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The Walking Dead (video game)

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For the 2013 game based on The Walking Dead television series, see The Walking Dead (2013 video game).
The Walking Dead
File:The Walking Dead Telltale Logo.png
Developer(s)Telltale Games
Publisher(s)Telltale Games
Designer(s)Jake Rodkin[2]
Sean Vanaman[3]
Composer(s)Jared Emerson-Johnson
EngineModified Telltale Tool
Platform(s)Mac OS X
Microsoft Windows
PlayStation 3
Xbox 360
iOS
Release
Episode 1
  • Mac OS X & Microsoft Windows
    April 24, 2012
    PlayStation Network
    Xbox Live Arcade
    April 27, 2012
    iOS
    July 26, 2012
Episode 2
  • Xbox Live Arcade
    June 27, 2012
    Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows & PlayStation Network[1]
    June 29, 2012
Episode 3
  • PlayStation Network
    Xbox Live Arcade and PC
    August 29, 2012
Genre(s)Adventure, role-playing,[4] survival horror
Mode(s)Single-player

The Walking Dead is an episodic role-playing adventure game based on Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead comic book series for iOS, Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The game was developed by Telltale Games.[5] The Walking Dead was planned to be released in the last months of 2011[6] but due to the production and development of the project, the game was held back to early 2012. The game will consist of five episodes, with the first episode released in April 2012 across all platforms with the exception of the iOS version.

In addition, some characters from the original comic book series make appearances in-game, including Hershel Greene and Glenn. Players meet them before the plot in the comic book begins to take place.[7]

On July 6, 2012, Telltale announced that a second season will follow the initial five-episode series.[8]

Gameplay

The Walking Dead is a point-and-click adventure game, played from a third-person perspective. The player can examine and interact with characters and items. The player must make use of inventory items and the environment; the player character often has limited time to do so and can die in the process. Quick time events are used for particular action scenes. The game also features role-playing elements,[9][10] including moral decisions, which have consequences in relationship with other characters.

The game is told from the point of view of a new character named Lee Everett.[11] Kirkman has said that, unlike typical zombie games such as Left 4 Dead, it will focus more on characterization and emotion than action.[12]

Episodes

The game will be released in five episodes.[7] Episode 1 was released the week of April 24, 2012, Episode 2 was released the week of June 27, 2012, while Episode 3 was released on August 28, 2012 for PSN, and August 29, 2012 for XBLA, PC and Mac.

Characters

Numerous characters appear throughout the game. Lee Everett (voiced by Dave Fennoy[13]), the primary protagonist of the series, is a native of Macon and a former university professor convicted for killing a congressman sleeping with his wife.[14] Lee eventually finds and becomes a father figure to Clementine (voiced by Melissa Hutchinson[15]), a young first grader. Lee and Clementine encounter a family from Fort Lauderdale, Florida including Kenny (voiced by Gavin Hammon[16]), a fisherman who prioritizes his family;[17] Katjaa, Kenny's wife of Belgian descent who works as a veterinarian (voiced by Cissy Jones[18]);[19] and Kenny Jr., most commonly known as "Duck", is Kenny and Katjaa's son.[19] The five join a survivor group led by Lilly Caul (voiced by Nicki Rapp[20]), a woman formerly stationed on the Robins Air Force Base, and one of the characters that has also appeared in the comic series.[21] Lilly's group consists of multiple survivors, consisting of: Larry (voiced by Terry McGovern[22]), Lilly's aggressive and judgmental yet well-intentioned father and retired Army commander who knows Lee's past;[23] Carley (voiced by Nicole Vigil[24]) a quick-thinking regional news reporter who is also aware of Lee's crimes;[21] Doug (voiced by Sam Joan[25]), a resourceful and logical information systems technician;[23] and Glenn (voiced by Nick Herman[26]), a former pizza delivery boy who also originates from the comic series.[27] In the second episode, two more survivors join the group: Mark (voiced by Mark Middleton[28]), a survivor who used to work at the Air Force;[29] and Ben Paul (voiced by Trevor Hoffman[30]), a high school student rescued by Lee, Mark and Kenny, who reveals an integral part of the game's story.

Plot

Episode 1: A New Day

History teacher Lee Everett has been arrested for allegedly killing a state senator who was sleeping with his wife. While leaving Atlanta with the police, the police cruiser he is in hits a zombie - or "Walker" as they are referred to in the series - and crashes off the highway. Lee regains consciousness sometime later, and after fighting off the officer who escorted him (who has turned into a walker), he meets Clementine, a young girl whom he decides to care for. Lee also meets Shawn Greene, who with a friend, takes Lee and Clementine home to his family farm, run by his father, Hershel Greene. There Lee meets another family, consisting of husband-wife Kenny and Katjaa, and their young son Duck. After failing to save Shawn from a walker attack, Lee, Clementine and Kenny's family are banished from the farm by Hershel.

The group heads to Macon, Georgia, where they are rescued by another group of survivors led by a woman named Lilly, who are taking refuge in a drug store owned by Lee's parents. There is a brief argument with Lilly's father, Larry, as he believes Duck has been bitten and will soon turn into a walker, after which Larry succumbs to a heart attack that requires medication; items that are locked away in a secure storage room. With some investigation, Lee will learn that his parents had been killed by walkers. Another member of the group, Glenn, decides to head for a nearby motel to siphon some gasoline but becomes stranded, forcing Lee and news reporter Carley to rescue him. Glenn makes them stay and help another trapped survivor named Irene, but she is revealed to be bitten and - regardless of Lee's actions - ends up killing herself with Carley's gun. After returning, Lee and IT technician Doug head out to find the keys for the pharmacy, and Lee is forced to kill his reanimated brother in order to retrieve them. Entering the storage room sounds the burglar alarm, attracting many walkers and forcing the group to abandon the store. Lee then saves either Carley or Doug from the walkers before departing.

The survivors gather at the motel. Upon hearing over the radio that Atlanta is overrun, Glenn announces he will be returning there to see if he can help his friends and family. The episode ends with the group hopeful about their new refuge until the electricity suddenly shuts off.

Episode 2: Starved for Help

Three months pass, and the survivors have all managed to stay alive, but food has begun to run low and Lilly and Kenny are at odds as to who should lead the group. A new member, Mark, has joined the group between the two episodes. Lee and Mark are hunting for game when they come across two high school students and their teacher, who is caught in a bear trap. Lee must choose to either amputate the teacher's leg in order to save him, or leave him behind; the former choice leads to one of the students being eaten, while the latter has the same student gravely wounded in a struggle to grab Mark's gun and taken back to camp instead. Either path leads to the rescued survivor dying and reanimating as a walker, after which Ben Paul - the lone surviving student - reveals a shocking revelation: the dead can become walkers without being bitten.

Two brothers named Andrew and Danny St. John soon arrive, and invite Lee and the other survivors to stay at their dairy farm, hoping to trade some food for gasoline. Lee takes a portion of the group to inspect the farm. As they begin to mingle and connect with the farm's inhabitants, including the matriarch Brenda, Carley/Doug and Ben are sent to bring the rest of the group over for dinner while Lee and Mark are asked to patrol the electric fence, which has been keeping the zombies away. During this, they are attacked by bandits and Mark is hit in the shoulder with an arrow; Brenda brings Mark inside to treat his wound while the brothers ask Lee to help get rid of the bandits. Lee and Danny later stumble onto a camp that is home to a deranged woman named Jolene, who threatens them with a crossbow and whose daughter had been kidnapped by the same bandits. Lee will either shoot her dead, or allow Danny to shoot her - just before Jolene attempts to reveal something about the dairy.

As dinner is prepared, the St. John family's suspicious behaviour finally leads Lee and Kenny to investigate the dairy: Lee finds a blood-soaked slaughter room in the back of the barn, and then Mark, who has had both his legs amputated - the meat of which is being served for supper. After confronting the St. Johns, Lee and several others are locked in the barn's meat locker. Larry falls unconscious from another heart attack, and Kenny panics; believing Larry will shortly reanimate as a walker. Lee will either help Lilly save Larry or help Kenny to euthanize him - either way, Larry is killed by having his head crushed by a block of salt lick. Clementine escapes the meat locker through an opened AC duct and frees the others. Lee overpowers Danny and decides whether to spare or kill him after he falls into one of the bear traps, which the St. Johns had planted to catch other survivors to eat. He then saves Katjaa from Brenda by tricking her into coming into reach of Mark, who has died and come back as a zombie. After rescuing Duck in a final showdown with Andrew, Lee will either kill or spare the latter as walkers overrun the farm.

Leaving the dairy, the group happens upon an abandoned car full of supplies. In it they find batteries to fit a camera that Lee found at Jolene's camp; which reveals that Jolene was using it to observe the motel, and the implication that the bandits - without food from the dairy - will soon become an imminent threat.

Episode 3: Long Road Ahead

After the events of "Starved for Help", the survivors continue to use the motor inn for shelter, now that they eventually have obtained more supplies from the back of an abandoned car. Eventually, Lee and Kenny procure the last of the supplies from the town of Macon. The Motel is attacked by a group of bandits, but the survivors manage to escape before getting killed. The bandits attacked because someone in the group had a secret deal with them, and gave supplies in order for protection, just like the St Johns did with food. for protection. Lilly now thinks someone is a traitor. She puts the blame on Ben and Carley/Doug, and shoots Carley/Doug when everyone is distracted. The player has a choice of leaving Lilly, or taking her with them for the time being. On the RV Katjaa & Kenny reveal to Lee that Duck was bitten during the Bandits raid.

