TellTale Games

The Walking Dead – The Game – Episode 2 Starved for Help Review

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walkingdead_episode2_group-600x400The second of my five episode review, Starved for Help picks up three months after the zombie apocalypse erupted.  You are still playing as Lee trying to protect Clementine, and now dealing with a group of survivors and trying to make the best of a dump motel you’ve tried turning into a secured fort.  This is where the game has gotten really interesting because the choices you make help build relationships and can also destroy relationships. Every choice you make caries over into a new episode of the game you play, so all those choices you made in episode one you now have to live with in Starved for Help.

This game doesn’t give you a second chance or to take back your choices to someone, so when your dialogue windows pop up it gives you just a few seconds to choose, and those choices could bring you closer to a friend or even create a new enemy in a later episode.

download (7)This episode is the first time you get to see the choices you made in the previous episodes. Everything from your relationship with Clementine, to the new found friendship with Kenny.  This also means that you have some remembering to do… did you tell any lies in the previous episode, were you truthful, who did you be-friend and who did you make an enemy out of.  All of these choices set Lee and his group up for a very suspenseful and action packed 2nd episode.

download (6)Starved for Help opens with the most gruesome scene to date in the game in my opinion, but besides the blood and guts it is becoming a really big challenge to keep your cool and look out for the group.  You have become a leader in the group and you have to make the tough decisions at times, and you get thrown right into the middle of your group’s nearly out of food, so it’s up to you to decide who gets to eat and who doesn’t.  Will you pick your friends, will you take the high ground and do whats best for the group, what will you do? That draw back you might have going with the emotion thing really comes into picture when a new group of survivors from the St. John’s Dairy Farm show up and invite your group to come over and trade gas for food. The family asks Lee all sorts of questions about the group, but something isn’t quite right with them.  Do you take the chance and go with these strangers who say they have food, or do you chance it and stay at the motel and hope you all can survive.

images (26)Episode 2 is full of cliffhanger moments, sketchy choices you have to make, new chances to redeem yourself, and even be-friend some new people.  It’s suspensful, emotional, full of blood and guts, and it even has some WTF moments in it that really make you turn your head and ask yourself what the heck just happened….but I’m not going to spoil those moments for you as you will just have to check the game our for yourself.

scr.ee tags:

#thewalkingdead #seasonone #episodetwo

 

The Walking Dead – Game Review – Episode 1 A New Day

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images (15)In the first of my five episode reviews of The Walking Dead Season 1, you jump right into the game as the character Lee Everett, a man who was convicted of killing a man, and is currently on his way to prison.  In the midst of being transported to prison, the great zombie apocalypse abruptly outbreaks and you are now in control of this characters fate. Lee has been given a second chance of sorts now that the zombies are out and about, so it’s up to you to keep Lee alive and survive in this amazing horror.

The really cool part about this game is the story all takes place concurrently with the comic book series.  You now taking over and controlling the story of Lee is all happening while Rick the main character of the comic book series, is calmly asleep in his hospital bed. Though the story is happening in conjunction with one another, the game is a completely separate story line.  There will be a few familiar faces along the way of the game but for the most part it’s a whole new group of survivors and a whole lot of plot twisting.  This game has a ton of action and cut scenes that help build the stories main and sub plot lines, but you “Lee” will spend a lot of time making on the cuff decisions and having to live with the outcome.

images (14)The Walking Dead removes any second guessing and makes you choose a decision in a split second. Basically someone will ask you a question and you’ll have a limited time to pick one of four responses. Whatever you decide, you and whatever group you are with have to live with the outcome of that decision.  Also, the group will remember what you say and take note of your decisions.  Remember this is the same story line that everyone plays, but how they answer the questions is what depicts how the game plays out.  I’ve currently got multiple sessions of the game going as I want to play out different choice lines to see the outcome of the game.  You have three save slots available so ultimately you have three chances at the game having a different outcome to the same story.

Into the game we go… as when you play a zombie game you want to crush a few skulls and bash some zombie scum right?  Ok, so with this game the creators made a very unique movement and reaction system.  I’ve been playing the mobile version of the game so the controls on the phone are a bit different then the PC or Console versions.  You navigate Lee with your finger and he follows on-screen.  Sounds easy right…?  Wrong, as you sometimes have split seconds to decide what direction to go, or what zombie you have to kill.  They have even designed the “OMG” button that you have to frantically tap to get out of some sticky situations in the game.  Overall the movement in this game gets an A+ in my book because it’s easy to learn, and easy to follow along with, though it is much harder to target a “Walker” than you would think.

