The Walking Dead (The Videogame)

[bovine]

It was pretty neat! There is a lot of variety in the actions you are performing, and it doesn't often fall into the regular adventure game mode of "try clicking everything and giving everything to everyone until something happens". I also like that there are situations where something bad is going to happen, regardless of your choices. AND you get all the achievements just for doing one playthrough. This may seem trivial to most, but I like achievements and would have gone back to get them all. However, since I didn't have to do that, I can leave my original playthrough as canon and have one cohesive story. I had a problem with all those trophies in Heavy Rain that required multiple playthroughs even though the game's director said he thought people should just play it once and never play it again. This would leave each player with a different experience with the game, but one cohesive story instead of looking at the game as a set of branching paths to be "gamed". So my playthrough in Walking Dead is my very own canon experience.

ALSO! There is a timer for you to make a lot of your decisions, so you have to act quickly and this pressure leads to some interesting decision making. Bovine recommends this game.

Every episode is $5, unless you buy the whole pack.... but only the first episode is out, and you can only purchase the entire pack for $20 on PSN right now, it is $25 on steam and there is no option for whole pack purchasing in the 360.

The bad parts of this game are that there seemed to be a lot of hitching up to load sound effects. It was distracting and didn't hurt the gameplay experience at all (as it happened only during scripted events, not anything that could get you killed).

[kali o.]

Ya, I thought it was pretty fun too...but I think there is less "choice" than the game pretends to offer (I base that on my second replay, trying to be an asshole convict). I hate waiting on "to be continued...." though. That's why I will never really like episodic games.

Anyway, good little 2 hour game for $5.

[kali o.]

I still like this game and it's up to episode 3 now. Well worth the money if you haven't tried em.

My only criticism remains the fact that there is less "choice" than it seems.

Still, good little game.

[SineSwiper]

My only criticism remains the fact that there is less "choice" than it seems.

Gee, where have I seen that in video games?

[Zeus]

Just FYI: December 4th is the release date for the physical disc of this series

http://www.amazon.ca/UBI-Soft-01191-Wal ... 493&sr=8-1

Surprisingly, it's currently listed at $29.95. Back to the Future came out at $20 which is what you'd figure all 5-ep series' to be. Guess not

[Shrinweck]

Back to the Future got panned in every review I read. TWD can get away with charging for more. Probably a more expensive IP to make games for at this point, as well.

I'll pick it up next time it's all on sale for $5-$10. I don't care enough to go full price and this stuff gets crazy cheap when it's on sale fairly quickly.

[Zeus]

Back to the Future got panned in every review I read. TWD can get away with charging for more. Probably a more expensive IP to make games for at this point, as well.

I'll pick it up next time it's all on sale for $5-$10. I don't care enough to go full price and this stuff gets crazy cheap when it's on sale fairly quickly.

The BTTF game is very obscure with its gameplay and lots of random stuff to do which feels a little outta place. But the storyline and voice acting are top-notch, definitely worth your $10 for all 5 eps, just play it with a FAQ ready.

[Eric]

Back to the Future is fan service for anybody that liked the movies, they are not the best games, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy playing them just as what-if sequels to Back to the Future.

[Zeus]

Back to the Future is fan service for anybody that liked the movies, they are not the best games, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy playing them just as what-if sequels to Back to the Future.

That's a great way to put it

[Alec]

Walking Dead Ep 4 hits today. Can't wait to get home and play it.

[Shrinweck]

Went on sale for $15 and I gave in. Played through the first episode. Very impressed.

[Shrinweck]

Finished episode four. Fuck this is good stuff. I was trying to read ahead in the middle of the fourth episode and figure out what the ending could be in the unreleased last episode and for some reason this scenario didn't even occur to me until it happened. Excited to see it play out.

Spoiler: show

It's going to be somewhat disappointing if the villain is someone who hasn't been encountered previously since someone who's just crazy and completely unrelated to them just doesn't seem like a good fit to me. But I'm going through possibilities in my head of people Lee has left in his wake and none of them are a good fit. Possible it's the leader of Crawford since that would bring Molly back into the story and finishing her story with that shitty good bye would be disappointing.

I guess if the physical disc is getting released in the beginning of December we can hope for the last episode around then. Fuck, I shouldn't have blown through it.

[Shrinweck]

Confirmed as getting released next week (Nov 21) yay

And they're going to make more Walking Dead games although I doubt they may have more than the setting and a minor character in common.

It would be nice to see what's going on in a place that isn't the southeast United States.

[Shrinweck]

This, Defense Grid beta DLC, Assassin's Creed 3, and Hitman: Absolution all in two days. Dear gaming industry, fuck you, but not really, Love shrinweck.

