The Walking Dead
The Walking Dead: Season One (also known as The Walking Dead: The Game) is an episodic interactive drama graphic adventure video game developed and published by Telltale Games. Based on Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead comic book series, the game consists of five episodes, released between April and November 2012. It is available for Android, iOS, Kindle Fire HDX, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The game is the first of The Walking Dead video game series published by Telltale.
What it feels like
A harsh, unflinching darkness pervades the experience, refusing to look away from brutality, betrayal, and impossible choices. A grave, subdued seriousness with the hush of grief and mourning characterizes much of the emotional tone. The game treats every emotional beat with sincere, unironic heartfelt-ness, refusing to undercut character moments with levity.
What it's about
The game is set directly in The Walking Dead universe where undead outbreak and survival is the central driving force of the setting. Enduring a hostile world of zombies and human threats against limited resources is the central struggle throughout all five episodes. While not the sole aim, the game uses zombie apocalypse setting and survival horror elements to create fear and disturb the player.
How it plays
Branching conversation choices drive interaction with characters and determine story outcomes, central to the point-and-click adventure format. Weighty ethical decisions shape the story and how the player character is perceived by others, with no clearly 'right' answers in survival scenarios. Interaction is driven by clicking hotspots to examine objects, use items, and trigger interactions, core to the graphic adventure format.
How it looks and sounds
Bold visual presentation mimics the comic-book aesthetic with stylized character art and panels, directly adapting the source material's look. The game uses cel-shaded 3D rendering styled to mimic the graphic novel aesthetic of the comic book source material.
How it's structured
The game is explicitly an episodic five-part narrative with a clear beginning, middle, and definite end, forming a complete story arc. The game is designed to be played solo with no multiplayer component, focusing on a single-player narrative experience. The game is structured as five discrete episodes released over time, with each episode as a self-contained chapter in the broader campaign.
Kindred games
Shares Zombie, Survival Against Nature, Episodic, Dialogue Trees.
Both lean into Single-Player, Zombie, Campaign, Dialogue Trees.
Shares Episodic, Zombie, Survival Against Nature, Dialogue Trees.
Both lean into Single-Player, Episodic, Campaign, Zombie.
Shares Zombie, Survival Against Nature, Episodic, Dialogue Trees.
Both lean into Zombie, Campaign, Single-Player, Episodic.
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