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| From http://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/telltale-games-ceo-dan-connors-on-the-walking-dead-fables-and-building-a-television-studio-model-for-games/ |
So, in celebration of the announcement for The Walking Dead: Season Two by the awesome Telltale Games (I loved the Sam & Max series!), I’ve decided to visit Season One of The Walking Dead on PS3. Here we go!
Episode One: “A
New Day”
Gameplay:
Things start off peacefully, for the most part. You play as criminal
Lee Everett, sitting in a police car, speaking with the officer that’s driving
you. It’s then that you get to explore the dialogue/choice tree system that the
game offers. This is the crux of the game, because what you pick to do or say
decides how the narrative will go, and what characters survive. And you never
know which choice is the “right” one, because it questions your own values and
morals.
Normally, the controls would be point-and-click, as usual
adventure games on the PC go. But as this is the console version, you’re
allowed to move using the left analog stick on the PS3 controller, and
examine/do things by moving a mouse-like target with the right stick. You can make
decisions/actions using the PS3 buttons.
During the action-filled moments, it can get quite
quick-timey. However, these moments are fleeting, and as a result, don’t really
hinder the game. In fact, they sort of help to add to the tension during these
sequences, and the tension can get even higher when the choice system gets
involved.
There are puzzles (as there often are in Telltale games)
that you need to solve in order to progress the story. For the most part, these
puzzles worked, and worked well; for example, there is one puzzle sequence
where you try to defeat all the zombies. You strategically take out the zombies
one-by-one, and it’s great. There is only one puzzle that completely falls flat
during the game, that really hurts one the intelligence of one the characters.
They don’t know how to work a radio, and it’s up to us to fix it. It’s honestly
a stupid puzzle.
Story:
I don’t want to spoil anything, but in just one episode, a
lot happens. We get introduced to the character of Lee Everett, even find out
about his own background, and meet many interesting characters, each with their
own motivations and personality. The bond between Lee and Clementine, a young
girl who appears early in the beginning, is often touching and a bit emotional.
Overall the story goes along great, hitting exciting or sad beats with ease.
There are no truly middling or uninteresting moments, and the tale moves at a
relatively quick pace. The episode ends
on a cliffhanger and shows you a preview for Episode Two, making you excited
for what the next episode will bring.
Graphics:
It looks good. It has its own almost comic book-like style
to it (which is really cool), and can be very expressive in showing each
character’s emotions and feelings. The only issue that I really had was that
the game could lag really, really badly at points, and the animations could be
stiff and sudden, which is a bit jarring.
Audio:
The voice-acting is very well done, expressing the emotion
and personality that players need to believe that these characters are real.
The music keeps the tension going, and helps the story move along, as there are
quiet moments, adrenaline-filled moments, creepy/scary moments, etc., and the
sounds/sound effects all support those beats.
Lasting Appeal:
Really, the episode only takes a couple of hours to complete.
If I didn’t have other things to do, this would have taken 1-2 sittings at the
most. You might want to replay this game
to explore different choices that you could’ve made, but I would recommend
doing so only after you’ve completed all 5 episodes, so that way you can see
how your decisions affect the story up ‘til the end.
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Overall, I was pretty satisfied with my playthrough of the
game. It wasn’t perfect, but it was pretty darn good, and very fun to play.
8.5/10 - Great
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