Edit: Amazing ending. I can't wait for the next series. Hopefully there's some characters in common.

[bovine]

AAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!! The ending!!!

Cannot recommend this game enough. It's like $12 on the turkey steam sale.

[Blotus]

Picked this up when it was 50% off. Only on the beginning of chapter 2 but I like it a lot already. Please do be careful about not marking spoilers here.

+Plays well on OSX, which is nice since I don't have to boot into Windows to play at high settings (Starcraft II)
+Clementine is adorable. I'm already very protective of her
+Works well with a trackpad and WASD

-Had to turn off story notifications. Didn't like being told "so and so will remember that!"
EDIT:
-Just crashed while running in a window and cmd+tabbing
and subsequently...
-Lost progress. Hard to tell where checkpoints are and there is no hard save option.
and so it bothers me that...
-You can't skip dialog
EDIT:
-And another crash, losing about the same 20 minutes at the start of chapter 2. No crashes in chapter 1. I guess I'll stick to Windows. I hope the cloud save works on both ends or I'll be playing through chapter 1 again.

[bovine]

Dear Blotus,

Please play the game really slowly. Space out playing each episode. I know that each one ends with quite a bit of a tease that makes you want to play the next.... but you should really give yourself some time between episodes. I'd hate to hear you burn out before the end.

That being said, please post your feelings on this game. I have so many feelings.

[Blotus]

I will do so. I think I may schedule them a week apart after #2.

Feelings are good.

[Shrinweck]

I blew through 1-4 in something under two days and was quite happy with the experience :P

[Blotus]

EPISODE 2&3 SPOILERS

Spoiler: show

Fucking Lily! I don't know whether or not there's a way to keep her from shooting Carly, but goddamn it. That's where I'm pausing for now. Will check back here after I've finished this episode.

The lead up to the end of episode 2 was pretty rad. I pitchforked one of the brothers and left the other to get eaten. Nothing really surprising about the Moira(?) video on the flipcam since she was basically just telling us what just happened, but it was a neat ending.

Fuck, this game is great.

[Blotus]

I think my game is haunted. I've had a couple of odd (but fun) glitches.

EPISODE 3 SPOILERS

Spoiler: show

[Blotus]

Aaaaand I'm finished.
Aside from the technical problems I mentioned before, I can't praise this game enough. In the end emotion trumps all, and I don't think I've ever been this emotionally attached a group of character in any game ever.

[Flip]

I'm convinced to try this. I wonder if its still on Steam sale? I didnt realize it has a whole new set of people, i thought it followed the show, which made me uninterested.

[Shrinweck]

It's 25% off instead of 50% off for the next day or so.. you could hope that they do that thing on the last day of the sale where everything that was on sale for a day is on sale again but there's no indication that that's going to happen since the sale supposedly ended yesterday, even though some of the stuff is discounted for the next 24 hours or so.

[Shrinweck]

Before they release a season two series of games it looks like we're getting an episode that occurs between episode one and two featuring the old cast. Excited about this.

[Zeus]

I'm convinced to try this. I wonder if its still on Steam sale? I didnt realize it has a whole new set of people, i thought it followed the show, which made me uninterested.

It was on sale on the PS3 for $10 for the entire season for a couple of weeks, same with the Xbox during Black Friday. I think Ep 1 is still free on XBLA if you wanna try it

[SineSwiper]

I stopped playing this because the choices were so binary and obvious that it detracted from the story. That and there wasn't much gameplay to speak of.

[Shrinweck]

It's more of an interactive drama than a roleplaying game rife with choice. If you can't get absorbed with the characters like a television show then it's going to fall flat because it's a rudimentary game at best. Subtle choices or wildly deviating choices would have made the game literally impossible to make. What ends up making the choice system interesting is seeing how it can change things in later episodes. Being nice to one guy at the detriment of another can help or hinder you based on them surviving until the next episode, but in the end all choices lead to the same outcome. It's a good story, but it's kind of a mediocre game. I'd give the story another chance.

It's largely a game about human interaction and that's easy to read ahead with. The interesting stuff comes when the zombies fuck your shit up and character allegiances shuffle. And how could you just abandon little Clementine like that, Sine? She's dying without you!

[SineSwiper]

I dunno. Especially after BioShock Infinite basically took that mechanic and revealed just how dumb it was in every other game. Having no choice at all ends up being more entertaining than forcing hamfisted choices onto the user.

There were too many occasions where I'm thinking "Oh, come on! You could have saved both people!"

[Zeus]

I'm convinced to try this. I wonder if its still on Steam sale? I didnt realize it has a whole new set of people, i thought it followed the show, which made me uninterested.

