The Walking Dead: The Game. We are alive
Zombies and licensed products - which in themselves are not the best representatives of the gaming biosphere - have again produced offspring. Unfortunately, this time the crossing was not in charge of the bright heads from TelltaleGames— they are now busy continuing their own interactive story about the apocalypse, which is closer to a comic book than to the television series The Walking Dead. The development was entrusted to TerminalReality, and it seems that they were given six months, no more, to do everything. They grunted, groaned, then briefly informed their superiors that “it seems to be working” and, most likely, already set about the next project.
Thereain’ tnoranger
| System Requirements |
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Win Xp 32 Celeron E1500/Athlon 64 X2 GeForce GT 330/Radeon HD 6530D 2 GB RAM |
| Recommended Requirements |
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Windows 7 64 Core 2 Duo E7500/Phenom II X2 560 GeForce GT 545/Radeon HD 6670 4 GB RAM |
You need to understand right away - this is not and not even (holy, holy, holy). All the travels of the Dixon brothers (we play as Daryl - a hunter, tracker, good redneck) before the start of the events of the series are limited to the towns and villages they find themselves in on their way to Atlanta. Arranged in random order throughout the towns are: trucks blocking the road, zombie spawn points, random faceless survivors, piles of ammunition, food and containers of gasoline. The player wanders back and forth through a chain of identical locations, punishes zombies with improvised bladed weapons, sends extras on suicide missions, transfers from car to car, carries out orders like “give and bring,” eats, drinks and swears.
Why is he swearing? Because, well, if you don’t howl, those around you won’t understand. But I want to howl. Literally all the elements SurvivalInstinct cause melancholy and a feeling of hopelessness. The zombies here are the worst kind of gaming zombies. According to the canon of comics, they cannot be anything special (as, for example, in), therefore they move at the speed of an old woman collecting bottles and pose the same danger. There is only one scary moment in the game - when the player is pinned in a corner for the first time. He desperately counts the cartridges, a bloody hatchet slips out of his hands... When you are ready to close your eyes, a life-saving QTE is activated. The zombies take turns hugging Daryl and obediently waiting for him to align his sights with their head and stick and twist his hunting knife. I wonder why the characters in the series don’t do this?
Plasticine dream
Using firearms just like that means attracting a crowd of walkers, who will have to be dealt with in the manner described above, so most of the game is played on all fours according to the rules of stealth. From the height of crouching Norman Reedus, another depressing symptom of a hasty release under a license is visible - monstrously outdated technology. SurvivalInstinct looks like a 2005 game launched on the Xbox 360 launch line. That is to say, it looks terrible. We must pay tribute to the art director: from afar, the local pastoral indeed resembles scenes from the series, but, as already mentioned, the player rarely has to look at long shots.
Surprisingly, the developers missed the main theme of the franchise - people and their behavior in emergency conditions. Besides the Dixon brothers SurvivalInstinct There are no characters, only mannequins. A much greater immersion into a world where man is an enemy to man and a potential zombie can be felt in
Am-kazam guys! Few of us have passed by the expensive series from AMC called The Walking Dead, which means The Walking Dead. In addition to everyone's favorite zombies, the series featured interesting characters and exciting events. It was interesting to watch both the dialogues and the action scenes. And when I learned about the announcement of a game with the same name, I was seriously happy, but the joy disappeared when, in addition, I learned about the developers. The reincarnation of “The Walking Dead” into games was carried out by Telltale games, known as quest developers. Making a zombie quest is already a bold move, and when you make it based on such a well-known series, you need to be careful to the smallest detail so as not to offend the fans. However, TTG already had experience in this matter, I heard a lot about how well they transferred Back to the Future into the gaming space. And then the game came out, or rather the first episode (TTG’s trick is to release your games episode by episode). It must be said right away that Telltale Games managed to make an interesting quest about zombies. We can immediately send you to play, even if you do not welcome the quest genre and are not familiar with the series, but the patient has already been opened, and now I will try to explain to you the essence of this game.
