Telltale’s The Walking Dead: Season 1 Review

<p>When I first heard the announcement for Telltale&&num;8217&semi;s <em>The Walking Dead<&sol;em>&comma; I immediately wrote it off as an attempt to make a quick buck&period; Based on the wildly popular comic books by Robert Kirkman&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s a point-and-click style adventure&sol;horror game split into episodes&period; As time went on and reviews were released along with walkthroughs on Youtube&comma; my interest was piqued&period; People were enjoying the game&comma; and reviews seemed to be positive&comma; so after watching a play through of the first Episode in the series&comma; A New Day&comma; I decided to purchase the game for myself&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;10&sol;05001757&sol;The-Walking-Dead-Telltale-S1-Lee-Gunplay-BagoGames&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"aligncenter wp-image-82020 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;10&sol;05001757&sol;The-Walking-Dead-Telltale-S1-Lee-Gunplay-BagoGames&period;jpg" alt&equals;"The Walking Dead Telltale S1 Lee Gunplay BagoGames" width&equals;"800" height&equals;"465" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The point-and-click aspect can be frustrating at first&comma; as you have to be quick on the draw or you die&period; However&comma; it isn’t hard to become accustomed to&period; If you plan on purchasing it&comma; be aware that it contains an incredible amount of intense language and violence – it&&num;8217&semi;s not for the faint of heart or the easily offended&period; That being said&comma; representations of personalities and attacks are very accurate to what they could be if the zombie apocalypse ever really happened&period; The artwork of the game is heavily inspired by <em>The Walking Dead<&sol;em> comic books&period; It has an almost oil painted look&comma; and is beautiful and unique in its own way&comma; giving the game the appropriate feeling to play out&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;10&sol;05001822&sol;The-Walking-Dead-Telltale-S1-Farm-BagoGames&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"aligncenter wp-image-82018 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;10&sol;05001822&sol;The-Walking-Dead-Telltale-S1-Farm-BagoGames&period;jpg" alt&equals;"The Walking Dead Telltale S1 Farm BagoGames" width&equals;"800" height&equals;"465" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Playing as Lee Everett&comma; a convicted criminal&comma; you try to make your way through the post-apocalyptic world&comma; which is crawling with the undead&period; I was first impressed by how the game immediately throws you into stressful situations&comma; demanding you make decisions and adapt in a world you don’t understand and can’t predict&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>After finding your little companion&comma; Clementine&comma; the entire game changes from being all about your safety to being all about hers&period; For any sane person&comma; her safety comes before Lee’s&comma; and you will do anything you can to protect the little girl&period; That is how my play through went – always trying to do what was best for Clementine&period; That aspect of the story&comma; throwing in a little girl to protect&comma; is what changed this from a good game to a great game&period; Had it just been another survival game&comma; all about saving your own skin&comma; there would have been a lacking element&period; Adding Clementine to the equation gives the story emotion it couldn’t have accomplished in any other way&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;10&sol;05001836&sol;The-Walking-Dead-Telltale-S1-Honesty-BagoGames&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"aligncenter wp-image-82017 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;10&sol;05001836&sol;The-Walking-Dead-Telltale-S1-Honesty-BagoGames&period;jpg" alt&equals;"The Walking Dead Telltale S1 Honesty BagoGames" width&equals;"800" height&equals;"465" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As you progress through the story&comma; it centers on Lee and Clementine and the team they have become&period; Lee&&num;8217&semi;s an incredibly strong lead character&comma; regardless of the choices he makes&period; He is always there&comma; and he&&num;8217&semi;s always willing to put up a fight if necessary&period; The forced dialogue options are appealing to almost anyone who plays the game&comma; because they are very natural choices to make when put in the shoes of a man protecting a young child from harm&comma; or making a tough decision for a group of survivors&comma; or just defending himself from an attack&period; His selfless and helpful personality make him an excellent main character&comma; and keep the game interesting from episode one until the heart-wrenching finale of episode five&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>The Walking Dead<&sol;em> is raw&comma; emotional&comma; and real&period; It forces you to make decisions you don’t want to make&comma; to see things you don’t want to see&comma; and to fall in love with the characters presented before you&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s an unexpected masterpiece&comma; with down to earth views on what really matters in life once everything you thought was important is ripped away&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The experience that Telltale&&num;8217&semi;s created here is phenomenal&comma; not only because it’s fun to play and reasonably priced&comma; but because in a world dominated by empty&comma; callous best-selling games&comma; it sucks you into the story and forces you to feel&period; When season two comes out next year&comma; you can bet I’ll be there waiting with baited breath&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;