Telltale Games Rules

A Review of Telltale Games The Walking Dead 

By Zane Wetzel

The game that put Telltale on the map and redefined storytelling in video games

At one point when I was a kid, I got really into reading this comic book series called Bone by a man named Jeff Smith. I voraciously read the Bone comics, all of which had been collected into individual volumes, whenever I could get my hands on them, but it still wasn't enough for me. Imagine my surprise, then, when I came across this online: Click here if the video won't work. Sorry.

A video game based on the first volume of Bone, along with its sequel, The Great Cow Race, both made by a young, little known gaming company called Telltale Games; two of the first games they made, in fact. I had fun playing them, but they never made a third one, so I eventually forgot about Telltale. Hard believe that all of these years later, that little gaming company that made these two games is one of the top Indie developers out there. Funny how things turn out.

I am not bragging when I say that I liked Telltale before they were cool

While I may have liked their early work with Bone, Telltale's success is credited to their 2012 breakout hit, The Walking Dead. Based on the same comic that inspired the popular show on AMC, Telltale's The Walking Dead  was the company's first romp into Robert Kirkman's post-apocalyptic world of zombies and survival, and they were not afraid to pull punches on anything. We play as Lee Everett, a former Professor who was being taken to jail for killing some guy who slept with his wife, when the zombocalypse strikes. All that can be done now is try and survive the Walkers as Lee looks for supplies, weapons and other survivors to make it through this hellish landscape.

Now, I've played some of Telltale's other games before, like Game of Thrones (still waiting on season 2, guys) and their Batman games, so I was already familiar with the game play mechanics and themes that the company uses:

1. They make games based off of licensed materials (that goes back to Bone and even before that)
2. Their games are never released all at once; they release them in the form of episodic content on a scheduled period of time.
3. The games are point and click adventure games with a focus on storytelling and interacting with other characters over exploration.
4. Speaking of which, dialogue trees are a big factor in game play, with what you choose to say effecting your standing with other characters that carries over into each episode
5. Whatever action there is to be found is in the form of quick-time events.
6. Above all else, choices you make can decide the outcome of the episode or even the entire game

Every decision you make can decide who lives and who dies, so make it count!

The Walking Dead was really the first time that Telltale used this episodic, story-driven formula, and even though I never played this game before, though, so I enjoyed the chance to experience the product that gave Telltale it's winning strategy. Not surprising, the overall game play and the mechanics behind it are largely the same as in their more recent releases like Batman: The Telltale Series. You would think that after six years the formula would have gone stale, but it has remained as engrossing as ever. The notion of in game decisions affecting the story is not a new concept, but Telltale managed to heighten that to the highest point possible, always making sure to leave just enough content to make gamers keep coming back for the next installment.  In fact, they are still working on The Walking Dead games, creating two more "season's" and several spin-off stories  with a fourth and final season due for this year. 

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed playing through The Walking Dead from start to finish, and might be willing to play it even further if I could afford to purchase the other episodes and the DLC. Until that day, though, I am content to wait for the final chapter of the series that put Telltale on the map! I give The Walking Dead two thumbs up.