Walking_dead_telltale_game_charactersThe graphics in game are spectacularly done as well… they have that gritty, dark comic book look to them.  There is not a shortage of blood and gore in this zombie montage of craziness either.  Visually this game is beautiful in it’s own twisted sorta way. Plus, with the exception of a strange camera angle or a cut scene jumping the game is amazing.  The game is amazing but it’s not flawless but for the caliber of game quality you get I really don’t have many complaints and what complaints I do have are trivial at best. This by far is one of the best zombie apocalypse games I have ever played.

scr.ee tags:

#thewalkingdead #seasonone

A Glance at The Walking Dead: The Game Season 1

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Happy Halloween Everyone!

I thought it quite fitting and ironic that these last few weeks of gaming have been intense, suspenseful, questionable, and even down right horrifying.  It’s Halloween and nothing else would even be right…right?  Well anyways….Zombies have completely overtaken my gaming experiences of late and it’s all due to the amazing work that Telltale games has put into “The Walking Dead Game” which has it’s flaws but delivers an amazing game experience like none other that I soon won’t forget.  I’m currently playing through season one of the game, and it’s unique player choice system, and award-winning script writing has won this game multiple awards.

images (15)This game was originally released to be five episodes in which you play a character named Lee Everett, a convicted murderer on his way to prison.  Though the convicted murderer has something much bigger than trying to learn the inmates code on his hands, and that is the zombie apocalypse that has broken out.  This gives Lee a whirlwind of decisions that he is now having to make, and guess who is in charge of those decisions and all the steps in between; yep you guessed it, it’s YOU! The decisions that you make in the heat of the moment have rewards, or great consequences that stay with you throughout the entire journey of the game.

This game is an adventure game by nature which is ultimately based off the critically acclaimed comic book and television series.  This isn’t your typical adventure game though, and as you play through the five episodes, the really important moments of the game come when you choose how Lee responds to situations and what he says in conversations with his fellow survivors.

images (14)This is a choice based game and specific dialogue comes up on your screen with timers, and you literally have seconds to choose exactly what Lee will do or say next….In this game when you choose and make your decision, the game adapts the story and moves on in the timeline, so choose wisely and choose quickly.  This exact feature is what makes The Walking Dead so special… everyone playing this game has the same task a head of them, which is to protect a little girl named Clementine that you encountered on your journey and you’ve taken her under your wing for protection.  The cool part about the decision system is everyone goes about the game a different way.  I might choose to befriend someone you hate, and you might choose to leave someone I took. I might blowup in anger, but you may keep a cool level headed mind. Whatever group you have with you will remember the decision you have made and that creates the dynamic of the group and how people react to you.

images (18)Once you are done with an episode of the game, it gives you a recap of your choices and how it compared to the percentage of what other players have chosen in that moment. The game itself has a way of drawing you into the moment, and you are basically the artist making the sketches for how the story plays out.  The main story has a very black and white foundation, and we’ve been hired as gamer’s to finish the drawings with whatever colorful choices we see appropriate at the time. Which is what makes this game such an emotional roller coaster and endearing.  Part of that connection comes from amazing writers in which they’ve added comedy, suspense, horror, and all those emotional moments seem to happen at just the right time.  The other big factor is the great voice acting, and visual style that is a picture perfect image out of the comic books.

Ok, now time for my critiques of the game and what I’ve seen fallen short or even off the wagon at times.  As much as I want to praise the whole game at being a superstar, there are a few things that really stood out to me as being what the heck just happened moments.  For instance, scenes will freeze as the next one loads, game play will slow down as the game tries to process intense action sequences, and at times the voices aren’t synced to the visuals on screen.  Even with these few hiccups in the game design, this is one of the best games I’ve ever played and don’t mind setting through a few flaws for the experience of a game like this one.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be taking a look at each of the five episodes of season one and can’t wait to play season two, though I’m waiting a bit as I’ve heard season three won’t be out until sometime in 2015.

scr.ee tags:

#thewalkingdead #seasonone