Telltale’s first season of its episodic take on The Walking Dead is one of the smartest and most refreshing takes on the zombie apocalypse since Left 4 Dead, focusing on the interplay between human characters rather than the zombie threat around them. It squeezes in a few unfortunate action sequences to remind you of the ghouls, but mostly this is a game about developing trust with the NPCs around you.
If all that talking sounds a little turgid then think again.The Walking Dead doesn’t waste anymore time on introductions than is strictly needed, which makes sense given the immediacy of the emergency. You play Lee Everett, a professor and murder suspect who is being transported out of Atlanta, but as soon as you learn of your back story, the outbreak begins and you get a chance for freedom. Five minutes into the first episode the pace is already moving briskly, with Everett promising to care for an abandoned child as he heads back to his hometown.
Unfortunately while the first episode sets an impressive pace, it’s also the weakest of the entire first season on other fronts.The writing is mostly pitch-perfect, for example, but sometimes conversations take odd leaps, or you can’t tell allies what seems like crucial information. Everett will readily explain his history to some characters, for example, but not to others, and for reasons that aren’t adequately explained.
Production quality is also a little shaky for the first few hours, with hot-spots that don’t sit over the items they represent, and lines of dialogue with fuzzy sound. These become less problematic as you progress, but it isn’t a good first impression.
The good news is that The Walking Dead still builds to an emotional and riveting finale that’s as powerful as anything in the comics or TV series. It’s arguably more of a piece of interactive fiction or movie at times ,rather than a conventional adventure game, but swapping the puzzles for choices proves to be a winning formula. You’ll be more likely to have to choose who gets the last tin of food rather than go hunting for more, but the game is all the better for it.
Telltale has also boiled back the interface, making all verbs context-sensitive and leaving only a small tribute to a full inventory. While this may chafe with hardcore adventure fans attached to convention, it strengthens the game. The same can also be said for the time limits imposed when you’re choosing dialogue options, and the brief but tolerable scripted sequences.
The Walking Dead may start off shakily but it rapidly outpaces every zombie game we’ve seen in terms of emotional impact.