The Walking Dead: The Game (Episode 1) - Review

 Fans of the Robert Kirkman comic book series "The Walking Dead" have been waiting with baited breath ever since it was announced that a video game based on the comic book universe was in development. With Episode one of five now available to download I can safely say that it was worth the wait for both zombie and adventure game fans alike.

The first episode in Telltale Games' Walking Dead series, entitled "A new day" begins with your character, a guy by the name of Lee, being transported to prison in the back of a cop car. Through a surprisingly civilised conversation with the cop behind the wheel you learn a little more about Lee as well as a few details about your escort. As you can imagine, things soon go wrong and through a series of unfortunate events (for your policeman friend at least) Lee is left injured and free from custody but with a much bigger headache to contend with.

The dead have risen from the grave and are hungry for some living flesh.

The opening conversation introduces the timed response mechanic

Pretty soon you meet up with Clementine, the 8 year old first grader who's well being it falls to you to ensure, as well as a small group of survivors that you will be spending a lot of the following 5 episodes with.

This game doesn't play like your typical adventure game, but similarly isn't hampered by the constant Quick time events that made Jurassic Park such a disaster in many peoples estimations. Quick time has its place but the gameplay is almost like a hybrid between the story driven Heavy rain and the point and click adventure games that Telltale have made their livings on for the past decade.It focuses much more on exploration than combat.

Movement around the environments (on consoles) is handled with the left analogue stick, while the right stick allows you to move a reticule around the screen with which you can interact with items, other survivors and in one early scene, a zombie intent on getting some dinner. This control system feels intuitive enough that anyone could quickly learn how to play the game, although it was disappointing that the reticule controls didn't have an inversion option for those who have played too many flight-sims for their own good. Even so, I quickly got used to the non inverted aiming of the right stick, and found that the standard presentation option, where interactable items show a white target dot when the reticule is moved, didn't detract from my enjoyment of the game and actually helped out a little from time to time.

Use the reticule to interact with items, people or zombies

Interactions play a massive part in the Walking Dead comic series, so it shouldn't surprise anyone to find out that a majority of the time you'll be talking to people, rather than wading through a hoard of zombies in a Left 4 dead/Dead Rising style killing frenzy. With this game Telltale have made sure that character interaction is treated with the importance it deserves. Many of the dialogue choices that you make as Lee will have knock on effects later in the series, and some even have an effect on this episode. Don't worry If you didn't like the way it turned out either. Telltale have allowed for three seperate play throughs to be saved so that you can experience the game multiple times to see how different choices affect the outcome.

Speaking of choices, On two seperate occasions in the first episode I had to choose who to save during a zombie attack. Whilst the decision of who to save might be an obvious one at first, the immediate consequences do make you question if you made the right choice. Ultimately though it's down to how you feel about the characters in peril, Save the idiot with the gun or the nerd with a heart of gold? There is no right or wrong answer, this is about survival. There's another choice laid out for you in episode one that is both heart wrenching and shocking, i won't spoil it here but it's an impactful piece of storytelling that leaves you questioning what you would have done in the same situation.

Another hallmark of the Walking Dead series is the well written characters, and while it's very early to be judging if every character in the game will display a similar amount of depth i think they've got off to a good start. Lee is a complex and mysterious character that isn't everything that he first seems, while Clementine is a smart, resourceful girl who is much wiser than her 8 years might suggest. Not every survivor you'll meet is a nice person, and i have no problem with that at all. A whole range of personalities will survive the zombie apocalypse and dealing with jerks makes it that much more realistic an experience. Other characters haven't really had the chance to be expanded on, although i very much doubt that Duck has any depth to him at all while Carley, a reporter from Atlanta, doesn't get off to a good start as she apparently can't fathom the complexities of electrical devices and how to use batteries (you'll see when you play it).

I'm amazed Carley hasn't managed to shoot herself yet

This dumbing down of a main female character isn't the only mis-step in episode 1 though.

I was left bewildered when Lee, after being chased by the walkers to a fenced off garden, started to shout for help to anyone that could hear him. The only reason that the zombies had originally left him alone was because they heard gunshots in the distance, it's not unreasonable to think that the sound of a guy shouting for help might get their attention back again. Probably just a brain fart on the part of the studio, but if i can pick up on this immediately why didn't anyone else?

