The Walking Dead FPS - Activision and Terminal Reality

http://www.destructoid.com/the-walking-dead-survival-instinct-trailer-is-hahaha-242159.phtml

Learn to say Daryl Michael Rooker

It looks like a PS 2 game.

A late gen PS 2 game at that.

It was quietly released onto Steam yesterday. Total Biscuit made a WTF is of the game and noted various problems (both in terms of the PC port and certain gameplay flaws) as well as a few surprisingly good things coming out of it that would have benefited a game with far more dev time than this one had.

I saw it in Walmart today. Kind of surpised at how little fanfare its had. Gonna wait until I hear whether it's any good or not before I get it.

edited 20th Mar '13 7:36:06 PM by Spirit

According to TB in that video above, it's not that good. It's also really short (I hear it's about 3 hours going through the campaign), especially for a $50 game. But there's occasional moments that show the potential of a great survival game that it ultimately does not end up evolving into. Various elements such as the focus on melee weapons for silent kills over firearms that can potentially alert every walker within a few miles, the ability to pick up other survivors and order them to gather resources, secondary objectives, and no regenerating health could have led to a great game if the devs only had more time to flesh it out and add more into it. As TB said, if there's one thing this Walking Dead FPS is not, it's generic.

Honestly it seems like this was almost a very good game. Mechanics wise at least. The melee could stand to be polished, they could use more creative executions, and, from what I hear, there's not enough variation in the side missions.

Where it really seems to fall apart from my perspective is the story. Ignoring the fact that the ending is too sudden and never even has them encounter Shane's group at all, the story seems horribly underwritten. Remember that Total Biscuit video where, after collecting two optional survivors, Daryl didn't have enough room in his truck for everybody. This had the potential to be a sadistic choice that would make Telltale's version look soft in comparison, as you are forced to tell one of these guys that you will be leaving them behind alone. And, how is this difficult decision handled? With a menu screen where you select one and move on without a word! If they'd have given these survivors cutscenes to react to being abandoned, then this game might have had the potential for some real Player Punch moments. And, since I'm sure that Daryl will frequently have to abandon folks due to a lack of space, had they implemented this, the process of selecting survivors would've been absolutely horrifying.

It's a damn shame that more time didn't go into the game. So many interesting ideas...

@Nettacki: That sounds like Project Zomboid for me...

Yatzhee...sorta kinda liked it.

Given the usual assumptions about licenced games turned into FPS and the general buzz of people saying it sucked, I was waiting for the other shoe to drop and it never did.