The group manages to obtain the controls of a train. If the player decided to bring Lilly along, she will steal the RV when everyone is outside, and drive away. The group meet an elderly homeless man named Chuck. The group leave on the train, but Duck isn't getting any better and spits up blood. Katjaa knows there's no time left and tells Lee to get Kenny to stop the train. Lee tries to, and eventually the scene leads to a fight between the two. The player can decide to fight back or not. Kenny will stop the train either way.

During an emotionally distressing scene, the player helps decide who should shoot Duck; Katjaa, Kenny or himself. Either way, Katjaa carries Duck into the forest, with or without Kenny, and a gunshot is heard. The group and the player presumes Katjaa shoots Duck, however, she has shot herself. (If Kenny follows Katjaa into the forest, you will hear his cry of distress.) Duck is still barely alive and the player decides whether Kenny or himself should shot Duck.

The remaining group - Lee (the player), Clementine, Kenny, Ben and Chuck - continue on the train. Ben reveals to Lee that it was him who was the traitor. The player decides how to react. Shortly after Lee teaches Clementine how to shoot and cuts her hair short, the train is brought to the stop by an oil tanker, hanging from a damaged bridge up above. The gang meet Omid and Christa, who help bring the oil tanker down. A massive horde is foreseen and the gang set to leave. The oil tanker damaged the ladder leading to the bridge and Omid & Lee cannot get down. They move to the other side and jump onto the train, with Omid having a bad landing and falling off. Christa helps him and both get back on. The episode ends.

Episode 4: Around Every Corner

Episode 5: No Time Left

The fifth episode of the series has only been named.

Doug Tobacco at Comic Con 2007.

Promotions

The character of Doug is based on Doug Tabacco, a former employee of Telltale Games.[31] He is one of the characters whose fate depends on the actions of the player.

His inclusion in the game was used in early advertisements to promote Telltale's pre-order contest where Telltale would pick people who pre-ordered the game from their website to become human and/or zombie characters in the game.[32]

Reception

The first episode, A New Day, was met with positive reception. The review aggregator website, Metacritic, calculates the review average of the first episode at 82% for the PC version, 84% for the PS3 version, and 79% for the Xbox 360 version.[33] The game received various accolades including the IGN Editors' Choice Award, PC Gamer Editors' Choice Award, Xbox Editors' Choice Award, and the PlayStation Gold Award. The first episode of The Walking Dead topped the charts for the game most played on Xbox Live Arcade for the week of April 30,[34] and stayed at the top of the Xbox Live Arcade charts for two weeks. It topped the sales charts for both PSN and Steam for a week.[35] The first episode sold one million copies in 20 days, making it Telltale's fastest selling title to date. These sales figures do not include iOS sales.[35]

The second episode was also met with positive reception. Starved for Help, won the GameSpy E3 2012 award for "Best Adventure Game".[36] The review aggregator website, Metacritic, calculates the review average of the second episode at 85% for the PC version, 84% for the PS3 version, and 84% for the Xbox 360 version.[33]

The third episode, "Long Road Ahead", was met with the same positive reception as the first two. IGN gave it a 9 out of 10, saying "It's a disturbing, depressing and entertaining entry in a journey that's been nothing short of excellent so far."[37] Gamespot gave the game an 8.5, saying "The Walking Dead has passed the midway point of its series of five episodes with every indication that the game will keep getting better right through to its inevitably depressing and unsettling conclusion."[38] MTV also gave is a positive review, saying "Telltale has created a series of wrenching, emotional decisions in the middle of a collection of not-too-hard puzzles in a visually-impressive adaptation of the Robert Kirkman comic series (with some nods to the TV show)."[39]

