'The Walking Dead' video game series

So, this is kind of a review on 'The Walking Dead' video game series. If you haven't watched the TV show, the scenario in a nutshell is that of any other worldwide zombie apocalypse - total destruction, dead eating people, people doing just about anything to survive...

The video series was based on a set of comics (Wiki Link) and followed a local town police officer near the city of Atlanta and how he evades the zombie hordes and lives his life in the post-apocalyptic world.

While also based on the Comic books, the video game series actually follows a different character altogether - Lee Everett. Lee finds himself on his way to prison when the outbreak occurs and due to unfortunate (or potentially fortunate) circumstances, he is freed.



The game itself is a 'point and click adventure' game that is out on Xbox 360, PS3, iPad and Mac/PC. Using your cursor, you need to investigate items in your surroundings and find ways to fix problems or kill zombies and interact with other characters. Depending on your actions in-game, decides your fate and who you share it with. You can build bonds with characters, or create devious enemies and sometimes you're left to make difficult decisions that could save one person, but cost another persons life, including your own.



The interface is pretty simple on each platform, you only really have your movement to control with the left analog stick, and the majority of actions are handled on the four buttons (A,B,X,Y). Right-Trigger can also be used as the 'A' button on Xbox 360, for the times you need to aim. The aiming is handled with the right-analog stick in certain scenarios. As the game is suitable for the iPad the controller interface also needs to be suitable, a friend who bought this on the iPad (for £10, for all episodes) was the person that recommended me this and said the movement and interactions were easy after a few minutes of play.

The graphics are somewhat advanced over other cartoonesque games. The graphics themselves remind me a lot of the game 'XIII' yet they're a little more detailed and 'real' than other games with similar appearance. When being submersed in to the surroundings of the apocalypse, you sort of forget you're playing a game and when you drop in deep, the cartoony edges sort of bring you back to reality; that this is a game and you're not really about to get eaten!



The character interactions are generally interesting. Building up the connections in the game allows you to try and figure out who is trustworthy, and who you should consider protecting. Should any disagreements arise, you always have the option to escalate the problems and make matters worse for an individual should you want them to cross the line. Your character interactions are scripted at times and it can be a little sudden, when a player action pops up and you need to instantly protect yourself out of nowhere... however, with that said, in the world you've been thrown out in to, it's a world where you need to be always on your guard.

Pricing varies from platform to platform, on Xbox Live, you can download the full series for 2000 microsoft points. On PC, the game was available on Steam for £9, and on iPad, £10. The U.S. conversion will obviously come in to play, but you should look around to see how much you can get the game for.

In my honest opinion, the game is a definite must for any Walking Dead TV show fans out there as well as anyone who has previously enjoyed Zombie apocalypse games, or even just point-and-click adventure games.

 

Hmm, I had to buy it