I was once a Walking Dead superfan. The television show hooked me immediately (what can I say? I love zombies). From there I purchased every issue of the comic book series and my obsession only grew from there. I was hungry though, and as a gamer and huge fan of survival horror I eagerly awaited the franchise’s foray into the world of video games. This is where things get interesting. Rather than taking the easy path and cloning Resident Evil, or releasing a generic first person shooter, Telltale games picked up the license and made a point and click adventure game based on the property. I was in day 1, and absolutely loved it. It eventually came to the Xbox One and I decided to relive the glory here. Is Walking Dead Season 1 still worth playing on the platform? Abso-freaking-lutely!
As an adventure game story is key, and the Walking Dead season 1 doesn’t disappoint. Fitting with the television motif the game is divided into different episodes with a total of five. In a rather unconventional opening sequence you start out in the back of a police car. The protagonist is Lee, a university professor who murdered his wife and her lover in a passionate rage. He’s on his way to prison when a person wanders in front of the squad car which subsequently wrecks. Lee awakens as the police officer chauffeur is being eaten by a zombie. Lee narrowly escapes, and wanders into the city of Atlanta to find help. It is here that he encounters a young girl named Clementine left on her own, and he takes her in with hopes of finding her parents and protecting her.
As the story unfolds the world soon falls into chaos. Lee and Clementine are survivors, who meet up with other people with the ultimate goal of survival. That’s the story in a nutshell. The Walking Dead is one of those video games wherein you sculpt the story as you see fit. Gameplay consists mostly of dialogue trees that allow some different results, but ultimately the outcomes are always the same (with slightly different results). The game is based on the comic book world, but you’ll never run into Rick Grimes, and Everette Lee’s struggles are similar but altogether different. The story is incredibly riveting as you get to know the other survivors all the while looking out for your (as well as Clementine’s) best interests. You’ll never play as anyone other than Lee, and the main focus of the plot is the relationship between he and Clementine.
Storyline is obviously the focus here. The choices you have to make as Lee are often casual and have little meaning to the overarching plot. The Walking Dead Season 1 will offer some differences in how the story progresses, but the end result is always the same. That’s fair to assume from the get go considering how focused the plot is. I will say that even the small decisions become more difficult as you get to know each character. I initially wanted to play Lee as a mean guy, but there was no way I could do so and not feel like a terrible human.
You get attached to what happens and the characters. Few video games have achieved this with me on this level. The final moments of the last episode had me in tears. I didn’t cry when Aeris died, nor has any other game made me so emotional. The ending to season one touched me in a long lasting way that I’ll never forget. As a new dad, replaying it only affected me more despite fully knowing the outcome.
What’s interesting (and kind of abrasive to be honest) are the on-screen prompts during dialogue. These will indicate thing such as ‘you sided with so-and-so’ or this person will remember that. These prompts make you think you’re affecting the story, and sometimes it does alter future events, but other times it’s short lived. I feel like it’s used too often, and is a tool to make players think more about their choices. I wish it was kept to just the moments that were significant to the story personally, but I suppose it’s a decent feature.
I’ve talked a lot about the story, but for good reason. It’s the focus after all, but there’s plenty of gameplay in between as well. In each environment you guide Lee around a 3D environment. These are typically very enclosed and linear. You guide a cursor around which will show you which icons you can interact with, and press the action button to do so. Generally you’ll be in an environment wherein you can speak with characters, pick up items, or use them. To be honest this can be a bit cumbersome. The way forward isn’t always obvious, and you’ll find yourself revisiting areas to try and find out what’s next expected of you. It’s often annoying, but you’ll press through to see what happens next.
Later in the series Telltale games apparently took note that gamers wanted a little more… well… gameplay. In the beginning you’ll fail mostly because you get caught, or didn’t react to a quick time event in time. At first these are the meatier sequences. Later on you’ll have moments where you have to aim the cursor to shoot approaching walkers before they can eat you. Should you fail you’re simply kicked back to a few moments before this and given another chance to do so. It makes the Walking Dead feel more like an action game which is a nice change of pace from walking around interacting with objects, but it’s pretty simplistic in nature. All events are scripted so progression is very linear. Honestly the game’s weak point is that it tries too hard to be a video game instead of an interactive story.
The graphics are a little underwhelming for an Xbox One title. I realize that this game originated on platforms belonging to the previous generation, but there’s no obvious bump in resolution. On another note the game makes use of a cell shade visual style that harkens to comic books. As someone who read the comics this game is very faithful to them as far as graphics go. The framerate has some serious issues even on the modern consoles when there’s a lot going on. It runs better than it did on the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3, but not by much to be honest. At least there are less glitches. The soundtrack is phenomenal and really suits the story. In addition the voice acting is fantastic and really helps to draw you into the universe. I especially liked the actor who played Lee.