How it all started
We play as Lee, a middle-aged African American. We are taken away from Atlanta in a police car, and along the way we are taught the basics of driving. We still have to find out why our protégé was shackled in “bracelets,” and we would have replaced these bracelets with bars if not for the sudden invasion of zombies. Precisely sudden, because While still in the car, we saw normally moving traffic and alarmed police, but after knocking down one zombie on the road and driving off the highway, losing control, we find ourselves in a completely different world. This is difficult to explain by the long-term unconsciousness of the main character, because... being unconscious for more than an hour in real life promises serious consequences that Lee did not experience. In general, there are inconsistencies, and they are noticeable even if you don’t look closely, but they are immediately overshadowed by a bunch of interesting events.
Interactive series
Yes, this is precisely an interactive series, now, after completing the first episode, I cannot call it a quest.
Pros:
We are almost never distracted from the story. Something is constantly happening, and this helps to complete the game without long-term sticking in one place, as happens in many quests. Especially in Telltale's: in "Sam and Max" nonsense always reigned, and in order to solve the riddle, you had to turn off your brain, because common sense only got in the way. Here, all the actions that are required of us, quite mundane, do not require such things from us , which is impossible to figure out without the help of hints. The controls in the game are intuitive, you don’t have to get used to it, everything is convenient, even the camera, which changes so that the player can see the necessary goals. mouse in the right place, but every little thing is taken into account, for example, for a radio you need to find batteries, but in order for it to work, you first need to place them correctly, extend the antenna, turn up the volume and only then turn it on. There are so many little things that are taken into account. which makes you believe in the events and take direct part in them. The episode is short, completed in one evening, but during this passage you get no less pleasure than when watching one episode of the series. It is clear that the developers tried to draw the maximum from the film and comics. The drawing style was taken from the latter, and, oddly enough, it does not cause outrage; on the contrary, it only supports the atmosphere more strongly and does not interfere with the imagination with a realistic picture with HD textures.
You will also have to kill zombies, and believe me, the fact that this is not the main part of the gameplay is not at all off-putting. After all, this is a film in which you play a role. It is very difficult to describe what the gameplay is like, after completing it I only remembered the scenes that I saw and vaguely remember my actions. But I remember my choices well, my feelings during the passage, the line between the series and the game was so well chosen. You just need to try it yourself, a new gaming experience is guaranteed.
Cons:
The already mentioned inconsistencies and sometimes insufficient interactivity. This lies in the fact that the game shows scripted scenes that are difficult to associate with oneself. For example, the main character often falls out of the blue. Lightly hitting the girl with his shoulder, Lee not only falls, but also knocks off his own head, almost losing consciousness. Of course, over time this goes away, and you understand that the hero was in shock, but at the beginning of the game it makes you put on a vague face and shrug your shoulders.
Characters
Pros:
What we look for in every RPG is embodied in The Walking Dead - interesting characters that you really empathize with. TTG made the right decision; instead of pretentious, all-powerful characters, they made ordinary people. Each has its own story, each has its own problems and intentions. And each has its own character. Characters from the series such as Glen and Hershel are present, a very nice addition for fans of the series. I’m not sure about the characters from the comics, since I didn’t pay attention to them.
We are free to communicate with the characters, and they remember what we say, every phrase we say affects the relationship between other people. The main idea of the game lies in the characters. They are very colorful, and in the player's perception can only be compared with the characters from the original series. For example, we can describe the most interesting character - the little girl Clementine. She is not stupid at all, but she does not create the feeling of a child genius. The player, like Lee himself, never stops chewing on her, she becomes the number one concern. Not because she's always looking for trouble, but because she really doesn't want anything to happen to her. Her voice is chosen perfectly, you feel when she is afraid, when she is sad and when she is happy. The developers made a very big bet on the relationship between Clementine and the main character. Almost half of the most memorable scenes and dialogues are connected with her in one way or another. This doesn't mean that everyone should "cooze" with her. You can be absolutely cold towards her, fortunately the set of lines allows this, but the image of Clementine is chosen so well that she can awaken parental instincts even in the most soulless and “don’t care” individuals. It's like that with every character. Replayability also directly depends on the characters, because in the first episode we are given two choices at once, in which two lives are decided, and different characters, different developments in the story, and relationships with other characters. This is the advantage of the game over the series; the player himself chooses the development of the plot through certain actions.
Cons:
More precisely, negative characters. There are such people and they make it clear that you are not in a fairy tale. They evoke very real anger and a desire to deal with them at the first opportunity. In my gaming experience, such a character was encountered only in Jade Empire - this is a vile teacher.
