Quick Look: The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct

I'm calling it, this game is going to sell a lot of copies. I was in a games retailer today picking up monster hunter 3 and at least 3 people bought it, I would describe them as the call of duty / fifa crowd and the staff there were even commenting on how much it had sold today (UK.)

@prestonhedges: WHAT!!!!

The comic I believe has good interesting characters. I just think the show does a bad job at representing those characters on tv.

Patrick seemed to paint the comics and TV show w/ the same brush.. esp since he's only read the first anthology, a time frame where you're barely introduced to Kirkman's characters. Kirkman does a great job in world-building, fleshing out his characters and more or less nicely propelling the action along. The show doesn't do those things so well and that's its major failing. But if you like zombie fiction TWD comics are damned good.

Should have named the video as "walking dead hate-fest". Believe it or not guys, some people actually like the show.

I'm far more concerned with Brad taking Patrick's word as the opinion of the world at large. It's like when he sources Twitter too much. Read the comic, watch the show, but don't allow Patrick to just tell you what the world thinks of TWD - especially when he's so far off base from what the world actually thinks.

The show is shit. No idea why people are defending it, horrible characters, poor attempts at drama and insanely stupid actions by just about everyone in it.

Yeah him walking around for a few minutes makes for excellent viewing and character development.

oh wait

Dammit I was hoping for Jeff and Vinny...

The Walking Dead, not a good television show?! I take exception to that!

Edit: For the record, Patrick saying that The Walking Dead is not a very good television show is the first time I have heard that sentence spoken. Ever. By anybody.

*Shrug* To each their own.

@clonedzero: Patrick is just a bad critic, that's what you get when he runs a quick look. He's too cool for school.

Oh god, please shut up. The Walking Dead is NOT Mad Men, nor is it The Sopranos. It is not a complex show that requires absolute attention. I give it my full attention as that's how I watch shows, but PUH-LEASE. You are making that show out to be far more than it is and likely more than it ever will be.

I wanna know what alternate universe YOU live in.

@sooty: The show is great, love the performances, the tension they are building and the way they deviate from the comic so the show is its own thing. I will defend the show all day long. What I can't believe is how your opinion must be the truth, according to you. Oh wait this is the internet.

/agreed

Two things wrong with this quick look

Patrick "Walking Dead is not a very good TV show" WRONG

"We watch it with our Ipads out" Your not doing it right.

The game is shit though lol

I'm with Patrick TWD season 1 was great LOVE the pilot but the second and third season haven't really dont much to regrab me. I also don't like the nihilistic bent the comic takes.

Patrick really seems to have a habit of taking things he hears other people say as indisputable fact. It's just as bad as Brad referencing Twitter as a reliable source.

Hard to believe that this is a full price release, insulting that they think anyone would pay that much for this half arsed cash in.

Man Patrick shit-talking the comic like that and claiming that telltale "invented" the character driven formula, really grinds my gears...

And yes the TV show had it's ups and downs, but considering what it's actually doing and how bad it could have ended up, i have to say I'm really happy about it for now.

But survival instinct sadly turned out to be a cheap cash-in :/

Kinda sad to see this happen, if Activision would have given this another year in the oven it could have ended up as something decent. But the whole game just smells of being rushed out of the door..

Patrick saying that the comic has bad characters and peters out has cemented my dislike of him forever.

Just sounding off to say that I like the comics and think it has plenty of strong characters and in my opinion is better than the show. Also, apart from some main beats, the show seems to have complete creative freedom to do whatever the hell they want with the characters. Juss sayin'

It's good Patrick has so many ill-informed opinions about a comic he hasn't read. And just after the MH QL was making me think he's not worthless.

Aw, shucks. Maybe I'll skip this then...

I gave the TV show a fair chance (2 full seasons) and it was pretty bad. Shallow characters, lame plots that go nowhere, an obviously shrinking budget. Looks like the game is way worse. That's a shame, it's obvious the world has plenty to offer given how good the comics and TellTale game are.

So... the comic is bad, the tv show is bad and there are two bad videogames based on The Walking Dead. If everything associated with this property is kind of shitty how did it ever get to be such a big deal? I don't understand.

It's pretty strange to me personally that people keep watching shows they don't like. If you don't like it, don't watch it and leave people alone who don't share your opinion.

I really like the idea of playing relatively bad games once in a while to appreciate what makes good games good.

Robert Kirkman sold his soul to the devil.

Walking Dead is turning into the new Heroes for me...

Which makes me sad.

Way to cut out the majority of my post and be a totally reductive about it. I don't know what show you're watching, but I thought his scene with his old friend from season one was pretty well done. He wants to save this guy whose totally gone off the deep end because Rick sees himself in him. He sees what his future could be and is trying to regain control of it. I'm not sure what you see as "just walking around".

