The Walking Dead Episode 1 (Xbox 360) Review

The Walking Dead Episode 1 was released on April 26, 2012 on PSN, XBL, iOS, MAC OSX, and Microsoft Windows.  The game is based on the comic book, but follows a parallel storyline.

You play the game as Lee Everett, a former university professor, murderer, convict on his way to prison. The car crashes after a zombie stumbles in front of it. After the crash, the cop gets feasted on by walkers. Naturally, he’s also the first zombie you kill. You run from a hoard of walkers and break into a house to find supplies or survivors, it could be either. After slipping in a pool of blood…twice. A zombie babysitter attacks you and you are saved by Clementine, a child who lives in the house. She then stays with the man who just broke into her house. The two of you continue through several locations meeting other survivors, including some of the characters from the comics. The story overall is very good with a few small problems. The first is that although you are playing as Lee, you’re not definitively told whether he’s actually guilty of the murder until about halfway through the episode. Not knowing he was guilty and having the earliest reference to his crime being the cop thinking he was innocent affected some of my conversation choices. The second is the repetitive falling down. As mentioned before, Lee slips in the same pool of blood twice, even if you choose the option of noticing the blood pool on the floor. Despite Lee supposedly being an intelligent man who has killed a person with his bare hands, he’s constantly falling down because of slippery spots, misplaced wires, or uneven spots in the ground.

The control system for the game is decent. It works for interacting with the environment and is even challenging and adds tension in combat. The best control has to be the conversation system. There is no indication as to what the results of your conversation choices will be. You are allowed to see after the choice is made, what the effects will be. The only downside is the timed conversation points. While it adds a sense of urgency to your choices and keeps you from spending a ridiculously long time choosing, there’s some times when the timer doesn’t give you enough time to read all the choices before choosing. So the choices I made are not always the ones that are best, or more fitting of my personality, it’s the choices I could read in time to push the button.

Overall, this game is good. It’s a trip through the comic universe with some decent action but much more character interaction. There are real consequences for your actions and your interactions with the characters. It’s a story you get truly involved in.

Final Score: 4/5