Game World: The Walking Dead

For the 2013 game based on The Walking Dead television series, see The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct.

The Walking Dead

Developer(s)	Telltale Games
Publisher(s)	Telltale Games
Designer(s)	Jake Rodkin Sean Vanaman
Writer(s)	Sean Vanaman Mark Darin Gary Whitta

Releases Date-nov21-2012

Point-and-click adventure, role-playing Mode(s)

Single-player (Third-person view)

The Walking Dead (also known as The Walking Dead: The Game) is an episodic point-and-click adventure role-playing video game, based on Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead comic book series, for iOS, Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The game was developed by Telltale Games. The Walking Dead was planned to be released in the last months of 2011 but due to the production and development of the project, the game was held back to early 2012. The game consists of five episodes, with the first episode released in April 2012 across all platforms with the exception of the iOS version.
In addition, some characters from the original comic book series make appearances in-game, including Hershel Greene, Glenn, and Lilly Caul. Players meet them before the plot in the comic book begins to take place.
On July 6, 2012, Telltale announced that a second season will follow the initial five-episode series.

Gameplay

The Walking Dead is a point-and-click adventure game, played from a third-person perspective. The player can examine and interact with characters and items. The player must make use of inventory items and the environment; the player character often has limited time to do so and can die in the process. Quick time events are used for particular action scenes. The game also features role-playing elements, including moral decisions, which have consequences in relationships with other characters.

The game is told from the point of view of a new character named Lee Everett. Kirkman has said that, unlike typical zombie games such as Left 4 Dead, it will focus more on characterization and emotion than action.

Episodes

The game will be released in five episodes. Episode 1 was released the week of April 24, 2012, Episode 2 was released the week of June 27, 2012, while Episode 3 was released on August 28, 2012 for PSN, and August 29, 2012 for XBLA, PC and Mac. Shortly after the third episode was released, it was announced that the game would be available in disc format at the end of the season. For the iOS release, the episodes can be pre-ordered and a 25% discount on all episodes combined or they can be purchased individually when they become available for download. Episode 4 was released on the 9th of October 2012 for PS3 and the 10th for the XBLA and PC/Mac. Telltale have also announced that a full retail version of all five episodes will be available for consoles from December 4.

Characters

Numerous characters appear throughout the game. Lee Everett (voiced by Dave Fennoy), the primary protagonist of the series, is a native of Macon and a former university professor convicted for killing a state senator sleeping with his wife. Lee eventually finds and becomes a father figure to Clementine (voiced by Melissa Hutchinson), a young first grader. Lee and Clementine encounter a family from Fort Lauderdale, Florida including Kenny (voiced by Gavin Hammon), a fisherman who prioritizes his family;Katjaa, Kenny's wife of Belgian descent who works as a veterinarian (voiced by Cissy Jones); and Kenny Jr., most commonly known as "Duck", is Kenny and Katjaa's son. The five join a survivor group led by Lilly Caul (voiced by Nicki Rapp), a woman formerly stationed on the Robins Air Force Base, and one of the characters that has also appeared in the comic series. Lilly's group consists of multiple survivors, consisting of: Larry (voiced by Terry McGovern), Lilly's aggressive and judgmental yet well-intentioned father and retired Army commander who knows Lee's past;Carley (voiced by Nicole Vigil) a quick-thinking regional news reporter who is also aware of Lee's crimes; Doug (voiced by Sam Joan), a resourceful and logical information systems technician;and Glenn (voiced by Nick Herman), a former pizza delivery boy who also originates from the comic series. In the second episode, two more survivors join the group: Mark (voiced by Mark Middleton), a survivor who used to work at the Air Force; and Ben Paul (voiced by Trevor Hoffman), a high school student rescued by Lee, Mark and Kenny, who reveals an integral part of the game's story. In Episode 3, "Long Road Ahead," more characters are introduced, Chuck and a young couple named Omid and Christa. Chuck is a level-headed homeless man who lived in a boxcar of the train. He joins the main group. Episode 4, "Around Every Corner," like Episode 3, introduces more characters: Molly, an ex citizen of a survivalist town called Crawford who carries an ice ax that she names Hilda, and Vernon, a doctor and leader of a group of cancer survivors hiding in the morgue of a hospital.

