The Link Between Story and Gameplay in The Walking Dead
Have many people missed the point concerning the way the story is developed in “The Walking Dead”?
Last year was a great year for dramatic storytelling in games. Telltale Games released the first season of The Walking Dead to critical acclaim, and it went on to win over 80 Game of the Year awards. A graphic adventure game based on the comics and TV series before it, the gameplay itself consists of simple tasks like walking around, having conversations with people where you have a limited amount of time to respond, various context sensitive prompts and quick time events. The real praise was for the story, emotional and engaging, while the gameplay appeared to take somewhat of a backseat.
Clementine may have had something to do with it.
Unfortunately, this aggravated a few people. Certain diehard adventure game fans used to the depth and complexity of games such as Myst and Monkey Island were underwhelmed by the games perceived thin layer of gameplay. All of the puzzles in the game were fairly obvious, and most of the time just required basic common sense to overcome. Oh sure, they loved the story. The story was great. But people going in to the game expecting more depth where the actual gameplay was concerned were left disappointed. These are also the kind of people who had similar problems with games like Indigo Prophecy and Heavy Rain.
No Rubber Chicken With a Pulley in the Middle here.
I heavily disagree with these people. I think that, in The Walking Dead in particular, the gameplay works intrinsically with the story in a very important way. It’s not just simple point & click puzzles that require the bare minimal amount of thought process, but it’s also the choices you make over the course of the game. I’m not just talking about those big choices either, the ones that get read back to you at the end of each episode and tell you what all the other players chose at the crucial moments, I mean the little ones.
During each and every conversation you have with another character, you, as the protagonist Lee Everett, will make an impression on the other characters. You might choose to aid one character over another, or make a decision that some or none of the other characters will agree with. Let’s say you reassure southern family-man Kenny that his son will be OK. Kenny will thank you, and a message will appear in the top left of the screen reading “Kenny will remember that.” The best part is he really does remember it! Your choices, whether they’re the big ones or right on down to the everyday conversation choices, leave the characters involved with a lasting impression of Lee.
Duck thinks I am incredibly awesome.
Other characters opinions and how they react towards you are what make The Walking Dead really, really special. It makes it feel less like a video game and more like a living, breathing world that you’re having a visible effect on. This is actually something else that people managed to complain about, how no matter what you do, what choices you make, you will always end up at the same conclusions at the end of each episode. There is no way to alter the overall story of the game, but what they need to understand is that in regards to the mechanics of the game, the main story isn’t as important as the smaller interactions with the characters. Every form of The Walking Dead is about the characters, not the scenes, not the panels, not the gameplay. The way the characters treat you make you feel like you made a difference. In this way the characters leave more of an impression on you in turn, creating these awesome relationships between player and non-player characters that a different medium such as television couldn’t possibly emulate.
The TV series is REALLY good, though.
So, yes, the gameplay is remarkably shallow if you’re only looking skin-deep. But in actually playing the game and developing your own special relationships with these characters… That’s where the true game lies, and it makes saying goodbye at the end of it all just that much harder to do.
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