It’s rare that any form of entertainment
makes me cry. Sure, the obvious things do, like uplifting/heart breaking moments
in Disney cartoons, but of course, that could apply to any one of us. Finding
something that truly resonates with me, something that makes me feel and fear
for the characters involved… well, it’s a tough stunt to pull off. Movies and
TV shows often take a good punt at it, but their attempts too often come across
as deliberate manipulation rather that any kind of earned emotional reaction.
But at least they try. The same can so rarely be said about videogames, that
it’s hardly worth mentioning the few that have tried. Even the successful
examples would look foolish when put beside a show like Mad Men, Breaking Bad
and their ilk. The few that saw the potential of gaming as a story telling
device knew we’d have to wait for a long time and face many failures before games
even approached that level. Then, out of nowhere, ‘The Walking Dead’ arrived.
‘The Walking Dead’ videogame continues the
spread of Robert Kirkman’s cultural juggernaut as it (mostly) successfully
invades every form of entertainment we know. After the TV show, comic,
boardgame and pregnancy tests the next logical step was a videogame. It had no
reason to be good, at all. A cash-in would have sold very well, I’m sure. What
it is instead, is definitely the most important game of last year and may be
the most important game in a decade. The impact it has made and will continue
to make will echo through the industry for years. I know! I’m saying it’s good,
by the way. Just in case I wasn’t clear.
The game introduces us to a group of
characters new to the ‘Walking Dead’ universe, with the player controlling a
man called Lee who was just innocently on his way to jail (for MURDER no less)
when everything goes to hell. Stumbling from the wreck of a police car, you’re
thrust into this grim new world in predictably violent fashion, setting you up
for the nightmare ahead. But it’s only a few minutes later, when you meet a
young girl called Clementine, that the story really begins. And it’s this
story, and this relationship, that truly makes the game something special.
In fact, relationships really are the core
of the game. A relationship-em-up, if you will. The characters and world that
you soon realise you’ve walked into are stunningly well fleshed out, creating
an environment where it feels like anything could happen. Ironically, and in order to do this right,
they’ve had to control and direct the game in quite a tight fashion. Indeed, any
criticism comes from the fact that it’s a fairly linear story and that the
start and the finish of this story is set in stone. Though what makes it work, is
the journey you take to get to that ending and seeing how your decisions
influence other characters and events in the story. Lives are put in your
hands. Lives that you have only seconds to make decisions about. It’s harrowing,
but in the very best sense of the word.
It’s a difficult game to talk about without
spoiling it, but if you’re familiar with other ‘Walking Dead’ properties,
you’ll probably know what’s in store. Except this time, you’ll be involved and
often in some terrible, terrible way. And it’s this- the need to get your hands
dirty and make tough decisions that makes the ‘Walking Dead’ rise above not
just other games, but so many other books and films that have tried to get an
emotional reaction out of you. It constantly makes you second guess your
decisions and you’ll realise that, sometimes, you’ve made a dreadful mistake
and your only choice is to move on and live with it. And finally, at the end of
this traumatic ordeal, you’ll come to a point were all of these decisions
brings your journey to it’s natural conclusion and you’ll cry (unless you’re some
kind of inhuman monster) and you’ll realise that this is most certainly one of
the best games you’ve ever played.
