by Billy Wang

Telltale Games has made a name for itself in two ways: successful adventure game sequels based on classic adventure/comedy computer games (Sam & Max, Tales on Monkey Island, Wallace & Gromit and Homestar Runner) and successful games based on movies or TV shows (CSI, Back to the Future, Jurassic Park and Law & Order).The Walking Dead is based on the comic book series of the same name and the series itself achieved mainstream popularity with the TV series. Released via Xbox Live Arcade, TWD will be released in five downloadable episodes. Each episode will be priced at $5 and are around 2-3 hours of gameplay.

Players control a new character named Lee Everett, who is thrown into the zombie apocalypse while traveling home. He'll meet plenty of characters, both alive and undead, including a little girl named Clementine, who takes seconds stage with Lee. Right off the bat, all of the characters Everett meets have their own histories and agendas. Clashing personalities and arguments were pretty key in TWD, which added to the drama.

Gameplay is a combination of adventure and action. Standard adventure gameplay fare include inventory/item management and interacting with characters. The former gets a gameplay twist where you may have a time limit to make decisions. The latter will affect the game's dialog and plot lines depending on who you talk to or who/how you help them. There's a lot of dialog and Lee's responses are given with four choices. TWD emphasises the idea of choices and consequences. Characters will remember what you said to them or specific actions you have done.Many zombie games usually are shooters so thankfully, TWD has its own spin on action set pieces and its gameplay. While you do your fair-share of beating up zombies (complete with brutal violence), some of the great action moments are done via conversations. During some dialog, Lee's responses are timed (reminded me of Alpha Protocol) so some major decisions have to be done with just seconds to spare. That really made your decisions worthwhile.

Presentation-wise, TWD is top-notch with its gritty visuals, appropriately-setting environments, excellent voice acting and soothing music. As stated, there's a lot of dialog, so you'll be staring at quite a few faces. Thanks to the game's graphics engine, lip synch is on-point and little nuances like facial expressions, smiles and nods extenuate scenes. You'll be meeting a wide-range of people from different parts of the U.S., so things like voice-acting and the quality of the writing made a huge difference. It's worthwhile to listen to all of the dialog -- future consequences and good writing.One minor gripe is the camera. When playing on the Xbox 360, during some set pieces, trying to pan the camera around sometimes took too long or was annoying to navigate with. But many areas are appropriately sized so many areas are compact.

Overall, TWD is a great Xbox Arcade game. Combining excellent voice acting, writing, set pieces and game choices, TWD is a recommendation of anyone who likes TWD (comics, TV series), zombie-stuff, adventure games or story-driven action games.

Score: 4.5 Wing-wangs out of 5

Developer: Telltale Games

Publisher: Telltale Games

Platforms: Windows, Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, Mac, iOS

Genre: Action/Adventure