The Walking Dead, absolutely the best game of 2012

[Patrick Buck]

Still haven't played it yet... I'll get it at some point, but I really couldn't be bothered when it was coming out in the episode format, I like to be able to play the game all at once if I want. I'll try and get it sometime in the new year, but for now, I'll play my brand spanking new copy of AC3 and when I've finished that, Farcry 3.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

I love when people storm forums to angrily declare what a real game is, or isn't, to call minimalistic game play "shitty" because there isn't enough 360 no scope or 150 levels of absurdly granular stat advancement, or to pimp up their own personal preference for GOTY with a lot of "UH, GUYS, WAT ABOUT X" as though the only possible reason for this stunning divergence of opinion was forgetfulness on the part of the OP. They then top it off with the reeking cherry of "opinions lol", after spending the preceding paragraph going full no true scotsman like a ************.

This is sarcasm btw, I don't really love that at all.

 

[perkl]

You people don't much play IF, do you? Walking Dead doesn't do anything interactive fiction hasn't done for at least a decade already, except maybe quicktime events. It works very nicely and accomplishes what it sets out to do, but it's by no means revolutionary.

On the upside you have many a fantastic experience still ahead of you. I would suggest Shrapnel, The Warbler's Nest and Aisle as quick tastes of what awaits if you get into the longer games.

http://ifdb.tads.org/viewcomp?id=oymvom4wrawhd4hr

 

[Mycroft Holmes]

The Walking Dead is a terrible game. It's a great graphical adventure, with a good degree of fake choice(not making fun of it, just calling it what it is. Most choice in videogames is 'fake' as it were) well done characters, good voice acting and a great story. But it is a terrible game. The puzzles are jokes, and the gameplay mechanics are boring, uninspired and patently easy.

 

[Able Seacat]

MONEY SAVING TIP!!!

As others have said the first episode is free on xbox live today but there also rumours that the remaining episodes will go on sale by the end of the week so it may be worth waiting a while to get episodes 2-5.

I've brought the first 3 yesterday so a bit gutted that I missed the give away but never mind. Enjoying it immensely so far.

 

[DustyDrB]

Definitely story of the year, but I still have a few games to finish before I am ready to declare it GoTY.

In any case it's probably the most emotionally driven game I have ever played and that's saying a lot.

Also, I'm from Georgia and they nailed the look and feel of Savannah. I recognized where I was in the city a couple times.

Didn't know it was in Savannah. That's cool....but...Charleston is way better. /city pride

OT: I've heard good things and I like Tell Tale (Sam and Max and Back to the Future are good). Buuuuut...I freakin' hate zombies. With a multilevel passion I hate them. So I won't be playing The Walking Dead.

As for the gameplay criticisms, can people be more specific? I assumed it played just like any other point and click adventure (that's what Tell Tale does, after all).

 

[IamGamer41]

Its a great story but there is no game to it.it should of had a real company backing it. GOTY??? No it is not.

 

[laggyteabag]

The Walking Dead is as much of a game as trying to find the useful bits in a Wikipedia page and pasting them into a Word document.

The Walking Dead however has a brilliant story, and I really like how it presents choices; "option A, or option B, you have ten seconds to decide, good luck!" as opposed to the Mass Effect style of "No rush, we'll just pretty much pause the game so you can pick. It makes it tense. For the first time in a game I care about the characters which makes the choices yet even more so tense than it already is!

It is funny when it needs to be, it is serious when it needs to be, it is tense when it needs to be, and as I found out today, its bloody good at shocking me too. While I don't think its a good game, it has a damn good story, and it should be credited for that.

 

[SpaceBat]

So I've just finished the final chapter of The Walking Dead, and I'm just... speechless.

It made me cry...

How could it not? If you actually go through the entire game and grow to like the characters, it's nearly impossible not to get your soul shattered in the ending. It's just not possible. You'd have to be a sociopath to not get fazed by everything that happens throughout the episodes.

I couldn't eat for a day or so, because I just felt so unbelievably depressed.
I'm still not sure whether my GOTY is Journey or Walking Dead. They're both vastly different games achieving vastly different goals, so I refrained from picking a GOTY this year. Seeing any one of those two winning an award is equally good and I have no single favorite. Journey and Walking Dead do hands down beat every other game released in 2012 though.


The only two problems with Walking Dead are the weak gameplay mechanics (and by that I only mean movement and combat) and the fact that

Spoiler

Not a single choice you make has a significant effect. They do change dialogue and attitudes aimed at you or make you think about past decisions, which effectively gives you the feeling of a personal story, but it's a shame that nothing you do really matters that much. Even significant choices earlier on get neutralized in later episodes.

