, sadly.
Conclusion
The Walking Dead is easily one of the absolute best games of the year. No other game generates such strong affectation towards its cast of characters. No other game can instill fear and anxiety like this. You will react in terror to what happens, and you will beg for more. Sean Vanaman and Jake Rodkin (the main writers for Season 1) will give you just the perfect amount of hope before everything gets destroyed right in front of your eyes. I've never felt better about such an utterly depressing, soul-destroying experience. More than a few times I was really touched emotionally by things in this game. The only game that has come so close to this in emotional impact I can think of is The Longest Journey/Dreamfall. By the end your heart will be in your throat, tears welling up in your eyes. This should be on everyone's very short Game of the Year lists. It's that fucking good.
Score: 10/10
