The Walking Dead: A Telltale Games Series (PC) review "The moving tale that is told will stir the emotions of even the most jaded person...and, without even exaggerating, will bring most people to tears."

One of the Best
2012 saw the release of such “blockbuster” titles like Mass Effect 3, Dishonored, Max Payne 3, Sleeping Dogs, Assassin’s Creed III, Halo 4, Borderlands 2, and Far Cry 3. Even with the release of all these titles and other great games like Journey or FTL: Faster Than Light, The Walking Dead won multiple “Game of the Year” awards. On top of that it also revitalized the entire graphic adventure gaming genre and restarted the conversation on video games being art. The reason why is that The Walking Dead tells THE most emotionally moving story I’ve experienced in a video game...and one of the most moving stories in ANY entertainment medium. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that this game WILL make you weep.

Casting Call
The most essential element to this game, and the singular reason why the story is so engaging, is the characters. They are well-developed, have surprisingly good facial animations, excellent voice acting, and have relatable personas. Over the course of the game, the player really gets involved with the characters, loving or despising them, and truly caring about what happens to each one. There were some really cool characters, like Molly, who was a bit mysterious and really kick-ass. There were some others, like the hopelessly incompetent Ben, whom I really did not like tagging along...but didn’t really want to doom to death either. However, the two characters that really stand out are YOU, Lee Everett, and Clementine, an 8-year-old girl that you find early in your journey. That dynamic relationship between the player and this little girl that you desperately want to protect creates some of the more defining moments in the game. I’ll put it this way, if I found myself remembering cutting her hair and caring about that little pouty face she made afterwards (hey, I never claimed to be a barber)...just imagine how I felt during some of the life-or-death decisions you are forced to make around her.



One of the Most Emotionally Impactful Journeys You’ll Ever Play
The second key piece to what makes this game great is the storyline. There are some really gut-wrenching moments in there that will haunt you for a long, long time. The game starts out with introducing Lee Everett as the player. You are being driven to prison and find out that you have been convicted of murder. However, the zombie outbreak is occurring and after escaping from custody, you stumble upon Clementine, an orphaned 8-year-old, and together you two try to survive this zombie apocalypse. Along the way you’ll meet a lot of different people and be put into some really hard scenarios. These situations aren’t played out in a cinematic cut-scene either...YOU will have to make the tough choices. Who do you feed? Who do you trust? Who do you save? Who will you damn? These choices will affect your gameplay experience and how characters interact with you. This key coupling of a great story with forcing the player to make really tough decisions define The Walking Dead.



Not all Sunshine and Roses
Nothing is perfect, and The Walking Dead doesn’t even come close to being so. There are some glaring, painfully obvious flaws with the game. For one, as awesome as the decisions are for the player, they don’t matter as much as many would like them to. Your decisions DO have an effect on the experience...however, it is a very nuanced effect. No matter what decisions you make, the player will experience the same basic story arc. Even though I don’t have an issue with this...as the point of the game was not to deliver an open sandbox for the player to explore, but an epic journey that you will always remember...many players still feel a bit cheated.

The simplistic gameplay is also a key flaw in the game. The puzzles make sense, but have overtly obvious solutions and require very little effort or thought. There are some action elements to the game, but these, again, are extremely dumbed down requiring little in the way of dexterity or skill. In fact, the gameplay is so simple that some have made the argument that The Walking Dead doesn’t really qualify as a game, being more of an interactive movie than a true gaming experience.



Like I Said Before, One of the Best
I’m not a fan of giving an imperfect game a perfect score...I feel like it cheapens the rating. The Walking Dead is not only imperfect...it has glaring flaws that seriously detract from the experience. With that being said, I give The Walking Dead a 10/10...period. Even considering those flaws I feel this game deserves a perfect rating. The moving tale that is told will stir the emotions of even the most jaded person...and, without even exaggerating, will bring most people to tears. How emotionally invested the player gets with the characters is unprecedented and this game ends up delivering a once in a generation gameplay experience. Whether you like video games or even hate them...this game is for everyone.



DLC?
The Walking Dead: 400 Days is currently the only bit of DLC released. It is supposed to act as the bridge between Season 1 and 2 of The Walking Dead. It is decent, but skippable. I’d only recommend it for dedicated fans of the series or of the genre.

Community review by Never3ndr (June 16, 2014) Retro-Gaming Enthusiast!