 

[James Joseph Emerald]

The Walking Dead is more of a game than your average point-and-click adventure game (with its quicktime events and various other mechanics), and you don't see anyone arguing that Grim Fandango, Monkey Island or The Longest Journey aren't "real" games.

I actually came into this thread to argue that it shouldn't be GOTY because it's more of an interactive movie, but after thinking about it a minute I've changed my mind. It's actually a great example of what games can do with a narrative that films or books can't.
I love the scene where...

Spoiler: Chapter 2

you have to ration out the food. If you give it to the kids, people are like "you dick, you should keep the people protecting us well-fed, not a couple useless kids!" And if you give it to the people protecting you, other people are like "you dick, what about those poor starving kids?!"

... which is one of many hard choices that you, as a person, have to consider and choose between. You just don't get that kind of engagement with a story in films or books, and I think it's the future of entertainment.

 

[kasperbbs]

Well fuck, now i really have to get it, i wonder how badly overpriced it is on steam.

 

[cwmdulais]

i just finished it as well, and true it was amazing I've got to say.

BUT it left an incredibly bitter taste in my mouth when i realized that while it gives the appearance of choice and a changing story, it doesn't actually deliver on that and the story is the same no matter what happens from the beginning to the end.

Spoiler

also, am i alone in thinking that the part where Lee gets bitten was a real cheap shot as it yanked control away? I know it was important to the story that the developers wanted to tell, but it still gave me a sense of linearity

 

[Aeonxan]

Sorry the best game of the year was Mass Effect 3. Best story of all time.

 

[thiosk]

Sorry, ftl is the best.

No question.

 

[Malfy]

Walking Dead is my #2 GOTY, right behind Borderlands 2. If the gameplay mechanics were better, it would definitely be #1 on my list. Maybe an increased focus on gameplay would have thrown the story off, or made the game more action-driven than story-driven, so I'll give Tell Tale the benefit of the doubt. I just had more fun with BL2 this year.

 

[veloper]

No just no.

There was a time on the Escapist when a game would get slammed for the use of shitty quicktime events. That was before the members turned into a bunch of fake gamer girls. A GAME of the Year should not have shitty gameplay. One good point is not enough. A GOTY should not be anything less than mediocre on any aspect and certainly not gameplay.

TWD isn't half bad, because the dialogues keep the whole thing together, but it's certainly not great. There isn't even any discussion about the gameplay being less than mediocre, because everyone agrees on that point.

So a nice presentation, a decent story and some sentimental scenes and poof the crybabies have their GOTY.
Doesn't matter for a newf* GOTY if the theme, the setting and the gameplay are lacking in this lineair affair that fails on it's C&C promise even harder than ME3.

TWD is not even worthy of being called the "adventure game of the year". This year like the past decade has been poor, but I'd sooner nominate Primordia:
+ more original
+ better setting
+ much better puzzles
+ multiple solutions
+ 10 possible endings
+/- retro style('90s) graphics
- not fully polished

But most here wouldn't even know about Primordia, because it's a small indie title.

So the fact you can can shape and morph Lee and how he interacts with characters and the story is completely null and void because the mechanics are kinda lacklustre? People need to stop seeing interactivity as a primarily 'fun' thing and be far more open about how games are actually played.

Let's play games to not have any fun. Seems like that's what the majority wants now.

NPCs give different responses depending on what lines you pick for Lee and sometimes at a later convenience. That's nice and all, but a nice feature on a bad framework, doesn't make a great whole. It's only an illusion of c&c.
You don't want gameplay anymore, you want a lengthy animated film with a nice story.

 

[veloper]

But most here wouldn't even know about Primordia, because it's a small indie title.

LOOOOOOOL!

You are aware this is where indie game hipsters congregate, right?

Also..... "+/- retro style('90s) graphics."

This is a plus now?!?

A plusminus, but you already decided on a minus.

Indie gamers are a minority here. Most here care much about their fancy gfx like you do. Indie gamers who also play puzzle-adventure games may be even fewer still.
How can you even decide on a GOTY when you don't know about the good releases this year?
I wouldn't have made a big deal about it, if it just were another triple-A blockbuster shooter winning this year, but now we have the ignorant reviewers putting the decline of the adventure game genre on a big pedestal.

 

[StupidNincompoop]

Nope, not for me.

Terrible gameplay, no re-playability (which i'd imagine a GOTY would require), and also (this part seems to be only my opinion) a forced, bland and generic story.

Compared to other point and click games, it's barely a game. Other point and click games such as tiny bang story or even botanicula actually have controls that mostly work. The walking dead was pretty much a chore to play because you have to find the selection points if you're not playing on easy mode with the HUD on.



I wouldn't even compare it to a "choose your adventure book". At least those have freaking different endings.