I’m a huge fan of The Walking Dead, both the TV series and the Telltale games so for me it was a no brainer that I would get this day one especially since it involves one of my favorite characters from the series Michonne. I know Telltale has been screwing things up lately, but I figured this is a Walking Dead game, which they’ve done brilliantly in the past, how could they screw it up? Keep reading to see what I thought of the episode as a whole.
The series starts with Michonne being on her own. She wasn’t able to save her two children and is basically thinking that she has to pay for this, that is until she finds Pete. She’ll join Pete and his merry band of misfits who have such a small part in this episode, it’s ridiculous to even try to learn their names. They all live happily on a boat, but quickly run into some trouble that leads Michonne and Pete into even more trouble. Michonne and Pete will be accused of stealing and brought into a boating community lead by Stormin’ Norma, who reminded me of Brenda from The Walking Dead Season 1 – Episode 2, and her brother Randall. Both of these characters were a little creepy to begin with (in a Jamie and Cersei Lannister type of way) and they rule their community with an iron fist. Michonne and Pete will have to pay for mistakes that they didn’t even make, but for someone that stole from Norma and Randall’s community did. The whole thing seems a little off to begin with and not really all that creative, but as with any Telltale game you’ll have to make tough decisions and they should have some impact on the rest of the game. The key word here is should.
Kudos: As much as I love Danai Gurira as Michonne in The Walking Dead, I thought that Samira Wiley (who is amazing in Orange is the New Black) does an amazing job as a voice actor for this series. She does justice to the role of Michonne and is one of the highlights of the episode, if not the series as a whole.
I went into this episode with an open mind after all the trouble that I had with Telltale games the past couple of times (Game of Thrones and Minecraft), but this episode just made me think that maybe the days of Telltale actually making something good is done. This episode was just plain boring and lacking any kind of remotely interesting story that holds onto the players and makes them want to keep playing. This makes me sad, because Telltale used to be such good storytellers and now it’s the same old song and dance with each game. By the end of the episode, I was just glad that it was over and I’m really not that eager for the next episode.
It’s not a Telltale game without some kind of problems, and this game was not free of them. Seriously Telltale? FIX THE PROBLEMS WITH YOUR GAMES! Not even two minutes in and the game completely froze, knocked me out of the game and I had to start all over again. Not to mention that the loading times are still taking longer than they should for such a small and simple game and there were a bunch of texture problems throughout the game. These problems are beyond annoying now and I really can’t ignore them anymore.
The graphics for this game were up to par with The Walking Dead Season 1 and Season 2 graphics so there were really no complaints. The game looked like it came exactly from the comic books, and this is something that Telltale does well. I really didn’t expect much of a change graphic wise going into this game and I was fine with that.
There are a total of 7 trophies for this episode and a complete total of 24 for the series as a whole. All you have to do to get the trophies is just play the game. If you can even do that without falling asleep. Anyway, it’s an easy trophy list, but like I always say you should play a game for the game and not for the easy trophies because where’s the fun in that?
Boo! How unimaginative and uncreative are these trophy images? It’s like they said, “well there are seven trophies for each episode…so let’s just number them one through seven for each episode. BOOM! We’re done.” Seriously? When small details like this go overlooked, it makes me wonder about the game as a whole.
As always, no multiplayer, and we can all breathe a collective sigh of relief because the images of how bad multiplayer would be in a Telltale game are horrifying.
Overall I give this episode a 2 out of 5
What’s Great:
+ Samira Wiley does an amazing job as the voice of Michonne and gives life to the character outside of the TV series.
+ This episode showcases a more vulnerable side of Michonne that isn’t all that often seen making her a strong character.
What’s Not So Great:
– Stale storyline that is not interesting at all and really does no justice to The Walking Dead brand that Telltale has developed.
– A weak secondary cast that you really won’t care about at all.
– Loading problems, texture issues, stalling that causes the game to shut off and need to be restarted (not the things you want to happen while trying to get into playing a game.)
I’m glad this is only a three episode thing, because I’m not sure that this game could even last the full five episodes that is usually given to Telltale games. This is definitely a weak episode which looks like it’s going to turn into a weak game overall. I’m not looking forward to the episodes to come, but I will be glad when the game is over especially if the final two episodes are anything like the first. If you haven’t purchased this game yet, I would advise you to hold off and wait for a sale if you absolutely have to play it.
SPOILERS! Below are the choices that I made for the first episode.
1 Broke Gamer Girl 