Just finished listening to the 52minute Walking Dead game Podcast. Needless to say; I was surprised they did it.

My friend and I have a bet going. He is obsessed with everything walking dead - and he is convinced this game will be amazing, and will be buying it day 1, rather than waiting for reviews.

I am convinced this game will be fucking terrible, which is why I was surprised when I saw a dedicated podcast for it.

Why do I think this game will be fucking terrible?

1. Have you seen the gameplay videos? Bright, colourful, cell shaded, seemingly awkward-at-best control scheme (watch the way the cursor goes around the screen, etc).
2. Another reason I think the game will be fucking terrible? Well look at Telltale Games track record. They have some legendarily good games under their belt (Sam and Max, Monkey Island), except for their games based on other properties (namely: the flavour of the month TV show).

They've made the following (terrible) games based on other fictional universes:

• Law and Order: Legacies
• Jurassic Park: The Game
• CSI: Fatal Conspiracy
• CSI: Deadly Intent
• Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures
• CSI: Hard Evidence
• CSI: 3 Dimensions of Murder

So what do you think? Do you side with me, and are expecting this to be a second-grade piece of junk based on another property, like the above listed games?

Or do you think it will be "the holy grail of video games" (which my friend quite literally thinks it will be).

Curious what other people think.

EDIT: Added a gameplay video. Please watch this and try and tell me it doesn't look like a steaming pile of shit.

I am expecting an alright game. It could be cool, but from what I saw it looks pretty average.

@SSully: Average. Exactly.

Whitta's coming for you mother fucker

I'm looking forward to play it, all I really know about it is that it is not a quick time event game (like jurasic park was) and garry whitta is writing and consulting on it. Have been avoiding all previews and news on it.

@Breadfan: Excellent. I can tell him how bad his game is.

This is a 5 dollar per episode game. I'm not expecting Skyrim meets Walking Dead.

i enjoyed back to the future. this gameplay video has lowered my expectations a bit, but i think it'll be a worthwhile venture.

@0blivion: My friend said the same thing, essentially saying, "It's 5 dollars, it is allowed to be terrible!".

No.

That's not how this works.

I can name games for the same price with 1/5 the dev team which were fucking spectacular. A bad game is a bad game.

CSI and Law and Order suck, so no amount of wizardry could turn those two shows into good games.

See: Jurassic Park The Game... legendarily terrible... OH WAIT MADE BY THE SAME COMPANY, DESTROYING THE GOOD NAME OF AN AMAZING PROPERTY!

@latros: Jurassic Park 2 and 3 and the many other crappy video games based on Jurassic Park didn't destroy it? The Wallace and Gromit game was okay, the Back to the Future game was very good, and the Sam and Max games, which are also licensed games (based on a comic book) were great.

@chrissedoff: We're talking about Telltale Games in specific.

@latros said:

@0blivion: My friend said the same thing, essentially saying, "It's 5 dollars, it is allowed to be terrible!".

No.

That's not how this works.

I can name games for the same price with 1/5 the dev team which were fucking spectacular. A bad game is a bad game.

That's not what I said. Also, making a game from scratch and making a game based upon an already established IP are two very different things.

I'm not going to argue if this game will be good or bad, but 10 minutes of early gameplay usually isn't indicative on the quality of overall game. I remember playing the SR the Third booth demo and walked away thinking how bland it was. Or even recently, the Asuras Wrath demo.

TL;DR I enjoy TWD and will spend 5 bucks to check it out. +1 for Gary Whitta

@0blivion: But that mentality is exactly what I hate with the entertainment industry: if people stop paying for BAD content (they wait for reviews and critical reception before making a purchase), they would end up NOT spending that money, and bad games would cease to exist.

I liked back to the future fuck you.

ur weird, and seem upset?

@scarace360 said:

I liked back to the future fuck you.

If you listen to the Bombcast, and this video, this dude says the same fucking shit, I have no respect for a man who spews rehearsed lines, when talking about VIDEO GAMES?!

*and this dude is a writer?!*

Yea I don't expect good things. I love telltale, but they need to stick to their wheelhouse. Lets see ADVENTURE GAMES, you know, funny and upbeat. Maybe they could turn out a good walking dead game, but not on this timescale and not on the usual budget.

@0blivion: But that mentality is exactly what I hate with the entertainment industry: if people stop paying for BAD content (they wait for reviews and critical reception before making a purchase), they would end up NOT spending that money, and bad games would cease to exist.

@latros said:

@SSully: Average. Exactly.

'Average' and 'a steaming pile of shit' are two very different things.

Besides, as many people have already pointed out Telltale have made plenty of good games based on licenses. So you should probably do exactly what you're demanding your friend do and wait for reviews before praising or condemning it.

@latros said:

1. Another reason I think the game will be fucking terrible? Well look at Telltale Games track record. They have some legendarily good games under their belt (Sam and Max, Monkey Island), except for their games based on other properties (namely: the flavour of the month TV show).

All of their games are based off of licensed properties, even Sam and Max are not owned by them. Nether is Monkey Island.

@0blivion said:

This is a 5 dollar per episode game. I'm not expecting Skyrim meets Walking Dead.

yep, exactly.

I'm pretty happy how they are structuring the storyline. I've read thru year 6 of the comics. Seeing pieces of the comic story from different angles and at different times sounds pretty cool to me. Also the controls don't look that bad. It's going to be an adventure game at heart so as far as that goes, looks fine.

Yea I don't expect good things. I love telltale, but they need to stick to their wheelhouse. Lets see ADVENTURE GAMES, you know, funny and upbeat. Maybe they could turn out a good walking dead game, but not on this timescale and not on the usual budget.