The audio in Walking Dead, unsurprisingly for a Telltale game, can be sketchy at times and the animations can sometimes freeze slightly, but overall the presentation is excellent for a near ten year old engine. The voice acting is very good all round (TV's Steven Yuen reprises the role of Glenn for the first episode) while the graphical aesthetic of thick lines and cell shading makes the game pop. It really feels like an interactive comic book.

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Conclusion
While recent Zombie games have been an excuse to hack, slash and shoot our way through a large number of shambling opponents, The Walking Dead takes a much more thoughtful approach to the genre which reflects the series from which it was spawned. Despite the seemingly illogical choices that characters make at times, and despite the same old audio/video issues that seem to be a Telltale hallmark, the well paced story shows great promise and sets up a believable and compelling cast and situation, while the cliffhanger ending make it a difficult decision to walk away from the season pass.

Journey - Review

The characters don't speak, there is no narration, the story is told almost entirely through pictures and tapestrys, there is no violence to speak of and there is no online PVP experience. With so many staples of the current crop of blockbuster games missing, you would be forgiven for asking what all the fuss is about. Surely this is just a cheap downloadable game that couldn't afford voice actors?

Journey is the latest in the Sony exclusive trilogy of downloadable games from "That Game Company", and while it would probably be a good idea to take some time to think over my time with Journey, i won't be. The reason for this is simple, I absolutely loved the experience.

In the same way that Ico and Shadow of the Colossus told amazing stories without words, so too does Journey. The game has a simple premise, get to the top of the mountain and enjoy the trip on the way.

With gorgeous graphics, fantastic gameplay and a superb, haunting soundtrack, you'll find it difficult not to.

Much has been made of the interaction between players in Journey, there are no loading times, little to no lag on the evidence of my play through, and the game is designed in such a way that, even with two random players inhabiting the same environment, there's no competition. This is a game that rewards co-operation and creates an environment in which it is nurtured and encouraged, which is just as well since pairings are completely random.

Your traveller can fly and he can sing, although the sound of your voice is more flute like than human in sound). These two abilities are represented on your controller by the X and O buttons respectively, and despite these being the only two actions available to you during your time in the desert, the gameplay is both deep and rewarding.

Singing while your partner is in range of your voice (a visible white sound wave that radiates from your position) will re-charge his ability to fly, which is elegantly represented by a tapestry that hangs from the back of every travellers robes. When charged the tapestry, and later the robe of your character, will glow with an ornate white light pattern.

The power to fly can likewise be restored in an array of other ways, including coming into contact with swirling pieces of cloth, Manta Rays and Jelly Fish that share the same light pattern as your robes.

One tiny problem that i had with the online co-op of Journey was that it doesn't list the user names of players you meet along the way in the "players met" section of the XMB. They do at least show you a list of all the players you interacted with at the end of the game, So if you liked the experience of playing with a sensible adult instead of a screaming 12 year old you may want to write those names down...

From a graphical point of view this is a game that needs to be experienced first hand, no amount of waxing lyrical will quite cover how stunning it really is. The desert stages of the game are some of the best looking that I've seen in a video game, you can almost feel the heat on the back of your neck as the traveller traipses up one side of a dune and then expertly slides down the other.

The animation of the Traveller is also excellent. There are fluid transitions between walking and flying, as well as several different types of walking animation depending on surface and angle of incline. It really is hard to believe that this is a £10 downloadable title. When compared to some full retail releases it comes away looking like the more polished product

One of the most influential aspects of this game is the Music. The Macedonia Radio Symphonic Orchestra were responsible for the hauntingly powerful soundtrack to Journey, and with such affecting music as this you have to ask why more games developers don't go the orchestral route when scoring their work.



I've said in many a review, that good music can improve a game ten fold, while bad music can rip you right out of the experience. The beauty of Journey's soundtrack is that it syncs perfectly with the singing mechanic of the gameplay, the notes you sing often changing to better complement the music in the background.

The overall feeling i took away from playing Journey was that this is a phenomenal game. The story is emotionally affecting thanks to brilliant use of music and a narrative that relies on actions rather than words, the gameplay is deep and varied despite the two button control scheme and the level of polish is staggering for a game that retails for so little.

This game marks the end of the contract between Sony and "That Game Company", a relationship that saw  Flow, Flower and now Journey released exclusively on the PS3 platform. If i was Kazuo Hirai i would tie them down to a nice long deal, because on the strength of this release, they're the best studio in the business right now.