When I first heard that The Walking Dead was getting a game, I thought that it would just be a shooter game where all you do is shoot zombies. So for a while, I didn’t give it another thought. It wasn’t until I saw someone’s Let’s Play of the game that I realized two things. One, it wasn’t a shooter game but was more like point and click adventure game. And two, from what I saw, I wanted to try it out.

It was first release in April 2012 by Telltale Games for the PlayStation Network, Xbox Live Arcade, PC, Mac, and iOS. The game was divided into five parts with each part being release individually about two months between each part. Sometime after the last part was release, Telltale Games had release physical copies of the game for the Xbox 360, the Xbox One, the PlayStation 3, the PlayStation 4, and the PlayStation Vista. For this review, I’m looking at the PlayStation Vista version.

The game starts with Lee, a convicted murderer, on his way to jail when he gets into a car crash. He then takes shelter in a nearby house where he discovers a little girl name Clementine who was hiding in her tree house. He soon finds out from the messages on the answering machine that her folks were in Savannah when the zombie apocalypse began. Lee tells Clementine that he will take care of her until they find her parents. On their way to find a safe place, they encounter other survivors while trying not to be killed by the zombies.

Let me start off by saying that I really like the graphics. The cell shaded visuals really suits the tune of this game. In my opinion, if it was done in any other style, it might not have stood out as much. There are two other things about the visuals that I like. The first thing is the moments when Lee’s life is in danger. During these moments, the left and right sides of screen would turn red which really makes these moments intense. The second thing is the subtitles. Yes, the subtitles. Whenever someone talks, they have an assign color to their subtitle dialogue. For example, Lee’s is white, Kenny’s is light green, and Larry’s is red. I have to say that it gives the game a little bit of a comic book feel to it. However, you do have the option to turn the subtitles off if you want.

The game’s genre is something that probably won’t cross my mind if you asked me when I first heard about this game. Whenever I think of a game that deals with zombies, the first thing that I think of is that it’s going to be a shooter or a survival horror. However, Telltale Games made it an interactive drama.

In the PlayStation Vista version, there are two gameplay control styles. You can play with the touch screen or the device controls. It did take me a bit longer to playing with the touch screen than with the system controls.

Now what really makes this game stand out is how well written the story is. Although it is very dialogue heavy, it is its dialogue choices and its characters that made the game fun to play. Yes, there are dialogue choices. Unlike some other video games that have dialogue choices which don’t really change the outcome of the story much if at all, the choices that you pick in this game will affect the story and the relationships between the characters. Some of these choices can be tough to pick because most of the choices are on a time limit.

As for the characters, they are very colorful. Each one is written very well that the player can’t help but either like and/or hate them. I have to give Telltale Games some credit for making me care so much about Lee and Clementine.

Although I do enjoy playing this game, there is one problem that I did found: glitches. Whenever the game auto-saves or a quick time event appears, the screen will sometimes freeze up for a few seconds. Because of this, there are times that I would end up dead.

Despite the glitches, this game is worth a play. There are three sequels to this game: The Walking Dead: 400 Days, The Walking Dead: Season Two, and The Walking Dead: Michonne. I haven’t played the sequels yet, and I don’t know if they’re any good. However, I’m looking forward to play them real soon.