Review: The Walking Dead Episode 1: A New Day

The Walking Dead Episode One: A New Day

Platform: Xbox Live Arcade
Price: 400 MSP
Launch Date: April 27, 2012
Rating: M (Mature)
Publisher: Telltale Games
Developer: Telltale Games
Game Twitter Feed: @telltalegames

Are you a fan of the hit series The Walking Dead but not sure if this game will live up to the show or the comic?

Well, you will be happy to know that if you are a fan of the show and/or comic that you will really enjoy this game. What is great about The Walking Dead Episode 1: A New Day is that it feels more like you are playing out an episode of the show rather than a game. With that being said, be prepared for a lot of dialog and story and not very much running around and killing zombies.

The game is based on Robert Kirkman’s award-winning comic book series, The Walking Dead. This game magnificently focuses on story and character development. Pair an engaging storyline with dynamic cell-shading graphics, amazing facial expressions, great voice acting and a great musical score and you get a live action graphic novel to play.

The game centers mostly on the story and the choices you make during the game. At times things get a little frantic when you are put into fast paced social situations where tempers are flaring and you have to make choices quickly. Some of your responses have a timer forcing you to quickly react to the situation much like you would have to in real life.

A fun dynamic to this game is that your choices affect your relationships with other characters and the decisions carry on through all five episodes. Since the decisions sometimes have to be made quickly you may find yourself wanting to play through this game more than once. A couple of times I made a decision and instantly wanted a do-over.

*Story based spoiler and my only real complaint:

Throughout the entire episode I felt the story and characters were believable. However, at one point a female news reporter who is also a great shot with the pistol has a radio that she can’t get to work. It turns out that the radio has no batteries. So, I go get the lady some batteries and she still can’t get it to work, only to find that she had them in backwards! Seriously?  I just felt that this this took away from the flow and it just didn’t even seem plausible.

Pros:

• Engaged and dramatic storyline and character development.
• It was literally like playing an episode of The Walking Dead.
• Great voice acting and music score
• Love the cell-shading style of graphics
• Good ending that makes you excited for Episode 2

Cons:

• Very short but the low price makes it okay!
• Sometimes it feels too linear with not enough options to solve the same problem.
• Had some issues with it not auto-saving at the beginning of the game.
• Camera angles can make it difficult to maneuver
• Game occasionally hiccups or jumps during sequences.

Final Verdict:

The game is very short but it is also relatively inexpensive which is fine. It took me almost 3 hours to complete the game but I took my time to really look around and I got stuck a couple of times. I imagine the average gamer will complete this game in about 2 hours. Given that your choices affect the rest of the game I think most of us will be playing it through one or two more times to see how differently things could have turned out.

I highly recommend giving this a few play throughs but if you want an action run and gun type of game then don’t bother. This game is all about the story and the decisions you make with an occasional zombie killing. Oh, and for those of you who are obsessed with easy achievements. This game is definitely an easy 100 achievement points for you.

Have you played this yet? Comment below any thoughts or interesting choices that you made during the game.