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| Plants vs Zombies vs Some Moody Humans |
At this point, you'd have to be pretty far removed from society to be unaware of The Walking Dead in one form or another. Robert Kirkman's Eisnar Award-winning zombie comic series, thanks in no small part to AMC's hugely successful TV adaptation, has quickly become the most popular go-to source for post-apocalyptic fiction fans worldwide. The question of whether or not the slower-paced, character-driven nature of The Walking Dead's universe could translate to a video game began to be posed, and Telltale stepped up to answer. Thus came the first in a line of episodic adventure games. Or, maybe action adventure? Then again, there's an awful lot of dialogue too, but there aren't really many puzzles. So, I'd say what we've got here is a Role-Playing, Action Adventure, Post-Apocalyptic Interactive Story. Thank heaven for sub-genres, eh?
Yes, I did say "Interactive Story" and no that shouldn't be read as "This isn't a video game", it should simply serve as a note of guidance regarding the real nature of this title. A New Day has almost everything you could expect from the recent line of action-oriented Telltale adventures, and for anyone unfamiliar, allow me to break it down; the game is completely driven by its story. It endeavours to present you with superb writing, well-developed characters, and a captivating narrative, and expects these to be your primary motivators, your reasons to see the game through to the end. This game is its story. It's a story that can play out in all sorts of ways, depending on you, your decisions and the actions you take. Yes, our old friend "Moral Choice" makes yet another somewhat indifferent guest appearance on this particular episode, naturally his buddy "Branching Storyline" stars alongside him. Many, Telltale included, have touted the game's huge sense of choice and consequence, and while we'll have to wait a little while to see how these choices really affect how things play out in the long run, there's plenty of reason for any fans of moral dilemmas to get excited. Without spoiling anything, there are no less than five major decisions throughout the first episode, by which I mean choices that impressively impact the way it unfolds, and encourage a great deal of replayability for those who want to see the various paths the story can take. Replaying the game is probably something you'll want to do, especially if you want to see some value for your purchase, since it's only around ninety minutes long, if you take your time.
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| The chunky outline art-style is heavily-inspired by the comic, and looks wonderful in motion |
Impressively, A New Day's choice and consequence system extends beyond those major decisions. Almost every action you take and nearly everything you say seems to have an effect one way or another. Be hostile to those you meet, and perhaps they'll be less inclined to help you. Ask how a guy's family are doing, and he'll remember that you took an interest. It's hard to really say how much each individual line of dialogue truly affects proceedings, but the game does a decent job of making you choose your words carefully, allowing you to incite both friendship and enmity in those you meet depending on the things you say, and the way in which you conduct yourself. For now, we can only hope that Telltale make good on their promises and truly do reward players with some genuine repercussions in later episodes. If the first is anything to go by, we can certainly indulge in a little optimism for the future.
Choice is all well and good, but there's something far more important that must always go hand-in-hand with it, a question you have to ask yourself any time one of these opportunities presents itself and you, as an embodier of a role, as a director of the action, or simply as a guy or girl playing a video game, must answer the question, "Do I care?" It's not hard for games to force us to make choices, we make them all the time, "Should I pick up this shotgun?" "Shall I fight as Ryu or Ken?" "Man City or Barcelona?" "Squirtle or Charmander?" Choice is everywhere in video games--albeit presented in very different ways--but making us care about the choice enough to pause for thought, giving us a compulsion to deliberate over our actions and consider their consequences; that's the tricky part. I'm happy to say that, at least from a personal perspective, A New Day gets more right than wrong, but results and impressions will naturally vary from player to player. It's an entirely subjective matter and will depend solely on how well you can resonate with the characters, how much you care about the story, and the mindset with which you approach the game. It's clear to see that your choices will have visible, tangible effects in the world, and if that's enough to compel you then you'll enjoy this game. If you're one of those who require something more, you might find it a little trickier to engage with A New Day. The story isn't exceptionally well-written, most of the characters never really have the space to develop since there are simply too many of them and not enough time to know them all. Plus, well, you're part of a fractured group of survivors in a zombie-ridden world; the nature of this genre, combined with the universe in which the game is set, coerce the plot in a very obvious direction along a well-worn path. Thus, the choices you must make are predictable, and you can expect very few surprises from A New Day.
