Walking Dead: 400
Days
by Joseph Knoop
By now, it's no secret that Telltale's Walking Dead is one
of the year's most impressive releases. Throughout the five-episode season,
players immersed themselves in the world of Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore's
bestselling graphic novel. With a nearly unforgettable cast of characters
(including one of the year's strongest depictions of a child) and, in this
reviewer's opinion, some of the most tense dialogue sequences ever, The Walking
Dead garnered critical praise again and again.
With any successful title, however, comes the opportunity to
milk one last drip of artistic expression (or, you know, cash) out of a
franchise. The question remains: does this bonus installment carry the same
punch as the original story, or does it rise from the grave a twisted,
agonizing shell of its former self?
In Walking Dead: 400 Days, you live out the earliest days of
the zombie outbreak as five separate characters, each intertwined by the
littlest or biggest of circumstances. Each story vaguely centers in and around
a truck stop named "Gil's Pitstop" along an Atlanta , Georgia
From the main menu--a "lost persons" board outside
Gil's--the player selects each individual character and progresses through
their portion of the story. You'll negotiate a tense standoff in a prison bus as
Vincent, elude human enemies amongst the endless rows of a cornfield as Bonnie,
and drive through a dense fog to elude your crazed pursuer as Wyatt.
Gameplay remains largely unchanged. Players navigate tense
conversations between a wildly varying cast of supporting characters, while
occasionally utilizing quicktime events to dispatch the undead. One feature of
Telltale's excellent writing is the lack of a true "good" or
"evil" conversation branch. The murky gray area of each character's
psyche keeps the player on their toes. You'll find plenty of chances to sweat
your decisions before and after making them.
It is notable that the game contains more interactions with
humans than the undead. Their presence is certainly felt, but the most dire
conflicts seem to come from within the ragtag groups, not outside. I suppose,
in any good zombie apocalypse, that's always the case.
What is surprising is the relative shortness of each
segment. Despite excellent writing, you never really get a good feel for each
character, nor any opportunity to watch them grow over a period of time. Part
of the original series' charm was how seemingly stable characters deteriorated
under stress and inflicted irreparable change to the group. Sadly, no such
scenario exists, save for one or two incredibly brief exchanges. When it does,
it falls flat because you just met these people. Considering Telltale's Walking
Dead isn't known for revolutionary gameplay, losing the strength of a cohesive
story is the real killer here.
Despite Telltale's financial success, 400 Days doesn't seem
to be any superior graphically than its predecessor. Though the voice acting is
still top notch, character models seem stiff and robotic. This is especially noticeable
in prolonged conversation sequences.
At a measly $5, you really can't go wrong with 400 Days. As
we come up on the second season of The Walking Dead proper, it might serve as a
nice refresher, as opposed to messing with your save data from the first
season. Just don't come into it expecting anything beyond an ultimately
fleeting amusement.
Final Score: 3 out of 5
