“A New Day” is the title for TellTale’s first entry into the horror genre, and they pulled it off gloriously. With TellTale’s recent past of licensed products, they’ve been hit and miss, and there was nothing but speculation surrounding The Walking Dead as to whether it was going to sink or swim. Fear not zombie lovers, Walking Dead is a sure swim.
The Walking Dead: The Video Game is set in the same universe as Robert Kirkman’s hit comic book series of the same title. 
You take control of Lee Everett, who is somehow in police custody. While being transported to the local jail, the cop runs over a seemingly innocent bystander, sending the car to plummet into the near by forest. Just like that you’re thrown into the world where the dead walk the earth. Desperately searching for help, you come across an abandoned house and through a series of events you end up caring for a young girl by the name of Clementine. TellTale did a spectacular job with capturing emotion and drama, and managed to keep me more engaged and attached to characters than the television show (of course nothing beats the source material).
The gameplay is simple, yet intuitive enough to enjoy. There is a cross hair on your screen with each direction signifying something different, up is for investigating, left is for conversation, right is for interacting, and down is for picking up/action. The combat is scripted and only activated in certain scenarios. I hope Telltale manages to make the situations more unique; in Episode 1 it seems as though the only thing Lee could do is trip.
Telltale decided to focus heavily on decision making and how it affects your storyline. Depending on how you react with survivors and whom you choose to save once the time comes, all affect their opinions of you and future episodes. Lee 
Everett has a shady past, and with that you can choose to lie to people or flat out tell the truth.
TellTale hit it out of the park with Episode 1 of The Walking Dead: The Video Game, but let’s see if they can keep it up through the next four. The action sequences need to be a bit more unique, and not just rely on Lee tripping all the time. TellTale captured the emotion of the series and had me emotionally invested in these characters, and I can’t wait to see where they take this story.
- Great story telling
- Fun and simple gameplay
- Great cast of characters
- Lee needs to stop tripping
Score: 5/5
