Film Review #34 - Telltale's The Walking Dead Game: Season 1

     Telltale's The Walking Dead Game Season 1 is definitely one of the best examples of how games and interactive media can benefit storytelling. Based off Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead comics, the game stars Lee Everett, a man on the way to prison for murder. When the zombie apocalypse hits he meets Clementine, a young girl who comes along with him as they try to survive in this awful new world. The game is divided in 5 episodes, with one downloadable bonus episode (but doesn't have the same characters as the main story), and is one hell of an emotional roller coaster. A big part of that is achieved through the interactivity that you get with a video game. You're actually selecting what you want to say to people. You're fighting through the "walkers" (aka Zombies) and you're literally making your character run to help a person in danger. It makes the connection to the story and the characters even more effective. This being a point-and-click adventure game means that it doesn't have to focus on gameplay that much and more on the writing, which is good but can get a bit boring to play at times. For 25 dollars the game is a steal though, it'll make you laugh, cry, and horrify you, but the experience will be memorable. It's so good that they managed to get deals to make a Game of Thrones game, a Borderlands game, and are currently doing The Wolf Among Us (based on the Fables comics) and The Walking Dead Game Season 2. I'm looking forward to playing all of these.