A good zombie apocalypse is brilliant and what a lot of people today love. There have been loads of different versions and stories over the years, but one has stood out throughout its whole life cycle as the top dog when it comes to this genre and that is The Walking Dead. Created by writer Robert Kirkman and artist Tony Moore, they told us their tale of a zombie apocalypse and took the world by storm with how popular and brilliant their comic books were. Over the years this success leads to them getting TV shows based around the comics as well as video games. This is where Telltale began their journey and told us the story of a young girl called Clementine and the hardships she must face during the time of the apocalypse. I had never played a Telltale game before and I’m a big fan of The Walking Dead, so I wasn’t going to miss the opportunity when all the seasons got released onto the PlayStation 4 to play through them all and see what I have been missing out on for the last seven years.
The Walking Dead Telltale series are episodic adventure games that are based around varies characters and the struggles they go through while trying to survive the outbreak. Season One sees you playing as Lee Everett, who is a university professor and a convicted criminal. At the beginning of the game, you are involved in an accident that leads you to find Clementine. During the events of season one, you fall for these two characters and eventually release what true heartbreak is when faced with the dilemmas these characters are put through. The remaining season, however, focuses on Clementine and her journey to survive. Kirkman provided some oversight for the games and wanted to make sure that it corresponded to the tone of the comics, which telltale did perfectly. The story, however, was from the Telltale team and captured the hearts of millions and of course me after playing the games for the first time round. Where most graphic adventure games see the player having to do a lot of puzzle-solving to progress through the story The Walking Dead relies heavily on storytelling and character development that they do tremendously. I feel for Clementine straight away and I really found it hard making some of the decisions in the game because of the outcomes that happened.
The story is affected by the choices that you make for the characters you play as these are done by dialogue choices and quick-time events blended together to make an engaging and fantastic gaming experience. You’ll get times when a dialogue choice is timed and you must try and react to a situation within a certain time, this caused some issues with me as I’m not the fastest reader so I’d miss some text and have to rush to make a choice. It wasn’t anything major, but it did cause me to make the wrong choice now and then. It is very little for the player to do in terms of controls, it’s very simple gameplay but that doesn’t make the game any less amazing. You’ll be able to interact with the world as you move through it, trying to find various resources and things to help you move through the story but most of all, you’ll be making the hardest decisions that any gamer will have to do. Though be careful what you do choose as the choices you make will carry over from each of the episodes and seasons, heavily affecting the story and the outcome of the game.
The definitive series comes with over 50 hours of gameplay across 23 breathtaking episodes all with graphical enhancements and behind the scenes bonus features that make it the ultimate package for all the fans that have enjoyed and experienced Clementine’s journey. With the “Graphic Black” art style that was used for the final season being used in all the other seasons it really enhances the visual style for the whole game.
It’s nice to have everything in one place, not only do we have all four seasons we also have the additional DLC content. This is the 400 days episode which bridges the gap between seasons one and two and of course The Walking Dead: Michonne. These are a fantastic addition to the main story and are just as engaging and brilliant when it comes to storytelling and decisions making.
Once you have completed all the seasons the fun doesn’t have to stop there because the game is made up of the choice you make, you can always go back through the story and try something different and see how a different choice affects the story. Maybe on your first-time round, you decided to side with one of the other characters and something big happened and you regretted it, it doesn’t mean that you can’t replay it and see what happens if you had chosen to side with the other one instead. The whole game is truly fantastic, and you can see why Telltale got some many rewards for the games and how it revolutionised storytelling in video games.
I’m speaking for all the fans of the series and myself when we say that we’re truly grateful for SkyBound when they stepped in after the collapse of Telltale and made season four a reality. It would have been a massive shame if Clementine’s story wasn’t concluded and thanks to SkyBound they made it possible. With the additional behind the scenes content, you can see how passionate the whole team was behind these games and what it meant them as well as the players.
Closing Statement
I’m a big fan of The Walking Dead, loved the comics and even the AMC Tv show, though sadly when the first Telltale The Walking Dead game came out I completely missed my chance to play it. Over the years it became a huge success and I just wanted to find a way to play them but didn’t know how thankful we got this definitive series and my dream came true I was finally able to see what all the fuss was about. Not only did I get the chance to play through this epic story, but I got everything in one place with the additional DLC and bonus content. I found this game truly breathtaking, gripping and above all an emotional roller-coaster. It’s not very often that I get massively attached to a game or even it’s characters but this game does it so well that I truly feel as though I was going through what Clementine was and was always on the edge of my seat when she was in trouble or if a hard decisions had to be made. It’s been a long time since I have felt like this and I can’t believe that it has taken me this long to even pick up a controller and play these games. If you‘re a Walking Dead fan then you’d be crazy not to pick this game up knowing that it offers all of Clementine’s story on one disc but if you aren’t a Walking Dead fan or haven’t played a Telltale game I strongly recommend playing this because I promise you that it will change your life and make you feel things that most games don’t nowadays. For those reasons, I’m ecstatic to give this game a 10/10.
The Walking Dead: The Telltale Definitive Series is available on PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4
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