The Walking Dead

Hey look, a game for Halloween! (Yes, I planned this one, unlike last time.) I've finished playing through The Walking Dead, the game that Telltale Games got popular on. This is one of those games from the zombie craze that reached its height around 10 years ago. I think this rode the coat tails of a Netflix series based on the same comic series, but the game has different characters and story. It merely takes place in the same world.

Screenshot of zombies walking down a street.

Like other recent Telltale Games series, there are things to say, and choices to be made. Gameplay involves choosing dialog options, with the occasional interruption to explore a room, to button mash, or for a quicktime event. Before going into this, I knew that most of the choices don't have much effect. At most, it determines which characters get killed, or who helps you do things. Occasionally, there are stressful situations where something needs to happen fast, or you're dead. When faced with dialog options, there is always a timer, so you need to be timely in your responses, unlike some RPGs.

The story happens during a zombie apocalypse. (Big surprise, huh?) Your player character is Lee, a former history professor that's been sentenced to prison. Because choices don't seem to matter, and because there's not much gameplay besides advancing the story, there's no point into going into detail on the story. You team up with some survivors, and try to stake it out in Georgia. Each episode starts off rocky, but just as things get settled, something new gets thrown into the mix. You don't get one episode in before you realize that the zombies aren't the only monsters around here. What stands out is how depressing the story is. It took me about 2 weeks to complete it, just because I didn't find the story compelling. I'm pretty sure this is classified as 'grim dark'.

I'm not enthusiastic, but if you like clicky story driven horror games, this will be right up your alley. If you'd prefer something more bombastic, check out Dead Space. If you'd like something light and humorous, try Sam and Max or Tales from the Borderlands. If you'd like something with a more meaningful story, try Witcher 3.

Since you've made it this far, you might be interested in reading:

The Walking Dead Season 2 and Michonne
Now that Halloween is coming up, it's zombie time. Last year, I took a peek at the first season of Telltale's The Walking Dead. Thanks to Humble Bundles, I got some more at the same time as the others. This is more of the same.
Tales from the Borderlands
Borderlands 3 has been out for almost a year, but I haven't bought it yet. Yes, I'm aware that it's on Steam these days, but I haven't been that enthused about it. I'll probably get it in the next Steam sale, along with the Halo collection (because I threatened a long time ago to buy it if it came to Steam). I intended to play through all the Telltale games in order of release before I got to Tales from the Borderlands (and all that before Borderlands 3), but that hasn't happened. Even without that, I recognized lots of tropes of the latter Telltale games (Walking Dead and afterwards) that I've heard told over the years. I'm pretty sure that there's no kind of continuity to spoil by not playing through them in order of release.
The Wolf Among Us
Like the Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us is a series based on comic books. (I'm not familiar with either comics.) The setup is simple: all the fairytale characters were forced to leave whatever kingdoms they lived in, and are holed up in New York City scraping by. You play as Sheriff Bigby Wolf. (Bigby Wolf -> Big B. Wolf -> Big Bad Wolf) Because I've portrayed this guy in school plays, I'm immediately on his side.
Sam & Max Save the World
From way back when point and click adventure games ruled PC games, there was a dog and a rabbit. These buddies went around as private investigators solving stuff. I'm not sure which stuff in particular, because I missed the boat. The series wasn't a blockbuster take-over-the-world smash hit, but it had a dedicated following.
Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse
The game opens and closes every episode with a narrator. He doesn't do much, and only explains obvious things that I could figure out myself. He has a slight British accent, but he isn't Stanley's. The office that Sam and Max uses is unavailable for the entire game. They were kicked out between the last season and the first episode of this one. The C.O.P.S. have moved into the Desoto, and Sam uses it as a mobile office.
Papers, Please
Papers, Please is a bureaucrat simulator where you man a border checkpoint in a fictional totalitarian country during the late cold war. Gameplay mostly involves examining people's passports and other entry documents and calling 'gotcha' on them. Otherwise, you let them through if you can't find anything or you're lazy.