We at here at GamingShogun.com are huge fans of The Walking Dead, from the comic to the show to the wonderfully executed episodic video game. We have covered how it plays on the XBox 360, we moused around it on the PC and now I got the honor of getting up close and personal with The Walking Dead on the iOS format.
Storyline:
Ok we have pretty much covered this in our other reviews but if you missed them here is a brief summary: you play a man who made some mistakes in his past but has the guts to stand up and be an anti-hero when the dead start to get the munchies. You make hard choices, each with consequences that you second guess yourself on through the rest of the episode. The great thing is you can play it again and make all new choices and have a whole new story. The storyline ties into the television show and the comic book which is quite a trick since they have a few storylines which tie in but mostly they diverge.
Controls:
One of the great beauties of this game is it is an unique experience no matter which format you play it in, the controls and feel are custom to each platform and no more so than the iOS. This isn’t simply a port, the story may be the same but how you do it definitely feels different. For the purposes of testing it I played it on the iPhone, in the dark, after midnight with headphones in. A bit dramatic it may seem but I do love the proper horror experience.
On the iOS everything is touch so if you want to kill that zombie crawling towards your trapped body you have to tap him and where you tap him is where you swing. So if you hit the neck instead of splitting the skull you will find yourself having to do extra swings and if you get tap happy and start tapping like a maniac that is how much you swing the hammer, axe, screwdriver, or ew, possibly your fist. As I said before all your actions have a consequence so you may want to think twice if you are bashing a zombie’s skull into much in front of one of their loved ones. So everything seems a little more personal, closer in this format because of touching where you want to go or what you want to kill.
Gameplay And Atmosphere:
The gameplay is very much the same as the other formats, multiple choices, a choose your own adventure story. Everything is literally point and touch instead of point of click so if you want somebody to stand up you touch above their head, if you want someone to go across the yard you touch where they go. Because you are using one finger to touch you almost feel more like a group leader than a third person controller. You point at a spot on the screen and they go there, you point at a spot to attack and they hit there. It is tactical, adding to the atmosphere created by the visuals and the stereo sound. I think in a lot of ways it may be a better experience because of the extra step of immersion.
Last Rites… err Last Call:
This is a bit of a shorter review but if you have played the other games you already know the story and if you haven’t played any of them I don’t want to give anything away. What I will say is I highly recommend this game in any of the formats but maybe more so in this one. Sure on the Xbox you can see it on a bigger screen, on the PC you can get a decent sized screen and get your face up close to it. On the iPhone or iPad though you can lay on your bed in the dark, the screen up to your face, headphones piping the music and sound right into your skull and you can if you want the dead to stop walking toward you you have to reach out and touch the screen right over their rotting faces and watch your hero strike the blow. You take your finger and point to the targets, point to the victims you save and so your choices feel that much more personal. It doesn’t hurt to play it in the witching hour either.
The Walking Dead Game Debut Trailer:
