|
The Walking Dead
(PC STEAM Download - Also available on XBox 360, PS3 &
Mac)
Bringing a bit of horror, a heap full of
character and story, TellTale Games The Walking Dead hits across several
platforms. As we starting looking this over, Andrew Bistak our fearless
leader Editor in Chief made an interesting and amusing point just before
Donna and I took on this review. The Walking Dead has been refused
classification in Australia via Xbox Live; however it’s available by
STEAM. Looking into this further, it was not that they had been REFUSED
classification….
On the official forums someone asked about the game being released in
Australia, someone identified on the boards as a TellTale Employee
replied to this. "Sorry, but due to the OFLC ratings laws in Australia
and New Zealand, and the fact that this is a mature game, we do not
currently have plans to release the game there on consoles." You can see
that here:
http://www.telltalegames.com/forums/showthread.php?p=602568#post602568
You
can get it on STEAM though. (Go figure). Other places reported the same
comments, but we will be bringing you more on this.
As we dug deeper another person posting identified themselves as the
Producer (Unconfirmed as to if this was really him.) for the game had a
full explanation regarding the game on consoles and Australia and New
Zealand. Though the information stated at this time has not been fully
confirmed from Telltale.
There is a lot more to it and that story will be updated as soon as
Telltale gets back to us with something more official.
Now let’s shamble on into the meat of the review of this truly
surprisingly interesting game shall we?
This review was done using the PC STEAM version of the game, this review
like the game itself will be reviewed in chapters; each chapter of the
episodic game will get its own review. Two United States Impulse Gamers
took it for a test drive, one Season pass was purchased, and the other
was sent over by TellTale Games.
When it first came across my desk that TellTale games was taking on
Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead…I have to admit my first thoughts
where gloom and doom. While I liked and enjoyed the Back to the Future
Episodic game I was not overly thrilled with the Jurassic Park jaunt. It
had its moments, but somehow it just did not endear me to the point of
really enjoying it.
TellTale game somehow have made flying rainbow monkeys fly from their
nether regions here. (That’s an odd way of saying…Wow; they have really
pulled this first episode off.)
If you have purchased the season pass you will be getting all of the
episodes of The Walking Dead game. If using places like STEAM as the new
episodes are available over the coming months updates will automatically
be downloaded and applied via the Steam client, which will allow new
episodes to appear in the in-game menu.
The Walking Dead is a five-part game series set in the same universe as
Robert Kirkman’s comic book series and not connected to the TV show.
Folks that enjoy the show and or the comics will see a couple of
familiar characters and even have some interactions. In this interactive
Story experience, gamers play as Lee Everett. Lee is a convicted
criminal who is given a backhanded second chance at life in a world
dominated by The Walking Dead. The episode, which this review is on, is
of course episode 1. The episodes are as follows:
Episode 1 – A New Day
Episode 2 – Starved for Help
Episode 3 – Long Road Ahead
Episode 4 – Around Every Corner
Episode 5 – No Time Left
While it’s not anything that is going to break gaming records, the game
kept me engaged in the quaintly cliché story. That is the first part of
a decent experience, keeping the consumer engaged, entertained, invested
in the characters and the story. The Walking Dead has always been about
people, not the gory death or the hideous zombie. At its core the Comic,
The Show, and this Interactive Story Game of The Walking Dead has always
primarily been a focus on the human condition. This is what can be
lightning in a bottle for this game title.
It’s those things that make us all human, no matter what walks of life
we come from. We all search for purpose and gratification, we have that
sense of curiosity, and we have to face the inevitability of isolation
and the ever present fear of death. It is here TellTale games makes a
huge stride and brings this successful formula into the story. With the
world gone crazy with a Zombie apocalypse there are so many choices to
make at nerve racking times. It can be hard to tell exactly who is more
of a monster. The Zombies or the Humans.
Donna Millheim, the United States Photographer and videographer for
Impulse Gamer, also tested the game out using an AlienWare Lap Top
computer, while I used a desk top computer to test it out. The game kept
Donna’s interest as well; in fact so much so that she played this first
episode through before I did and she is waiting for more.
This is far removed from any Zombie type games you may have played
before. There’s no running and gunning here. Never fear, there are
plenty of nail bighting incidents that will have you squirming in your
seat as you play. I call this more of an interactive game because you
will be deciding on a lot of choices, and dialogue.
The point and click aspects are here, just like other Telltale Games,
along with timed events. As you play through each environment, there are
interaction points. These points of the game either move the story along
or are key points to surviving in deadly situations. Dialogue choices
come up and there is a bar graph that grows smaller within a few
seconds, so there is often a rushed feel to things to move things along,
even when the situation does not seem to call for fast thinking, so in
this way the game design makes the choice to keep things moving and not
bog down too much in dialogue choices.
As noted, interaction and dialogue play a big part of the adventure.
There can be far reaching repercussions on how you react or what you say
to other characters. The other characters remember responses and will
react to your character in different ways depending on how you handle a
situation or what you choose to say. Telltale games says this will carry
over into the other chapters as they release as well.
It can be a bit odd in the dialogue at times. After explaining that the
girl that was with me is not my daughter, the scene played on and
characters referred to her as my daughter still. This is not jarring
enough to kill the story. It’s Just an oddity.
At the main menu when killed or starting up the game episode, there is a
choice to rewind back to a checkpoint. This way the player can move
along from that point and maybe make different choices along the way to
see how things play out for them.
There are times when the player has to make a choice, and that choice
will decide on who lives and who may die in the group.
The art graphic style is on the gritty side, stark comic book style art
with heavy line drawings of characters and environments and a few muddy
textures throughout lends itself well to the source material. Giving the
adventure a look all its own.
While it does have a comic books feel, it does not lose any of the
bloody violent moments that take place in this sort of story line.
Thankfully the story and game does not go out of the way to show gore
just for the sake of going there. It’s logically part of the story and
the action is part of the narrative.
The controls are simple as simple can get, point and click with once in
a while having to hit a certain keyboard key. But outside of the
interactive story you’re on, there won’t be much deeper game play here.
No exploring areas, no more freedom than what is at hand in each scene
of the adventure.
As long as you know you’re going into an interactive story experience,
you won’t be let down. Because it is that well done.
The Walking Dead on the other hand does not try to be anything else than
what it is. In this it does very well. Telltell games has come out of
the gate strong with this title, can they keep it up with the other
episodes that will make this complete adventure in the end? If they can,
Telltale Games may have found lightning in a bottle here, in its
simplest form.
Have fun play games
Edwin Millheim
|
