The Walking Dead

[Thomas]

Anybody else played this? I finished the last episode last night and I absolutely loved it!

In terms of mechanics and storytelling it is nothing new. Basically it is a mixture of Heavy Rain and a simplified adventure game. However, it uses these things really well, even amazingly well some times and really improve upon the games it draw inspiration from.

I would say the main three really great things are:
1) Choices are all about roleplaying and immersion. It is not about some sort of story-optimizing like you do in Mass Effect and it works great.
2) By using simply and focused input, you can create a really strong experience. Again it is not about winning or competition, it is all about making you part of the moment.
3) It is about people. The engagement does not come from killing zombies, solving puzzles, etc. It is all about your relationship with the other characters and about living through certain situations.

It is by no means perfect and there are some stuff I would really like to improve (the lack of interaction flow for one). But it does show that by just using the tools available, creating good interactive experiences is all about design and art, not tech.

[György Dudas]

Yes, a very good game. I like it that they did not go "realistic" with their character models.
It does not feel "uncanny" that way.

Things that did not work for me: When I was solving a puzzle and could not get
to the solution immediately (1st episode)... there was a lot of going back and forth
triggering the same dialog over and over. Then it felt very gamey, took me out
completely. I am still in Episode 2, and I wonder if I will stuck somewhere...

When you are not stuck, then there is good pacing overall.

One issue I have is that I read maybe 80% of the comics, so it
did not feel that fresh to me. Comparing to the comics there is more
downtime where I walk from here to there etc...

An interesting task in Ep.2 was when I had to distribute five food rations to ten people.
Who do you give something? Those decisions where really something different...

looking forward to play more...

cheerio

[Michaël Samyn]

I played the first episode. I liked it. But the few times when the game asked for serious choices rubbed me the wrong way. I mean, it's a game about zombies with corny characters. It's fun. Don't ask me to decide over life and death. It just doesn't fit.

[God at play]

I've only heard a couple brief comments about this game, so thanks for bringing it up here. I think you've sold me on checking out the 1st episode

Honestly, after watching the trailer (http://www.ign.com/videos/2012/03/20/the-walking-dead-the-game-debut-trailer), I was pretty disappointed in what was suggested the experience would be like. I was super excited when I saw all this great 2d art with parallax and awesome transitions, and then toward the end the trailer changed to 3d. At that point, my connection with the content dropped significantly. And after hearing a friend tell me it was too gore-y for him, I figured I'd pass.

But this comment sells me on at least giving it a shot:

But it does show that by just using the tools available, creating good interactive experiences is all about design and art, not tech.