The Walking Dead: The Telltale Definitive Series Review – I’m Not Crying

The Walking Dead: The Telltale Definitive Series Review

Let’s face it, zombies are everywhere in pop culture these days. Of course, one of the major contributors to this fact is The Walking Dead series. What started off as a comic has turned into a worldwide franchise via the television series that debuted on AMC in 2010. With a concept of the zombie apocalypse there are many directions this ‘franchise’ as a whole could go, and in 2012 it branched out into the video game world with Telltale’s “The Walking Dead: Season One” which became an instant sensation. The popularity that the game garnered resulted in two more full seasons, a standalone episode and a shorter mini-season. When all the games are combined, it is a series that has sold over 50 million episodes worldwide and it has won countless ‘Game of the Year’ awards.

The Walking Dead: The Telltale Definitive Series contains all four seasons of the game series, along with The Walking Dead: Michonne and 400 Days. One must remember that Telltale Games went bankrupt and shut its doors before the final season was released. Some of the original staff formed Skybound Games in an effort to finish the story, and they managed to “do it for the fans”. They have since put together this definitive edition. In total this entire collection features well over 50 hours of gameplay and it doesn’t stop there. Skybound Games went all out with extras features including 10+ hours of developer commentary, behind-the-scenes bonus features, a “Return of The Walking Dead” short, and a music player with over 140 tracks.

Sucks You In

This is an interactive story-telling game, where you react to quicktime events and select from a variety of responses and/or decisions. The series focuses around the journey of Lee and Clementine, an escaped convict and a little girl, who are doing everything they can to survive a world filled with the undead while getting along with other survivors. This game will draw you in within the first 10 minutes and never let go. The episodic adventure style works very well with the storyline because players make the decisions for the main characters and they should eventually feel connected to them. The decision you make are important, such as who to trust, who to kill, where to go, and what to do. What holds this series together is the story and its characters. The choices that you make directly impact the narrative and how other characters respond to you. Add in an intense story that never lets up and you have a guaranteed game that will capture your heart.

Let me just say that this game is beautiful. The artwork and style has been completely revamped for this definitive edition and it shows. All the episodes look like they were taken directly from the comic series that it is inspired from. The sound design mixed with the visuals makes for an atmosphere that will capture you. The controls allow players just the right amount of time to respond to things and it flows perfectly when searching for things to interact with. Everything that you can interact with is labeled clearly, so there is no guesswork. The only limitation of the gameplay in The Walking Dead is that this is an episodic style game and some people may be on the fence about this and the idea of committing to such a long game experience; however, I am here to change anyone who may think like this. Play episode one and tell me you aren’t emotionally invested – I dare you.

There is so much more that I could say about this game. The design, visuals, and characters all come together perfectly to tell an intense story that will be on your mind days after you have finished it. I found myself not wanting to put this game down, I laughed when the main characters laughed and even got a little teary eyed towards the end (no spoilers!). This definitely is an experience that deserves all the hype that it has received and more. The Walking Dead: The Telltale Definitive Series really is just that, a truly definitive final edition of the entire series. I recommend this game to every single person who may play games, even those who may not be a fan of the play-style this game utilizes. In the end, this is a definitive game not only in the genre it exists in, but it is also one of the more definitive games in the history of gaming.

***A PS4 Code was provided by the publisher***