An episode of The Walking Dead
A New Day is the first episode of the first season of a five-part series based on the AMC TV series and the original The Walking Dead comic book series. The game is set in the United States at the start of a zombie outbreak. It takes place in the original universe but does not rely on characters or locations from the comic book or the TV series.
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Sağlam ve etkileyici bir başlangıç. Bölüm sonuna kadar ekran başında sizi kendine çekmeyi başarıyor ve ayrıca bölüm sonunda da etkileyici ve meraklandırıcı bir şekildi sizi bir sonraki bölüm için hazırlıyor.
Phenomenal intro to the game, setting up an engaging world full of fun characters, with the ending cliffhanger leaving you craving more.
This review contains spoilers
I've played this episode a million times already, but I kind of wish I never had so I could experience it with a more mature approach than my first dozen times. Not that I'm the most mature now, but certainly more than twelve years ago.
I'm sure I'll be shocked by future statistics as well, but man the stats of this first episode are astounding. It's so easy to accidentally lie to Hershel that I don't know how more than half were honest. I know Duck is annoying, but barely half the people going after him first is insane - though that's the first major timed event, so maybe that's why? How the absolute hell do 46% of people side with Larry instead of Kenny? That guy's a damn maniac. When it comes to giving Irene the gun, I kind of get it. She could have turned it on you, and also you just might not morally agree with what she does, but there was no realistic reason for her to not use it on herself, and poor girl was screwed.
But worst of all how does saving Carley only have 49%? Nah man, she more than proves herself and was the much more interesting character from the get-go. That's just so weird to me.
Hopefully I kick the habit of resetting when I immediately regret clicking a certain option just cause I read the tone wrong especially when it's a character I know dies later anyway!
I'm sure I'll be shocked by future statistics as well, but man the stats of this first episode are astounding. It's so easy to accidentally lie to Hershel that I don't know how more than half were honest. I know Duck is annoying, but barely half the people going after him first is insane - though that's the first major timed event, so maybe that's why? How the absolute hell do 46% of people side with Larry instead of Kenny? That guy's a damn maniac. When it comes to giving Irene the gun, I kind of get it. She could have turned it on you, and also you just might not morally agree with what she does, but there was no realistic reason for her to not use it on herself, and poor girl was screwed.
But worst of all how does saving Carley only have 49%? Nah man, she more than proves herself and was the much more interesting character from the get-go. That's just so weird to me.
Hopefully I kick the habit of resetting when I immediately regret clicking a certain option just cause I read the tone wrong especially when it's a character I know dies later anyway!
worth noting that I'm replaying this for the first time in, like, 6 years and experiencing this as the definitive series version on steam deck, so any thoughts relating to experiencing the game beyond story and writing will be saved for that one big log. also gonna be spoiling!!
but man, despite remembering every single beat of this I'm kinda taken aback by how good it holds up. characterisation is insanely good; Lee, Larry, Carley, Kenny, Lily, all feel like such strong, deep characters already -- all performed incredibly well and carry a lot of weight. I like just about everybody anyways, but there's some genuinely impressive stuff between these guys.
the decision to deal with a suicidal woman does feel like it has a real emotional impact to it -- one of the dialogue options being "God bless you"? it's just sad. really easy to empathise with Lee and his family situation too, I dunno, that kinda thing just has gravity now that I'm not a dumb teenager.
it's still a little labourious, I do dislike how anti-streamlined this is to get through for someone replaying it, with the pre-pharmacy stuff really feeling like an introductory running on a tad too long, but it's definitely worth it overall. excited to see how I find the rest of season one now.
but man, despite remembering every single beat of this I'm kinda taken aback by how good it holds up. characterisation is insanely good; Lee, Larry, Carley, Kenny, Lily, all feel like such strong, deep characters already -- all performed incredibly well and carry a lot of weight. I like just about everybody anyways, but there's some genuinely impressive stuff between these guys.
the decision to deal with a suicidal woman does feel like it has a real emotional impact to it -- one of the dialogue options being "God bless you"? it's just sad. really easy to empathise with Lee and his family situation too, I dunno, that kinda thing just has gravity now that I'm not a dumb teenager.
it's still a little labourious, I do dislike how anti-streamlined this is to get through for someone replaying it, with the pre-pharmacy stuff really feeling like an introductory running on a tad too long, but it's definitely worth it overall. excited to see how I find the rest of season one now.
