The Walking Dead: An Analysis
(This analysis contains spoilers for TellTale’s The Walking Dead Season One. Seriously. This essay will undoubtedly lessen your experience with the game because I ruin some pretty cool moments. Continue at your own risk).
At the end of my first 9 hour run with TellTale’s The Walking Dead I found myself helplessly and irrationally connected with and invested in the game’s dynamic duo: a convicted murderer and a 10-year-old little girl.
Instead of letting players decide the “what,” which often leads to uneven or inconsistent narratives, The Walking Dead lets players pick the “why” and the “how.” The Walking Dead provides players the coloring book and the box of crayons, but how they choose to color in the pages is completely up to them. By adopting this unique approach, TellTale is able to make the most out of the medium and ensures that this kind of experience can’t be had anywhere else.
TellTale’s The Walking Dead is a choice-driven game based on the Robert Kirkman comic book property. Unlike many other games in the choose-your-own-adventure genre, The Walking Dead doesn’t boast about having multiple endings, instead, the game uses the medium to tell everyone the same story while still letting players make choices about the dialogue and actions of the protagonist.
TellTale takes Kirkman’s popular setting and unique approach to the zombie genre and makes it their own by introducing new characters and conflicts. Keeping the allure of the comic books, the game focuses on the drama of people trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic setting instead of working with the trite clichés of the zombie genre. Using Atlanta, Georgia as it’s background, season one of the game follows Lee Everett, a convicted murderer on his way to prison at the time of the zombie out break, as he tries to survive and protect Clementine, a 10-year-old girl he runs into as he’s fleeing from his first zombie encounter. Users play the entirety of the game as Lee as he tries to reunite Clementine with her parents. The Walking Dead immediately left its mark on the video game landscape by setting new levels of excellence in regard to writing and voice acting. Even while suffering from minor technical flaws (frame rate issues, pop in, etc.), the game immediately became an indie darling and set a near defunct studio in a new direction.
Uniquely the Walking Dead was originally released throughout 2012 via five individual downloadable episodes. According to the developers, this allowed them to not only build suspense in the way similar to television, but it also gave them an opportunity to react to statistics they were gathering from decisions players were making in previous episodes. This is one of myriad ways in which The Walking Dead makes the most out of the medium of video games.
While the feeling of connecting with a fictional character and “feeling like you know them” isn’t anything new, in The Walking Dead you don’t just know Lee. You are Lee. While you maneuver through TellTale’s tight narrative, you not only decide what Lee says and does, but you also decide how he does it.
In a scenario where you’re forced to divvy up a small amount of rations amongst a larger group, what will YOUR Lee do? Will he feed the children and appease their parents? Will he feed the elderly man who just suffered a stroke? Will he feed the crew hard at work fortifying defenses? Will he feed himself and Clementine? Whatever your Lee decides to do won’t necessarily change the order of scripted events laid out by TellTale, but it will effect how you and the people around you react to said events. This level of player collaboration and intimacy with a narrative not only increases retention throughout the season, but it also shakes up some of the established rules and norms associated with choice based narratives.
While similar experiences do exist (Quantic Dream’s Heavy Rain, Supermassive Games’ Until Dawn, etc.), they usually engage with a more traditional approach to the Butterfly Effect. A game having definitively different branching paths always seems cool in theory, but more often than not this approach leaves characters feeling disposable and distant. Similarly, this decision also often sacrifices storytelling in order to appease the gimmick, making some branching paths weaker than others, creating uneven experiences among players. TellTale combats both of these downfalls in the genre by setting a straight, solid narrative at the foundation of the game and letting the nuanced decision making be the cherry on top.
The game also makes good use of it’s medium by using gameplay mechanics and player choice to legitimately enhance the narrative. As the game progressed my Lee slowly became more and more compassionate towards Clementine. My Lee decided to open up when Clem asked about his past. My Lee decided to treat Clem with respect and maturity when she asked about death and violence. My Lee decided to be loyal to people who did right by him and Clem, but be cold to loose cannons who looked like they could hurt Clem or I. This was MY Lee. But everyone’s Lee looks a little bit different based on their own unique approach to life.
TellTale’s The Walking Dead would simply be impossible outside of the medium of video games. This level of intimacy, investment, and personal experience could only occur in the medium Telltale decided to deliver their narrative in. The Walking Dead is and can only be a video game, and by committing to (and challenging) the medium, TellTale has forever changed the way we talk about the possibilities and standards of video game narratives.
TellTale being able to share their desired narrative, while also giving players an opportunity at an intimate and personal experience tailored to their version of Lee, allows the game’s themes about consequences, personal responsibility, and relationships feel that much more palpable and impactful.
