A story-focused game needs a great story to succeed. The Walking Dead fails this task.
Narrative can be a tricky thing for video games. Caring about a world and its characters for ten hours is big commitment. Telltale Games takes a different approach by delivering stories in smaller episodic formats. The Walking Dead is their latest effort.
You'll take on the role of Lee Everett, a man who is struggling to survive as the zombie apocalypse begins. You'll encounter a wide variety of characters throughout the game, and most of them are compelling and interesting. The most important of these is Clementine, a little girl you're tasked to protect for the 8-10 duration of the game.
The Walking Dead is actually very difficult to categorize as a game. You don't often play much of it, making it come across as more of a choose-your-own-adventure book brought to life. There is the occasional minor puzzle, but they're really more of a quick pause in the story. Also included are some action moments, but they're handled in a QTE mini-game style fashion.
The only type of gameplay, beyond walking around, is making choices. You'll very often be presented with dialogue choices in the game, and your responses affect the way characters feel about you. You'll often be making larger decisions as well. Deciding who has to live or die, who gets to eat rations, and where you'll be going.
As can be expected of something so focused on story, the dialogue and acting need to be top notch. For the most part, this is true. Almost every character puts on a convincing performance, with highlights being Lee and Clementine. Their interactions through all five episodes come across as genuine and endearing.
It's sold by some typically great dialogue. A few lines feel silly, but for the most part characters behave in a very human manner. It's nice to see a game take time out to talk about the smaller things, like an apple being preferable to cheese n' crackers.
These excellent characters are wasted in a story rooted in predictability. Every zombie trope you can imagine will be used in the course of the game. I won't give anything away in the interest of spoilers, but nothing in The Walking Dead will come across as interesting or surprising.
It all especially falls by the wayside in the final episode, which is the epitome of a disappointing finale. It's basically a two-hour cutscene with very little input from you as a player. Your decisions never come together in a way that's compelling, and the actual ending is overly predictable and comes across as incredibly ham-fisted and forced.
For something that claims itself as a video game, it's awfully lame you never feel in control of anything. It's only attempt at gameplay is in making decisions. Unfortunately, you're just an overseer of the story, nudging it in this direction or that direction.
The game also suffers from a variety of technical issues bordering on insulting. There are severe framerate and lag issues throughout the entire game that have a direct impact during intense moments. Long pauses occurs awkwardly as something loads in, and it causes a major disconnect between the player and the atmosphere of the game.
The Walking Dead left a very bad taste in my mouth. It may have some interesting characters, but they're trapped in a mediocre story. When the only thing a game has is its story, the story should be memorable and gripping. Choices shouldn't make little to no difference. The Walking Dead is an interesting experiment, but ultimately a failed one.
Score: 5.5 out of 10