À part un chapitre 1 assez décevant et des "faux choix importants" durant toute l'aventure, on est quand même pris dedans et ça marche. A toujours une des fins les plus brise-cœur de tous les temps.
The Walking Dead Episode 1: A New Day is the perfect Telltale Games episode. The story here is great, characters and voice acting is excellent, gameplay is fun and there are some creative sequences and the choices are brutal. The technical side holds it from being a masterpiece as it has more than a few problems especially in animations but it's still an incredible experience no matter what. One of the strongest starts to an episodic game, ever.
The Full Review(No Spoilers):
Every End Is A Beginning
I am a huge Telltale fan, let's start with that so you know where I approach this game from. And I of course played The Walking Dead, multiple times. However, it has been a good while since I last played it. At least 5 years, maybe more. So I wanted to replay it and review all the episodes. Let's start with the first one today.
The Walking Dead's story starts with a man in a police car. Lee Everett. Why is he on the police car? What did he do? Who is he? Those are questions I will leave you to figure out in game. But as you can imagine, things quickly gets wrong as the zombies starts to become a global threat and our man Lee meets with a young girl with no sight of her parents.
Throughout it's 2 hour long time, The Walking Dead Episode 1's story will make you feel a long list of different emotions. Writer Sean Vanaman did a great job managing to pace everything in this episode accordingly. It never gets boring, never stops inventing.
Another big factor in that equation is obviously the characters and the performances. Dave Fennoy voices our main character Lee and he is just incredible. As this is a choice based game, he had to go through a lot of different Lee iterations clearly and his performance was consistently great in all the lines of him that I heard.
Melissa Hutchison's Clementine is also a delight. Having young girls as sidekicks are kind of popular in all entertainment sectors right now but Clementine manages to differentiate herself thanks to her not being a "damsel in distress". She is also not a cry baby or opposes everything your main character does. She is a kid so she doesn't understand everything that goes around her.
But if you tell her the truth and let her see things from your perspective, she will have your back in her own childish way as well. Now, let's talk about the gameplay a little bit.
If you don't know, Telltale's games are actually more like interactive movies. In the game, you will mostly talk to people and make dialogue choices. Explore areas and sometimes solve puzzles. Finally, you will do QTE sequences.
Even in this first episode, some of the choices are incredibly hard. And they actually change somethings. There are choices where you will determine who lives and who dies. Some of them are obviously on the smaller scale. But still impacts your relationship with other characters. They change dialogues and some interactions. You can't alter the entire course of the story but through some smaller and a few big choices, you make the story your own.
There are also a couple of exploration moments. Especially in the second half of the episode, you are given the freedom to explore a drug store and it's basically a mini Resident Evil mansion. You will have to find items to solve some of the problems and those will give you other items to solve other problems, eventually leading you to the end of that sequence.
But there is not only the main path. There are a few side tasks as well that let's you learn more about the side characters and do some more tough choices. It also leads to the best sequence of the entire episode. I don't want to spoil anything so I will just say that it's a puzzle sequence that feels like an action sequence. Involving a motel, someone in need and a few zombies.
Finally, the QTE's. They are QTE's and as someone who likes them, I liked these as well. They aren't used too too often as the game is more interested in dialogue sequences compared to action sequences. So even if you hate them, I think you will be ok with them here.
