~In Too Deep~
Telltale Games are back again, with their adaption of The Walking Dead series, in the form of a point and click adventure game. This isn’t Telltale’s The Walking Dead Season 3, so Lee and Clementine’s story doesn’t continue here, instead this little mini series is about one of Robert Kirkman’s fan favourite characters: Michonne, the badass katana wielding heroine and her untold story as to why she left Rick Grimes’s group and what brought her back. This mini series consists of three episodes and plays the same as Telltale’s previous games, so you’ll feel right at home playing, but if you’re not a fan of anything Telltale this game wont change your mind either.
Episode 1 starts off with Michonne alone wandering around aimlessly, looking a little worse for wear fighting off endless amounts of walkers and contemplating whether to carry on living or to end it all with a bullet to the brain. This is all happening whilst the game shows us flashes of her tragic past life. It’s a fantastic way to help players understand what’s going on and it’s very well done, it’s very clear that Michonne lost her two children during the flashback and this has left her with a dark past. It’s going to be interesting to see how this tragedy will affect her in the upcoming episodes.
Episode 1 is full of action and violence from the start all the way throughout, this is where the game and Michonne come into their own. When Michonne has a piece of steel between her hands, she turns into a killer, with the ability to kill hordes of zombies with ease and precision; the action scenes and choreography are nothing short of amazing to watch. Michonne makes killing walkers look so easy, and because of that and the fact that she’s a big character in the comics and TV show, you never feel tense or in danger at anytime because you know she gets out alive and is very capable of handling herself.
The other part of the game is the point and click side of things, they are well placed in the episode and they help with the pacing of the game, so you never get too much action or dialogue in one place. The point and click segments here are very basic, you can talk to other people, although they don’t have anything interesting to say and come across as boring and flat. You also can look at certain objects and interact with them accordingly. This type of point and click only really serves to help move the plot along. Dialogue choices are here also, but not too many moments where you really need to think what’s the right response or thing to do in the off-chance it affects the outcome of the game. Out of the whole episode I feel only 1 decision I made will have an impact on the next episode, which is disappointing for a game that states the game’s outcomes and story are tailored to how you play and the choices you make.
I’m a big fan of the art style, it looks good and suits the game very well, feels like a comic book has come alive and I get to watch it unfold. But what surprised me the most was that the game ran flawlessly, something I’m not accustomed to when it comes to Telltale Games. I suffered no little hiccups or frame rate issues, and it made my short 2 hour experience with the game so much better. True to her character, Michonne doesn’t talk much but when she does the voice acting is perfect, and although Michonne isn’t voiced by the same person that plays her on TV, Samira Wiley does a great, believable job here.
Everything that happens in Episode 1 of the Michonne mini series is stuff I’ve seen before in Season 1 and 2, there are no surprises, nothing to get you off the edge of your seat. The game plays it very safe by following a tried and tested formula, which is disappointing, and the game feels bland at times because of it. Michonne is a great character and they could have went down so many different directions with the character. Let’s just hope things get better during Episodes 2 and 3, which is the indication with the way Episode 1 finishes.
*Reviewed using a PS4 review code from Telltales Games*