A must play. The story is so touching that even the manliest of men will be shedding a tear or two. Dead serious.
STORYLINE
The setting is pretty typical. It's about zombies, it's even based in a zombie world from a comic and AMC TV series, and so it might be especially familiar to some. In fact the setting is so standard that many might overlook it on a glance. But the characters and interactive storyline is so engaging that the setting takes a backseat to emotional turmoil the drama the survivors go through.
The players view and in small ways shape the series of heart wrenching events from the perspective of Lee, a man on his way to jail for murder, when the police car he is in goes off the road after it collides with a zombie. After escaping the crash he winds up in the backyard of a suburban neighborhood. Hurt and seeking help he tries to find someone, ANYONE, to explain to him what is going on, but the neighborhood and house seem deserted, so he enters the house nearest him only to be attacked by one of the dead and is rescued by a little eight year old girl named Clementine.
Now, going further into the story here would ruin most of the magic for players who are experiencing this wonderful game for the first time. In fact, if you know little about this game other than the fact that it is part of the point and click adventure game genre than the more power to you for you are in the perfect position to play this game. I picked up the controller with no prior knowledge of this game's impact or even the source material and I am so glad I did that it is difficult to see it better experienced otherwise. Shaping Lee and who he is, making the tough live or death choices, and the sacrifices he goes while attempting to taking care of an innocent young girl has a LOT of impact emotionally. So much emotional impact, in fact, that even if you are the manliest of man; if you have the slightest once of protective parental instinct within you, it will turn you into the most pathetic looking blubbering crybaby there is the first time you play this through. I'm dead serious. Check reactional youtube videos if you don't believe me, I recommend you do so after playing the game since there might be spoilers there, but the videos of even hardcore military men shedding tears due to this game's content exists. Yes, the writing is that involving and well done.
GAMEPLAY:
The game play is of the Point and Click Adventure genre. If you are a bit unclear about how it holds in a survival horror game. I myself am very surprised to say, wonderfully. Survival horror and zombie games are always a shooter-based thing. ALWAYS. So it was hard to see this working, but it totally does. There are a ton of action scenes that not only involve quick reactions, but split second choices during those action scenes that can shape the story for the rest of you game. Yes there is shooting, yes Lee and others can die if a player is not fast enough, but the subtle action you take can make all the difference in who the story plays out and it will cause the player to anticipate and even dread the outcome of the tiniest on the fly choices. Anything you do can inadvertently save or kill Lee or another character you may value, or even worse, scar Clementine for life and force the players to watch an innocent little girl fall further into hopeless depression. The effect the game play has in combination with the story will have players sitting on the edge of their seats in anticipation.
GRAPHICS:
The artistic direction may be a bit hard to describe, but it works incredibly well. The bright yet gritty art style makes it look like a comic book come to life and the animation and character design bring out the most subtle emotions in them so clearly, the player gets a very go idea what they are going through. The environments are small and tight, but so richly detailed that the size of them is almost unnoticeable. I loved the art style.
SOUND:
Perfect. I can't think of any other word for it. Every voice actor was at the top of his or her game, even the minor characters had a completely believable impact. Even though the story is interactive, delays and additional clips are unnoticeable making it seem like the whole conversation was completely linear. Music sets the tone incredibility well.