Result:
Sound, graphics, art do not need a detailed description, they are as good as possible. We have been given an interactive series, the only analogues of which are Fahrenheit and Heavy Rain. All that is required from the player is involvement and history and basic knowledge of English, since there is no Russian version, and it is unlikely to appear, except perhaps in a collection of all episodes (or you can hope for the time being). Don’t miss it, it’s not every day that an interesting quest with zombies comes out, which makes it clear that...
The game is made - with soul
P.S. A review of AC: Revelations will be coming soon, so don't worry. =)))
It would seem that there is already a successful comic book by Robert Kirkman in the world, an extremely successful film adaptation in the form of a series - all that remains is to transfer the universe of the walking dead into the gaming world, and it will also become one hundred percent successful. However Telltale Games decided not to take the easy path. They preserved the universe, kept the drama and human relationships at the forefront of the story, but at the same time created their own characters, different from the classic comics. And, oddly enough, it turned out no worse than the original.
At the center of the first episode's narrative The Walking Dead costs Lee Everett- a man with an ambiguous past, a criminal whose escort was suddenly interrupted by the coming end of the world. Now Lee faces not a difficult trial and solitary confinement, but thousands of hungry living creatures. In addition, a girl named Clementine suddenly fell onto Everett's shoulders. Lee, although a criminal, is unable to throw a lonely little girl to be devoured by the dead. As a result, you need to take care not only of your own survival, but also of the survival of your little companion. I must say, this relationship “Adult - child” is probably the most successful decision of the team Telltale Games, because it is through the child’s consciousness and spontaneity that the player is shown some special worldview, which greatly embellishes the narrative and changes the story.
Regarding the gameplay, the game will definitely not surprise you with anything. Everything is quite secondary and simplified as much as possible: typical point & click mixed with dialogues, and during various types of activities - the most ordinary QTEs. However, the main “feature” of the game is the nonlinearity and variability of your decisions: in almost every situation the player is given a choice of how to perform this or that action or how to respond to this or that character.
Telltale Games We paid special attention to the voice acting of the characters, which helps create the right atmosphere, immerse you in the world of the game and help you feel the characters most deeply. As for the other sounds: the surrounding world, zombies, music... - everything here is quite ordinary.
The graphic component of the stars from the sky is not enough, but it cannot be called average either. The design of the locations is memorable and evokes purely positive emotions. Use of technology cell shading helps establish a close connection between the video game and the original comic, but is let down by weak technical aspects. In many acute situations, facial animation produces some absolutely incredible grimaces that are poorly associated with what is happening on the screen. Moreover, sprite backgrounds are not cool at all, as is the fact that the game can only hold a maximum of five zombies per frame, which is very few by the standards of the original comic and series.
One of the notable features The Walking Dead is how the very idea of "zombies" is presented to the player. If in other games such as Left 4 Dead or Dead Rising, They are crushed left and right without hesitation, but here every living dead is a certain challenge, not only physical, but also moral.
The Walking Dead: Episode 1 - A New Day- a strong stand-alone adventure game with classic gameplay, a fascinating dramatic plot and an enveloping atmosphere. Graphical flaws do not interfere with the enjoyment of the game at all, because here, first of all, the story is important. The Walking Dead got off to a really good start, we can only hope that the new episodes will not lower the quality bar and will bring Lee Everett to the end of his adventure.
Version tested for PC
One of the first videos from Dead Island, the one where events unfold in reverse order to beautiful music, is rightly considered one of the best trailers of all time. However, as it turned out, it had little in common with the game itself, in the sense that . But The Walking Dead from Telltale Games is more consistent with the same video series. At some points, the game literally mesmerizes you with its oppressive atmosphere, melancholic music and general feeling of hopelessness. So that in the next moment it will turn into brutal action.
The Walking Dead
Genre adventure
Developer Telltale Games
Publishers Telltale Games
Website www.telltalegames.com/walkingdead
Grade
Unusual gameplay moments; the game changes depending on the decisions made; interest does not decrease throughout the entire episode
Telltale style animation and graphics
An Unconventional Zombie Game Worth Trying
As with previous Telltale Games titles (Sam & Max, Back to the Future, Jurassic Park), The Walking Dead comes out in series. A total of five episodes are planned. Two of them are already ready, and the remaining ones will be ready by the end of the year. And then you see the game will be renewed for a second season.