Then again, after reading the other posts you've been making on this video, it seems like you just have horrible taste.

I'm blown away Patrick would say that about the comic... especially since he admitted he didn't really read it. If you didn't even get to the end of the Prison arc, you really don't know what makes The Walking Dead so crazy awesome. This was the most frustrating Quick Look I ever saw, but just because of the inflammatory comments toward the comic. The fuck, Duder?

The show doesn't have good characters? Clearly Patrick hasn't seen Merle.

He's completely wrong about the comic as well. It's top notch stuff, really.

The show is meh. Sometimes it's okay, sometimes it's boring. But the comic is really, really good Patrick, come on. It gets awesome at the prison, and I'm not a guy that reads comic books ever. And I don't think that people that still read the comic think otherwise.

Edit: I'm actually quite disappointed Patrick. You shouldn't criticise something you don't understand. Again, the comic is awesome.

This confirms my belief that Patrick is the John Cena of Giantbomb. One minute you think he's alright, the next minute you want to punch him.

I'm reading the comics....love'em

I'm watching the TV show......love it

I've played TT's TWD........loved it

I'm not going to play this.....

I'm loving most the The Walking Dead stuff and feel bad for people who don't enjoy it, your missing out!

Patrick, once again you need to open mouth, insert foot. You may have your opinions, but to state things as fact when they are not so, is extremely misleading. Stop doing it please.

Patrick I really think you should read more of the comic because in my mind the story is far superior to Telltale's game, and don't even try to compare it to AMC's television series. In many ways Telltale's game is much more similar to the Comic, I'm not talking about the story of course but the they both have believable human interaction/reaction, though the Comic does it much better. This shouldn't be surprising as the game as a medium is way more difficult to work with, and I was thoroughly impressed by what they had done.

I'm not normally much of a comic reader but Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead caught me and never let go. I've tried to read most of the superhero stuff, but it could never hold my interest. The Walking Dead on other hand has been one of the most emotional experiences I've ever had with any kind of entertainment medium: books, movies, games whatever.

I normally have great respect for you Patrick, but I really feel you are talking out your ass in this case.

His opinion on some characters has nothing to do with journalistic skill. Stop being dumb. Andrea and Michonne are terrible fucking characters. At least in the show anyways. This game is based off the show as well which is only mildly worse than the comics.

Walking Dead: Survival Instinct or Bioshock Infinite to buy.... hmmm Walking dead take my $60!



:P lol

to be fair it's kinda reductive if he has to state "in my opinion" every time he expresses his opinion.

he gave the disclaimer he didn't get that far into the comic, and his opinion was that it didn't grab him. i'd kinda agree with him as the game grabs you/gets moving a bit faster than the comic does. you need to get over a bit of a hump to really get rolling with the comic. about halfway through the prison arc was the point of no return for me.

sure it's an ill-informed opinion that i don't agree with, but you guys need to settle down.

Usually on Patrick's side, but man this was rough. If Patrick wants to talk shit about stuff, that's fine, but it's the way in which he presents all his opinions as facts that really bugs the shit out of me. He also seemed irresponsible to throw the comic under the bus when he (admittedly) doesn't even know how much he read of it.

But yeah, this game doesn't look very good.

And this isn't an anti-Patrick thing...It's Just that Jeff, Vinny, or Ryan do great on bad games...

@lifendz: he isn't talking about any new characters, hes referring to the original survival crew who are all awesome and better in every way than their TV counter parts... but he wouldn't know because hes only read the first few books

Imagine a world where this game had came out prior to the Telltale game, just after Season 2 of the show.

It's a world where I'm a cutter.

@ripelivejam: I think the reaction isn't just people disagreeing with him (though that's certainly part of it), but the fact that he is misrepresenting general consensus on the content. It's okay if he talks for himself, but should not do so for everybody else.

You should watch the video on this page, where Patrick says Merle is prolly one of the better characters on the show.

THE ENTIRE POINT OF THE WALKING DEAD COMIC IS IT'S CHARACTERS. THE TELLTALE GAME & THE COMIC ARE PART AND PARCEL WITH EACH OTHER IN TONE, PACING, & CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT.

PATRICK I LIKE YOU. IT'S OKAY NOT TO LIKE THE COMIC BUT DON'T LEAN INTO OPINIONS WHEN YOU HAVEN'T READ SOMETHING.

He said that about Daryl, actually.

Patrick is one of those critics that you look to so you can do the exact opposite of what he says and know you'll be satisfied.

Have you read the comic duder? Slow start, but once it gets going it's damn fine. And the characters are way better than in the TV series. If you did read the comic, then okay, it's not your thing. But if you didn't, you really should give it a fair shot.

Sport Drink.