Plot

Due to choices that the player can make, some details of the game's plot may change.

Episode 1: A New Day

Lee is being transported from Atlanta to prison by a local sheriff when the cruiser strikes a zombie in the road and crashes. Lee escapes the wreck, but is forced to fight off the officer when he reanimates. Injured and requiring help, Lee searches a suburban home of Clementine, a young girl alone save from her now-zombified babysitter; after killing the zombie and learning her parents left for Savannah, Georgia before the outbreak, Lee decides to care for her. The two meet up with Shawn Greene and his friend, and are offered protection at the farmstead home of his father Hershel. There, they meet Kenny, Katjaa, and "Duck". During an accident caused by Duck, Shawn is killed by walkers, and Hershel banishes Lee, Clementine, and Kenny's family from the farm.

Reaching Macon, Lee's hometown, Kenny's truck runs out of gas, forcing them to take shelter in a drugstore with other survivors: Lilly, Larry, Carley, Doug, and Glenn. Lee quickly recognizes the drugstore as his family's, but hides this from the group. When Larry suffers a heart attack during an argument, Lee is forced to kill his own undead brother for his keys to the store pharmacy; accidentally setting off the alarm, the store is attacked by walkers from outside, and the group is forced to flee. During the escape, Lee is forced to rescue either Doug or Carley, with the other being overrun and killed. The group takes shelter at a local motel they believe is defensible. Glenn decides to set off on his own to find his friends in Atlanta. As the remaining group take confidence they are safe, the power to the motel and surrounding area shuts off.

Episode 2: Starved for Help

Three months later, the survivors are still at the motel, food is scarce, and the survivors have been joined by Mark. When Lee and Mark are hunting, they come across high-schoolers Ben and Travis, and their teacher David. When Travis and David die following an attempt to rescue David from a bear trap, Ben reveals that being bitten is not required to become a walker; anyone who dies with an intact brain comes back as a walker.

Brothers Andrew and Danny St. John arrive from a nearby dairy farm, and offer food and shelter in exchange for gasoline for their generators that power their electric fence. The group accepts though remain uneasy about them. Helping the St. Johns maintain their farm, Mark is hit by an arrow from a group of bandits attacking the farm, and Brenda, the family mother, takes him into the house for medical treatment. Lee goes with Danny to find the bandit camp, but instead come across a crazed woman named Jolene; she appears to know something about the farm, but is killed by Danny or Lee before she reveals it. Lee finds a video camera among her possessions, but it requires batteries.
Still uneasy about the farm, Lee and Kenny discover a butchering room in the back of the barn, and, when called for dinner, Lee excuses himself to look for Mark upstairs, and finds him near death with his legs cut off. He warns the others that the St. Johns practice cannibalism, but the family overpowers and separates them. In the barn meat freezer, Larry suffers a heart attack, and, fearing Larry will become a walker, Kenny crushes his head with a salt lick. Clementine helps their escape, and, as walkers begin to overrun the farm, the group overpowers the St. Johns. With Brenda killed by a now-undead Mark, Lee can either kill the brothers or leave them to their fate.

On the way back, the group finds an abandoned car, from which they take food and other supplies, including batteries. Lee watches the video from Jolene's player, and finds she had been watching the motel, knowing that the group was safe as long as the St. Johns maintained their deal with the bandits.

Episode 3: Long Road Ahead

Without the St. Johns, the group realizes bandits will turn their attention to the motel, and Kenny expresses an urge to move on using an RV he has fixed up. Through Lilly, Lee discovers someone has been slipping the bandits medical supplies to keep them from attacking; before Lee can determine the culprit, the bandits attack, followed by a horde of Walkers. The group flee in the RV, and Katjaa quietly reports to Lee that Duck has been bitten by a Walker.