@0blivion: But that mentality is exactly what I hate with the entertainment industry: if people stop paying for BAD content (they wait for reviews and critical reception before making a purchase), they would end up NOT spending that money, and bad games would cease to exist.

Did you just say that Back to the Future was terrible? Those were pretty good.

@Tim_the_Corsair: No but Telltale are good at funny adventure games, they make ones that aren't funny but those are always abysmal.

u mad bro? It could be trash, it could be amazing who knows till it's out. Till then stop raging about nothing :P eat durito taco it'll make everything clear

I don't care about/watch/read The Walking Dead, so I most likely won't play the games, but I agree with the people that said The Back to the Future games were good. I enjoyed playing those.

@latros said:

See: Jurassic Park The Game... legendarily terrible... OH WAIT MADE BY THE SAME COMPANY, DESTROYING THE GOOD NAME OF AN AMAZING PROPERTY!

I bet you didnt even play Jurassic Park. Jurassic Park wasnt a bad game. Its story was weak but it was as good as any other Jurassic Park Movie after the first. The Game played much like Heavy Rain, as in it was one long QTE. But it is not a bad game.

@Dagbiker said:

@latros said:

See: Jurassic Park The Game... legendarily terrible... OH WAIT MADE BY THE SAME COMPANY, DESTROYING THE GOOD NAME OF AN AMAZING PROPERTY!

I bet you didnt even play Jurassic Park. Jurassic Park wasnt a bad game. Its story was weak but it was as good as any other Jurassic Park Movie after the first. The Game played much like Heavy Rain, as in it was one long QTE. But it is not a bad game.

Nailed it.

I watched your video.  Game looks fine to me.  You need some perspective on this stuff.

@latros said:

@0blivion: But that mentality is exactly what I hate with the entertainment industry: if people stop paying for BAD content (they wait for reviews and critical reception before making a purchase), they would end up NOT spending that money, and bad games would cease to exist.

Bad games would not "cease to exist," if people stopped buying them. Games end up bad for myriad reasons; not buying the less than great ones wouldn't fix that. I'm not expecting the "holy grail of video games," but that doesn't mean the game will be terrible. Will it change the face of adventure games? No. But it's doing some interesting things that I, as a fan of adventure games, find intriguing. I didn't play Jurassic Park, so I can't speak to its quality, but it seems like Telltale learned a lot from it, and I'm excited to see some of those ideas executed better in The Walking Dead. To be fair, I'm a big fan of The Walking Dead, so maybe I'm a little biased. Then again, if you aren't a fan of The Walking Dead, I don't think this game is really for you, so there's no real reason to get so upset about it.

I'm going to remain cautiously optimistic about the game until I get to play it for myself.

From what I saw, the game looks pretty cool. I enjoyed Sam and Max, Monkey Island and Back to the Future, so I'm looking forward to how this turns out, especially since I love the TV show. I find it weird that you think this game will be horrible just based on the amount of information they have released.

@mazik765 said:

@latros said:

@SSully: Average. Exactly.

'Average' and 'a steaming pile of shit' are two very different things.

Don't be silly; In video game land, 'average' is actually a synonym for 'steaming pile of shit'.

Eff off, Back to the Future is One of Telltale's best games.

This game is pretty dope.

Yeah this game is pretty good. It looks like you owe your friend some money duder.

Just finished it. A HUGE improvement over Jurassic Park.

Story was pretty good, the "next episode" thing at the end looks ABSOLUTELY FRIGGING AMAZING.

I played with a keyboard and mouse, which is probably not ideal over Controller. I will play with a controller on my next playthrough.

So quickly:

Despite not using a controller, the controls where less clunky than something like Heavy Rain or Fahrenheit. Even with the sometimes strange angles, the walking felt and looked fine.

I personally really like the artstyle. Captures the style of the comics quite well - a few of the characters look like they could have been drawn by the comics real artists. (especially the main guy, little girl and the old sick guy). Being in colour makes more sense for the game, and I get that.

The choices were good so far, I hope (and it looks like it will) that things get a little more crazy so the circumstances surrounding the choice are as messed up as the choice.

It feels like The Walking Dead when you kill something. They totally nailed the raw brutality of the zombie kills from both the books and the show.

The voice acting has been very well done.

I can really only see someone not liking it who doesn't already not like The Walking Dead, hates any kind of adventure game, or knows nothing about The Walking Dead and expected a Left 4 Dead clone.

Heavy Rain with zombies is probably the best comparison / quick description - so if that sounds appealing, you won't be let down.

@latros: Tee-Hee.

You sir have lost your money, although that's what I personally think.

You really shouldn't base your judgements in comparison to the TV show, as you should have picked up in the special Giantbomb podcast this is completely separate from the TV show. Not only was it first thought up before the show started but this shares the comics canon which is completely different to the show.

One of the things that isn't conveyed in that gameplay video is the story, that's something that can't be shown in 12 minutes. It really is fantastic and ridiculously better than in the TV show which itself is critically acclaimed. Of course this is a Telltale game so you can't go in expecting the most riveting gameplay and to be honest you don't get anything gameplay wise that is worth raving about. The cel-shaded visuals don't take anything away from this game, in fact if you were to take away the colour from the game, some shots look like they could be ripped straight from the comics.

The key to this game is it's story and the effect your actions can have on this story. The way it does this for the most part is similar to how Mass Effect handles it speech. There is a HUGE amount of dialogue in this game but it's help along by having time limits on most of your choices, a very similar feature was in Alpha Protocol where it happened to be the best feature in a disappointingly average game. Also this is The Walking Dead so no one is safe unlike games like Mass Effect and this translates into huge choices that truly effect your game.

I hate to be judgmental but if your only interested in gameplay and killing zombies this is not the game for you, so whether or not you would say this game is good relies highly on your appreciation of a good story and interesting characters.

TL;DR You lost your bet.