*SPOILER INFESTED*
The father-son or
father-daughter approach seems to be the most effective way in provoking
emotional attachment in post-apocalyptic fiction; Cormac
McCarthy's The Road pulled
it off, Naughty Dog's The Last of Us executed
it perfectly, and I'm glad to say that Telltale's The Walking Dead
nailed it. This game essentially falls under the 'point and click'
genre (Telltale's speciality) and is delivered through five episodes
– all of which I've recently managed to plough through. It's a shame for me to say that I've neglected this title for so long as I'm not exactly a massive fan of
the TV Series, sure, it's okay – but that's all. On the other hand
I'm a huge, HUGE obsessor for anything Post-Apocalyptic, but
AMC's The Walking Dead feels more like a soap opera with the
occasional zombie. I'll just go and say it
– it's overrated, this is predominantly down to the fact that I can't find
myself attached to any of the characters. Anyhow, Telltale's The
Walking Dead doesn't seem to have any similarity with the show, and
that is probably for the better.
We start our story
spectating Lee Everett, a convicted murderer being escorted to
prison in a police vehicle. About five minutes into this ride a zombie (or "walker", as they like to call them) conveniently
causes the car to crash and Lee manages to escape with a
mere leg injury. Soon after this he meets Clementine, an eight year
old girl in isolated hiding from the prevailing plague; Lee and Clementine then
set off out into the world with the hope of finding help and
supplies.
It doesn't take long for the
duo to encounter survivors along their journey, some stay with them,
others abandon them or fatally meet their demise. Most of this is
down to the player to decide; as a point and click game, you wouldn't
expect much in the way of action, but to my surprise I was forced to
make rapid life changing decisions in a matter of seconds – in my
opinion this is one of the strongest points of the game.
The general gameplay is
significantly varied, some segments which allow the player full
control over Lee's movement combined with virtual camera angles
reminded me vaguely of Silent Hill;
whereas other portions incorporated with stealth gameplay seemed to
share a similar kind of vibe with The Last of Us.
A specific part of the
choice making mechanic I really loved was the thought of volunteering
to sever Lee's recently bitten forearm in the fifth episode, it actually gave me a
certain degree of hope that he'd pull through. Nevertheless it didn't
change a thing as Lee was growing weaker through the progression of
the episode, part of me was in denial – telling myself that it was
due to blood loss, but in the end my hopes were shattered as I faced
up to the fact that he didn't have long to live, and that is what the
game was really good at. I have never found myself so attached to
fictional characters like this, ironically I was really grief-stricken by
the death of Duck, that annoying little prick who was burdened with no guilt
whatsoever for the death of Hershel's son Shawn in Episode 1.
I mostly feel a great amount
of attachment towards Clementine as she is probably the most important
plot device; of course she represents untainted youth and innocence,
but the primary reason for her existance has to be the concentration
on her relationship with Lee. He immediately steps in as her father
figure the instant they first meet, and all because of Clementine,
Lee finally has a means to function up until his dying breath to keep
her well trained for the outside world as well as love and cherish
her on a personal level. Lee's old life was practically over as soon as he was
arrested in the pre-apocalypse, but we all witness his re-birth as
this societal disaster occurs. However morbidly suicidal the end of
the series left us, it was also poetically beautiful as Lee had
served his function to maintain the safety of Clementine, concurrent
with which, the child grows up since she has no choice to. The post-credit
cutscene deeply reminded me of (one of my favourite films) The
Road – the thought of a lone
child encountering strangers in the wasteland, unknowing whether to
be trustful really gets my blood pumping - to some extent the two
mediums possess the same design in both story and character development.
Moving
on, the general visuals stood out immediately to me; I'm filled with
intrigue how Telltale adopted a display which appeared to be somewhat
comic book-esque with a slightly exaggerated spectrum yet retaining
3D. Due to this I'm hit with a surge of relief that Telltale didn't
go for a look of realism, this makes blatant sense as the game is
supposedly more inspired by its comic book counterpart as opposed to
the TV show – to that I am thankful. For this reason, I overlooked
the small fraction of graphical textures being a tad underdone.
Coinciding
with the gameplay – the physical control scheme lacks any form of
complication. The A, B, X and
Y buttons serve as on screen
prompts for picking a line of dialogue during spoken discourse as
well as quick time events devised for the more action oriented
sequences – thus giving this game the feel of an interactive TV
show.
I can gladly confirm this
masterpiece of narrative innovation as an emotional ride inside out.
Filling the boots of Lee Everett helped me comprehend the many traumas
involved in maintaining the sanity of the surviving group as well as his own. Continually strained with my decisions,
I was well and definitely filled with regret along with fear for both
past and future events. This title is a type of horror fiction in its
own right, not for the hordes of flesh-hungered walkers, but for the
more psychological fear of people. The sheer unpredictability and
impulsive nature of the featuring characters compelled me to become
extremely cautious with my trust, the journey forced me to adapt to
such bitter social conditions that it had indeed shaped me to the
point where I actually questioned the definition of 'mercy'. I
heavily advise to any fanatics of post-apocalyptic fiction or comic
books in general to give this slice of craftsmanship a try; as aforementioned, post-apocalyptic fiction is guaranteed to work successfully so as long the protagonist has something to lose besides his long gone possessions in the shell of a world that once was,
like a son or daughter figure.
The Walking Dead has a
great amount of replay value, I'm quite keen on the idea of starting
the story afresh whilst experimenting with alternative decisions
before the release of the sequel. In conclusion, this astounding artwork has an
undying talent for the involuntarily exposure of our inner schoolgirl, tears will be shed.
9.5/10 - Smashing!
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