It was on sale on the PS3 for $10 for the entire season for a couple of weeks, same with the Xbox during Black Friday. I think Ep 1 is still free on XBLA if you wanna try it

Actually, Flip, they're still $10 right now on PSN if you want them.

[bovine]

I've got a steam code for the series if anyone wants it. PM me.

[Flip]

I played the first episode tonight and really like it. The virtual book concept doesnt bother me since the graphic style is super cool and the voices are done very well. Even as a not-so-good adventure game, figuring out how to get the pharmacy keys took me a bit. I took the game for granted that it would be super easy when that bit actually took some work.

Definitely interesting enough to keep me playing. $5 an episode might be slightly high, though... luckily i got Bovine's code for the first 5. Wow, sharing a game digitally, imagine that.

[Shrinweck]

Yeah $5 an episode is too much to make the initial jump but once you get invested... well I won't be waiting for future episodes to go on sale before I buy them. It also goes on sale pretty frequently lately.

[Shrinweck]

What the hell the new DLC is already set to get released this week.

Edit: Oops it looks like the new episode bridges the gap between the previous season and the next season, rather than a story occurring between episodes one and two.

[bovine]

I'm really curious about this episode. I found every episode created better emotional impacts as the situation deteriorated and you became increasingly invested in the characters, so how will this one-off episode work? And how will it do when it is competing with the emotional tugs found in The Last of Us?

[Blotus]

Oh word?

And how will it do when it is competing with the emotional tugs found in The Last of Us?

Probably won't stack up in that regard. I imagine this is going to be a lot of setup for season 2 characters... but hopefully it tells a nice full story on the way.

[Shrinweck]

It's probably just an explanation of what happens to the main character when the last game ended. My guess is season two occurs months or years after the first season. Fingers crossed for the fabled Strong Female Lead. The article says that it'll read into your previous choices for how the DLC plays out which is probably the most that can be expected out of this. My guess is there'll be some sort of tie in with this episode and the eventual season two. I'm also guessing that it's going to make it so the choices made in this DLC overshadow anything you did in season one, so season two can develop without getting Mass Effect'd and writing yourself into a corner on certain plot lines/holes.

I always liked the Fallout to Fallout 2 time jump of decades where you get to see how your acts are perceived by the generation(s) that came after you. A bit too soon for this game and would probably involve MASSIVE spoilers to TWD comic book and TV show so that probably ain't happening. But I also always liked the idea of what happens after the initial culling of an apocalyptic event and how the survivors put things back together afterwards (i.e. the books World War Z and Earth Abides)

[Shrinweck]

Wasn't what I was expecting. It isn't like the other stuff from one character's point of view, it jumps between six characters during (very) short stories. They're all told real well and if season two started to get released next week or even next month I'd feel better about it but as it stands I'm just not very thrilled with the purchase of what's basically stand alone DLC. Didn't even take me 1.5 hours to complete. Only noticed one little tidbit of information about the people in season one and it wasn't even about anyone I cared about.

What they showed of the characters was well crafted but the stories were almost more like a highlight reel in a shitty clip episode rather than a proper story. The links between the stories were tenuous and I just wanted more.

[kali o.]

Episodes were way, WAY too short.

I liked the Vernon tie in at least.

[Zeus]

Episodes were way, WAY too short.

The 1 to 2 hours per episode are what TellTale aims for. 3 if you spend a lot of time looking around trying to get everything

[kali o.]

Episodes were way, WAY too short.

The 1 to 2 hours per episode are what TellTale aims for. 3 if you spend a lot of time looking around trying to get everything

Yeah, but once you spread that around 5 (or technically six) stories in a single episode, it becomes ridiculously short and ultimately...not satisfying. It's bad enough that I wouldn't recommend 400 Days...but the truth is, anyone that already likes the game will buy that anyway.

I expect most people will be left unsatisfied. What Telltale should take away from this is that amount of content will NOT work if it isn't a focused story.

[Shrinweck]

I'm fine with 2-3 for hours for $5 (if I got that kind of value with more big budget games I'd be thrilled) but 1.5 hours and that's ALL the content like in the new DLC just leaves me disappointed.

Kali is completely right.

And if there's no Clementine at all then fuck it, these shouldn't be called seasons, they should have different title names because it's a new story.

[Zeus]

2.5-3 hours for $5 is perfectly OK for a downloadable ep IMO. Anything much less than that feels like a rip. But that's just me talkin'....

That's why the Castlevania Lords of Shadow DLC got so much flak. $10 for each one that were an hour and a half long? Bah!

Telltale usually aims for 2-3 hour mark but don't be surprised if it almost always gets closer to 2 hours in the future. They're starting to make too much money, too many business people lookin' at them now

[kali o.]

