The Walking Dead Episode 1 REVIEW THREAD

[Weili]

Originally Posted by DjangoZom

- MAJOR BUG found here
----> If i go with "Don't give her the gun"...

... THE ENTIRE GAME FREEZES!!!
Have to force-quit (CMD+OPT+ESC) the game and replay the scene and go with "Give her the gun".

I'm on a 27" iMac Late-2009 2.8 GHz Core i7
4GB RAM & ATI Radeon HD 4850 512 MB
Mac OS X 10.7.3

- Sporadic glitchy/screechy audio!
- Some transitions (after you selected your choice) freezes for 5-10 secs before progressing.

I have the same iMac as you except I have 16GB of RAM instead of 4 and am also running 10.7.3 and I didn't have any of the problems you had. My game settings were on max and highest resolution as well.

In fact, I encountered absolutely no bugs at all or any kind of lag/stutter.

[NastyBiscuts]

The most impressive feature I have noticed so far is the "On the Next Episode of . . . " continuity of your choices so far having a direct impact on future events. I played through twice as to discern for sure if this was true of just coincidence.

[Jake]

Originally Posted by RAnthonyMahan

Also, what happened to the usual stickied review thread whenever Telltale releases something?

I suck! Maybe I should put an official discussion thread up this morning? Is it too late?

[NickTTG]

Originally Posted by RAnthonyMahan

Oh, and the Steam achievements are really uncreative. They're all progress-related. Come on, how about something you need to go a little out of your way for? I guess the achievement whores out there will like it, though.

We actually had to come up with all our achievements for the entire season due to the way consoles are handling our episodic format. So I'm afraid it will only get even less creative in the future.

[RAnthonyMahan]

Originally Posted by NickTTG

We actually had to come up with all our achievements for the entire season due to the way consoles are handling our episodic format. So I'm afraid it will only get even less creative in the future.

That sucks to hear. Still, I guess it's only achievements.

To go off on a little tangent, I really liked the in-game "awesomeness" achievements in SBCG4AP. Encouraging exploration is always a good thing. It'd be great to see something like that again.

[MarzAttakz]

Overall I think the episode was pretty good however there are a few points I'd like to raise. While I didn't find them too distracting it did make the difference between being polished and being simply well done.

a) Audio Compression - I noticed a fair amount of clipping and hissing as mentioned in another thread, mostly likely due to over-compression to reduce file size but please if possible consider a slightly less aggressive amount of compression. I also noticed slight level differences between dialogue snippets.

b) Blocky Shadows - Mostly during cinematics and likely due to me playing at a higher resolution, a pity really. Also in many cutscenes none of the zombies were casting shadows which I found broke the immersion.

c) Slow movement speed - Not a biggie I guess but a slightly faster movement speed would be really nice.

d) Over-Exaggerated Facial Animations - I understand the sense of emotion you're trying to convey but in certain instances I felt that Lee's "expressive" or "high emotion" facial animations were a little too exaggerated especially when compared to Clementine who was handled superbly (can I haz her?). Perhaps consider conveying stronger emotion through your voice actors, Lee's tone change way too little for such extreme circumstances.

Other than that congratulations on such great work despite the launch issues. Looking forward to the next episodes!

[Milosuperspesh]

surely you could of made some;
you saved so and so achievements and with a little joke after it

which would look like this

You saved duck are you quackers ?
you saved shawn that was a close shave!

[Chillforce]

Achievement Unlocked: Turning on a Radio
Achievement Unlocked: Undead Greeting Card

Couple of easy ones to steal.

[RAnthonyMahan]

Packed With Protein
Give away all the energy bars in the store.

[LoganX23]

Loved Episode 1, my only complaint is that when you have a limited time to make a decision, they don't even give you enough time to read all of the options. I understand that they want you to feel the anxiety of making a snap judgement, but if the entire idea of this game is to make a choice, it's executed poorly by not giving you a chance to even read all of the choices.

[WabbitTwaks]

Originally Posted by LoganX23

Loved Episode 1, my only complaint is that when you have a limited time to make a decision, they don't even give you enough time to read all of the options. I understand that they want you to feel the anxiety of making a snap judgement, but if the entire idea of this game is to make a choice, it executes poorly by not giving you a chance to even read all of the choice.

