By Alec Meer on March 20th, 2012 at 4:00 pm.
I have significant unease about 1) the Walking Dead TV show b) the Walking Dead comics and c) many of Telltale’s episodic adventure games, which makes me spectacularly ill-qualified to be posting about Telltale’s Walking Dead game. All that said, I do really like the art approach they’ve chosen for it. It’s a new adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s impressively dark but unevenly-flowing, occasionally exploitative comics rather than being based on the recent, glacially-paced (or at least it was at the point I stopped watching it) TV show, so Telltale have elected to depict it in a striking comics-come-to-life style.
I can’t tell how it actually plays though – will it be puzzles, outright action or the deeply awkward, QTE-centric hybrid from Jurassic Park? ‘Agonising moral choices’ are mentioned and there is violence in the trailer, so it’s not going to be soft-focus zombosity at least. It will be split into five episodes and stars an entirely new cast in an entirely new story instead of Rick Grimes and his doomy chums, though no doubt we’ll see an analogue or six in there.
Skip to 9 minutes into this exhaustingly manic IGN online TV show to jump straight to the trailer, followed by an exhaustingly manic interview with the guy who’s pulling the narrative strings.
Again, I have no particular love for the comic, but if Telltale can pair that look with some suspenseful, survivaltastic gameosity, I’m in.
Here, rather less officially, is what is claimed to be 13 minutes’ of leaked footage from the game proper. It does appear to be the real thing, though we can’t work out where it came from. My guess is that it came from a land down under, where women glow and men plunder.
Appears to be quite point’n'clicky, cutsceney and, oh yes, quick-time eventy. Very well presented and appropriately vicious, plus has a touch of the Mass Effects in the dialogue, but I am getting flashbacks to the Jurassic Park game. This is just the start of the game, though – let’s hope it complexifies up later down the line.
20/03/2012 at 16:15 JKjoker says:
it looks like an interesting take on the Indigo Prophecy/Heavy Rain thing but im not sure ill appreciate being forced to click windows 4 times to do things that should happen with one click, i have no love for the franchise after the tv series and my opinion on Telltale is low after Jurassic Park
i will be looking forward for another RPS WOT for this game tho, that was the best thing to come out of telltale’s JP really :D
20/03/2012 at 16:19 Splotch says:
They are long videos. Yep
21/03/2012 at 01:45 mopajiuw says:
My love affair with Telltale ended with Jurassic Park and this looks like more of the same.
Wow!This stuff is really cool!
Celluon Magic Cube Laser Projection Keyboard http://segue.se/xrF
20/03/2012 at 16:29 StranaMente says:
According to the second video, the officer caught the guy while there weren’t any zombies, and in time it took to handcuffing him and bring him into the car, the apocalypse began and everyone is already dead.
That cop took his damn time…
EDIT: Also, way too Jurassic Park-y
20/03/2012 at 16:32 RedViv says:
So it’s like Jurassic Park. Meh, double meh, multi meh.
20/03/2012 at 16:36 AmateurScience says:
Truly the best thing about Jurassic Park the Game was the Liveblog Alec did on here.
20/03/2012 at 17:06 Ninja Foodstuff says:
Agreed!
20/03/2012 at 16:46 kevmscotland says:
This looks better than JP, altho that isnt saying much.
That IGN video was annoying as hell tho.
20/03/2012 at 16:48 sneetch says:
1:40 in the game play video: Point and click? More like Point and Kick, amirite?
Edit: alright, that looks rather dull.
20/03/2012 at 16:49 armaankhan says:
I think I’m the only person in the world who liked what Telltale did with Jurassic Park and, judging from the first 4 minutes of leaked footage, this looks to be a fantastic extension of what they did with that game.
20/03/2012 at 16:53 SirKicksalot says:
Will it constantly go downhill after the first episode though?
20/03/2012 at 16:58 RedViv says:
That is a rather good question. Will the second and following chapters move the X To Not Die to dialogue ratio, more heavily favouring the latter?
20/03/2012 at 17:07 JKjoker says:
will it change focus from survival to “dude, i was totally bonering your ex-widow, gtfo” and “my husband is not picking up the phone *5min later* the kid needs a father! *grabs random male*, now lets play in the bushes and leave him to fend for himself!” attitudes ?
20/03/2012 at 16:57 Brise Bonbons says:
I am not familiar with the whole Jurassic Park history here, as I seem to have missed the RPS coverage of it. I can see where the “gameplay” on offer here might be less than desirable, but I must admit I was immediately impressed by some of the little details. For example, it’s incredibly refreshing to see a video game lead dealing with a serious physical injury, or having a human reaction to violence…
I’m not especially interested in point and click adventures, nor am I a fan of the Walking Dead or zombies in general, so my interest sort of ends there. Guess I’ll go read the JP WIT and see what all the fuss is about.
20/03/2012 at 17:07 Ninja Foodstuff says:
I don’t get the hate for the TV show. Some of the tensest moments I’ve seen in a TV series.
20/03/2012 at 17:12 Brun says:
Meh, the TV show never really grabbed me. It felt so much like a cliche zombie movie – the only original thing about it is that it’s a TV series.
Personally I’m waiting for AMC to do a sci-fi original series. Firefly resurrection, pretty please?
