The Walking Dead, absolutely the best game of 2012

[Conner42]

The game is actually really damn good. The thing is, there are just better games even made by Tale Tell. If The Walking Dead made me kind of made me want to rest my head against my desk and kind of ponder for a while, the Sam and Max series that came out in 2010 called The Devil's Playhouse made me want to breakdown and cry for weeks on end....If you beat the game, you know what I'm talking about.

Spoiler

Though, it does actually pan out in the end that made me feel a lot better

As a point and click adventure game, it was also pretty weak in that area, though, I guess that's more of a personal thing for me. I don't think it would have gotten as much attention as it has if they had put challenging puzzles.

I 'unno, I have mixed feelings about the game. It's actually pretty great story wise....and that's about as much praise as the game deserves.

To be honest, this has been a REALLY shitty year for video games with most of the star games being indie games. Save for one actually great game with something to say(Spec Ops: The Line) the rest of the games have been really non-existent.

So, is it cruel for me to say that it looks like The Walking Dead received this much attention by default? 'Coz, that's exactly what I think happened.

It's still a pretty damn good game though.

 

[Shocksplicer]

I am a console gamer, living in Australia.

It is literally impossible for me to ever play The Walking Dead.

 

[Easton Dark]

I'm fucking done with it.

I switched computers and thought since The Walking Dead used Steam Cloud, it'd actually fucking use it. But noooooo.

My game which finished at Chapter 4's ending with everyone that was possible to be alive still alive and promising to help me, is gone. Steam fucking ate it. It did not download from the cloud, it's not on there, it's gone.

I don't want to play through all of it again just to get to where I was. If it was the greatest game of 2012, I think I'd want to play it again. But I don't. It's not fun once you know the story. So no, it's not the best, and I don't know if I'll ever see the end of it any time soon.

 

[chozo_hybrid]

I don't understand The Walking Dead because it's not a freaking game lol! It's just a choose your own adventure book. There's little to no gameplay whatsoever.

The Walking Dead is a good visual novel, not a game though.

This argument I still don't understand. The gameplay is not "BAD," it's minimal, and even then, that's hardly a reason to write it off.

A video game is a electronic piece of entertainment that you interact with. Is that what The Walking Dead is?
Yes?
Well, I guess it's a game then.

Agreed, some people seem to think permanent control and constantly mashing buttons makes a game a game. I would argue the Metal Gear games are interactive movies, if I wasn't of my current opinion.

See, the game play in this, is the choices you make, not so much the running and quick time events, they are part of it too. But the making decisions, that is the core mechanic, boring to some, but is is a type of game play.

 

[Raijha]

I just played through the Walking Dead this week. I will say that I loved it. I also loved Heavy Rain. The other thing I will say is that my wife loved watching me play it so much that she was encouraging me to play the next chapter, and asking me to wait for her to be available before I played it. She's never, ever done that with any game I've ever played.

Take those two points as you will towards me naming it in my top 3 GOTY, despite the fact that I might agree with a number of people that it may be closer to a visual novel, but its still interactive media, where the choices you make and actions you perform can lead to changes in the story, or the ending of the story, I still consider that a game. (run on sentence runs on, and on, and on.)

 

[Rack]

Walking Dead is my GotY because it pulls off what it is attempting without messing up at a crucial juncture (though it damn well nearly does that with the save game problems). That its strength lies in the narrative not in how fun it is to blast zombies does not disqualify it in my book.

Spec ops fails for me because...

it's shooting mechanics aren't fun, and the plot hinges on them being fun. At every opportunity the game is saying "you're a terrible person, look how much you enjoy murdering people and pretending to be a soldier" when I'm just wishing the crappy shooter bits would end so I can see the next bit of genre deconstruction. Dishonoured would have pulled this trick off far better had it not spoiled itself on its own loading screens.

 

[Euphbug]

Just wrapping up season 2, and so far I am loving it. As it has been said thousands of times before and will be said thousands of times in the future, the story and characters are amazing. Need to go off and start going through season 3 now, oh the joy of it all.

 

[Nouw]

Walking Dead is my GotY because it pulls off what it is attempting without messing up at a crucial juncture (though it damn well nearly does that with the save game problems). That its strength lies in the narrative not in how fun it is to blast zombies does not disqualify it in my book.

