Yes, it has been 13 years since The Walking Dead: Season One was released by Telltale Games. Feel old yet? Not only that, but the Definitive collection of the entire Walking Dead mainline game franchise was released a whole six years ago. So, with that series being now well and truly buried, today we shall discuss what was so influential about that first installment for PC.
How Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead: Season One (2012) Came to Be
The Walking Dead as a media franchise has existed in so many different formats, and enjoyed such massive success in each of them, that you’d be forgiven for not knowing exactly what spawned what.
Definitively, The Walking Dead started life as a series of graphic novels created by Robert Kirkman and released by Image in the early 2000s. The critical and commercial success of the novels then inevitably led to the creation of a TV show in 2010, headed by the veteran filmmaker Frank Darabont. This televisual outing introduced the franchise to a significantly broader audience and helped to skyrocket the IP’s popularity. The show itself has enjoyed adaptations of its own, including several titles on online casino UK sites like The Walking Dead: LuckyTap, Scratchcard, The Ones Who Live and Cash Collect. These titles replicate much of what is now iconic about the show, utilizing the same creepy visuals and dread-filled atmosphere.
Consequently, for many, the show will be the first thing they think of when they hear the name. However, the case could be made that the video games trump all other adaptations.
Robert Kirkman had played some of Telltale’s previous work, and as an artist in the publishing industry, was attracted to their tendency towards more narrative-driven gameplay, with less focus on action than was the norm for games of its genre. Kirkman’s close involvement with and full confidence in the game’s production thereby guaranteed that the end result would be at the very least a faithful adaptation, but also a unique and enthralling experience in itself.
What Works So Well About Telltale’s The Walking Dead: Season One
The game’s most intriguing aspect, which Kirkman himself would agree on here, is the way the game puts so much focus on player agency. The game has you making many crucial decisions where neither option is obviously better or more pleasant than the other. The player therefore finds themselves engaging in some ethical and psychological dilemmas that most games wouldn’t come close to touching upon.
The gameplay facilitates this element by being extremely mechanically straightforward. It’s a point-and-click-style PC game, so with very limited controls beyond the basic push of a few buttons and some directionality, the real skill comes in timing and in being extremely thorough in your exploration of a given environment, as well as having a knack for some quick, critical thinking. Some people may think this sounds simple to the point of being boring, but in actuality the game is incredibly tense and invigorating in parts, featuring some highly inventive puzzle sections.
Another intriguing element which may not immediately be as meaningful to today’s players is the fact that the game was released episodically. This meant that the developers could respond to player feedback and improve the game incrementally with every new release. In conjunction, the game keeps track of what choices different players make and presents these statistics and percentages to you at the end of each chapter, so you can appreciate what sort of a decision-maker you are. This lends the game a spontaneity and a sense of community which survives to this day, a rare thing among games of its age. It remains, thus, a classic, as stubborn and enduring as the Walkers which inhabit its grim and gruelling world.
Even though this review is for The Walking Dead: Season One, it makes the most sense to invest in the full series, Seasons 1-5. For that, players today will probably find it easiest to access the game via The Walking Dead: The Telltale Definitive Series, available on PlayStation, Xbox and PC.