Besides the fact that The Walking Dead a game about zombies (this theme looks like it will soon beat WWII shooters in popularity), it has one more feature. As you are immediately warned, events develop depending on your actions. We've already seen this somewhere, haven't we? At first glance, it seems that they are trying to blatantly sell ordinary nonlinearity in a new cover. However, after the first episode, it becomes clear that this is not the case.
The Walking Dead can be compared to Mass Effect, only instead of full-fledged parts separated by several years, there are small episodes released in a couple of months. In each episode, decisions made in one part affect the storyline in the future. But if in Mass Effect everything seemed simple and clear, here it is difficult to predict the consequences.
The first episode is dedicated to the events that occurred immediately after the start of the zombie apocalypse. By the way, unlike the usual zombie attributes, there is also a departure from the classics of the genre, but this will become known only in the second episode. The next part is called Starved for Help and is reminiscent of the 2009 film The Road, so those who have watched it should already have an idea of what they will encounter in the game.
Branching in The Walking Dead quite a lot, and it is not clear how and when the choices made will affect the game. Sometimes a seemingly serious misstep in conversation will lead to nothing because the characters will quickly go their separate ways. But there are also decisions that affect the plot much more strongly. After them, different players begin to play their own version The Walking Dead. For example, already in the first part you will have to choose companions who will accompany you until the end of the game.
It is worth mentioning that all characters have memories. From time to time they remember the hero's answers or actions, and you are warned about this by a message at the top of the screen. For now, this mostly just changes future dialogue, but I suspect it will affect the ending later in the game. Response time is often limited. It looks almost like in Fahrenheit (Indigo Prophecy). The timer bar quickly melts, distracting you from reading the answer options.
Affects the passage and inability to save. Auto Save is created before dangerous episodes, but not before those very moments of choice. But this cannot be called a disadvantage. IN The Walking Dead it becomes much more interesting to play, completely immersed in the atmosphere and making decisions the first time, without counting on the ability to load.
Unlike “hidden” elections, there are also more obvious ones, specially marked. In this case, the gamer is at a crossroads and the game is waiting for his decision. It is difficult to say whether there is a time limit here. Once you get the hang of it, you try to act as quickly as possible. In addition, such forks often occur in the midst of events, and the lives of other characters may depend on them.
There are six key decisions in each episode, and after finishing the episode you can look at them and even see what percentage of other players did the same or differently. To do this, do not forget to disable or correctly configure the firewall before starting the game, because if the statistics cannot be loaded immediately, then they will not be able to be viewed later (the player will not even see his own decisions, and not just those of others).
By genre The Walking Dead– point-n-click adventure. That is, sometimes you will have to move the mouse across the screen in search of the necessary items. There is an option in the options to make this task easier, but some objects are located off the screen or only highlighted in the immediate vicinity of the cursor, so there is still some pixel hunting involved. By turning off help, as well as messages about what conclusions other characters draw or what they remember, you can try the local hardcore mode.
There are practically no uninteresting moments in the game. To a certain extent, this is due to the short duration of each episode, but is better explained by the frequent change of events and the presence of non-standard gameplay tasks that are impossible in the ordinary world, but flourish in the universe The Walking Dead.
Not all games have moments when the thought “it can’t be, they should have left a different solution” pops into your head. But there will be no other solution, or it will only get worse. How do you feed 10 hungry people when you only have 4 servings of food, like half an apple or a rasher of bacon? How to free a person from a trap, having only an ax with you, which cannot be used to open it? How to tell an eight-year-old girl that she will now have to live in such a world forever?
Despite the fact that the theme of zombies is already too hackneyed in the gaming industry, there is The Walking Dead something fresh that makes you stay in front of the monitor until the end of each episode. One episode takes approximately 3-4 hours to complete, and the first two parts are definitely worth at least trying.
Reviewed version of the game: PC
Zombie apocalypse is a genre that has been explored far and wide. The cinematography had the last word in the film “Carriers”. Variations remain - and The Walking Dead one of the most successful at the moment. In the comic book from which it all came, the central theme was not survival, but relationships between people, as well as the choice between pragmatism and the morality on which a collapsed society rested. Between greater and lesser evils.
