The Walking Dead: The Game - Season 1

I am not a gamer whatsoever. I play here in there, but never "seriously". That being said, this may be the greatest game I've ever played. I laughed and cried so many times that I'd have to take breaks from playing it because I got so involved. That NEVER happens with me but the way this story is told is beautiful. If you haven't checked it out yet, this is a formal invitation to do so.

I love how they handled the characters very well, showing hate and love relationships and giving the reason why what they are. Playing as a character trying to keep everything together and makes the hardest decisions is like real life. It may not affect the story because it's not about the destination, it's the journey. It's like a train track: there are two path you can take, but no matter which one you take, you'll arrive at your destination. The game mostly affects the characters and you as you play along. It's emotional, depressing, and probably the game that had made anyone cried in a video game in a while.

The Walking Dead is one of the best games of all time. It's possibly the best Telltale game, alongside the Walking Dead season 2. It's emotional, poignant and most importantly, incredibly human. The story follows Lee in his struggle to care and nuture for Clementine, in a new world that's cruel, depraved and twisted. Lee, at face value, is a jealous murderer, and someone who would be regarded as scum and looked down upon in the normal world. However, past the surface, Lee is actually a good man, a man guided by principle.

The theme, Alive Inside, is nothing short of a masterpiece. It's genuinely comparable to some phenomenal violin scores, such as Schindler's list. It captivates everything the game is about: Loss, adversity, faith and hope.

The main downside to the Walking Dead is that it's not really a game. It's an interactive film, the game elements are lacking. Nevertheless, the story is tells makes it's more enjoyable than playing most video games.

To conclude there's several aspects which make the Walking Dead a masterpiece. There is hundreds and hundreds of video games out there, each with a plot that's easily consumble, and quickly forgetton. The Walking Dead seems to leave a permanent impact, a story buried into the mind of the player.

The Walking Dead - The Game goes back to the zombie genre's roots, and turns the zombies into sources of horror instead of gun targets - that is what I think might be the most important aspect of this game, since there are no hordes a la Left 4 Dead to gun down.

And that is important I think to know. The story that plays out is very character driven, and it is more important to interact the right way with the right person than finding a Big F_cking Gun to mow down zombies with.

The protagonist: As in many other games, it is not possible to make your own character - you play as the former university teacher Lee Everett, starting out on his way to prison. This is in some ways a weak point - the game doesn't become so much of an RPG as an interactive film, but luckily, Lee is interesting enough so you don't loose interest in him.

Gameplay: Playing the game on a PC is a breeze - a lot of effort has gone into making sure you only need the movement keys and the mouse to play the game - the inventory is only accessed when needed and everything is lined up in a very straightforward way, from responses to actions.

Here I should also mention that people listens to what you say (or not say in some cases) and remembers it. This is a quite simple way of getting the player involved, especially when people starts referring to what you have said earlier.

Script: Since each episode provides about 2 hours of gameplay, here is the really great strength of the game: in a very short time, you get to know the people around you, and when something happens you CARE. Some very intelligent writing has gone into the game to make sure you will get a very real, and very genuine feeling out of it.

Rating: The game is rated M, and in such a game, it would be almost mandatory to include a couple of steaming sex scenes, but they are very absent. This is actually part of the game's appeal - there is no forced love scene with someone you don't really want to get involved in - but there IS blood. And a lot of it.

Graphics: Since the game is based on the comics, it has taken on graphics that resembles that. This is kind of cool, but sometimes, this is taken a little too far, when you see drawn lines as shadows where there shouldn't be any.

Sound and voice acting: Pretty standard. The voice acting could be a little better, but it works.

All in all, this is a great game and the big shame is that the first season is only five chapters long. But there is hope - apparently, there's already a season 2 in the making.

Anyone following the gaming world will probably know this game has received Game of the Year awards left right and center. It very much deserves these awards and should be regarded as an industry-changing game in storytelling.

Simply put it follows the story of Lee Everett - a convicted murderer - when the zombie apocalypse comes crashing down on the world. He finds an 8 year old girl called Clementine and the story follows their fight for survival while finding other survivors to go on with.

I have to give this game 9 stars overall as there are a few things that unfortunately make it a little less than perfect. These are mostly technical though.

Pros:

• The story. The Walking Dead's story is one of the best in the gaming world by far in my opinion, and you'll hear a lot of people saying the same thing. A lot of people focus on the Lee/Clementine aspect of it, but I personally enjoy everyone's contribution to the story equally. It wouldn't be the same without them! As expected with a zombie game it's not going to be a happy story. It's very heavy at times and faces a lot of morally disturbing questions. At the same time it lets you question your own morality if you do play this as if it were real life (which I highly recommend you do). The ending is so beautifully done both visually and musically and it'll certainly leave an impact on you for a long time after.

• The characters. Some you'll love and some you'll hate - but only if you instinctively hate them or the game WANTS you to hate them. Never the kind of hate for badly constructed characters. The characters are believable and could be very relatable to some people. The voice actors did a wonderful job on this game.

• Music. What more can be said here. The game has a fantastic at at times very emotional score.

• It is a choice based game. Player based choices run through this game's entirety. I particularly like how it tells you what percentage of people did the same as you at the end of each episode.

Cons:

• On my PS3 disc version of the game at least it can run a bit sticky sometimes, especially if it's been on for a while. What I mean by this is during cutscenes the screen will freeze up quite a bit and be very 'jagged' playing. This is a common complaint among disc players so it's not just a problem with me.

• Not-so-seamless loading screens. After key points where tensions are running high, the mood is somewhat broken by quite frequent and noticeable cuts to loading screens.

• Your choices don't really matter in the bigger picture. Now I wasn't expecting choices on the absolute massive scale of something like Mass Effect, but really... your choices don't matter in the long run. You don't even get one single alternate ending no matter how drastically you change your gameplay. Sure your choices will decide if someone likes you or hates you, and if one person does something instead of another. But it doesn't change the overall story at all.

These cons are not enough to detract from the sheer power of the story though, and although they may sound bad I really wouldn't worry about them ruining anything. You should definitely give this game a try, I'm sure you'll be hooked!