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orangerfulSo, this was a first for me. I started and finished an entire xbox game in
a single sitting. It had been my goal - I wanted to experience the game
that so many were hailing as "game of the year" but I didn't want to spend
$30 on something I would probably only play once. So I stopped by Redbox
on my way home from work Thursday night with the intention of getting
through the game by the time I had to be to work on Saturday.
The Walking Dead is based in the world of the comic books/movie series, but
we do not cross paths with any of the well-known characters, apart Glenn,
who only hangs around for the first episode (possibly just a gimmick to
pull the tv viewers into the series?). Instead, you control Lee Everett, a
college professor convicted of murder.
The game is, at it's core, a point-and-click adventure, with come elements
of the survival horror genre mixed in. This was total nerd-nip to me. Your
actions and reactions shape the story and how the other characters see
you. From simple turns of phrase to choosing who lives and who dies, your
choices will change the outcome. And your choices will haunt you for the
rest of the game (and even after you walk away from the game).
True to the 'Walkng Dead' series, the most intense moments of this game are
not when the zombies are attacking, but when the humans are acting like
humans. During downtime, Lee can wander around and speak with the fellow
survivors at his leisure. But when the conversations get heated, a
countdown timer makes you choose quickly, usually forcing you to go with
your gut reaction. Those are the moments that haunt you later, when you
wonder if you should have said something different. Because as soon as you
make that choice, up in the left corner of the screen, you will see a
little message, letting you know how a particular character reacted to your
statements or actions.
And no character affects your choices more than Clementine. After Lee's
first encounter with a "walker", he stumbles upon an abandoned suburban
home and finds the abandoned 8-year old hiding in her treehouse. She looks
up to Lee and, at least for me, it was hard to do anything that would upset
her, especially after hearing the desperate messages from her mother left
on the answering machine. Lee decides to take care of her and the two are
inseparable for the rest of the game (but not in an annoying "escort
mission" kind of wayLEON!).
The game was made for several different platforms, though TellTale usually
releases these games on PC, they have now started to port them to tablets
and consoles. The Xbox controls took awhile for me to get the hang of,
some of the shooting parts were impossible (though the targeting was very
forgiving in most cases). And, of course, pulling from the survival horror
genre, the controls are just awkward enough to throw you off in a moment of
panic. Moving your character with the left thumbstick while examining the
space around him with the right is just plain awkward, but, in the end, I
survived.
The game does pull you in and I found myself hollering at the TV, swearing
at other characters and even screaming "HELP ME!" when a zombie had me
pinned and it seemed like my cohorts were not going to save me in time. It
is definitely worth a playthrough. My guess is that so many people my age
are enjoying it is because we miss those point and click adventures of the
mid-90s, when PCs reigned the more complex gaming world. While I do enjoy
a good open world where I can wander for hours and explore, there is still
something fun about playing a story. It's probably more of an interactive
movie than a game, you guide Lee to different choices and solve relatively
simple puzzles. Your choices change the story, but it's not the same level
of interaction as you have with, say, a Bioware game.
I played the entire thing is about 12 hours. Yes, each decision you make
changes something, but after those 12 intense hours, I don't think I could
go back and play it again. I will enjoy conversations with other players
about what choices they made. But, at least for me, the story was too
emotional, too exhausting to want to go through it all a second time. The
crux of "Walking Dead" is living with those hard choices, finding ways to
move on after you've made the hard call, dealing with something you did in
the heat of the moment, or realizing a choice you made that you thought was
for the good of the group almost lead to it's downfall. I made the
decisions I felt needed to be made and playing the game again...well, that
would be like playing life again and you can't do that.
a single sitting. It had been my goal - I wanted to experience the game
that so many were hailing as "game of the year" but I didn't want to spend
$30 on something I would probably only play once. So I stopped by Redbox
on my way home from work Thursday night with the intention of getting
through the game by the time I had to be to work on Saturday.
The Walking Dead is based in the world of the comic books/movie series, but
we do not cross paths with any of the well-known characters, apart Glenn,
who only hangs around for the first episode (possibly just a gimmick to
pull the tv viewers into the series?). Instead, you control Lee Everett, a
college professor convicted of murder.
The game is, at it's core, a point-and-click adventure, with come elements
of the survival horror genre mixed in. This was total nerd-nip to me. Your
actions and reactions shape the story and how the other characters see
you. From simple turns of phrase to choosing who lives and who dies, your
choices will change the outcome. And your choices will haunt you for the
rest of the game (and even after you walk away from the game).
True to the 'Walkng Dead' series, the most intense moments of this game are
not when the zombies are attacking, but when the humans are acting like
humans. During downtime, Lee can wander around and speak with the fellow
survivors at his leisure. But when the conversations get heated, a
countdown timer makes you choose quickly, usually forcing you to go with
your gut reaction. Those are the moments that haunt you later, when you
wonder if you should have said something different. Because as soon as you
make that choice, up in the left corner of the screen, you will see a
little message, letting you know how a particular character reacted to your
statements or actions.
And no character affects your choices more than Clementine. After Lee's
first encounter with a "walker", he stumbles upon an abandoned suburban
home and finds the abandoned 8-year old hiding in her treehouse. She looks
up to Lee and, at least for me, it was hard to do anything that would upset
her, especially after hearing the desperate messages from her mother left
on the answering machine. Lee decides to take care of her and the two are
inseparable for the rest of the game (but not in an annoying "escort
mission" kind of way
The game was made for several different platforms, though TellTale usually
releases these games on PC, they have now started to port them to tablets
and consoles. The Xbox controls took awhile for me to get the hang of,
some of the shooting parts were impossible (though the targeting was very
forgiving in most cases). And, of course, pulling from the survival horror
genre, the controls are just awkward enough to throw you off in a moment of
panic. Moving your character with the left thumbstick while examining the
space around him with the right is just plain awkward, but, in the end, I
survived.
The game does pull you in and I found myself hollering at the TV, swearing
at other characters and even screaming "HELP ME!" when a zombie had me
pinned and it seemed like my cohorts were not going to save me in time. It
is definitely worth a playthrough. My guess is that so many people my age
are enjoying it is because we miss those point and click adventures of the
mid-90s, when PCs reigned the more complex gaming world. While I do enjoy
a good open world where I can wander for hours and explore, there is still
something fun about playing a story. It's probably more of an interactive
movie than a game, you guide Lee to different choices and solve relatively
simple puzzles. Your choices change the story, but it's not the same level
of interaction as you have with, say, a Bioware game.
I played the entire thing is about 12 hours. Yes, each decision you make
changes something, but after those 12 intense hours, I don't think I could
go back and play it again. I will enjoy conversations with other players
about what choices they made. But, at least for me, the story was too
emotional, too exhausting to want to go through it all a second time. The
crux of "Walking Dead" is living with those hard choices, finding ways to
move on after you've made the hard call, dealing with something you did in
the heat of the moment, or realizing a choice you made that you thought was
for the good of the group almost lead to it's downfall. I made the
decisions I felt needed to be made and playing the game again...well, that
would be like playing life again and you can't do that.