Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

10 Hours or Less

The Bottom Line:

"Immersive"

Positive
+ Engaging, gripping story, setting and progress
+ Terrifying and unsettling atmosphere
+ Very tense and impacting choices you will need to make

Negative
- Restrictive camera view in indoor areas

The Walking Dead is no ordinary zombie game. In Left 4 Dead, you gun down hordes of infected as you feel nearly invincible with those guns. In Resident Evil, you fight and kill all sorts of disgusting creatures in order to bring down an organization behind it all. That is the vision those two popular franchises have set, and by now some may feel that the whole zombie thing is outdated. The Walking Dead tackles that slightly generic genre, but successful delivers what many horror games fail to do, by delivering a chilling, tight and deeply impacting story about survival and tough, event-changing choices.

The story and progress of The Walking Dead Episode 1 will be different for mostly everyone because of the power of your choices impacts your relationship with characters and even extremely tough choices of saving one or the other. You play as Lee, who is being transported to the local prison when the police vehicle hits a walking dead and falls off a small cliff. Without knowing what is going on (and without you knowing this guy's past) you venture outside of the forest to a nearby house for help, and stumble upon a young girl named Clementine who will be with you as you struggle to survive. The story of survival is gripping and engaging, with continuous dialogue options that with each, you can make a character a person you trust you, or a person who doubts you. Events that will take place differ greatly if you chose a different one choice. In the beginning, when you do not know Lee's past and actions (and I never watched or read any The Walking Dead material before) it is difficult to take control of the entire situation and avoid lying in this Episode. All the characters you encounter in Episode 1 are believable, everyone struggling to survive without any superhuman or superpower drama. This is a down-to-earth experience, the closest possible zombie apocalypse we can ever get in the real life if it were to happen. These are characters you will care about, and despite the limited time with each choice normally, there will be heart breaking moment where you need to make a decision or the other. It is that difficult and effective.

The Walking Dead series is technically an adventure game, with point-and-click elements and action sequences. But above all, the game values interaction with other characters, as you get to know their experience in the first few days of the zombie uprising, and their future course of action, and through other characters and events, you will learn of Lee's past. The tough moral choices the game frequently presents add a lot of tension, especially through some quick-time events that will have your heart pounding to save yourself or little Clementine. And here is some fighting as well. Not ala Left for Dead or Dead Rising style, The Walking Dead's fighting comes in scripted occasions, and the main sections are divided by quickly timing your finger by hammering the Q button or pressing the left mouse button where indicated to bash a zombie in the head or knock them away, and in an interesting singular section near the end, forcing you to use your head to skillfully take out the surrounding zombies one by one, with items you will find. The quick-time events are enjoyable, even if there is some hammering on the Q button as lee struggles to escape, but these gameplay parts are enjoyable and exciting as well as incredibly tense to avoid being killed. Most of the time, as Lee, you will have to interact with the environment as well with the people. While you have free movement and the use of the mouse button, the game uses restrictive camera angles. The fact that you are not given the best camera angle, especially in closed quarters makes movement quite awkward.

Instead of using real life visuals, The Walking Dead videogame series will use a distinctive art style, one that is very visually impressive. Similar to that of first-person shooter, Borderlands. Aside from actually looking good, the setting is believable. Streets crawling with the walking dead, ravaged stores and blood everywhere, and yes, The Walking Dead is a brutal series and you will feel the adrenaline of survival in an overturned world of zombies. You will see Lee stabbing a walking dead in the head with a screwdriver, and attack one with an axe. What may not look so good is the zombie design. It is evident that these creepy creatures were not given as much attention as the main characters, which may lack the perfect facial expression, but you can still feel emotion behind whatever they say. With terrific voice acting for most characters, and fitting soundtrack, you cannot ask more than this.

The first episode of the Walking Dead is a phenomenal experience. Its successors may not have the same impact as this highly original, innovative episode has as a beginning, but this is an indication of the start of an incredible start. It is a short episode which anyone can blow away in one go since it keeps you thrilled all along. The Walking Dead proves that simpler adventure games that offer chilling stories can still succeed on unexpected levels.