WARNING – SPOILERS AHEAD.
I just started watching the hugely successful Walking Dead series after putting it off for a while. Despite everyone telling me I’d love it, I had a very specific reason for putting it off.
I still hadn’t reconciled myself with the end of Telltale’s game series.
I still hadn’t dealt with having to choose between saving Duck and Shawn. I still felt sore over five episodes of building up real trust and loyalty with Kenny only to see him die, or to be the man who killed his bitten son. I still felt sick when I remembered finding the little boy in the attic during episode 4, and most of all, I still felt so helpless as to Clementine’s ultimate fate. It wasn’t Lee making those decisions and building those bonds in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, it was me, and for a little while, I couldn’t face returning to it to watch another group of survivors go through the same thing.
Eventually, I caved, and started getting invested in Rick’s struggle to find his family and survive the same apocalypse that Lee, Kenny, Duck, and countless others didn’t. I found myself watching the series from a viewpoint shaped by my opinion of the game, drawing up little connections along the way (Hershel’s farm and the loss of his stepson, Glen’s walkie-talkie and departure in episode one). One thing that did constantly impress upon me throughout the first season and the beginning of the second is just how well the game fuses influences from both the show and the original graphic novels.
It’s effortless and subtle, and the little touches like I mentioned earlier serve to knit the experience together as one whole world. Where The Walking Dead stands apart from other zombie games is in the perfect balancing act between personal dramas unfolding in the apocalypse and fraught, excruciating violence that always either ends in a bittersweet reprieve or truly nerve-rending tragedy. Even when someone gets some long due comeuppance in the Walking Dead, it’s tinged with sadness, worry, and a perennial fear for the future.
Which is why a lot of fans of the game are approaching the franchises’ latest steps into the gaming industry, Survival Instinct, with some trepidation. It focuses on the Dixon brothers before they hook up with the other survivors in the series and, naturally, unfolds from a first person perspective. Not only that, but they’ve possibly chosen the two most action-hero characters from the TV show, perhaps in an effort to distance themselves as far from Telltale’s magnificent interpretation as possible. There will be no long-standing emotional bonds in Survival Instinct, no sudden, shocking deaths or impossible choices tugging at your heartstrings. There will be zombies, buckets of gore, and lots of wielding Daryl’s crossbow maniacally. I think the majority of fans are going to look over Survival Instinct because their opinion on the franchise’s gaming presence is going to be coloured by Telltale.
Fortunately enough the game’s massive (and perhaps unexpected) success means that Telltale will be revisiting the game for a second season. There’s still no word on whether we’ll be learning any more details of Clementine’s fate, or who’s shoes we’ll be stepping into for the series, but one thing’s for sure – the only way is up. Hopefully they’ll be able to tackle the franchise with more ambition and more financial backing in the future.
So how does the series compare to the game for me? Honestly, I think the game comes out on top. The emotions involved are just on another level – we might feel for Rick and Lorey when Carl gets shot, or feel frustrated when Andrea accidentally clips Daryl in her desperation to prove herself to the group, but it’s nothing compared to the gnawing emptiness we feel when Clementine goes missing, or the sudden, appalled shock of Lily shooting Carley in cold blood.
But that’s just my opinion – and I could be totally wrong. What do you think? Answer us in the comments below.