2.5-3 hours for $5 is perfectly OK for a downloadable ep IMO. Anything much less than that feels like a rip. But that's just me talkin'....

That's why the Castlevania Lords of Shadow DLC got so much flak. $10 for each one that were an hour and a half long? Bah!

Telltale usually aims for 2-3 hour mark but don't be surprised if it almost always gets closer to 2 hours in the future. They're starting to make too much money, too many business people lookin' at them now

I'm not sure you understand...

Who is talking about price? I'm not. [Edit: Oh I see -- missed Shrin's post. Still...]

I am talking about what actually works in a game like this -- and imo, splitting the content/story up into six pieces in a 2hour (at best) game is awful. I didn't care. I didn't have time to care.

[Blotus]

Done.

Spoiler: show

It was fine for $5.

Curious why at the end they show you who left and who stayed at the camp. As if those that stayed won't be in season 2? I doubt that. Unless Shel was the only one to stay there in EVERYBODY's game, it would make for really complicated scenario writing for the entire season.

So either there's going to be some sort of early reconciliation in S2, or there were only a couple of possibilities of people who can stay behind.

In the end stats, it said I chose for Shel to kill Stephanie... now I THOUGHT that I chose the keys, but I did play that chapter drunk.

OKAY... a quick search reveals how this works:


Vince will join if he shoots Danny.
Wyatt will join if he leaves Eddie behind or if he's told that there might be people who he knows in Tavia's community.
Russell will join if he's told that there might be people who he knows in Tavia's community.
Bonnie will join no matter what.
Shel will join if she decides to not execute Stephanie. If she did kill Stephanie, she will instead join if told there are people of all ages in the camp.

So Bonnie is the only one who definitely leaves. Interdasting.

[Zeus]

2.5-3 hours for $5 is perfectly OK for a downloadable ep IMO. Anything much less than that feels like a rip. But that's just me talkin'....

That's why the Castlevania Lords of Shadow DLC got so much flak. $10 for each one that were an hour and a half long? Bah!

Telltale usually aims for 2-3 hour mark but don't be surprised if it almost always gets closer to 2 hours in the future. They're starting to make too much money, too many business people lookin' at them now

I'm not sure you understand...

Who is talking about price? I'm not. [Edit: Oh I see -- missed Shrin's post. Still...]

I am talking about what actually works in a game like this -- and imo, splitting the content/story up into six pieces in a 2hour (at best) game is awful. I didn't care. I didn't have time to care.

I haven't played Walking Dead so I haven't commented on it specifically. I've played Back to the Future and Tales of Monkey Island of theirs so I'm going based on that. Maybe Walking Dead is different, but those ones worked quite well in 2-3 hour segments. But then again, Walking Dead could be different enough that it don't, I don't really know. That's why I've been talking in generalities.

A lot of games won't work in five or six 2-3 hours segments, but some do. If anything, Alan Wake might have been better for it. It broke up the story, really made you feel like you were engaged in an interactive Twin Peaks, and the whole show-within-a-show thing worked better because of it. But yes, I do agree that the games that works with are pretty specific.

[Shrinweck]

That's helpful, thanks Blotus. I screwed up and only had one guy stay... and he was the first person I played so I have to go through the entire DLC again lol. Probably doesn't have the biggest impact ever, but I want this for some reason.

[kali o.]

I haven't played Walking Dead so I haven't commented on it specifically. I've played Back to the Future...

That does explain a bit. Walking Dead is like B2tF...except with LESS actual gameplay.

I am of the opinion Telltale should just ditch all pretense of gameplay and focus on meaningful choices. The walking around and lame QTEish moments aren't padding game time all that much anyway.

BTW - My first play through, only the junkie left. My second play through, all 5 left. 2 minor paths.

[Shrinweck]

I agree again the QTE stuff is just a waste, I think everyone who plays is there for the characters and story. Don't really give a fuck about anything but the dialog choices in terms of gameplay any way. The bit where you're in the middle of all the undead in episode five as Lee and you're just hacking your way through was pretty fucking intense in a good way though. Jumping from cover to cover as Russel was also decent this time around even if it was silly (and silly looking). But 95% of that stuff should go. I succeeded in my first try in the corn field and still found that part just plain annoying.

And what was that shit where you hold down the mouse button and roll it slowly forward/quickly to sneak/lurch out? I tried that out like five times and it was the exact same thing every time lol

[Blotus]

And what was that shit where you hold down the mouse button and roll it slowly forward/quickly to sneak/lurch out? I tried that out like five times and it was the exact same thing every time lol

Oh yeah, this was really fun with a multitouch track pad...