by Kenny » Tue Feb 12, 2013 3:52 pm
The Walking Dead.
I always thought, through all their ugly warts and moles, Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy and Heavy Rain were a great new step in the right direction in terms of enhancing the storytelling aspect in games. Sure it could've been better in some aspects, not to mention Metal Gear Solid and Uncharted have done a great job mixing great gameplay with a great narrative, but I never agreed that it wasn't the right way to tell a story in games. That a game has to be a game, not a movie. That it'd be much better to watch youtube videos of it in action since in theory it'll be the same as playing.
This game trumps ALL of that. This proves there is no right or wrong way to make a game and it also proves no matter how seemingly "non-interacive" it is, you can have a great gameplay experience while doing so little. Turns out a game like this needs to do two things: make an incredibly engaging story and make the story change based on the choices you make. Walking Dead does a fantastic job of both. I found it funny that the devs said they took alot of inspiration from Heavy Rain during the making of the Jurassic Park game, they just merely perfected it here.
The story from very beginning to very end is just EXCELLENT. I can't remember the last time I was truly captivated like this, maybe not since the original Metal Gear Solid or Omikron. The choices I made sometimes impacted the story, in both small and big ways. But more importantly, it was always intense. There were always conflicts, hard decisions that had to be made, and the consequences of your actions are never forgotten. And the characters were so delightfully different from each other, it just made this much more sweeter and unique. You end up caring about many (if not all) of the characters, which makes some of these decisions so much harder to make.
I agree that this game shouldn't have had many puzzles, it just slowed down the pace of this excellent narrative. I did like the little things, like finding batteries, since they always lead to interesting interactions between you and the other characters. It's only those few times when it doesn't and leaves you wandering around looking for a way to progress through the game (happened to me in the end of Episode 3) that it becomes unnecessarily tedious.
I also agree the relationship between Lee and Clementine, based on how you interact with her, is one of the most engaging things ever put in a game. Kids are terribly annoying cause most of the time, people just don't know how to write them. They don't remember what it's like to be a kid and just make them do typical stuff like "crave candy" and "play in traffic". Or they go the other direction and make them smarmy and too wise for their youth, unfortunately they don't sound authentic since you can tell they were written by adults and trying to make them talk like adults.
Clementine here is balanced very well. She acts like a kid but through the harshness of the environment around her, she's forced to grow up fast. And it's your job to make sure she can take care of herself as well as make sure she's out of harm's way. Like Riku, nearly all my decisions were made to benefit her and not me. I felt like a surrogate parent like Lee was. That amazed me the most. And it made the ending that much more heartbreaking for me.
I've always loved games with great stories from beginning to end, even ones as simple as Machinarium. But to have something intense from the start to the very end, this deserves nothing but high marks from me. A 9/10 easy. The only way it would get a perfect 10 from me is if they kept the surprises going and the pace made perfect. Not everything can be THAT perfect though, but it is one of the most rewarding gaming experiences I had in a long time. I'd take another short adventure like this over a 300 hour RPG or the most acclaimed AAA title.
The TV show should've been like this game. THIS is how you do a dramatic zombie story RIGHT. Then again, the interactivity aspect is what made the experience so much richer. I really can't wait for Season 2 now.
EDIT: I forget to mention, I played the PS3 retail version of this game. It's TERRIBLY LAGGY, there's constant chugging and freezing happening all the time. The experience was really THAT good for me to forget all about it before posting the review, but I have to mention it now. Does the DLC have these issues? If not, i'm getting that until they sort out the bugs with a patch or another retail version.