Lilly, furious over the theft, accuses others of the theft, and instigates an argument. The argument ends with Doug/Carley dead, and the player has the option of leaving Lilly behind or taking her to punish later. They find the road ahead blocked by a train, which is inhabited by homeless survivor Chuck. Lee and Kenny look at how to move the train; if the player kept Lilly with the group, she flees from the others in the RV. Eventually they find the train still in usable shape and heading towards Savannah, where Kenny assures they can find a boat to flee the mainland.

Discussing the bandit attack, Ben confides with Lee he was contacting and supplying the bandits, and thus indirectly responsible for the attack. En route, Duck's condition worsens, and Lee convinces Kenny to stop the train to deal with him. Katjaa, under the guise of saying goodbye to Duck, leads him into the forest only to kill herself. Lee decides if he or Kenny should shoot Duck. After a brief mourning, they continue the train towards Savannah.

When a flammable tanker hanging from an overpass blocks the train, they encounter the couple Omid and Christa from San Francisco, who help to clear the blockage and offer to join them. When a horde of Walkers following the train begins to catch up, the group is forced to flee, only for Omid to injure his leg in the process. As the train nears Savannah, Lee and Kenny discover Clementine's apparently broken walkie-talkie works when a voice on the other end, aware of the actions of the group, attempts to contact her.

Episode 4: Around Every Corner

Reaching Savannah, the group heads for the river to find a boat. When an unseen figure rings a church bell, Ben panics and leaves Clementine when walkers approach, causing Chuck to be separated from the group saving her. Lee, Clementine, Kenny, Ben, Omid and Christa reach an empty mansion, entering by digging up a buried dog and unlocking a pet door with its chipped collar. Finding a malnourished walker who resembles Duck, Lee decides if he or Kenny should kill the walker, and while Lee buries the walker with the exhumed dog, he notices someone watching him.
Lee and Kenny head for the waterfront, when another church-bell goes off, luring the walkers away. Looking for a working boat, Lee spots a figure climbing down from a building. Lee approaches and fights with the stranger, until Clementine appears and stops the fight. Introducing herself as Molly, the stranger explains she rings the bells to draw the walkers away. Molly also warns of Crawford: a para-militant, Social Darwinist community. When walkers are drawn to a misfired shot by Kenny, the group splits up and Lee escapes into the sewers alone. After finding Chuck's remains, Lee soon discovers a hidden community of cancer survivors hiding from Crawford's soldiers. He is greeted by Vernon and Brie, the former being a doctor whom Lee convinces to give medical attention to Omid.
Back at the house, Lee and Clementine discover a shed containing a boat. Requiring gasoline and a battery to work, and with Omid urgently requiring antibiotics, the group — along with Vernon and Brie — to head for Crawford. After realizing that Crawford is overrun by walkers, the group hides in an old school, where they find most of the supplies they need. Lee soon discovers Anna, a patient forced to terminate her pregnancy, attacked and killed her doctor, unintentionally causing the outbreak in Crawford.

Trying to help Kenny, Ben removes a hatchet blocking the school main doors, allowing a horde of walkers inside; if Lee fails to save Molly and did not allow Clementine to come, Molly is separated from the group and forced to flee, leaving her fate ambiguous. Ben finally admits to Kenny that he indirectly killed Duck and Katjaa through supplying the bandits, deeply angering Kenny. Brie is devoured by the walkers as the group escapes through the armory door and up the school's bell tower. Ben is grabbed by a walker hanged on the bell, but is grabbed by Lee before he falls over the edge; Lee can either let him go (as Ben tells him to) or save him.