Spec ops fails for me because...

it's shooting mechanics aren't fun, and the plot hinges on them being fun. At every opportunity the game is saying "you're a terrible person, look how much you enjoy murdering people and pretending to be a soldier" when I'm just wishing the crappy shooter bits would end so I can see the next bit of genre deconstruction. Dishonoured would have pulled this trick off far better had it not spoiled itself on its own loading screens.

I suppose they thought it would work better if the gameplay was boring and tiring on the player, numbing them out. I would have preferred it to be fun though, like you, because it would have hit the message home even harder.

 

[Windcaler]

Walking dead is certainly a great experience and its worth it to buy just for that alone. However I dont feel it should be classified as a game because really there arent many interactive parts in it and the story essentially unfolds the same way each time. No matter what choice you make in a given situation it really only has short term reprecussions and you hit the same cliff notes over the course of the story.

That said, its also really only good for a single playthrough (maybe two if you didnt realize the story is the same no matter what you do). Its cerntainly not my personal game of the year, that goes to FTL (if it werent for FTL, makr of the ninja, and journey I would agree with GOTY), but it is still a great experience that you can only live. Much like Indigo prophecy which at one time was another one of my personal game of the year choices

To be fair that final scene is a winner though. I dont feel emotion in games often but that one really made me sad which is a feat I havnt experienced since I inadvertantly caused Seigmeyer of Catarina to hollow

 

[Existentialistme]

And now, not days away from the new year, The Walking Dead comes along and totally ousts Journey as my choice of GOTY for 2012.

It is absolutely fucking amazing.

Agreed. I'm hoping to get through the last chapter tonight, but even just up till now it's already got my game of the year stamp.

This game is moving in ways I never thought a game could be. The only other time I was really emotionally invested in a videogame was the ending of Shadow of the Colossus, but I've been invested in TWD since day one. It is THE greatest zombie story I've ever read/watched/or in this case, experienced -- I'm talking above 28 Days Later, above Dawn of the Dead, and certainly above the highly problematic TV show it's based off of. It's poignant, existential, honest, and most importantly, the characters actually feel like real people due to their development throughout the story being gradual and believable.

I don't care if the story progresses in a relatively similar manner with each replay or if the gameplay itself is sometimes tedious and dull -- there has never been anything else that has made me make such difficult decisions and then spend the next couple hours wondering what might've happened had I chose something different. This game actually makes me think about my choices, it makes me ponder them, question them; ask myself "Why did I choose that?" every second I'm playing it and that's something only videogames can do. When we read a book or watch a film, we don't brood on the hero's choice because we're not the ones making that choice - but in TWD - we are, and that's a reflection of us as people. You can actually learn something about yourself playing through this game.

It's not my game of the year because its gameplay was thrilling and fun, it's my game of the year because it's proof that videogames can be something more than just a way to kill time, and I understand that everyone on this site already recognizes this, but I want developers to start understanding this as well. I want developers to realize that this is a step in the right direction; that gamers want to explore more of the potential power of videogames -- and I want that to encourage them to try new things, take risks, and create was can be only considered as works of art. That's what The Walking Dead is to me, it's a work of art.

Time to go see how the story ends.

 

[emeraldrafael]

I didnt play it all, but I watched Hannah, Rage, and a friend play and it looked pretty good. I think its one of those games thats definitely hit or miss depending on what you like in games, but to me it was good, and certainly should be considered as one of the game of the year games.

 

[Solo-Wing]

[HEADING=1]Episode 1 is free on XBLA. Go. Go now people. It might disappear at any moment. It is Christmas day only.[/HEADING]
Anyways The Walking dead is in my Top three for sure. With Spec Ops and FFXIII-2 (Shut up I loved it.)

 

[Maxtro]

Is The Walking Dead even a game?

 

[neonsword13-ops]

Ya know what, I can't even pick a GoTY this year.

We had Journey, Borderlands 2, Persona 4: Arena, Persona 4: Golden, Far Cry 3, Mass Effect 3, Max Payne 3 (lots of threes this year), The Walking Dead, Dishounered, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, and many others.

It's too hard to pick just one game.

I mean, yeah, The Walking Dead is in my top 3, but it's still too hard to choose.