The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series Collection review: 19 episodes in one
All three seasons of the Walking Dead are now found together on one disk along with 400 days and Michonne’s story, and are all now digitally remastered.
Developer: Telltale Games
Publisher: Telltale Games
Platforms: Xbox One (version reviewed), PS4
Release Date: December 5, 2017
As a huge fan of ever-popular The Walking Dead AMC TV Series, it has been nothing but exciting to have the opportunity to review The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series Collection. The graphics and sound are even more appealing than the first time, and the fact that I haven’t played in a while almost makes it feel like an entirely new game altogether.
For any new players or old gamers that need a quick refresher, the story starts with the main character Lee in the back of a police car. His driver is trying to get information out of him while sharing stories of his own when they suddenly hit a walker. From there, the car crashes and Lee is unconscious.
Upon regaining consciousness, Lee awakens to his driver dead and trying to eat him followed by more walkers emerging from the woods. He rushes through the forest to a house where he soon meets a scared little girl named Clementine. The two quickly become friends and agree to set out together to find Clementine’s parents in Savannah, Georgia.
The game’s story is almost as exciting and intriguing as the story of The Walking Dead show. While the premise of the story is the same as the show, it is a completely different group of people and set of perspectives. Running into familiar faces from the comic books brings over me a wave of nostalgia, and I do get a little bit teary-eyed at times.
As mentioned above, the game can somewhat be compared to the show but no background knowledge of the series in any medium is necessary to actually enjoy the game. The game starts with Lee being the main character but the importance of the game gradually shifts to Clementine, or Clem, as Lee prefers.
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In addition to the main three seasons of The Walking Dead games, Michonne’s backstory is also included as a mini three-part series. She is now a central character in the show, but for quite some time, her story was kept elusive and out of the light. Since then she has revealed herself, but this miniseries does a great job of elaborating on details and exploring the group that she was a part of.
400 Days DLC is also included and is a great bridge between season one and season two. It focuses on the stories of five different characters, and then brings the stories of these characters together.
The main appeal of The Walking Dead is that as well as being able to live and fight through a zombie-ridden apocalyptic future, you are able to make choices that shape your life and the lives of those around you. You are reminded of choices made throughout the entire game, and some of the choices made in season one affect the 400 Days DLC, and choices in the DLC carry over to the second season.
Improved graphics bolster the fluidity of the gameplay and are immediately noticeable. The enhancements bring the game even closer to reality than before. Well-tuned sound effects and eerie soundtrack cues are guaranteed to bring even veteran players, such as myself, to the edge of your seat at the most intense moments.
The graphics offer more depth and color saturation that make even the small things such as furniture and streets even more believable. Utilizing the depth bar at the beginning of the game made a huge difference for me because now the darkest parts of the game are extremely darker and still navigatable at the same time.
I would be remiss to say that, at some point in the second episode of the first season, I experienced a frustrating glitch. Upon returning to our camp, I had a very important conversation regarding a certain character that I had to check in on. However, when I tried to reach her room the interaction necessary to open the door to her room did not show up.
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Since The Walking Dead: The Telltale Collection has only an autosave feature, I was forced to return to the main menu and continue the game from somewhere that was hopefully not too far from where I left off. Upon replaying the scene, a cutscene ensued that enabled me to speak with said character, which allowed me to continue the story.
This type of glitch did happen about three more times during my entire gameplay, and although it was frustrating it was not enough to discontinue me from playing the game. There were also a couple of times when interactions with specific items did not result how they were supposed to, in one instance providing me with the quarter I needed. Again, the glitches were nothing that was game-ending but they were slightly frustrating. Hopefully, they will be addressed and sorted out before the official release.
Telltale Games. . The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series Collection. 8. <em>The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series Collection </em>was honestly a hard game for me to stop playing, even though I had already played it before. The story is so engrossing and with the noticeable improvement in graphics, it becomes almost a new game entirely. Fast response interactions with people and objects, as well as easy mobility, make this game very easy to navigate. Telltale games did an amazing job remastering a game that was great to start with.
A copy of this game was provided to App Trigger for the purpose of this review. All scores are ranked out of 10, with .5 increments. Click here to learn more about our review policy.