The Walking Dead: A Telltale Games Series (PlayStation 3) Review

To anyone that's not necessarily been interested in anything The Walking Dead before, perhaps the phrase, "Ugh, another zombie game?" has sprung to mind. Just what sets this apart from all the other zombie titles on the market that have boomed massively during the course of the past generation? What on earth merits this having received such huge accolades that other zombie games haven't? Well, for one, this is no mindless first-person shooter; it is a rejuvenation of a dying genre. Point-and-click adventures still churn out - mostly on PCs, and the Wii and DS have had their share, too - but there's no denying that this specific type of video game has been on a downward spiral for many years. The Walking Dead, though, has brought new life, and with it, a whole new set of fans, as it reinvents the classic point-and-click adventure game.

Telltale has substituted puzzle elements in favour of story and character development in The Walking Dead, however. As convicted criminal Lee Everett, players are brought into this zombie apocalypse world and must attempt to keep Lee alive. In true point-and-click fashion, objects and specific areas can be examined and used, plus characters spoken to, to progress the plot and solve the current room or location. In certain instances, quick time events crop up, with some button tapping in order to clear individual situations, such as stopping zombies, or "walkers," from barging down a door. For adventure veterans and the majority of players in general, there's nothing particularly taxing, although there are still a few puzzles that will require a little more time and thought than others.

Instead, it is the plot and characters that make The Walking Dead what it is. Lee very quickly crosses paths with a young girl named Clementine, and immediately makes it his priority to keep this little child safe, no matter what. It is from this early point that players connect to Lee's plight and watch as he and Clementine form a heart-warming relationship. The characters that the pair meet and surround themselves with over the course of the journey also undergo development of their own, as each individual player determines exactly how their friendships with Lee establish, and can even affect the fates of these remaining survivors.

These relationships and various plot paths are formed through decisions in conversations, with a timer presenting players with an allotted time to make their choice. Some only leave a short time to choose what to do or say, but other, more crucial, decisions are granted a bit more leeway to allow that extra think-time. It is the opposite of say, Mass Effect, which offers all the time in the world to make key decisions, but the clock works for The Walking Dead's scenarios, where time is always of the essence in a place in which it would not always be ideal to casually stop and think whilst the flesh-eating undead traipse around.

It's easy to forget that this game is even about zombies at all. Rather, it is a tale of survival, of love and betrayal, of loss and gain. There will be sadness, there may even be tears, but what is guaranteed is a game that will leave a mark personally and emotionally - and that is something that very few games can claim to achieve.