Saturday, July 13, 2013

The Walking Dead: 400 Days (Game)

This review contains spoilers..

So Telltale is at it again.... They promised us die hard Walking Dead fans something to keep us entertained 'till season 2 is finished and they sure as fucking hell kept their promise.

The Walking Dead: 400 days takes place over 400 days of the zombie apocaylpse. You'll play as 5 different survivors who all have their own group and their own stories. I'll take every survivor, explain his story and give my opinion on it. Of course this game doesn't feature our heroes from Season 1, Lee and Clementine and so I was very curious whether Telltale was going to succeed in making another powerfull episode.

Vince:
So I started off with Vince. Vince is procecuted for murder. We find out he killed someone who hurt, and might very well, killed Vince' brother. It then cuts to inside of a prison bus that's stuck in traffic before you know a fight starts and one of the prisoners kills another one who quickly turns a zombie. The guards bail and Vince and two other prisoners, conman Justin and rapist Danny must find a way out. This is probably the shortest episode of 'em all, maybe 5 or 10 minutes, but although the episode is very short I still liked Vince a lot. There is something about that guy, and I wouldn't be surprised if he could be our lead in Season 2.

Shel:
Next I played Shel's story. She and her sister Becca are part of a survivors group that try to survive in an abondoned gas station. Among the fellow survivors are some of Vernon's (The old fuck who took your boat in Season 1) men and some kind of hardcore biker guy named Roman who will do everything to protect his group. You'll have to make some choices what to do with people who were trying to steal supplies. This probably was the most boring character story of 'em all. I couldn't care less about Shel, Becca and her idiot group of survivors.

Bonnie:
Up next was Bonnie. Bonnie is part of a small group that only appears to have 3 people. Bonnie, an ex-junkie, Leland, a charming fella who appears to have the hots for Bonnie although his wife is with him, and eventually there is Dee, she's Leland's wife and seems to be on his cheating behaviour. Anywhay, Dee stole a bag of supplies from a survivors group, that turns out to be Shel's survivor group, and now they get hunted down by them. This character story is actually very intrguing. It has some very good tension and the ending is one hell of a shocker. 

Wyatt:
Next is Wyatt. He, together with his friend Eddie is on the run for a pickup that is chasing them. After it looks like they shook 'em off we get to know the guys a bit better. They're clearly a couple of stoners and are a brilliant add to the character list. They're dialog, although they're in a shitty situation, is funny as hell. They then run over someone and play rock-paper-scissor to decide who gets to check it out. This probably was my favorite character story. Both characters are funny as hell and after a tough story like Bonnie's it was nice to see these two goof balls. Don't suspect it's all great fun though. There is tension and tough things will happen. 

Russell:
Last but not least is Russell's story. Russell is a teenage guy walking on an empty road heading to his grandma's house. He then suddenly hears a car approach. You'll then have to make a decision that won't matter much but that will feature a nice reference to Season 1, not to spoil to much. In the car sits Nate, a typical rough redneck, who offers him a ride. Nate seems likeable, a little crazy, but likeable. They stop for supplies at an abandoned gasstation, the one Shel's group lived although they did not at the point Russell arrived, where they suddenly get shot at. This was another amazing character story. Not only does Russell turn out to be a pretty cool kid but there also are some nice action sequences and a shocking ending that you won't soon forget. 

After you played the last story we switch to a lady that is looking for survivors to join her community. She finds a group of survivors that contains all the survivors from your previous stories. She offers them to join your community. The choises you make (made) depend which survivors will go with her. 
 
And this is just me thinking, and hoping, out loud but my guess is the group of survivors you have left at the end of this game will be your group in Season 2, with Vince being the main man. That would sure kick ass. It will be complicated for Telltale to do this but they said that your choices will have bigger impact in Season 2 and they also said your choises in 400 Days will carry on to Season 2. Obviously we don't know anything about Season 2 yet so my look on this isn't worth anything but it's what I hope. 


 In the end I'm very satisfied with what Telltale did with this DLC. I had my doubts that they could do it again but they proved they can. Even with so much characters and so little time they manage to create amazingly intriguing stories. I can't wait to see what Season 2 will bring but they have my support.