The Walking Dead - EP1
Review
A promising start
by Quinn Levandoski
reviewed on PC
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Gameplay is a mix between quick time events, point and click segments, third person action, and dialogue. While wandering from point to point, or while in conversation, the player controls Lee via a third person fixed camera (think early Resident Evil), though during some of the more intense moments the camera comes into first person to let you really feel the moment. One the whole the interface and controls come together very nicely. The on-screen HUD is extremely minimal (and often times completely non-existent) which really let me focus on what Lee was doing instead of monitoring a health bar or radar. When handling a weapon the controls can seem a bit loose. I’m not sure if this was an intentional choice by Telltale, but I actually came to like it. Lee isn’t a trained assassin, and it makes sense that his aim would be a bit shaky in intense situations. My only real complaint in this department is that sometimes the camera was in a position that made movement awkward or clunky. Again, this may be a device to add tension to situation, but for the most part I found myself being drawn out of the experience in instances where tension or scares weren’t supposed to be present.
Dialogue is where you’ll spend a good chunk of your time. Almost every character has something to say, and they’re all worth talking to. I genuinely enjoyed getting to know most of the new characters I met throughout the episode, and it was a treat to be able to talk to series familiars such as Hershel and Glenn who make appearances of varying length and impact. However, while enjoyable overall, I found the quality of the voice work to be a bit inconsistent. The main characters all sound solid, with lines sounding organic and weighted with feeling. The same can’t be said about some of the characters with more brief appearances however, whose voices range from passingly mediocre to cartoonishly unrealistic. I also noticed the occasional random drop in volume mid-conversation that certainly didn’t ruin anything, but was annoying enough for me to take notice.
The Walking Dead has an immediately recognizable visual style that I’m sure will have a polarizing effect on people. The developers were clearly going for a look that would mirror the series’ comic book origins, but the hand drawn/cell shaded look just didn’t do it for me. Admittedly I’m not a huge fan of this kind of art style in general, and it did grow on me a small amount during the roughly two hours this episode took me to complete, but to me it only worked to highlight some of the occasionally poor animations that take place in the game. While sometimes they would be great, on occasion character’s faces would seem a bit stiff, with changes in emotional animation having a too solid of a “switch moment.” That being said, there are some moments when the game looks fantastic, especially when things get violent. Though, as I said, the game is focused more on character development and story than action, it also isn’t afraid to get its hands dirty with delightfully bloody moments.
A promising start
Overall, it isn’t too difficult for me to recommend this title to anyone with an interest in The Walking Dead, zombies in general, or gameplay that strays away from current trends in the industry. The game handles well for the most part, has a story that seems like it’s headed in the right direction, and has created characters that I already care about after only a few hours, which are enough positives to outweigh the few negatives present. I can’t say that the worries I felt before playing the game are completely gone, as the past has shown us with Telltale’s Back to the Future that the company is capable of starting something off well and then leading it into the ground, but at this point I see no reason not to be optimistic.
8.5
fun score
Pros
Places the focus on story and character, extremely satisfying gore, sets up choices that should build nicely through the next episodes.
Cons
Occasional audio glitches, voice acting is hit or miss, animations can be stiff.
