Almost Impossible to Rate, or Stop Talking About
The Walking Dead is one of those games that you can't really talk about in the immediate, much in the same way you feel guilt over talking about what happened in the Sixth Sense, Chinatown or Casablanca around a person still eager to have that experience. Which also no doubt makes it a hard game to write about in broad strokes, given that it's structure creates such a personal experience and all of the most memorable bits are things that are only memorable because of how they were presented in the story. But I can say that it was an extremely interesting way to experience that story; due to being released every 4-6 weeks or so in five distinct episodes, most people across the internet would experience and finish the game at the same time. PSN users got to experience it a day earlier than the others, but otherwise, the game had an interesting way of extending its life beyond the console for months and months, through player and developer interaction.
While the story is incredibly praise worthy for a game, and undoubtedly the reason you'll want to play this game, it's also got plenty of moments that feel a little shaky. There are times where dialogue options don't say exactly what you expected, responses to your comments aren't what you thought, or the dialogue is just out right repetitive. The first two aren't necessarily an issue considering the themes of trust and human frailty (or compared to a more binary experience like Mass Effect), but combined it still nags from time to time. This, along with a few of my bigger issues in regards to gameplay, came in the later episodes. Through episode 3, the atmosphere is mostly perfect, and what few action segments there are generally get relegated to puzzle sequences just like the old LucasArts and Sierra games.
But the last two episodes begin to see some awkward gameplay sequences step in, with pseudo-first person shooting and timing-based puzzles that are either disorienting or nearly broken. There is a particular challenge near the end of Episode 2 that takes way more finessing than it ought to for such a simple task. In Episode 3, there's a specific glitch that can occur on a train (this set piece is spoiled by the in-game chapter panels so I'm comfortable mentioning it) that forces you to restart from an earlier save. In Episode 5, there's an issue with a ladder where the framerate seems to drop to basically zero, and most of the character interaction throughout this episode prior to its climax is jilted and awkward. Like plenty of story conclusions, Walking Dead stuttered a bit to the finale, for technical hurdles Telltale should be in position to overcome with their next season and writing issues that no doubt come with the territory of such a branching journey as this one.
The Walking Dead isn't perfect, but it may as well be. I haven't played many games from 2012 in 2012, but even if I stumble across a more solid overall game sometime down the road I doubt I'd ever be able to associate a game with the year more than this one. Flaws aside it's a tremendous experience, and has all the potential in the world to create a new kind of drama for the less anally-ambitious David Cages of the world.
