The Walking Dead: The Telltale Definitive Series

The Walking Dead is a setting pretty much tailor-made for a game like this. People love to speculate about what they would do to survive a zombie apocalypse, and now's there's chance. Or at least, now would be their chance if your choices actually meant anything in this game. I understand that you can't make an ongoing series like this without some points of plot convergence, otherwise the possibilities just spiral out of control they would never finish the actual game. Still, I can't help but feel like this was a missed opportunity. What could have been a game for the ages is basically reduced to more of a sleeper hit. As I said, the TWD setting is perfect for a game like this, not only because zombie survival speculation is popular but because it's very easy to essentially push the reset button at the end of each season. There was nothing stopping them from implementing meaningful choices that completely change the plot of each season but still ending up in the same place at the beginning of the next one. Even limiting each season to two significant branches mixed in with a bunch of flavor choices would have been a significant improvement. Instead what you get are choices that amount to slightly changed lines of dialog here and there. It's not just that you ultimately end up in the same place at the end, it's that even the immediate effects are often the exact same but for different reasons. For example, at one point you meet a girl who has been bit. She begs you to shoot her before she turns. If you agree, she dies and the sound of the gunshot draws the walkers. If you refuse, she grabs your gun and shoots herself. She dies, and the sound of the gunshot draws the walkers. If you can ignore that, you might have a good time. The illusion can be pretty strong and your choices can feel intense and weighty if you can suspend your disbelief. But if you're wondering whether or not you made the right call, believe me, you did. There was no way to do it differently.

I used to love this game. Perfectly paced story. Lively characters. Like a watching interactive film. If you like this type of games, I would definitely recommend this game. It will bring several hours of fun and emotional addiction to the characters.

I bought some of these games on steam before so I could not help myself but buy this pack again to support the genre and developers. Although quite overpriced when it originally came out (and personally I highly disliked the episodic model) at it's current price it's a steal. It's the kind of zombie game where the zombies aren't really relevant and they are trying to focus on the drama between people. If you want to fight zombies, there are different games out there for you. (resident evil, dying light, dead island, dayz etc). Personally I got sucked into Lee's story and then became a sucker for Clem; she's primarily the reason I keep coming back to this The writing overall is really good. It gives everyone a personality, even if they are minor characters, you will remember them. There are some funny moments if you play them and you can even influence other characters into doing messy things that you would not. I used people like Kenny for that several times. In terms of replayability it's hard to say. You can explore other outcomes sure, the problem is I can't really imagine making other choices than I did in my first walkthrough. I won't pretend it's a perfect game. There are some cliches within the story as well as some plot holes In several instances they sort of overdid it with attempting to show the monsters humans can be... Things and people aren't that black and white. The world is always different shades of gray. But I suppose this is more of a general complaint specific to certain episodes and characters. You will sometimes feel that not all choices are relevant or rather you'll have the illusion of choice You can't manual save at certain points in case you regret some choices, so if you do or say something you'll regret you'll have to ALT+F4 and play the section again; While this is not horrible it is highly annoying. While I dislike all of the above things in the end the game is a slightly flawed gem for those who want to get immersed into a story.

I hold some reverence for the first two games in this series. While the second game has some issues and the following three games don't quite stack up, you're still in for a fun time--granted, you know what to expect. I think it's silly to label these games are adventure games. I mean this without wishing to sound derogatory: these are interactive movies with some elements of player choice sprinkled in, through and through. While games like Until Dawn and Life is Strange are better at the illusion of choice, The Walking Dead's first season is still one of the best interactive movies ever made. What makes it work so well is that the writers have a fundamental understanding of what makes and breaks this kind of game. If the writing isn't good, everything around it suffers, and the experience as a whole feels lackluster. The Walking Dead: Season One gladly stands alongside The Last of Us as one of the most human stories ever put into gamer's hands. Season Two falls a little short, but it still manages to pull together great situations out of interesting characters in its prime. I have to state this, though: if you do NOT like interactive movies, art games, or walking simulators, these games will not change your mind. As for what makes this collection so interesting for those who are in this game's camp. All of the games that came out before, I believe, Season 3 got remastered. S1 still looks a little robotic, but the change is massive. Also, there's dev commentary, but it's separate from the game itself. Cool gesture, but I would have loved to hear that stuff as I played. To cap this off: I'm super disappointed that they chose to do a digital-only release for this on PC. As a massive fan of the first two games, I would have happily paid for a collector's edition that comes on discs--or, hell, even a USB stick would have sufficed. I know physical media is slowly dying out, but goddamn it, I adore holding the games I love in my hands.