Review

Developed by:Telltale Games Published by:Telltale Games Genre(s):
  • Adventure
  • Platform:
  • Handhelds
  • Microsoft
  • PC
  • Sony
  • Cost:$24.99 (For Full Season) ESRB Rating:MATURE Players:1 Release date:April 25, 2012 Reviewed on:PC Episode Released:August 28, 2012
    9

    The Walking Dead Episode 3: Long Road Ahead

    It seems that with each new episode of Telltale’s Walking Dead adventure series, I can better understand why it has the gaming world in a frenzy!

    Again, for those of you who haven’t played the other episodes, this series is based on the Walking Dead comic book and not the AMC TV show. Gamers will take on the role of Lee Everett, a man who was a convicted murderer and was currently on his way to jail but was freed by zombie intervention. He’s picked up a little girl, Clementine, and has banded together with a group of survivors. In Episode 3, we find out that things have taken turn for the worse. When you take into account that they’re in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, that’s saying a lot!

    Food and supplies are running low, routes into the city (to get needed items) are getting more dangerous, and there is a hostile human element making life hard in general. The fact that the “leaders” of the group are always arguing about what should be done next hasn’t helped things. On top of that a new “problem” has everyone distrusting one another. If that wasn’t bad enough, there are zombies…like everywhere! This forces Lee (you, the player) to be an unwilling mediator in most conflicts. With so many problems, hard choices are to be expected. Truthfully though, what makes this chapter stand out the most is the fact that all of the choices you have to make seem like bad ones. Not bad as in you’ve made poor choices, but bad in that there are no real winners; someone is affected negatively no matter which option you take.

    Again, I expected this to happen. The way things ended in the last episode, I knew bad things where on the horizon. Still, I was literally blown away by what happens to some of the characters. It wasn’t like I didn’t see a twist coming; it was more like I didn’t want my predictions to come true. I had hoped that the characters would be able to make it out of these situations unscathed. The fact that I felt hopeful is a testament to the writers. There are occasional titles were the story is decent enough or the characters are likeable enough for me to actually care if they survive. Honestly, I tend to focus on keeping my companions alive as best I can. But not many games bring about strong feelings of anger or sadness when things don’t go as I planned. With the Walking Dead, I was completely floored. I couldn’t believe what happened…even with all the foreshadowing that took place way before the incident!

    It would be a lie to say that this is the only game that was able to get an emotional response from me. At the same time, none of the other games that did were as short as this. These episodes aren’t very long (from a gaming stand point). Feeling sad for Aerith’s death in FF7 made sense; RPG’s can take upwards of 20hrs to complete. Gamers were invested. Telltale was able to do the same thing in only a few short episodes. And we’re not even done yet!

    “Long Road Ahead” is a good episode, though I have a sneaky suspicion that a lot of the bad things happening to the group would still happen regardless of my choices. Telltale has been promoting the “choice” mechanics, where choices made in previous episodes will affect the story in future ones. For the most part it works fine; the characters that survive one episode are present in the next. They also remember what was said or done previously. I just feel like something’s are out of my control. Some people are going to act a certain way to Lee, regardless of whether or not I side with them. This wouldn’t be too much of an issue if the game didn’t constantly remind you that people are taking notice of your actions.

    In the grand scheme of things, this hang up doesn’t hurt the story too much. I still had a great time playing as Lee. The voice work was still spot on and the realistic puzzles shine. There are even some action packed moments that really shook up the gameplay. Aside from certain characters becoming invisible during conversations, the graphics are great. Like I said in my review of the last episode, I can’t wait to see what happens next!

    Gameplay:

    9

    More fun than Episode 2!

    Graphics:

    10

    I love the way it looks. Invisible characters glitch aside, Telltale did a great job visually.

    Sound:

    10

    The voice acting and sound effects were great!

    What's New:

    7

    The new action segments made this episode feel fresh.

    Replay Value:

    9

    With multiple choices that really affect everyone involved, it would be hard not to want to go back and see what happens!

    Final Score:

    9

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