After making it back to the house, Vernon gives Omid the medicine, and offers to take care of Clementine, where he claims she will be safer than with Lee. If Molly was saved, she decides to leave the group and says goodbye. When Lee awakes the next morning, he finds Clementine gone, and discovers Clementine's hat and walkie-talkie lying outside. While reaching for the latter, Lee is bitten by a walker before killing it. Either showing or concealing the bite from the group, the player's previous decisions and attitudes towards Kenny, Omid, Christa, and Ben (if alive) determine who will help Lee search for Clementine; alternatively, the player can insist on going alone. Believing Vernon has taken her, the group searches Vernon's shelter but finds it empty.

Clementine and the man contacting her are then heard over the walkie-talkie, revealing that the man has Clementine and is not Vernon. The man warns Lee to "choose his next words carefully", and the episode ends before Lee responds.

Episode 5: No Time Left

Lee continues to speak with the stranger, who claims he hasn't stolen Clementine, but rescued her from Lee. Lee collapses from his bite, and can choose to have his infected arm amputated in an attempt to prevent the infection spreading. Returning to the mansion, the group finds Vernon's crew has stolen the boat, causing an argument; if Ben was saved, Kenny finally forgives him following an outburst. Making a stand against an incoming horde (among them being a zombified Brie), the survivors try to hold the mansion, and are ultimately forced to hide in the attic. Contacted briefly by Clementine, Lee learns she is at the Marsh House Hotel, where her parents were staying.

Breaking through to a neighboring house, the group jumps from a balcony to a rooftop. If Ben was saved in the previous episode, the balcony collapses and Ben is impaled, before walkers begin surrounding them; Kenny forces Lee to run, and, refusing to leave Ben, uses his last bullet to euthanize him as they are overrun. If Ben was killed in Episode 4, Kenny sacrifices himself by helping Christa retrieve Clementine's walkie-talkie, before he is presumably devoured by walkers.
With only Omid, Christa, and Lee remaining, the trio reach the coast and attempt to cross rooftops over a sign; however Lee is separated from them, and tells them to either return to the train, find a boat, or meet back together to help save Clementine. Fighting through walkers in the street, Lee reaches the Marsh House Hotel, where Lee meets Clementine's captor. Revealing himself as the owner of the station wagon seen at the end of Episode 2, he explains how, upon finding their supplies stolen, his wife left only to be killed by walkers. The man then lists the player's choices over the course of the game, explaining how Lee's actions make him a monster, and how Clementine is safer if he kills Lee; as they are talking, Clementine quietly escapes her locked room, giving Lee the option to either attack the man, or allow Clementine to attack and distract him. Strangling the stranger, Lee can choose whether to shoot him to prevent reanimation, or to leave him to reanimate as a walker. If Lee is overtaken by the stranger, however, Clementine shoots him, saving Lee.

Reunited with Clementine, Lee is ambushed by a walker, only to be ignored as he is covered in walker blood from when he fought to the hotel. Realizing it disguises him, Lee guts the walker and covers Clementine in its blood, allowing them to safely leave. As Clementine spots her undead parents, Lee collapses from his ailments, forcing Clementine to drag him into a storage facility. Close to death, Lee explains to Clementine he is dying, and will soon become a walker. Too fatigued to walk, Lee instructs her on killing a trapped walker and finding another escape route, and makes her handcuff him to a radiator. Lee imparts advice with Clementine and says goodbye; depending on the player's choice, the game then ends with Clementine shooting Lee, or leaving him to reanimate.
During an epilogue, a distraught Clementine walks through the countryside, and stops to rest on a log. Noticing two silhouetted figures (implied to be Christa and Omid) walking in the far distance, they notice her as she stands, only for the game to end as Clementine decides between calling out or remaining quiet.

Development

The character of Doug is based on Doug Tabacco, a former employee of Telltale Games. He is one of the characters whose fate depends on the actions of the player. His inclusion in the game was used in early advertisements to promote Telltale's pre-order contest where Telltale would pick people who pre-ordered the game from their website to become human and/or zombie characters in the game.