20/03/2012 at 17:14 AlwaysRight says:
I also do not get the hate for the TV show. A long form TV series format seems to suit the survival zombie story. It means that you can slow the pace and bring the human drama element out a bit more. Some of the characters do annoy the everlasting crap out of me, but so do people in real life. At least there is a chance they will be eaten alive at some point…
20/03/2012 at 17:19 hungryjoe says:
For me, the show is poorly written and none of the characters are likable.
20/03/2012 at 17:37 AlwaysRight says:
Its not all poorly written. While a mixed bag, the scene in the recent episode Nebraska were they meet the two drifters in the bar, was extremely well written acted and shot.
Edit. I sense a reply coming saying somthing like “big wow, one good scene in a bunch of shit episodes doesn’t make it a good show” but it does for me, if they are THAT good.
20/03/2012 at 17:50 SexualHarassmentPanda says:
They fired the entire writing staff for the first season. If it wasn’t poorly written why would they do that? The writing has gotten marginally better, but the pacing off the show has way to much dramatic filler. They are off Hershall’s farm by like issue 4-5 of the comic, yet they’ve spent an entire season plus a few episodes there.
20/03/2012 at 19:17 AlwaysRight says:
“They fired the entire writing staff for the first season. If it wasn’t poorly written why would they do that?”
Because the writing staff were all freelancers, and as the second season wasnt confirmed until months after the first season’s writing had finished, they had all moved on to other freelance jobs?
I could throw loads of flimsy arguments about how could it be poor writing if the ratings are so high, but it would be equally as pointless as your “A is true so therefore B” statement.
21/03/2012 at 02:01 Bhazor says:
“People like Coldplay and voted for the Nazis. You can’t trust what people like.”
- Superhans
20/03/2012 at 17:38 noodlecake says:
I didn’t like the first series but persisted with it. Honestly the 2nd series is much better. The characters become a lot deeper and the situations that they end up in are much more interesting.
20/03/2012 at 17:45 Froibo says:
That show just broke some ratings record, I don’t understand the love. I personally went from finding it a bland show to being absolutely appalled after the “Vatos” episode.
21/03/2012 at 02:50 Bhazor says:
“People like Coldplay and voted for the Nazis. You can’t trust what people like.”
- Superhans
21/03/2012 at 18:24 Phantoon says:
Alec got it right. It’s the glacial pace.
I like the comics, and the show just moves so incredibly slow comparatively.
20/03/2012 at 17:18 hungryjoe says:
This guy sucks at walking.
20/03/2012 at 17:19 akeso says:
So basically the Dev’s lied to our faces when they said there wouldn’t be QTE’s and it wasn’t anything like Jurassic Park. At least they know enough to distance themselves from their previous game.
It really doesn’t bode well that they aren’t willing to own up to their current game design to the public for fear we won’t buy it.
20/03/2012 at 17:28 Brun says:
If Telltale isn’t talented enough to produce actual games they should switch over 100% to making interactive movies and make the appropriate changes to their marketing materials.
20/03/2012 at 17:48 MasterBeef says:
A small group of semi retarded white trailer trash (with one black dude and an asian, for affirmative action of course) from Atlanta band together and form strong emotional bonds as they ride out the zombie apocalypse on an isolated farm. In spite being surrounded by the living dead, this rag tag group of ignorant honkies spend their time fighting their worst enemy; their own stupidity. As tension mounts tempers flare. Who will live? Whos in charge? Who IS the baby daddy? Filled with generic horror movie conventions and day time talk show schtick, the walking dead has been described as “tense” by one viewer.
Ive seen retards in hockey helmets beat their heads against the bricks with better decision making processes that what is depicted in that show. Id say that is where most of the hate comes from.
20/03/2012 at 18:02 gschmidl says:
Clearly the cop who arrested the protagonist never played Police Quest. Handcuff ‘em in front, you’re dead.
20/03/2012 at 18:11 Roshin says:
My love affair with Telltale ended with Jurassic Park and this looks like more of the same. Honestly, I got bored after six minutes of video, so I wont be buying this.
20/03/2012 at 19:04 linzhanac says:
http://15.cc/3zal8
20/03/2012 at 19:23 Bumble says:
I didn’t realise this was being made for the PS2?
20/03/2012 at 20:22 Navagon says:
Well yeah, it does look a lot better than JP but… I’m not convinced. Maybe some PC gameplay footage will change that.
20/03/2012 at 20:29 drsquid says:
” the guy who’s pulling the narrative strings” at the end of the trailer is Gary Whitta, the ‘story consultant’ for the game. Gary, former editor of PC Gamer, was also the screenwriter of The Book of Eli.
21/03/2012 at 03:41 olpolpolpolp says:
http://lnk.co/ILTHN
this stuff is very cool
21/03/2012 at 07:06 Muzman says:
“occasionally exploitative” comics? The word I’d use would be “mostly”. It only seemed to have any sort of comfort with itself when it fully embraced that truth about it and brought in inevitable biker despots and insane katana weilding women etc. I couldn’t stand those aspects, but I have to admit they made it flow (finally). So you either get leaden dullness or the utterly ridiculous with this property.
21/03/2012 at 11:29 zooz says:
It’s TTG, so i’m confident that they designed some ways to screw things up again.
21/03/2012 at 23:18 Jerakal says:
I’m normally the first to go out on a limb and speak up for Telltale, but frankly, I’m still pissed about how bad Jurassic Park was. I’m gonna wait and see what the reviews say for this one before I go buying any of the episodes, let alone the compilation they’ll likely try to foist on us on Steam.