Dee Yun: (contact-deleteme[at]-deleteme-direman [dot] com) 2012-05-18 06:51:30

The Walking Dead

The first chapter of this episodic game is well worth the five dollars. It's tied into the canon of the comic book, not the television show reinterpretation. The quality of the writing and acting actually supersedes that of the show.

It's definitely a point-and-click adventure game, but goes light on the esoteric puzzles in favor of BioWare-style dialogue and branching choices. Urgency is introduced by adding a timer to these decisions, which couples well with the tension of the undead threat and desperate people.

The zombie apocalypse is a fucked up place, and your character has to make some tough choices. My wife stopped playing it, not because the game wasn't good, but because she didn't want to choose between morally terrible options any more. I'd say that's a successful The Walking Dead game.

I wish the next installment were available already.