--Lee, The Walking Dead: Season One
Closer to Until Dawn than Days Gone, Telltale's The Walking Dead retells the franchise's initial days of crisis as the the world experiences a zombie outbreak. Telltale's game does not focus on action, like some Resident Evil games, or stealth, like the gameplay of The Last of Us, but on choices. The decisions players make and the moral and pragmatic nature of those decisions are the heart of the game. Outcomes affect later events, and people remember how you treat them during key moments, allowing you to seriously impact who lives or dies. Even many of the conversations that do not result in deaths can have a severe emotional impact on various characters.
Production Values
The graphical style does not showcase the Switch's capacity for clarity and color, but the animations are still mostly smooth and are synced well with the spoken words. The voice acting sounds like that of a movie or TV show with high production values, which is especially important given that the game is driven mostly by dialogue. Some of the characters are even borrowed from the show and the graphic novel. They can be identified by their faces and by their names, so players more familiar with The Walking Dead stories from other forms of media should be able to recognize them easily. The sound is not where the biggest problems with the production values rest. It is the occasional freezes and visual glitches which claim that status.
Gameplay
Even though some segments allow you to walk around and examine environmental clues or talk to characters at will, and others involve quick-time events, most of the game is furthered by dialogue options and cinematics. In some cases, silence itself is an option, but other forces might determine what happens for you. The dialogue and behavior choices have importance that ranges from trivial to crucial. Sometimes you merely choose from different ways to present similar information, but sometimes you decide who to save as multiple people are being attacked. There are therefore scenarios that can go different ways, meaning that there is some new content to see upon replaying the game. However, there are parts that would involve conversations or objectives that have already been seen, which could dull the experience for someone who has already played through the entire game. Most games are like this; nevertheless, a game that is often pushed forward by conversations could easily become tiring for some on the second playthrough.
Story
Several spoilers are below.
A man named Lee is introduced while riding in the back of a police car in handcuffs, talking calmly with the officer driving him until a strange incident leads to a crash. As Lee struggles to walk away, he is followed by zombies, and he stops at a random house to find protection. However, only a young girl named Clementine is present. The two become allies with a family as they decide how to navigate the changed world in the main story. In the bonus episode 400 Days, you choose from several survivors and play through their respective journeys until all of them intersect 400 days after the outbreak.
Intellectual Content
One of the most important truths about a widespread catastrophe has nothing to do with survival or other elements of practicality at all. If moral obligations exist, they do not cease to exist during difficult circumstances, nor does their significance diminish when they are perceived to be "impractical," "demanding," or "irrelevant." Of course, chaotic times give egoistic or philosophically and morally apathetic people the opportunities they need to practice injustices of various kinds. Racism, misandry, murder, and general stupidity are only some of the evils that survive into the world of the game after the zombies appear. A central part of certain decisions hinges on whether a player wants to see what happens if utilitarian, aggressive, or quasi-pacifist responses are used, and the game gives a chance to simulate how different people might react in a disaster of such proportions.
Conclusion
The first season of Telltale's The Walking Dead provides several hours of decision-based drama that emphasize just how difficult it could be to sacrifice some lives for others in a truly apocalyptic situation. There is a lot to enjoy for people interested in the show, the apocalyptic genre, and strong characterization. The sequel builds on the intricate story season one begins, but its mechanics can still be appreciated without playing the later games. Not even the heavy saturation of gaming with zombie stories overshadows the successful integration of choice-driven gameplay with yet another post-apocalyptic setting.
Content:
1. Violence: Multiple zombies and people are shot or stabbed in a way that releases bursts of blood. In one scene, a character amputates another character's leg with an ax to free him from a modified bear trap.
2. Profanity: "Damn" and "shit" are proclaimed, but "fuck" is the most common expletive.
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