The Walking Dead (video game) - Telltales

[Danny]

Have you read the reviews? Neil in this day and age reviews are as good as worthless. We live in an age of 8-10 excellence and 1-7 garbage. Paid reviews are rampant because if you dont agree then advertising is pulled from your site and "truefan/faggithatas" are the only two audiences in a a modern critical mindset where there is perfect and dogshit and nothing in between. Wait till people have played it, then listen to them. Its the 'rule of amazon': 3 star reviews are always the most accurate, 1 and 5 star ones are nothing but bias and outright lies.

[kidgloves]

Played through this for the 1st time last night on the 360 and this is what I think about it. From a gameplay perspective, its total garbage. If youre looking for a game experience from this then don't bother and don't start crying if you bought this expecting a good game. Its total crap as a game. But. And its a big but. As a Walking Dead experience, its superb. I can totally see why Kirkman chose Telltale. They have got the atmosphere and characters during a ZA spot on. The main protagonist Lee is very interesting and goes through some serious shit. By the end of the 1st episode I knew all the remaining characters and I am thoroughly looking forward to the next episode. The easiest way to describe the "game" is as an interactive colour motion comic set in TWD universe. It has glitches. Its on the rails. Some of the character reactions are bizarre. The "puzzles" and story can be confusing if you don't go the programmed route of solving them. The voice acting and most of the animations are excellent and the story has some tense moments and tough decisions to make. I'm going to have a 2nd runthrough in a bit and make different choices because I made the choices I would make in a ZA. Tonight I'm going to be a prick and see what happens. In short. If you approach this with a gamers mentality and snobery you will hate it and Kirkman thanks you for your cash. If you approach this as an episode of your favourite comic/tv show which you get to interact with, then you will love it. To put it into perspective, it costs less than a pint would set you back in our capital.

[Trancelikestate]

Pretty much what I said/expected. If you guys want a better idea, heres 13 minutes of gameplay.

[Neil]

The easiest way to describe the "game" is as an interactive colour motion comic set in TWD universe. Doesn't sound so bad if you go in knowing this?!

[krisvds]

Have to agree with kidgloves. This is not a 'game', not even a throwback to the classic Sierra/Lucasarts era of pointy click adventure games with which it does share some similarities. You walk around an environment searching for objects to either put in your inventory or just 'look at ...' If you encounter NPC's you can choose what to say through elaborate dialogue trees and so on. But that's where the similarities end because the game does not (so far?) feature any puzzles whatsoever. You just have to pick up stuff in the order the game wants you to and then, when presented with a 'puzzle' will automatically give you the correct action. There's no 'I'm stuck on a puzzle and am going to use every thing in my inventory on enverything in the environment' moments here. And I enjoyed it tremendously as an interactive comic book. The 'gameplay' consists of making ethical choices and does this very well. It just begs to be replayed just to see how different choices shake things up. And some of the decisions you make are quite hard and will have a profound effect on how the story will play out. Even the 'next time on the TWD' preview that wraps up the episode differs depending on what choices you made. Nice touch. Because of their going with the interactive comic book route this is easily the best zombie apocalypse rendition in a videogame that I have ever 'played.' The writing is very good as is the voice acting. It still could be a whole lot better though: I wish they gave you the option to play it in black and white as it would suit the overall oppressive atmosphere better. The colours they use are just too sunday morning cartooney. It being 'on rails' does not help either. Sure, you change how people will react to you and at times who gets to live or die but the game is still leading you from point A to B. I just wish they made it a bit more complex. Apart from that, I'd recommend it to every one who enjoys TWD and doesn't mind 'playing' anything other than a classic videogame.

[kidgloves]

Doesn't sound so bad if you go in knowing this?! It definately does help. Its pretty much what I was expecting and its a bonus that its actually quite a good experience. A good AV setup definately helps.

[Neil]

It definately does help. Its pretty much what I was expecting and its a bonus that its actually quite a good experience. A good AV setup definately helps. How much gameplay time to go thru the first episode roughly?

[krisvds]

It took me 2 hours and 30 minutes.

[Neil]

It took me 2 hours and 30 minutes. Eeek! Guess as long as the other chapters are as long, that's OK... But to have to wait a month before any more is a bit of a pain! I think I'll wait a few months so I can play 3-4 at once!

[kidgloves]

Quick update from my 2nd runthrough last night. It doesn't matter what choice you make it doesn't change the storyline at all. I tried to make every character suspicious of my behaviour but the same characters appeared at the same time in the same scenes. Oh well. No problem. I got my moneys worth and really enjoyed it for what it was. Looking forward to the 2nd episode.

[Neil]

Quick update from my 2nd runthrough last night. It doesn't matter what choice you make it doesn't change the storyline at all. I tried to make every character suspicious of my behaviour but the same characters appeared at the same time in the same scenes. Oh well. No problem. I got my moneys worth and really enjoyed it for what it was. Looking forward to the 2nd episode. That sounds absolutely crud then surely!? What's the point of the options?!

[Trancelikestate]

It's the same way in BTTF or JP. It's basically a semi interactive walking dead cartoon.

[kidgloves]

That sounds absolutely crud then surely!? What's the point of the options?! You do get different lines of dialogue and animations from the characters but you always end up at the same point.

[Danny]

That sounds absolutely crud then surely!? What's the point of the options?! i dont quite understand this. what did you expect? and how is this different from 90% of videogames? i mean i should make some mass effect 3 joke here but i'm really not sure what you were expecting from this game.

[Tricky]

If only they'd created a world the size of Skyrim (obviously modern day America rather than a mountainous fantasy world) and based the game in there with the same kind of character interaction that the game presents you with. Walkers roaming the countryside and herds of them trying to get into the strongholds. A man can dream...