References

  1. ^ Norris, Erick. "The Walking Dead: Episode 2 Available Today". CraveOnline. Retrieved 28 June 2012.
  2. ^ "PAX East 2011: Telltale Talks Puzzle Agent 2". Inside Gaming Daily. Retrieved 2011-12-11.
  3. ^ "The Walking Dead gets new life with dev webseries, Playing Dead". Joystiq. Retrieved 2012-02-23.
  4. ^ "'The Walking Dead': "In-depth storylines, fast decision making and impacting conversation choices make it a very personal RPG"". Bestrpgpcgames.com. 2012-04-28. Retrieved 2012-05-30.
  5. ^ Molina, Brett (2011-02-18). "Telltale Games developing 'Walking Dead' video game". USA Today. Retrieved 2011-03-08.
  6. ^ Miller, Greg (2011-02-17). "Walking Dead Video Game Lives". IGN. Retrieved 2011-03-08.
  7. ^ a b "The Walking Dead on Steam". Store.steampowered.com. Retrieved 2012-05-30.
  8. ^ Telltale Plans More Episodes of Walking Dead Game
  9. ^ Chris Gabbard (2012-04-23). "The Walking Dead Coming to Playstation Network: "It will also include some RPG elements, in that decisions you make through actions or talking to people may have an effect on the outcome of the game"". Webpronews.com. Retrieved 2012-05-30.
  10. ^ "The Walking Dead". Yusufkisa.com. 2012-05-15. Retrieved 2012-05-30.
  11. ^ Woods, Eric. "The Walking Dead: Episode One Review". Retrieved 2012-04-29.
  12. ^ Blauvelt, Christian. "Robert Kirkman on 'Walking Dead' season two: 'You haven't seen anything yet'". Insidetv.ew.com. Retrieved 2012-05-30.
  13. ^ Mulrooney, Marty (14 May 2012). "INTERVIEW – In Conversation With Dave Fennoy (Lee Everett, The Walking Dead: The Game)". Alternative Magazine Online. WordPress. Retrieved 28 July 2012.
  14. ^ Alan (3 April 2012). "Meet The Walking Dead Survivors: Lee and Clementine". The Telltale Blog. Telltale Games. Retrieved 28 July 2012.
  15. ^ Mulrooney, Marty (13 July 2012). "INTERVIEW – In Conversation with Adam Harrington (Andrew St. John, The Walking Dead: The Game)". Alternative Magazine Online. WordPress. Retrieved 28 July 2012.
  16. ^ "Gavin Hammon Filmography". Internet Movie Database. Amazon.com. Retrieved 28 July 2012.
  17. ^ "New Characters Revealed from The Walking Dead Video game". Daily Dead. Daily Dead. 12 April 2012. Retrieved 28 July 2012.
  18. ^ "Cissy Jones Filmography". Internet Movie Database. Amazon.com. Retrieved 30 August 2012.
  19. ^ a b "2 More Characters Revealed from The Walking Dead Video Game". Daily Dead. Daily Dead. 13 April 2012. Retrieved 28 July 2012.
  20. ^ "INTERVIEW – In Conversation With Nicki Rapp (Lilly Caul, The Walking Dead: The Game)". Alternative Magazine Online. WordPress. 17 July 2012. Retrieved 28 July 2012.
  21. ^ a b "More Characters Revealed from The Walking Dead Video Game". Daily Dead. Daily Dead. 11 April 2012. Retrieved 28 July 2012.
  22. ^ Lahti, Evan (30 July 2012). "The Walking Dead – Episode 2 review". PC Gamer. Future plc. Retrieved 28 July 2012.
  23. ^ a b "2 New Survivors Revealed from The Walking Dead Video Game". Daily Dead. 17 April 2012. Retrieved 28 July 2012.
  24. ^ "Nicole Vigil Filmography". Internet Movie Database. Amazon.com. Retrieved 28 July 2012.
  25. ^ "Sam Joan Filmography". Internet Movie Database. Amazon.com. Retrieved 28 July 2012.
  26. ^ "Nick Herman Filmography". Internet Movie Database. Amazon.com. Retrieved 28 July 2012.
  27. ^ "Meet the Survivors: Glenn and Hershel". Telltale Games. Telltale, Incorporated. 6 April 2012. Retrieved 5 August 2012.
  28. ^ "Mark Middleton Filmography". Internet Movie Database. Amazon.com. Retrieved 28 July 2012.
  29. ^ "The Walking Dead Episode 2 - Starved for Help Review". Those Gaming Nerds. 1 July 2012. Retrieved 5 August 2012.
  30. ^ "Trevor Hoffman Filmography". Internet Movie Database. Amazon.com. Retrieved 5 August 2012.
  31. ^ "The Walking Dead In-jokes". The International House of Mojo. Retrieved 2012-07-20.
  32. ^ "The Walking Dead Pre-Order Offer". Telltale Games. Retrieved 2012-07-20.
  33. ^ a b "Metacritic: The Walking Dead Game Results". Metacritic. Retrieved 2012-05-15.
  34. ^ "The Walking Dead Tops Xbox Live Arcade Chart". Eurogamer. Retrieved 2012-05-15.
  35. ^ a b "Telltale Games' The Walking Dead Sells a Million". IGN. Retrieved 2011-07-14.
  36. ^ "GameSpy's Best of E3 2012 Awards". GameSpy. Retrieved 2011-07-14.
  37. ^ http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/08/28/the-walking-dead-the-game-episode-3-long-road-ahead-review
  38. ^ http://www.gamespot.com/the-walking-dead-episode-3-long-road-ahead/reviews/the-walking-dead-episode-3-long-road-ahead-review-6394022/
  39. ^ http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2012/08/30/review-telltale-breaks-your-heart-with-the-walking-dead-ep-3-long-road-ahead/
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