The Walking Dead is based on Robert Kirkman's award-winning zombie apocalypse comic series (which also has a TV show). Developer Telltale Games specialise in episodic adventure games. Previous titles like Tales of Monkey Island stayed faithful to the point-and-click adventure style of game. Back To the Future had a larger emphasis on the story in comparison to Monkey Island, and Walking Dead lies further in that extreme.
Due to the emphasis on story, those looking for a challenging game should avoid it because they won't find it here. You need to view the software as an interactive story, rather than a game to fully enjoy it. The good news is that the emphasis on story really pays off, because it's really well done. Obviously, it becomes hard to review since you can't delve into the story too much, since that would be spoiling the experience.
The game opens with Clementine surviving with Omar and Christa from Season 1. Soon Clementine is on her own before being rescued by a couple of guys that take her back to their residence. The group that live there has been through similar hardships as Clementine, and have family and trust issues like her previous companions.
You don’t get to know many of the characters because they are soon killed off, but the ones that stay with you create interesting conflicts. This really works well since the decisions the game presents to you feel like they have a significant impact on the individuals and on the group.
The choices you have are really just an illusion of choice. If the choices did make an impact on the game, the entire story would be different which isn't really feasible for developers to achieve. It's mainly “you're damned if you do, damned if you don't” sort of choices. For example, you may be presented with a scenario where two characters are in danger. It's your choice who to attempt to save, but someone has to die.
Your choices do affect the dialogue since characters will respond better to you if you have done them favours. The dynamic within the group of survivors is in such a way that your choice will please one individual but upset another. The group is together because they want to survive but not necessarily due to strong relationships. There's plenty of friction which leads to some drama, and it really feels like your decisions are really fuelling the arguments within.
For me, this is where the narrative really shines. The game is constantly trying to guilt trip you for your actions and really hammers home the consequences, really tugging on your heartstrings. It's all testament to how well written the game is; that it can really play with your emotions.
Along the course of the game, there are places where you must find an item or learn something about your surroundings in order for the game to progress. The camera is often too zoomed in, walking feels slow and clunky, and some of the areas feel pointless as all you do is go to the only interactive object to progress.
You can control Clementine using the WASD keys, and mouse click to make your selection. It's also compatible with a controller, using the control stick to move and face buttons for interaction.
The conversations usually have limited time to respond, which partially helps the conversation to have a more realistic flow, but also forces you to make a quick decision under pressure. Saying nothing at all can also be an option.
Quick-time action sequences are used to deal with zombie attacks which can be quite violent. Here you will hammer the Q key, and sometimes press E to finalise the scene. If you die, you are brought back to the last check-point which are saved at regular, logical intervals.
The game is split over 5 episodes, and after each one, your choices are summarised and you are shown statistics of everyone else's choices which makes for an interesting reading.
In the first couple of episodes, Clementine shows naivety because there were some situations where I wanted to do something to increase my safety but it wasn’t an option, and the fact that Clementine didn’t do that action causes her to be in danger.
I thought the final episode was a bit dull in the first half. It opens with an action sequence; with a gun fight, but it wasn't believable that somehow everyone managed to avoid the shots and hide behind cover. The episode also took a while to get going, mainly just slow sequences and dialogue. When the conflict starts happening, that’s when it gets good and very emotional.
If you are looking for a great story/experience, Telltale's The Walking Dead is highly recommended as long as you can tolerate the themes within. It's not for those that want a traditional game, since the action is more visual, rather than involving; but it's a shame if you overlook it and miss out on the experience. It’s a few hours shorter than Season 1 at only 8.5 hours, but this is a decent length. I held the original game in very high regard and this does a great job at continuing the Clementine story.