I had a rougher time my first play through reading all the possible choices too, but the second time through I did not. I don't know why that was, but it was. I have noticed the speed of the timer is not the same for all choices. It depends upon the situation. Herschel, for example, will not wait very long for a reply when he asks something. He is just that kind of person. Other choices must be made fast or people die. Heroes learn not to hesitate long

[Skan]

I just finished 1st episode and I'm really surprised how good it is. I love TWD comic books (and just "like" TV series) so I had some doubts about how will you present story in that universe, but you made it perfectly. Tough choices, deep personalities, dramas - now I'll have not only wait every month for comic book, but for another episode as well. Even more, with results of choices in-game, when whole season will be done it will be worth to play it multiple times just to see totally different consequences - which is great thing!

There's a little mess with release day (and the decision to give out Steam keys was really wise) but it was worth to wait - game is amazing.

Thnx and keep up good work!

[LoganX23]

Originally Posted by WabbitTwaks

I had a rougher time my first play through reading all the possible choices too, but the second time through I did not. I don't know why that was, but it was. I have noticed the speed of the timer is not the same for all choices. It depends upon the situation. Herschel, for example, will not wait very long for a reply when he asks something. He is just that kind of person. Other choices must be made fast or people die. Heroes learn not to hesitate long

I know and completely understand the thought behind that. The problem is that not everyone reads at the same speed.

[jackbnimble]

i think the mess was releasing a game thats not finished, and wont be for several months.. all while charging for a complete package up front.

it was fun, but theres very little replay value.

[ncb]

Just thought i'd share my thoughts and feelings after playing through TWD ep.1 from start to finish, Just encase anyone was interested. Be warned, its 2:30 am and my grammer and spelling isn't the best when i'm tired.

First of all let me get this out the way; I understand there can be many a complication when releasing a game but this release really did take the cake. From a consumers point of view, I really have felt let down the last two days by telltale. Now enough has been said about the lack of preperation Telltale performed for the release of TWD all over the forum, so I won't got into it any further other then by saying this; fail to prepare then prepare to fail.

Now onto the game review...

Although very glitchy (mainly sound and bad texturing) and bad consistency (I.E Hershacal refering to the girl as Lee's daughter even though you told him already that she isn't) in places, TWD is a very deep in-grossing story that grabs you from the first scene.

Telltale do a very good of making Lee YOUR charecter. This is a story that although already has it's path laid out ahead of you, you make the minute personal decisions that effect major outcomes to yourself and other charecters around you. This for me was on par with some of the great games like the mass effect series.

Now i'm guessing 99.9999% of people playing this, watch or read the walking dead currently so let me put you out your misery if your wondering if they captured the universe feel.. they did and they have done it well (although i have a few gripes about the cameo charecters but thats just personal taste)

This game follows the comic version of events, it's timeline and slower pacing too. I think TT really did capture the desperate grimey feel of the comic but in thier own style very well. It's nothing fancy but then again niether is the art work in the comics, its there to serve a purpose though and it does it wth satisfying results.

In short.. If you love TWD, story and moral compass on the spot decision making plus can look past some bad technical hiccups, then this is the game for you.

Well done TT but please make the next episode releases go alot smoother. Cheers.

[Matt7895]

Without spoiling anything I just want to write a mini-review for those still on the fence about whether or not to get this. In short: buy it. It's a better adaptation of The Walking Dead comic book than the TV series.

The story is great (man with a mysterious past trying to find redemption in protecting a little girl), the characters are well developed and interesting. The music fits the atmosphere well, really heightens the tense moments. And the art style is great, very stylized. In terms of choices & consequences, you do make a few during the game which are commented on by other characters, but I think we're not meant to see the consequences until much later on. My only niggle right now are the audio problems, it is noticeably low quality, which is a shame.

At the end of chapter one there's a 'Next time on The Walking Dead' segment, which I skipped (I don't want to be spoiled!). Hopefully that won't impact on me importing my save into the next chapter. I just wish I had it to play now.

[serializer]

I wholeheartedly agree, TellTale's all-round best production so far. None of my friends / housemates had really played any TTG series before. I showed them the trailers for this a month or two ago and that got them all pretty excited - now they've played the first episode I can say for certain there are some new TTG fans around here

[TGGREVIEWS]

Just a few days ago I didn't even know this game ever existed but after being recommended to play/review I thought I might as well give it a try as the price is very cheap for one episode. I started this game with low expectations and at the end of the game all I could say is "BRING ON EPISODE 2" in this review I will tell you why it is that good.



Please go to http://thisgengamereviews.blogspot.com to read the full review

[Kenneloth]

Nice review!

[TGGREVIEWS]

Originally Posted by Kenneloth

Nice review!

Thanks happy to hear you liked it.