The Walking Dead: 400 Days Review

The first season of The Walking Dead series was a huge success, Telltale Games received numerous awards for their work and they were certainly deserved. Now in 2013 Telltale goes back to the land imagined by Robert Kirkman, this time though the expectations are high, so the question is, have they done it again? Or did they succumb under the pressure of success?

Story
This time around instead of following one or two fixed protagonists, Telltale opted for introducing five at once, while at first the only thing they seem to have in common is the fact that they are all screwed thanks to a certain zombie apocalypse, as time goes on, you will find that they have more in common than what appears at first glance.
400 Days serves as a stepping stone between the 1st and 2nd season of the series, introducing new characters that according to what I understood, will make an appearance in the future. It is an incredibly intelligent move on Telltale part if this is true, that means that in the 2nd season right from the start you will have an emotional connection to some of the survivors. Brilliant!

There is just one problem, the fact that 400 Days is such a short chapter and introduces so many characters at once, might make you care less for them, you never have the time to really get to know them and build up an emotional relationship with all the protagonists like you did with Lee or Clementine. It certainly seems like a missed opportunity.

Gameplay
400 Days remains true to the series, I would call it a point and click on rails. Avoiding any situation where the player might get stuck seems to be one of the goals set by the developers, it's a nice change of pace from other adventure games, it certainly puts a lot more focus on the story telling rather than the puzzles.
Telltale tries to introduce more action sequences this time around, it's a lot of fun trying to figure out if you should run for your life or do the right thing, these sequences could be a bit harder if only to add some more suspense and excitement, still they are really well structured.

Graphics and Sound
Once again this seems to be the area where Telltale struggles a bit more, not that the graphics or art style are bad, they still have the cartoony style that will look good forever, it's just that the lip syncing is terrible, it does not ruin the experience in any shape or form, but in a tight package such as The Walking Dead series has been, any kind of misstep seems like a big deal.
Thankfully the voice acting is still near perfect, making each character feel alive and unique.

Final Thoughts
Even if it's just a short preview for the 2nd season, 400 Days is well worth the download, Telltale Games showed that they still got it and that success in little has affected their ability to produce great games.
Robert Kirkman should be proud!

Year of Release: 2013
Plaform: Xbox 360, PS3, PC, Mac, iOS
Developer: Telltale Games

9 out of 10