The Squawking Dead: Walking Dead Fan? Buy These Games

If you’re a fan of AMC’s hit TV series, The Walking Dead, you may like Telltale’s The walking Dead games!

Just like the show, the games come in seasons and episodes. The only difference is that the games are totally interactive, and the story adapts to your choices. They fall under the categories “graphic adventure” and “interactive drama”. If you’ve ever read a choose your own adventure book, you might be familiar with this concept. While I love these games and would highly recommend them, I must preface this by warning you that they are rated M for mature, as they include lots of language, cartoon gore, and scary themes.

The Walking Dead games were developed by Telltale and Skybound games. Season one episode one of the game came out on April 24th, 2012 (aka a long time ago). The most recent episode, which is season four episode four, came out on March 26th, 2019. The game has five seasons in total, if you count the side season: Michonne. If you’ve seen the show, you are most likely familiar with this name. We’ll talk more in depth about it later.

Season one of the game starts right before the apocalypse and the main/playable character is Lee Everett. Lee meets a young girl named Clementine when he uses her house to take refuge from the walkers. These two characters and their bond are the focal point of the entire season. Without giving too many spoilers, I will say that season one includes a lot of hard decisions, secrets about peoples’ pasts, and emotional deaths. Season one of The Walking Dead games has five episodes plus a bonus episode called 400 Days, that follows different characters.

In the later seasons, you follow Clementine’s story and watch her grow up. She is the playable character in season two. This season has a pretty sad beginning, and before long Clementine ends up alone. Although she is only 11 by this point, she manages to take care of herself until she finds a new group. This introduces a lot of new characters, as well as conflicts. This season has some really emotional choices to make, and a lot of loss. Season two of The Walking Dead games has five episodes in total.

Season three is very different to the seasons before it. The main playable character in this season is Javier Garcia, a completely new character. The ex pro baseball player already has some family drama on his hands before people start eating each other. The story follows him on his journey to protect his family, and features Clementine as a side character. In this game, her main goal is getting back AJ, the baby of a friend of hers who she has chosen to look after. Season three of the walking dead games has five episodes in total.

Season four: the final season, features Clementine as the main character once again. By this point, she is somewhere from the ages of sixteen to seventeen, and is looking after a child. AJ isn’t related to her by blood, but they might as well be, as the two of them have a tight bond. One of the main points of this season is raising AJ. The choices you make determine how he will turn out and who he will become. As if parenting a child wasn’t hard enough, now you have to do it while fighting zombies, vengeful enemies, and even your own people. Season four of The Walking Dead games has four episodes, but they are much lengthier than episodes in past seasons.

The side season of the game: Michonne, was released in 2016, and is the only thing in the games that has a major focus on a character from the tv series. However, just because you’ve watched the show and think you know Michonne very well, you probably aren’t familiar with this Michonne. In the games, Michonne has a different backstory. In them, she lost two daughters, as opposed to the son she lost in the tv show. Although her story and character are slightly different, she still wields her iconic katana, and uses it frequently. Michonne only has three episodes in total.

Now you may be wondering, how are the tv series and the games connected? Well, for the most part, they’re not. Characters such as Hershel and Shawn Greene, and Glenn only show up in the very beginning of season one. The only character who appears in the games over multiple episodes is Jesus, aside from Michonne of course, who has her own separate game. Paul, or as his friends call him, Jesus, shows up in season three and plays a fairly big role. However, he does not make a return for season four, although I wish he did. Both the tv show and the games start out in Georgia, but Lee’s group and Rick’s group never cross paths.

If you’re looking to buy these games, the good news is that you can get them on many different platforms. They are available on Playstation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, pc, and even android and ios. In the past, you would have to buy each season individually, but luckily enough, on September 10th of 2019, The Walking Dead: The Telltale Definitive Series was released. This is a conglomeration of all seasons of the game, all on one disc! I personally chose to purchase this instead of buying the seasons individually, as it was by far the cheaper option.

I would recommend these games to anyone old enough and mature enough to play them. They make you think hard and evaluate your morals. Many choices in the games are very stressful and  hard to make. But there’s also lots of heartwarming moments and things that make it all feel worthwhile. Melissa Hutchinson, who plays the main character of the series, Clementine, gives an amazing performance in every season, and makes you feel attached to her character. There are lots of characters who you will hate with a burning passion, characters whose deaths will make you mourn, and characters who’ll make you want nothing more than to protect them. There’s over 50 hours of gameplay, and you can always go back, and see how making different choices would change things. These games evoke a lot of emotion in you, as well as tell an amazing story. So, if you’re reading this and you want to experience it all for yourself, what are you waiting for?