The Walking Dead (PS3, Xbox360, PC)

[EvilBoris]

Yeah. Just without any puzzles of Amy sort.

[noobish hat]

Um, I really would not describe it as a point and click in any way. It may have some traits in common with the genre, but it's not the same thing at all. It has more in common with interactive fiction, stuff like Heavy Rain etc. I'd definitely recommend it, but not specifically to point and click fans.

[MrMarbles]

Kind of - it's more just an interactive story interspersed with a few QTE action bits (although this summary massively undersells the experience as a whole); you choose what your character says and you make certain important decisions that branch things a little (a bit like a videogame Choose Your Own Adventure I guess), although you never stray too far from the core story. All of the endings are pretty much the same, but the details leading to that point (which characters appear, what they think of you, how certain scenes pan out) will be unique to each player.

Unlike traditional point-and-click games, though, there aren't really any puzzles in this. If you can pick something up, you *will* have an obvious use for it pretty much straight away so you won't be lugging any mysterious objects around for ages, wondering what to do with it. Controls-wise, you move your character with the left stick, move a roving cursor around with the right stick and have context-sensitive interactions with the four face buttons. There are also high pressure action bits where the roving cursor doubles up as an aiming crosshair.

Think of it mostly like an interactive story where you get *very* heavily invested with all of the characters and their various fates.

[Neon Ignition]

Halfway through Ep2 and wasn't feeling it at first. Like the series it peddles too many cliches but that said its built enough intrigue for the second half that Im curious how the rest of the ep pans out

[Neon Ignition]

Now about halfway through Ep3, events are ramping up and Im curious to see what happens next. The story really is key here, as much as I'm enjoying it I couldn't consider it to be one of the best games of the year though as there's precious little gameplay to it. Though well told its just an interactive novel title, beyond it being well constructed around delivering that story they've stripped pretty much everything down. So far Ep3 has been the weakest for me, some clunky sections really highlighting the rough edges but as there's no real fail state its quick to get going again.

[nonny]

Is this any good on iOS or is it a better experience the big screen?

[Neon Ignition]

It's one of the few games I'd imagine works fine in iOS... possibly better even from a gameplay perspective

[nonny]

Yeah that's what I thought and in the time I wrote that I've noticed it's actually free on the App Store right now for episode I.

[PeteJ]

I think episode 1 is free on all formats now.

Just finished episode 5 and thought it was fantastic. Easily the game that has got its hooks into me more than any other in the past year. I agree it's not really a 'game' as such, but it does prove that with good writing the genre we once laughed at has bags of potential. I'm really looking forward to what they do next.

Episodes 2 and 5 in particular were utterly brilliant and possibly the best and most engaging pieces of videogame storytelling I've experienced in a game in...well, maybe ever? It did strike me though, especially during Episode 5, that the whole thing is a retelling of big potential spoiler

->Open Spoiler<-

The Road

. If you are going to take inspiration from something then that's a good place to start.

It's a shame that

->Open Spoiler<-

your choices don't seem to make a great deal of difference, however since I didn't know that when playing it didn't make any difference to my enjoyment of it

. I have no plans to replay the game either, it just worked great as a one-time thing.

The 'game' side of it is pretty poor, in fact technically the whole thing is really woeful. I had major framerate and loading issues and even struggled to load the final two episodes as it kept reverting back to episode 1 again, which thankfully didn't trash my save. Wtih the success of Season 1, and with all the GOTY awards it's getting there is more success to come, I hope TellTale do some work on their engine as it has felt bad for years.

Despite this, and despite the fact it's not really a 'game', it's still my GOTY for 2012.

[MartyG]

I didn't notice that many issues technically, perhaps a framerate drop now and again, but I think that's more to do with the involvement you feel with the story and the way it hooks you in, making it feel like you're making real life or death decisions.

It's certainly a triumph for the episodic release format and at a price that's pocket-able. I'll happily buy season 2 on the strength of the first.

[stevie vip 99]

Just finished this, what a great game. Full of feeling and heartbreaking decisions.
Well worth a play through.

[Adam]

Finished this recently too, great stuff. See it as an extension of the TV shows as I spend about the same amount of time watching/playing it. The timed responses to critical decisions really give the game that sense of realism. For a Zombie apocalypse anyway. You don't have time to GameFAQs your answer and are forced to live with your choices. Sometimes in the spur of the moment I picked options that I thought were appropriate at the time, but wondered what the hell I was thinking later on. Brilliant. Saying that, the choices never truely take you down a different path so there's a bit of disapointment there when you replay through.

Big spoilers!

->Open Spoiler<-

The game has some nice characters in it. I liked Doug as he reminds me of myself, except he is a bit more nerdier. So that reporter girl in Lee's perants shop bit it (see what I did there?). Lilly and her dad I didn't like at all, for obvious reasons, thought it was hilarious when Kenny dropped a block on his head and Carly killed my man Doug so I left her by the side of the road. That Mark guy who got his an arrow in the kn...shoulder just popped into my game out of nowhere? I was looking for an oppertunity to leave Ben for dead, but something kept telling me to put a bit more faith in him. I wish I didn't, he failed at everything. I laughed my ass off when I pushed Omid off the bridge thinking it would be cool, zombies are coming afterall. Then he mashed up his leg! Oops. He forgave me pretty easy though so I guess it didnt matter? Was Christa pregnant? They made a big thing about her being sick when the dog was being dug up and at another point which I forget. Kenny died trying to help Ben after he fell. Pointless and a waste.

[noobish hat]

Interesting you mention

->Open Spoiler<-

Doug because I barely remember him. In my game I let him die in the first episode, and it was the other chick that Carly blew away. Most of the other stuff you mentioned was different in my game too, but like you say, it all unravels into the same ending for everybody. Would have been VERY cool if the cliff-hanger ending to the series was different for everybody, with people dying to play the next series for different reasons.

[Golgo]

From what I can tell this thread is full of fans of the TV show. Is that necessary to understand/enjoy this (bearing in mind it seems more interactive story than game)?

[Brad]

Re: The Walking Dead (PS3, Xbox360, PC)

Not in the slightest mate.