The Walking Dead: Season 1 is an episodic adventure game based on the zombie apocalypse series “The Walking Dead.” Created by Telltale Games, The Walking Dead: Season 1 is not the first of the video game company’s productions to be based on properties or franchises that have already been established. 

The prospects of The Walking Dead: Season 1 were first announced in February 2011 when Telltale Games revealed that they were striking deals with The Walking Dead co-creator Robert Kirkman to develop the episodic adventure game based on the popularly beloved TV show. Kirkman worked hand-in-hand with comic publisher Skybound Entertainment to develop and write the game. 

Unlike many film adaptations of its caliber and kind, The Walking Dead: Season 1 veers from the typical video game format of ammunition gathering or jumping over obstacles. It is a game that intensely focuses on critical thinking and decision making and it is sure to get players hooked and on their toes.

Although The Walking Dead co-creator Robert Kirkman was willing to assist Telltale Games in creating their masterpiece, they had a few demands in crafting the storyline of the game. Among these demands were an explicit request to avoid crafting any major plots around the television show’s main character Rick Grimes — the series’ producers still had plans for the character in future installments to come in the franchise.

A City Where The Undead Rule 

As the comic book and the show goes, The Walking Dead: Season 1 chronicles the adventures of those still on the earth briefly following the onset of the zombie apocalypse in Georgia. Most of the characters in the video game stayed true to their origins. The Walking Dead: Season 1 is centered on Lee Everett, a playable protagonist who is a university history professor and an ex-convict who has been tasked with protecting Clementine, a young girl who he rescued amidst the zombie apocalypse. Everett’s sole mission becomes centered around his 8-year-old companion as they struggle to make it through the zombie-infested city to reunite Clementine with her mother and father who left her with her babysitter before embarking on a trip to Savannah. 

And So The Adventure Begins

The plot begins when Everett is on his way to prison in a police vehicle after being convicted for killing a state senator who was sleeping with his wife. Suddenly, an accident happens when the vehicle hits a walker and crashes off the road. This crash allows Everett to escape and he makes his way to a suburban home where he meets Clementine hiding. The 8-year-old is hiding out alone and so together, they decide to journey together.

Along their long walk to salvation, Clementine and Everett meet several groups of people, many of which are introduced gradually as each episode of the game starts and continues. First, they meet a family of three with whom they form an allowance as they journey to Everett’s hometown, Macon. At Macon, Everett discovers that his family members have been killed and he and his new group find another set of survivors hiding in a pharmacy. It soon becomes a battle of survival as Everett and Clementine hide with their group and struggle to feed and find resources as they make their way to Savannah, where they believe they will find Clementine’s parents.

Immersive Third Person Gameplay 

Played from a third-person perspective, The Walking Dead: Season 1 is an adventure-packed game that is as graphic as it needs to be. It is also packed choc-full with several cinematic angles to give players the feel of getting in on the action on all sides. The Player’s character is none other than the protagonist, Lee Everett, and they can make decisions as they work with Clementine and their rag-tag group of survivors.

With the sole purpose of staying alive and finding refuge in this apocalyptic world, the player critically examines and interacts with other characters in the game as well as items and the surrounding environment. The player is presented with the ability to make choices that will either propagate the group’s success or failure as they strive to stay alive. A word of warning to anyone who might need a disclaimer is that The Walking Dead: Season 1 has a whole lot of violence and even bad language, including profanity and derogatory terms.

Characters You Can Relate To

Rather than focus on mindless action, Telltale Games has clearly shifted its focus on character and story development — a feature you will seldom find in many other video games in the zombie apocalypse trope. When making decisions, some parts of each episode may provide the player with a time-restricted decision. Other times, the duration for response and making choices may otherwise remain untimed. Regardless of the choices the player makes during the game, The Walking Dead: Season 1 will most certainly be completed with the only significant changes being the other character’s disposition towards Everett.