The biggest issue of the game is in the technical side. While the graphics still looks good, the engine is old. It was old back then as well, it's older now. Animation quality is cheap, your main character stutters sometimes when the camera doesn't track him well enough. Camera cuts also stutters. It doesn't destroy the good of this episode but it certainly deals a huge blow.
The Walking Dead Episode 1: A New Day is the perfect Telltale Games episode. The story here is great, characters and voice acting is excellent, gameplay is fun and there are some creative sequences and the choices are brutal. The technical side holds it from being a masterpiece as it has more than a few problems especially in animations but it's still an incredible experience no matter what. One of the strongest starts to an episodic game, ever.
The Full Review(No Spoilers):
Every End Is A Beginning
I am a huge Telltale fan, let's start with that so you know where I approach this game from. And I of course played The Walking Dead, multiple times. However, it has been a good while since I last played it. At least 5 years, maybe more. So I wanted to replay it and review all the episodes. Let's start with the first one today.
The Walking Dead's story starts with a man in a police car. Lee Everett. Why is he on the police car? What did he do? Who is he? Those are questions I will leave you to figure out in game. But as you can imagine, things quickly gets wrong as the zombies starts to become a global threat and our man Lee meets with a young girl with no sight of her parents.
Throughout it's 2 hour long time, The Walking Dead Episode 1's story will make you feel a long list of different emotions. Writer Sean Vanaman did a great job managing to pace everything in this episode accordingly. It never gets boring, never stops inventing.
Another big factor in that equation is obviously the characters and the performances. Dave Fennoy voices our main character Lee and he is just incredible. As this is a choice based game, he had to go through a lot of different Lee iterations clearly and his performance was consistently great in all the lines of him that I heard.
Melissa Hutchison's Clementine is also a delight. Having young girls as sidekicks are kind of popular in all entertainment sectors right now but Clementine manages to differentiate herself thanks to her not being a "damsel in distress". She is also not a cry baby or opposes everything your main character does. She is a kid so she doesn't understand everything that goes around her.
But if you tell her the truth and let her see things from your perspective, she will have your back in her own childish way as well. Now, let's talk about the gameplay a little bit.
If you don't know, Telltale's games are actually more like interactive movies. In the game, you will mostly talk to people and make dialogue choices. Explore areas and sometimes solve puzzles. Finally, you will do QTE sequences.
Even in this first episode, some of the choices are incredibly hard. And they actually change somethings. There are choices where you will determine who lives and who dies. Some of them are obviously on the smaller scale. But still impacts your relationship with other characters. They change dialogues and some interactions. You can't alter the entire course of the story but through some smaller and a few big choices, you make the story your own.
There are also a couple of exploration moments. Especially in the second half of the episode, you are given the freedom to explore a drug store and it's basically a mini Resident Evil mansion. You will have to find items to solve some of the problems and those will give you other items to solve other problems, eventually leading you to the end of that sequence.
But there is not only the main path. There are a few side tasks as well that let's you learn more about the side characters and do some more tough choices. It also leads to the best sequence of the entire episode. I don't want to spoil anything so I will just say that it's a puzzle sequence that feels like an action sequence. Involving a motel, someone in need and a few zombies.
Finally, the QTE's. They are QTE's and as someone who likes them, I liked these as well. They aren't used too too often as the game is more interested in dialogue sequences compared to action sequences. So even if you hate them, I think you will be ok with them here.
The biggest issue of the game is in the technical side. While the graphics still looks good, the engine is old. It was old back then as well, it's older now. Animation quality is cheap, your main character stutters sometimes when the camera doesn't track him well enough. Camera cuts also stutters. It doesn't destroy the good of this episode but it certainly deals a huge blow.
The Walking Dead Episode 1: A New Day is the perfect Telltale Games episode. The story here is great, characters and voice acting is excellent, gameplay is fun and there are some creative sequences and the choices are brutal. The technical side holds it from being a masterpiece as it has more than a few problems especially in animations but it's still an incredible experience no matter what. One of the strongest starts to an episodic game, ever.