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March 25, 2015 by Karen Jensen, MLS

The Walking Dead Video Game, a guest review by Nita Tyndall

March 25, 2015 by Karen Jensen, MLS   Leave a Comment

Today for Zombie Week Nita Tyndall is reviewing The Walking Dead video game. Thanks Nita!

 

When The Walking Dead show first premiered, it was a show my dad and I got into, curled up on the couch on Sunday evenings because my mom thought it was too gory and didn’t want to watch people get eaten by zombies. Which was fine. I wanted to watch people get eaten by zombies.

But then I wanted more.

(Not that I wanted to get eaten by zombies. Or eat people. Gross.) But I wanted more than sitting on the couch, watching.

Enter The Walking Dead series by Telltale Games.

Telltale is a company that specializes in story-based, episodic games. The Walking Dead, while set in the same universe as the comics, features new characters and storylines (with a few cameos from comic book characters). You play as Lee Everett, a convict “offered a chance of redemption in a world overtaken by walkers.” The game is story-based and episodic, with five episodes in a season. You play as Lee for all of Season One, following as he tries to protect a young girl named Clementine who’s alone at the start of the zombie apocalypse. You follow his POV, and the choices you make as Lee tailor the game—in some instances, going as far as to decide if a certain character lives or dies. (There is a season two, but you know, massive spoilers so I’ll let you find that one on your own).

More to the point, it’s diverse and an amazing story. The Walking Dead isn’t like other zombie games, there are no zombies to mow down, no gory death scenes. Instead it accomplishes something I think the show tries to do and occasionally fails at—it makes you care about the people in the apocalypse.

 

I grew attached to Lee. I wanted to make the right choices for Lee and for Clementine and the good of the group, but if this game taught me anything it’s that making tough decisions is all well and good when zombies aren’t attacking and there’s no time pressure. And yeah, I rolled my eyes at some characters and I hated others, but more than that, I wanted them to survive. I wanted Lee and Clementine to survive.
More on The Walking Dead: A Telltale Game Series at IGN http://www.ign.com/games/the-walking-dead-the-game/ps3-100887

Because the zombie apocalypse isn’t really about the zombies and the guts and the gore when you get down to it. It’s about people. About survival, and humanity, and what you do when the world ends, and The Walking Dead game is an amazing illustration of that. If you’re looking for an actiony, first-person-shooter, then look elsewhere. If, however, you’re looking for a heavy dose of feelings and great storytelling and difficult choices, then look no further.

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The Walking Dead: Seasons One and Two are available for XBox, PlayStation, Mac, and PC.

Meet Our Guest Blogger

Rep’d by @esc_key. Contributor for @TheGayY.

Nita Tyndall is a tiny Southern queer with a penchant for sweet tea, cardigans, and words. She’s been writing since she was five, and her first piece was Scooby-Doo fanfiction in bright pink, all caps font—though now she prefers to write about sad teenagers. She’s currently in college attempting to get an English degree, and briefly was a college columnist for the lesbian webmagazine, Autostraddle. You can find her on tumblr at nitatyndall where she occasionally writes about YA and queer things, on Twitter at @NitaTyndall, or at her website nitatyndall.com. 

Filed under: Tech Talk, Technology, The Walking Dead, Video Games

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About Karen Jensen, MLS

Karen Jensen has been a Teen Services Librarian for almost 30 years. She created TLT in 2011 and is the co-editor of The Whole Library Handbook: Teen Services with Heather Booth (ALA Editions, 2014).

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