The Walking Dead Review (Spoilers Alert, because "Review" doesn't tell it enough already)

The first game of the year (ha! pun non intended, since that game won many Game of the year awards!) I want to review is The Walking Dead, by Telltale Games. This is such an incredible game, and even if some players were annoyed of the 5-episodes concept, it just made you love even more the characters. To remind you a bit, the main plot is that you are Lee Everett, a man who is on his way to jail when he does a car accident because of a walker. He rapidly realizes something is wrong and progresses until he meets Clementine, a young girl who's waiting for her parents to come back home - but they're dead, you can figure it right away (I did anyway XD). He decides to protect the girl over his own life, and so begins an epic journey to survive in an apocalyptic world with some friendly help and some other fuckers who want to chop off your legs to eat them.





I first played when the first episode had just come out, in April of last year, and I remember thinking "how the hell am I supposed to wait for months to finish this game?", but like many other players who became as addicted as me, I waited, and with each new episode I loved more and more Lee and the little Clementine (and I really dislike kids in general, especially in games). I wasn't a fan of Kenny, but I respected his choice of always protecting his family - even if his wife Katjaa wasn't approving every of his decisions. I hated their kid Duck because he was only a nuisance and I wish he could've died in the first episode, but he still does live even if you don't save him - and Kenny doesn't like you. I really liked Carla, I felt like she was the only one who could really understand Lee and she was a romantic interest. I wonder if something could've happen if Carla hadn't been killed by Lilly. Doug was kind of nowhere, but I also really liked him because he's always really objective in every situation. I felt though that his death was not worth it. I mean, yeah he got shot as well by Lilly, but it seemed to me like they needed him dead because of the plot, but couldn't manage to make the situation as realistic as with Carla. Yes, he protected Ben, but... I don't know, it felt wrong to make him die like that, and they just let his corpse on the side of the road and drove away. Maybe I'm just too picky. Anyway, it's a sad thing people preferred to save Carla over him, because he was funny and smart too.

It's always strange that along the road, you meet some new people, but I was always like "oh yeah, new people, will they try to kill us now?" and I never trusted them, until I realized "hey! they might be important and be useful to something for once in a game." Because, yes, all the characters met are important (maybe except some of the Cancer support group survivors (I laughed so hard when Brie died hahaha XD)), and if you take the time to talk to them and listen to their point of view, they add something to the complexity of your current situation (because we're always so deep in shit in this game we can't see the light anymore), but also, they make you feel even more alive. When you're confronted to so much death, you can't be anything but grateful for the life you have, it makes you realize how confortable you are - or could be, if you'd choose. You meet people with all kind of past, you learn their life before the zombies, you have to work around their way of thinking, and it was really interesting. And when I say you have to work with their opinions, you have to make those decisions in less than 10 seconds at a time. Look for "Walking dead decision" on Youtube, and all the videos have the title "Walking Dead: My hardest decision!!" No! They're all fucking difficult to make, it killed me each fucking time to make it, but that's what the game is all about, you need to see ahead of you and make the decision you think is the best - and I learned I don't always make the best one. I can't recall the number of times I regretted almost instantly a decision I just made. I killed Ben in my first playthrough, because he was useless and only caused trouble, but I still regretted my decision right away.

This game is so hard for your nerves, I can't properly express how I felt after I'd played each episode. I cried almost all the way through the last one, I knew Lee would die, even though I chose to cut his arm. It was pointless. He had to left the sweet Clementine alone, and to tell her to kill him (me) was unbearable, but it was for the best. Don't expect Lee to be in Season 2, because how could he? Telltale Games uses realism in their games, he couldn't have sudden immunity or be resurrected later on, it's impossibru! (even if I wish it was) My heart was crushed as he was getting sicker and sicker until the moment where a walker came toward him and didn't recognize him as a living being anymore. And to top it all, Clementime didn't want to recognize his degradation. It made everything even worst. I'm so happy my sister wasn't there when I played because I was a mess at the end of that fucking game.

There's so much more I could talk about, this game is really dense with its many possibilities and its awesomeness. I heard the other day a friend saying that there was so many bugs into the game that she didn't like to play, but personnally, I never had any problem. Yeah, I noticed some LOD, strange animations and missing textures, but there weren't many. It sucks though that people stop playing awesome games because of the container and not what's inside, and I'm also talking of those graphics whores who wouldn't dare to touch an Indie Game because "the graphics are SO ugly!"

For more about Clementine and how everything began with her, I suggest you check this article.