Short, sweet, and to the point. The Walking Dead: 400 Days doesn't waste a minute pulling you in.
Each adventure is marked on the notice board by a name and picture of each character. Telltale has done a very good job in choosing a variety of personalities for these individuals and no two are alike. Each story is engaging and will have you at the edge of your seat for most of the 90 minute play-through. The different settings allow Telltale to add scope to their Walking Dead universe and never feel dull or boring. You'll be chased by bad guys into the middle of nowhere, be entangled in a love triangle while trudging through a spooky forest, get a sense of a post-apocalyptic community while inhabiting an abandoned rest stop, catch a free ride to the prison on a prison bus, and make your way to your grandma's house while meeting an interesting person on the way. All these stories take part in the 400 day timeline from the first few days of the start of the zombie invasion to the last few days. There is so much variety here that keeps each and every story interesting.
Not only is there a variety of places and times, but the most important part of this game are the choices and actions you partake in, which weigh heavily on the outcome of each character's life. In each story there is at least one instance where those decisions won't be easy and your gut reaction might not be the right reaction. However, that is what this game is all about...it is true to life, where our actions could lead to a devastating outcome. You may find yourself stuck between making a morally good decision or a necessary decision(not always the same). You may determine the fate of characters that you have briefly gotten to know. That is what makes this game great. Many of these decisions evoke an emotional response, which is rare.
If you have played The Walking Dead: Season One, you will feel right at home with the controls and game-play. The way you choose dialogue, control each character's movement, and engage in combat through quick-time events have not changed. The voice acting and script are phenomenal and as engaging as ever. However, there is the occasional dialogue where the lip syncs are off and some slowdown. Nevertheless, the game and story do not suffer from these minor hiccups. You might not even notice most of them. My biggest qualm with this game is the amount of time(or lack there of) it takes to play through these stories. In my first play-through, it took me about 90 minutes to complete the game. It was a little disappointing considering the amount of questions this game left unanswered, but that is exactly what Telltale wanted. Yet, there is no question that you will replay(as I have already done) each of the stories to see what you did wrong and what could have been.
A game like this, that makes you question your judgement and connect emotionally to the stories, is what made the original Walking Dead game great. The Walking Dead: 400 Days is a crumb in the bigger cake that is to be released with Season 2. It acquainted you with the characters you will see in Season 2 by throwing you into the pivotal moments of their lives. It makes you crave for more like an impatient toddler who received a free sample of chocolate and now wants the whole candy store. In that sense, Telltale has completed what they set out to do and has made an extraordinary buffer between Season 1 and Season 2. If you call yourself any kind of Walking Dead fan, you need to pick this decaying puppy up.