Game series from Telltale walks the same road, although it has its own story, albeit in the same universe and even with a couple of cameos. Five episodes appeared over the course of a year, the last of which came out just the other day. Never before have developers taken such long breaks between series, but at the same time, never before have they created such dark, serious games. And so popular - it sold out in some fantastic quantities for the company. The second season has already been announced, and the developers are expanding their staff. It is obvious that if Telltale's name was previously associated with ironic quests, first of all - with Sam & Max, then from now on - with interactive films.
The Walking Dead- the first successful attempt by developers to make their own . There was one before, but it turned out terrible, in some ways disgusting. The endless lisp and stupid arcade games only caused irritation, but indifference killed the game. There was nothing intriguing in the story, nothing exciting in the choices, nothing alive in the characters. This is not the case at all in The Walking. It has an arcade shooting gallery, arcade stealth, arcade action and even an arcade quest for idiots, but all this is within reasonable limits. Mostly rollers, rollers and rollers. This is an interactive movie, and nothing else.
But what! All the magic of the series rests on the emotional attachment to the characters. Episodes begin with a line warning that some of the player's actions will have consequences. In fact, she is not entirely honest, but you still think about every word and action. You don’t always know in advance which phrase is more important, so you decide that everyone is important. The consequences may not appear immediately, unexpectedly, in some other episode. Thoughtlessly thrown words are remembered in the next heated argument, where someone’s life is at stake, and then you feel like a traitor. If you lied, they will ask why. If you answered honestly, they would be offended, but you were honest. Swearing begins for any reason: not enough food, not enough medicine, paranoia, new members in the group, unnecessary fuss, cannibalism. You always have to decide between what is right and what you need to survive.
However, the characters adhere to certain boundaries, their personalities are clearly defined - they cannot be changed. But they may have different attitudes towards the main character - Professor Lee Everett, who was on his way to prison and ended up in the apocalypse. After surviving a car accident, he searches for help in an empty house and finds a little girl, Clementine. Her nanny is dead, her parents remained in another city, probably also dead, so the heroes leave together in search of a safe place, and later join a group of survivors.
Little by little, Lee replaces the girl’s father, but which one is no longer up to the developers. They only provide a choice. You can be honest and direct, speaking openly about your problems, calling everything by its proper name. You can lie with the best intentions or simply wanting to create a good impression of yourself. It’s up to the player to decide whether to kill in front of a girl or show mercy to someone who clearly doesn’t deserve it. How to explain your actions is up to the player. At a certain point, the girl needs to be taught to shoot and persuaded to cut her hair - how to tell her about this is also up to the player. And Clementine remembers and remembers all this, like other significant characters. But interactivity, the ability to decide something - it binds you to the characters, brings you closer to them. Lee is worried about Clem - and you worry along with him.
The authors manipulate feelings desperately. Plaintive but beautiful music, strain in the voices of the actors, awkward questions in the dialogues like “How were you able to choose? We both needed you... And you chose me.” They often manipulate in a way that is not entirely honest - although this is to be expected from people who joke about non-linearity already in the fifth minute. Lee is still in handcuffs, the policeman says something offensive to him, and several answer options are given, but whichever one you choose, Lee will open his mouth and immediately change his mind about speaking. Over the course of all five episodes, the trick is repeated ten times. If not more.
History is linear - there are only variations. In one case, it makes a difference who is saved first. In other cases, no, and then they simply come to the same conclusion in different ways. But where you cheated with the choice, you will only find out on the forums or by going through the game a second time. The Walking Dead not meant to be repeated over and over again. You experience it once, cry repeatedly, study the statistics, draw a moral for yourself, and wait for the next season.
But this one time is worth a lot. The bombing with white phosphorus is left behind - there are many more such moments here. The second and third episodes were especially strong. Some scenes are literally tearing you apart. The remaining episodes are a little weaker - the first one comes as an introduction and hello to the fans, the fourth one is too adventurous, and the fifth one is largely predictable. However, there has been no stronger scenario in the gaming industry.
A smart but accessible, sentimental but cruel tragedy can only be spoiled by technical errors. There are few of them, but almost all of them are related to nonlinearity. Saves are lost due to crashes and updates. Sometimes the choice is remembered incorrectly. It is not clear why some problems have existed for several months and have not yet been fixed. After all, the game is not for the dead - it is for the living.
Pros: scenario; characters; dialogues; music; voice acting; choice.
Cons: technical problems; The animation could have been better.
Verdict: strong movie.