Better Half Gaming – The Walking Dead

While this blog was in its gestation period (you’re welcome for the weird image now swimming in your head…), it was only natural that a conversation or two would occur between myself and my girlfriend, Michelle, about video games, and more specifically her gaming experiences growing up.

Having seen Michelle attempting to play the Xbox 360 (she could successfully turn left in Sonic All-Stars Racing – unfortunately she was aiming to go right), it came as no surprise to find that her favourite genre of game was the point-and-click adventure (although I can attest to her superiority over me in Kinect Bowling, something I take very personally). This came in the guise of King’s Quest and Space Quest (neither of which I have played – this shall be remedied) and Monkey Island, although that came with the confession that she had never made it beyond the first screen, but “the graphics looked cool”. Well, I suppose your views on the gameplay in this situation would be fairly limited.

A true classic

I’m ashamed to say that point-and-click adventure games passed me by during my youth, but as it happens I’ve recently been introduced to the genre in its modern form via Xbox Live Arcade through The Walking Dead series. I’m a huge fan of the TV series (and any TV series where the lead actor fools Americans into thinking he is indeed American), so giving this game a go in its episodic format was a bit of a no-brainer. I absolutely loved the game, from the very beginning the story had me hooked and the fact that your decisions had lasting consequences and made a real (and sometimes harrowing) difference was an truly excellent bit of gameplay. Unfortunately my game decided to glitch in the middle of the 3rd episode so I never got to finish it.

My brain began to (very slowly) clunk into motion:

a) I was in the process of starting a gaming blog with a couple of friends, and needed ideas for regular articles

b) My girlfriend wasn’t totally adverse to games – as long as they were point-and-click adventure or something similar

c) I had recently played a point-and-click adventure-esque game and really enjoyed it. Not only that, but I hadn’t finished it and would love to experience the ending, even if it was through someone else.

You’d be surprised how long it took me to get to the obvious conclusion here. But, get to it I did, and so was born the latest series here on Pass the Pad Games – Better Half Gaming (this name will likely change down the line when we come up with something actually approaching a decent name!).

A fantastic example of storytelling in a game

So – Michelle’s MacBook was loaded up with Steam and then The Walking Dead Season 1 was purchased and installed. I’ll be honest, I got jealous watching her play through the first chapter that evening and seeing her get sucked into the story, and it was interesting to see how her decisions in certain situations compared to mine.

An in-depth write-up will follow when Michelle has finished the game (she is currently at the beginning of Chapter 4 out of 5), but as a quick teaser we can summarise:

• Zombies have the ability to jump out and make Michelle shout-out and then look around sheepishly. This alone has made the purchase worthwhile
• The story is interesting and due to the choices you are giving makes you feel involved, thus making you want to continue playing to see what happens next
• The inability to manually save the game is an annoyance, and means you can’t just dip into the game when you have a spare 10 minutes
• While the character interaction is good, sometimes there is just too much talking and not enough actual gameplay
• Duck is a silly name for a child

Who wouldn’t look unhappy with a name like Duck?

So, keep an eye out for the full write-up within the next couple of weeks, and if you have any suggestions for other games then please let us know.

It would also be remiss not to mention a similar series that is happening over at Geek.Sleep.Rinse.Repeat, the opening post of which can be found here. All I can do is say that great minds think alike! I’d thoroughly recommend checking out their site – they’re new like us but already have some excellent stuff up. It will be interesting to compare notes after our respective playthroughs of The Walking Dead.

– David