So I've been hearing raves about the Walking Dead video game -- "season one" released in five episodes, with season two next year.
It's a totally immersive graphical version of Infocom/Choose Your Own Adventure. It's mostly cut scenes, and a large part of the gaming experience is choosing different paths along the story through answering questions and so on. You occasionally get to shoot a zombie or walk around, but you're mostly interacting with the story through any of four responses, which decides your quality of character. You can go rogue or try to save people.
You start out as a prisoner on his way to jail for an unspecified crime when the cop hits a zombie. Shit goes south fast and it is edge of your seat with thrills, scares, and this weirdly deep emotional investment. I've never had to be this involved in a game before...and the seemingly endless variations of choices you can make is amazing. I always err on the altruistic side in these games...and, after only 20 minutes of game play, that already feels like an insane mistake. The game wants you to be evil...being good is a chore. Terrific stuff.
Trip reports to follow! Or...I could go to happy hour.
