Telltale’s The Walking Dead is 10 years old this week (welp!) and we’ve been reminiscing on its fantastic post-apocalyptic story. Within a span of just five episodes, players around the world came to love the wholesome father/daughter relationship between survivors Lee and Clementine.
There are a lot of memorable moments from the series, like the (spoilers!) creepy cannibal farm, Lee getting bitten, and don’t even get us started on that ending… great… We’re crying already. Telltale proved itself to be the master of drawing us in with great characters, then hooking us with agonising dilemmas. Just don’t let Clementine eat the meat!
However, an often underrated element of this series is its stellar opener. Within the span of 10 minutes we are introduced to its tone, central character, and gameplay mechanics in a skillful yet simple way. To celebrate its 10th anniversary, we broke down this ominous opener to highlight just how well Telltale can start a story, and you can watch that breakdown over on the Push Square YouTube channel.
Whether it is the vague mentions of a crime, the gradual increase of police presence, or the full-tilt horror second half, there is a lot to be admired about this opener. And without being overly obvious it plants a lot of narrative seeds that will continue to grow across the duration of its five episodes. Let us know down below, what your initial impressions were of this classic back in the day, and if you think it still holds up all these years later.
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Comments 21
Really cool and interesting video, Aaron! Enjoyed watching this one and I do agree — it's a great start to a superb story.
I'm looking forward to seeing games come out of Telltale 2.0!
Telltale’s the Walking Dead was my goty all the way back in 2012. So crazy to realize that game was ten years ago. What a great experience! That was a rough year in gaming for me, feeling that a lot of games let me down, but I came to Telltale’s TWD late because I wasn’t sure about the aesthetic, and it just impressed me at every turn.
The definitive collection of this has been in my backlog for too long!
I enjoyed the first two Walking Dead TT games. I actually ended up buying them on PSV to give it something to do. I was hoping that eventually TT would port their Jurassic Park game to PSV or PS4 but they had some trouble internally. I'm betting the JP port will never happen.
What a coincidence, I just played and beat the first season a day ago and wow this game just hits hard, especially in episode 3 my gawwddd. Can't wait to get into season 2 on the weekend because season 1 reminded me of why I love this franchise and is making me want to rewatch the tv show after falling off it after season 9.
This instantly became one of my all time favorite games. It was the first episodic choice-driven game that I ever played. Some of the choices that you have to make blew me away. It changed video games for me. I probably played the first season 10 times. I would love a fifth season.
Such a tragic tale… and I mean the rise and fall of Telltale, not The Walking Dead story. 😂
Seriously, this game had all kinds of accolades and GOTY nods, and the studio just completely messed the bed with trying to build on that success. I enjoyed their games and have played most of them, but there was definitely poor management of the developer and they ran the thing into the ground.
The first Walking Dead game was great though.
I've played and replayed the first season of Telltale's The Walking Dead so many times, I've practically seen and heard everything the game had to offer, but it's just such an incredibly captivating story, with fantastic characters, a phenomenal soundtrack, and beautifully tugs at the heartstrings, that I honestly don't mind replaying it at least once every year.
Every so often I find myself quoting many scenes from this game, and getting teary-eyed while doing so.
SPOILERS!!!
Just a handful of my favorite moments include:
> Meeting Clementine for the first time
> Choosing who to feed at the Motor Inn
> Having to decide Larry's fate (I always try to save him)
> Lilly kills Carly - Lilly accidently kills Doug attempting to kill Ben
> Chuck's speech about survival
> Ben admits to giving supplies to the bandits
> Getting Kenny to stop the train - Convincing Kenny that isn't responsible for Shawn's death - "There ain't no way this world let's my son live, when I helped put someone else's in the ground"
> Shooting Duck AND the kid in the Attic
> Defending Ben after he admits the truth to Kenny
> Saving Ben
> Lee gets bitten
> Going after Clementine
> Ben stands up to Kenny - "NO! You know how they died. You said goodbye. I-I never got to see my family, my parents, my little sister... DO YOU GET THAT!? Your family's gone BUT at least you had them to lose... I never made it home, they could be alive, or dead, OR WALKERS OR WORSE AND I DON'T KNOW! SO GIVE ME A F@CKING BREAK!!!"
> The confrontation in the Attic
> Lee tells Kenny how Ben wanted to die back in Crawford
> Kenny shoots Ben to spare him from being eaten by Walkers, and sacrifices himself
> Lee's final moments in the Police Station
> That beautiful song 'Take Us Back' that plays during the End Credits
If it's not already been made clear, Telltale's The Walking Dead Season 1 is one of my favorite games of all time, easily worthy of my top ten games of all times list.
And while the other 3 seasons are nowhere near as good as the first season (Season 2 comes close to being almost as good as the first season in MY opinion)... that being said; I still thoroughly enjoyed every season of Telltale's The Walking Dead.
@Th3solution - The problem was that Telltale Games started taking on too many projects at once, they weren't taking their time to write and tell an engaging story on the same level as The Walking Dead, the more projects they took on, the more basic and less interesting they became.
Telltale's The Walking Dead Season 1, Telltale's The Wolf Among Us and Telltale's Tales from the Borderlands will remain the pinnacle of Telltale Games career for me.
I have to say i played it was boring the gameplay didnt interest me enough.
@JustPlainLoco I very much agree. Like I say, the issue was mainly with management. They just took on too much and started churning out products at a clip that was difficult to keep the quality high.
I think I read that they were in bad financial debt or something and so were just having to constantly pump out games to try to catch up financially.
Would love to give this one a go eventually. Total TWD novice here, do I need an understanding of the TV show or anything else to get the most enjoyment out of the games?
@LimitedPower Not at all. I played season 1 of the game without watching any of the show. Later watched some of the show, but never did watch all of it.
You got Zombies. The characters need to learn how to stay alive, so you'll learn along with them. It works just fine as a standalone.
If there are call-outs to the show, then I just missed them. Don't care.
@LimitedPower I've never seen a single episode of the TV show, I've played all of the seasons of TWD and I loved them all.
Tell tale game>>>>>> the walking dead show
I was really into the comics before either projects existed. If the show would have taken the same approach as the game as far as characters. Show might have been amazing.
I always thought I was a real manly man, until I reached the end of the this game.. it broke me 😂😂
The Walking Dead series is one of my favorite games of all time it is just so good. It hooks you in fast and keeps you on the edge of your controller!!!
I loved all the Telltale games (especially TWD games). The first season was the best but they were all good in their own way.
The games came along at just the right time, when the tv show was at its peak and zombie fever was everywhere.
I can hear the haunting music just looking at the picture at the top of the article.
I’ve been rewatching the show recently (currently on season 9). I might have to replay the Telltale games when I’m done.
@Scob
Once you start it, you will wish you had sooner.
One of my fav game series ever. And what a memorable start.
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