So I recently got my hands on a copy of The Walking Dead from Telltale games, recipient of more "Game of the Year" awards than it will ever know what to do with. Going in with a large amount of hype over the story and characters isn't the best of ways to enter a game, as my expectations were all kinds of high, but as it turns out, The Walking Dead has not disappointed so far. Having finished the first episode, I thought it would be interesting to give my impressions of each episode as I played them, for a nice change of pace.So let's take a look at Episode 1, shall we? *Minor Spoiler Warning - I wont give away any major plot details, but I can't promise you won't learn anything *
We begin this game in an Elder Scrolls style, in that we find the Lee, the protagonist, arrested for some indeterminate crime(you do find out later, however). The kindly police officer says he doesn't think I did it, which now makes me almost positive that I did....whatever it was. I choose to believe that Lee was arrested after a string of bank robberies using only a ballpoint pen and a handkerchief, but I digress.
As is typical for any game with zombies in the promotional art, it isn't too long before shit comes in contact with fan, and you are forced to go head to head with your very first zombie. In wonderful adventure game style, the solution to this problem is indeed "Use Shotgun on Undead Ravenous Creature". Gotta love it when developers know exactly what their audience wants!
A quick jaunt through the woods later, and I'm face to face with a character that comes with more hype than the game itself, Clementine. Having been described to me as one of the best child characters in popular culture(read: not annoying and helpless like most child characters), I was ready to examine her character with a magnifying glass. But within five minutes of meeting her, she had justified every bit of her hype. She is frightened and nervous, as any kid(or adult, or dog, or tree) would be in the middle of a zombie invasion, but at now point is she helpless. She had already been surviving for days, with enough sense to hide in her treehouse above the ground. Even better than that, despite her fear, she comes down from her safe point to help you when you find yourself attacked by another Ravenous Undead Creature, with no shotgun to your name this time.
Warning: Heartstring pulling imminent.
Clementine, simply put, has been the driving force of the first episode. I want to help her, but not because I think she's helpless and in need of protection. But you want to, because you know that in her own way, she is looking out for Lee just as much as he is looking out for Clementine.The Walking Dead takes the form of a point-and-click adventure game, a genre that has almost been entirely ignored in recent years, and one that I've been a fan of ever since I played the first Monkey Island. But The Walking Dead doesn't quite feel like the same experience, the options are too few and the logic is too straightforward. But the mechanics are not really the main attraction it seems, your there for the characters, and the decisions. Oh the decisions.
The pinnacle of the first episode is a number of tough decisions you are forced to make. Whether it is trying to take a side in a conflict, or making a snap decision as to who you try and save first(hint, you can't save both, ever...). Every decision has that frantic nature that harkens to its zombie apocalypse roots, and the characters are interesting and varied enough that you will want to keep them save.
But here's a secret. I'm not good with decisions in games, I find them difficult and uncomfortable. I was that kid with all ten fingers marking places in Choose Your Own Adventure books, just in case I got one of those "You Fall into the Death Bog" endings. But I get the feeling that difficult and uncomfortable is exactly what Telltale is going for here. The emotional reaction here is entirely justified, and the thought process that you're forced to go through in only a few seconds is frantic. Almost every decision will leave you wondering "What If?".
I have to say, The Walking Dead has been quite an experience so far. It has both left me wanting more, and contemplating locking it away so no one else will die because of me.
