Whether it is a comic book, television show or as a video game, people can't seem to get enough of the conflicts that emerge during a zombie apocalypse.
Telltale games has announced that it has sold 28 million episodes of its storytelling-based The Walking Dead video game episodes. And with such strong sales, it is no shock that the company has decided to make a third season for the episodic series. Kevin Bruner, the president of Telltale Games, announced the new season during a late panel at San Diego Comic-Con. He stated it would start in 2015.
While the television show is a gritty adaptation of "The Walking Dead" graphic novels, the games are an original story set in the same zombie-infested world. The game's graphics also veer away from realism to a more comic book style of art. Each episode of the game is about two hours in length.
While The Walking Dead game has some action sequences, the focus is providing a narrative that the player influences by making tough choices. The sort of dilemmas the player must decide on include: during an attack by a horde of zombies, which character should you protect? When food becomes scarce, should you feed the injured? Or who should patrol for walkers on the perimeter of the camp? The choices the player makes as the protagonist influence the emotions and actions of the other characters in the game, shifting the story in huge ways.
The first The Walking Dead video game episode, A New Day, was released for download in April 2012, with subsequent season one episodes coming out anywhere from six to nine weeks later. Besides the five episodes from 2012 that comprise season one, there was a one-time story called 400 Days released in July 2013. Season two began in December 2013, with All That Remains.
The episodes were originally released as downloadable content for PC, Mac, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Then later iOS and Android versions were released, catching up with the release schedule of the other versions by episode five of season one. Season two episodes have been released simultaneously for computer platforms, consoles and iOS. Later, compiled editions with all the episodes of season one were released on a retail disc for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita. It has been announced that series will come to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, in some form in the future.
The fourth episode of The Walking Dead video game Season Two, Amid the Ruins, was released July 22nd. The fifth and final episode , No Going Back, will be released later this year.
Telltale Games has released other games tied to Hollywood media, including Back to the Future and Jurassic Park narrative-based games. It recently finished publishing an episodic game based on the "Fables" comic, called The Wolf Among Us. Besides The Walking Dead, the company is also working on Tales from the Borderlands, which takes place in the same setting as Gearbox Software's Borderland games, and a Game of the Thrones game.
