Review: The Walking Dead (PS3)

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It started out as a hit graphic novel. Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead was gritty and appealed to a wide range of zombie loving enthusiasts. It gained so much popularity, that the novels were quickly adapted into a popular television show that began airing on AMC. After the show was deemed a success, Kirkman  thought to expand the universe even further by allowing TellTale Games the opportunity to develop The Walking Dead game. Where as the television show is more of an interpretation of the original novels, The Walking Dead game runs canonical within the graphic novel universe.  For those fans of the graphic novels and television show, the story takes place around the same time Rick is in the hospital, at the beginning of the outbreak.

This episodic zombie adventure begins with protagonist Lee Everett, a former professor at the University of Georgia Athens (UGA), removed for his recent murder conviction. Lee finds himself handcuffed and sitting comfortably in the back of a older gentleman’s squad car. After a back and forth conversation with the officer, you begin to get the feeling that Lee is not as murderous as he seems, still, the officer continues to advise him about his life choices. Heaps of police cars, medical units and even air support are seen flying into the city of Atlanta, as Lee and his escort make their way out of the city. This doesn’t seem to phase the officer one bit, as he calmly explains right and wrong to Lee, failing to pay attention whilst speeding on the interstate highway. A man stumbles into the roadway, and despite Lee’s warning, the cop strikes the man, sending the vehicle off the side of the road. The game then takes a predictable turn, as you begin to unravel Lee’s story.

Now, the game doesn’t have the amount of control that some would have anticipated, yet it is full of action. The gameplay is, more or less, driven by your directing the course of the story and less on total character control. This approached has been subject to controversy among many gamers, but nevertheless, it is a game, and a damn good one. As you progress through the story, you will use timed button presses, quick time, button mashing events and limited character movement. As you make your choices throughout the episode, you will shape the individual course of Lee’s story by making an impact on the characters around him. This helps develop vivid characters and help discover just who Lee is and what happened in his past. The story is a fantastic one that should make fans of the franchise very proud. Just because the button pressing and character movement seem limited, shouldn’t discourage gamers from playing The Walking Dead. On the contrary, the games beautiful art styling and impressive story telling are more than enough to warrant the small price tag.

As stated before, the gameplay in The Walking Dead is quite limited, but each action you preform has a distinct purpose and possible future consequences. The comic styled art is as beautiful as can be imagined and the story is fantastically told. The game really fires on all cylinders and the only real downfall is the lack of character control. The best part about The Walking Dead is its episodic releases. There are set to be five episodes released, one about each month, and after each episode is finished, you can catch a sneak preview of the next episode cut in a television premiere manner. The game is packed full of action, tense moments and thrilling scares. The Walking Dead is available now on the PlayStation Network and PC, and will be released on the Xbox Live Marketplace this Friday. You can grab the game on any of these platforms for about five bucks.

Pros:

• Great Storytelling
• Good Character Development
• Beautiful Artwork
• Ominous Audio

Cons:

• Little Character Control
• Have to wait a month before continuing the story

Taking everything into consideration, we give The Walking Dead a final score of:

Graphics 85   Audio 91   Gameplay 75 Creativity 84   Execution 85   Offset 90

8.5

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