Don't be Afraid
Life and Death; we face these themes every single day of our lives. From driving defensively to the yearning for a pay raise from your boss; we all desire self-preservation i.e. life and death. Well, in Telltale’s, The Walking Dead, these self-preservationist ideas are put into the hands of the player.
You are Lee Everett: an African-American man with a shady past; who, like everyone else who survived the zombie apocalypse, is only trying to preserve himself and his adopted daughter, Clementine. Throughout the five episodes that Telltale put out, you make decisions that force you, the player, to ask yourself if your actions were worth it; does the end justify the means.
Now, not all of the actions that you take have major impacts but some are just down right hard to act on. One such action occurs in the season finale when you are forced to make a difficult decision concerning a particular body part. The actions vary from fore-said body part decision, to if you should reprimand Clementine for what she did: even if they are small decisions, they feel like powerful and meaningful choices.
The voice acting and writing are almost near impeccable. There is emotion and life and feeling behind what seems like every word. The story telling can be rickety at times but for the most part it moved forward in a fashion that is almost unmatchable when compared to most games of this generation.
Although the story that occurs over the five episodes is a great story, it wouldn’t be as meaningful if you, that player, weren’t forced to make important decisions when it comes to the survival of your group. And because of these many varied decisions; every story is tailored to the player’s actions and thus creates an individual story for every person. This idea isn’t new to video games, but the way Telltale implemented the decision-making allows for a game that is truly revolutionary.
The visual design of the game only adds on to the excellence that the writers and voice actors put into the mix. Dark shadows, bright lights, vibrant colors, and deep artistic detail that match what a comic-book game should look like. Not only that but it all helps set the mood for the dark and horrifying zombie apocalypse that Telltale and Skybound created from the roots of the original Walking Dead comic book.
Like all great pieces of art entertainment, music is another key part of the experience. Telltale and Skybound’s composers have managed to subtly tie the emotional feel of the music to every scene: from brutal fight scenes to heartbreaking goodbyes; every note connects to what the actors in the game are feeling at every moment through their journey; and as you hear the music, you to have a sense of what the characters are going through and are thus drawn into the created world.
As with all things in life, not everything can be perfect. In my experience of playing the game, on both Mac and PC, I noticed points of stuttering frame-rate and voice to lip movement not matching. These are hardly huge flaws in the game, but they are a bit jarring when, through most of the game, you are sucked into the world that Telltale and Skybound made
People say that there are several levels of games: shitty, playable, ok, good, great, excellent, superior, and revolutionary. This game is revolutionary. It changes our perception of what games are and what they can be. If you are having trouble in deciding what game you should get for yourself with so many allegedly great games on the market; this is a must buy. With dark themes and heavy drama The Walking Dead manages to present a mature work of video game art that any mature person privy to adventure and decision making games, should experience this.
No. Seriously. Get it. On any platform. Get it.
