The Walking Dead: Season One Review

Out of the hype of The Walking Dead TV-show, the game with the same name, and also based on the comic books by the same name, came Telltales Walking Dead franchise. Starting off in season one we play as a convicted criminal named Lee who is enroute to prison. Whilst talking to the police officer escorting you, the car suddenly flips over, killing the cop and leaving Lee free once again. After removing our handcuffs we discover, to our horror, that the police man turns in to a zombie. After getting rid of the living dead we push on, and runs in to a young girl called Clementine who is hiding out the apocalypse within her tree house. They join forces, and meets Shawn, a young man who takes them out to his farm. Here we meet a familiar face (if you have seen the TV series) – Hershel Greene, along with Kenny and his family. After a zombie attack the gang fails to save Shawn, and are thus Lee, Clem and Kennys family are told to leave Hershel’s farm.

The gang escapes to another town where they meet a group of survivors, their leader being Lilly. Getting into a fight, Lillys father gets a heart attack and needs medicine. Glenn, another member of Lillys group, goes to a motel to scavange for resources, but becomes in need of rescue – the mission falling upon Lee and Carley, a news reporter. Since Lee’s parents used to run the drug store, we end up encountering Lee’s brother, turned into a zombie whom we have to kill to get the keys. When leaving the store you are forced to save either Carley or Doug from certain death. In doing so, we are almost killed, but saved by Kenny. They head to a motel for a reprieve, and learn that Atlanta is completely overrun by zombies. The gang finds shelter for a moment, but resources are running short.

The gang takes up an offer where they will be providing gasoline to St. Johns in exchange for food. By doing this, they learn that they have enganged in cannibalism. The group takes them out, and their farm is overrun by zombies. Enroute back to their motel hideout they find a car packed with provision, that they steal. It does not take long before the hideout is attacked by bandits, which in turn draws zombies near, forcing the gang to escape. In doing so Duck is bitten, and Lilly need to be either evicted from the group, or she steals Kenny’s RV. The group then travels to Savannah by using a train they find, and fix up. At Savannah the plan is to take a boat and escape the mainland as to get away from the apocalypse. While they are travelling to Savannah, Duck dies from his bite, and Katjaa commits suicide because of it.

Near their destination the group meets Omid and Christa, who joins them. Also, someone contacts Clementine on her walkie-talkie, telling her that he has her parents. The gang finds shelter in an abandoned mansion whilst Lee and Kenny goes out trying to find a boat. They soon learn that all boats has already been taken or has been destroyed. They also have issues finding supplies, due to most of it already has been collected by Crawford, a walled-off community. Kenny and Lee meets another group of survivors who escorts them back to the mansion. To their luck they discover a motorboat in the backyard shed.

The group agrees on storming the Crawford compound for supplies, but once they have stormed it they discover the community is overrun by zombies. They return to their hideout, and Clementine runs off in hope of finding her parents. Lee wanting to get her back as soon as possible ends up being bitten by a zombie trying to find her. Knowing he will soon be dead he returns, finding their boat has been stolen by Vernon and his group – a group who helped our gang earlier. Lee finally gets contact to Clementine, who tells him that she is being held hostage at a nearby hotel. The gang decides it is smartest to travel on the rooftops, but Kenny seems to have lost all hope, and Lee is soon separated from Omid and Christa too.

Lee heads on further on his own trying to find Clementine, and ends up finding her being the captive of a strange man. A man who we learn was  the owner of the car filled with resources we stole way earlier. Due to us stealing the goods, his entire family perished. After being questioned by the stranger, going through all the choices you have done through your playthrough (being scolded for the bad parts) Clem and Lee kills the stranger. In order to escape they both cover themselves in blood and guts from a dead walker, as to cover their human scent. When walking through the street Clem sees her parents, now also zombies, and pulls Lee into a store. Lee is getting weaker by the hour, succumbing to his bite wound. Working together, Clem and Lee kills a zombie, and at his dying moment Lee tells Clementine to escape the city and find Omid and Christa. If you choose, Lee can ask Clem to shoot him before he turns into a walker, or leave him behind to turn into one. If you do not choose any, your previous actions will dictate what Clem chooses to do.

Telltale Games has been known for creating multiple point-and-click games, also from major franchises (Back to the Future, for example), but they really hit the nail on their Walking Dead game. The story is interesting and the graphics are pretty neat. Although the game gives the illusion of choice, it does not matter in the end what you choose throughout the game. You will get a slightly different story, and a bit more story from chosen characters, but ultimatly it does not do much. This is a shame, as a full-fledged choice-system would have been quite interesting in shaping the story. That being said, you do feel bad for some of your choices (and sometimes there are only bad choices), and if you finish the game you are met with statistics over what other players chose contra what you did yourself, which is rather cool. The soundtrack is pretty darn good, and fits the game atmopshere. All in all, although it does play a bit like an interactive movie (with somtimes very little player interaction) it still holds up. The game is great, and if you are a fan of The Walking Dead this should be a no brainer,