The Walking Dead Review

Walking Dead Cover

     Hello everyone and happy Wednesday, today we are going to review one of my favorite zombie games ever: The Walking Dead.  I am not talking about Walking Dead: Survival Instincts, which if you look, I did a angry review on that game last year.  During that time period I felt like blowing off steam, but in general that game really suck.  So don't buy that game, buy this game, it is a million times better, literally.  Though I could go talking crap about Survival Instincts, but were here talk about a good game. Developed and published by Telltale Games, the Walking Dead is game composed of five episodes that where released between April 24 and December 11 of 2012.  The game is a third-person five part episodic graphic adventure, meaning displayed as one huge cinematic game.  I know it sounds dull, but it is actually really fun, but tread carefully, just about anything and everything you do will affect the story. There is a warning before each episode begins saying the game is tailored by the decisions you make throughout the game, kind in mind I mean everything, from decisions to kill someone to giving a little boy a candy bar.
     So anyway the game revolves around the protagonist of season one, Lee Everett, an ex-convict as seen on the cover.  The game begins with Lee being driven out of Atlanta, Georgia in a police car to prison.  The police officer say he knows you didn't do it (to what crime you committed is vague at the time), and you engage in conversation with the officer.  As you are talking to him you notice police helicopters and SWAT cars passing you going in and cluttered radio chatter on the car's radio.  You get to the point in the discussion where he turns around for a moment to tell you something when he hits a walker and the car crashes through the road barrier into the forest below.  Lee slowly wakes up half conscious hearing screams from the officer and gun shots being fired, Lee then blacks out again only to awake to find his leg which is badly injured and the police officer dead or unconscious outside the flipped car.  This is the first time you get to use interactive system of the game which allows you to look around, observe or interact with objects, letting you break thing, open door, pick up objects and so forth.  So Lee looks around until he see the cracked window which he proceeds to break the glass and exits the car.  Stumbling onto the ground, feeling intense pain in his leg, which has been badly cut open, Lee rights himself up and limps towards the officer.  Once over him you once again ask the officer if he is all right before taking the keys from him to unlock his cuffs.  As he finishes taking them off, the officer appears to stir before he lunges at Lee, making him fall back.  Lee crawls backward until he against the half flipped car, he cries out "what are you" as the officer, who is now a zombie, crawls towards Lee grunting and his leg apparently broken.   Lee looks around frantically, spotting the officer shotgun next to him, he grabs it and it's empty.  Seeing a shotshell next to him, he quickly grabs it, loads it into the action, and pumps the shell into the gun.  Lee says "don't make me do this" and then shoots the officer, killing it. You see a little girl standing on the hill and yell to her to get help.
   

A screenshot showing dialog choices. At certain points in the game's

conversation trees, the player will have a limited amount of time to respond,

shown at the bottom of this screen. If they don't respond in time,

the game will default to the "no statement" Source: Wikipedia 

Then walkers begin to emerge from the forest, attracted by the noise of the gunshot, Lee rights himself up and stumbles through the forest as more walkers appear, Lee then hops a fence into someone's backyard.  The walkers bang on the fence but are drawn off by distant gunshots.  Lee sits there for a moment before pulling himself up and walks through the house's back door into the wrecked house.  Lee plays the voice-mail on a answering machine to find some disturbing messages before hearing a voice on a radio.  He looks around in the kitchen drawers before finding a walky-talkie, he speaks to the girl who was on the hill asking her if shes alright, her name is Clementine. You talk to her a little more before being attacked by a walker from behind, Lee forces it off him before he runs out of the kitchen only to slip on a blood puddle in the kitchen and knock his head good on the counter.  Lee backs up into the sliding glass door kicking back the walker where Clementine hands Lee a hammer that he uses to kill it.  After asking Clementine a few questions, Lee decides he will take care of her until her parents return, by the messages Lee heard, he knows there not coming back and can't just leave her.  They walk through a small gate onto a road where two guys are pushing a car, trying to get unlodged from the rest of the cars on the road.  Lee calls to them and after some dialogue, helps them move the car that's blocking their car's path out of town.  They finish moving the car just as walkers are closing in.
     With this Lee and Clementine embark on a journey that will change both their lives.  Throughout the story you will meet character from the TV series like Hershel and Glen. You encounter a lot of situations both good and bad, but as Lee tries to hold the group together, things only get worse.  I think my favorite take on this game is that it shows the dark side of a zombie apocalypse, that it's not just bullets and America moments, that it is dangerous and heartbreaking.  The game shows the dark side of human nature, but shows the strength of a group of survivors banning together during undefined times of hardships.  This is a great game any gamer should have, 10 of 10.  I hope you have enjoyed this review and I will see you all next week.  This has been Jacob Arnold, signing off.

Episode 1 trailer

Episode 2 trailer

Episode 3 Trailer 

Episode 4 Trailer

Episode 5 Trailer