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| So, this is pretty cool right here |
As I said before, this game is its story, thus I won't spoil any of it here. Suffice it to say that this is fairly traditional zombie fare, or to be even more specific, this feels like an episode pulled straight from the TV show. Not one of the most memorable or impactful ones unfortunately, and considering its relatively short run-time, it's almost baffling how the episode manages to feel so cluttered, as though one too many zombie clichés have been crammed in. I can appreciate Telltale's willingness to draw-in players with this opener for the series, and demonstrate their moral choice system as much as possible, but perhaps they were a little overeager. It saddens me to say the game reached a point where I couldn't help but bemoan the lack of originality, as I stumbled into yet another of those tired scenarios you can find in virtually every zombie movie ever made. These scenes are clearly meant to have an emotional impact, but by the later stages of the game, it's hard to really care about things you've seen done much better elsewhere many times before. The genre naturally places limits on drama; there are only so many situations writers can conceive in such circumstances, A New Day conclusively proves this concept with an almost embarrassingly "zombie by numbers" plot. However, that's not to say the story isn't without its merits. Your character meets a little girl very early on in the game, and the relationship the pair share serves as a fine emotional hook to drive the plot along, and is easily one of the game's strengths. Whether you want to take on the role of father figure, or be an insensitive jerk is entirely up to you, but I'd wager most players will at least feel a bond with the girl. I found myself going out of my way to check up on her at any opportunity, and experienced genuine dread at the prospect of her coming to even the slightest harm. At least a couple of other characters have enough weight to them that you'll feel at least some degree of emotion towards them, and most of the scenes, despite being a little old hat, are very stylishly presented.
It's fair to say that dialogue makes up a good 75% of A New Day, but when you're not chatting away, there's a decent little bit of game to play. Telltale have experimented with more action-oriented adventures for some time now, with varying degrees of success (Yes, Jurassic Park sucked, but Back to the Future was alright!), but here, finally, there's plenty of evidence on display to suggest they are becoming masters of their craft. Quick-time events aside, the action scenes are very nicely done, often instilling a startling sense of panic as you race against an on-screen timer to play your part in the drama. The game never transforms into full-on third-person shooter, but you'll do your fair share of zombie-killing, and the encounters with the undead serve as welcome adrenaline-shots between the low-key dialogue and "puzzle" sections. I say "puzzle" because these "puzzles" really aren't puzzles at all, they're much more "puzzling" than puzzling, if you know what I mean. In traditional adventure game style, everything can be solved by clicking all over the screen until something happens, not that you'll really need to resort to such antics, since everything is fairly obvious and in plain sight. There's no combining socks with apples to fish a diamond necklace from the bottom of a well here; it's all very straightforward. As stated, time and again, A New Day is so much more about its story and characters above all else. The story must keep moving, and if you were forced to dwell in areas too long, backtracking from room to room searching for objects and clues, it really would break up the narrative. This will undoubtedly serve as a point of contention for some, but I think in this case the game certainly benefits from a more simplistic style, with the action and dialogue exchanges more than making up for any puzzle-deficiency.
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| Behold, the emotional power of a little girl in a cute cap |
The game runs perfectly well, for the most part, but I did encounter several issues with the audio; at times it would break up, go out of sync, or simply not play at all. Unfortunately, I'd be remiss not to cast light on some of A New Day's other difficulties. Naturally, linearity is to be expected in a game like this, but Telltale unnecessarily force this lack of freedom right down your throat in some pretty unappetising ways throughout. Upon reaching a house, I attempt to walk around it only to hear my character's inner monologue: "Maybe I should check inside that house first before carrying on!" Upon reaching the denouement of the story, invisible walls force me to talk to every character in the area, in the order the game wants. There's one major decision in the game where you're asked to choose between action A and action B--yes, this is as spoiler-free as it gets, people--yet I chose to simply wait out the timer and ignore both options A and B, a choice that the game let me make. Later on, when presented with an almost identical scenario, a scenario where logically I could very easily repeat my expression of neutrality and ignore actions A and B, the game refused to allow it, treating me to a game over screen after I thought I'd made my decision. A choice system is surely intrinsically flawed when the game seems to pick and choose your degree of freedom in whatever manner it feels. I can readily accept that, especially in a game that offers so much choice, it would be both selfish and unreasonable to demand more options, but all I ask for is a little consistency. There's also a few issues with characters seeming to forget the choices I made; a man referred to me as the girl's father despite having informed him, only moments before, that I was her babysitter; a woman thanked me for rescuing her son when I'd done nothing of the sort. These are minor gripes, but they all break immersion, the antithesis of a video game's intentions, and could all have been solved with a little more care and subtlety.
Faithfully interpreting a cult phenomenon in any medium is never an easy task, and Telltale must be commended for giving it a damn good try. The atmosphere, the emotion, the sense of small victories in a desperate struggle for survival: all are aspects of the Walking Dead universe that they have captured and presented as a video game almost effortlessly. It's a shame then that in their pursuit to maintain the comic's spirit, Telltale forgot to add any of their own. They appear to have tried too hard in some respects, and not hard enough in others, resulting in a curiously bittersweet melange of solid yet formulaic storytelling, entertaining yet wanting gameplay, and emotive yet vacuous characters. There's a lot to love and a lot to hate about A New Day. On the one hand, it does almost everything one could have expected from a Walking Dead adventure game, on the other, maybe that's not quite enough.
For the purposes of this review, the PC version of the game was played.
