The Walking Dead, Episode 3 for OS X review
by on September 1, 2012 at 12:00 pm
Sections: Games, Mac Software
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Genre: Adventure horror
Developer: Telltale Games
System Requirements: Mac OS X v10.6, 2.0GHz processor, 2GB RAM, 2GB hard disk space, 256MB ATI or NVidia video card. Not recommended for Mac minis or early-generation MacBooks.
Review Device: 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo iMac
Price: $24.99 (all five episodes)
Availability: Out now
And here’s where things start to go to hell. The Walking Dead continues to be a fantastic, mature series of adventure games from Telltale. The point-and-click challenges are integrated well with the equally challenging dialogue choices to make a thrilling, if dark, story about a group of people trying to survive the end of civilization.
After overcoming the external challenge from the The Walking Dead, episode 2, episode 3, The Long Road Ahead, sees the group being torn apart by its own actions. By the end, things have changed profoundly, and the only thing that Lee (your character) can rely on is his personal mission to keep the little girl under his protection alive. The truly amazing thing about the series is that all these actions have emotional weight because they’re all realistically motivated. Kenny wants to protect his wife and son at all costs. Lee wants to protect Clementine. Everyone else sticks with the group for safety, but is really looking out for themselves.
And you, as the player, are forced into situations where there is no “right” choice. Indeed, the game deliberately puts you in situations where no matter what you do, someone will feel betrayed or end up dead. To give you an example from early in the game, you see someone about to be eaten by zombies. She’s going to die, you cannot save her. Do you shoot her through the head and put her out of her misery, even though the shot will attract the dead to your location? It completely screws with the standard gaming logic of how to be a hero, because there are no rewards for your choices, only consequences.
Telltale is doing an excellent job maintaining the quality storytelling that’s made this series to great. I can’t wait for the next episode.
Appletell Rating:
Buy The Walking Dead: The Game
Read The Walking Dead, Episode 2 for OS X review
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