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Publisher: Telltale Games

Developer: Telltale Games

Release Date: 11/21/2012

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The Walking Dead has been a gripping and highly entertaining adventure game thus far, so now that the season finale is here we can see how every choice you made stacks up. Thankfully choices have impacted things throughout the series instead of stacking them up for the end. A few from each episode will affect this episode, but I have to say that this episode is extremely heart-wrenching and the most shocking of them all, not to mention the shortest.

Lee and your surviving gang are on their way to save Clem from a mysterious man who snatched her up. They leave their boat behind for a bit to go find her, but things go completely downhill because the zombies are in the thousands and not to mention all the shocking moments that lead up to the end. Something happens every 20 minutes or so that will make you set your controller down and take a breather and say, “How did that happen?!” That’s how great this series is. Each character is memorable and you will either love them or hate them depending on your choices. The system Telltale set up is so organic and smooth that you don’t really notice your choice caused this until you really think. That is excellent game design, but I will take some time to address issues that I have held off until now.

A

Firstly, the graphics are pretty dated which I mentioned in the first episode. The art style looks like the comics, but the graphics are about 7 years old. There are hitches and stuttering often which never got addressed. Each episode is extremely short, but this one clocks in at just a measly hour. Why this is a stand-alone episode is beyond me, they could have just made this series four episodes. The pacing is also all over the place. Episode 2 was probably the most disappointing of them all, and Episode 4 was lacking in the shocking moment department. There’s also no challenge in the game with this just being an interactive experience. This is one of my favorite adventure games of all time, but I would like to see some serious upgrades in Season 2.

With all that said Episode 5 ends on a cliffhanger and who knows when we will find out what’s happened next. After seeing how successful this series is I’m sure Season 2 will start pouring out through next year starting in spring. Episode 5 is very touching and after you finish the game you will realize that Season 2 will start with a whole new cast of characters. As it stands Episode 5 delivers a great ending and you really feel satisfied with your journey through Savannah and will sit back and wait for Season 2.

Publisher: Telltale Games

Developer: Telltale Games

Release Date: 10/10/2012

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Now that we are almost done with this series I am sad that the next one will be it. Episode 4 sees the gang trying to get on a boat and out of Savannah, Georgia, but things don’t go as planned. There are a bunch of new characters this time around, but most are hard to care for because they make brief appearances. By this point, most or a little of your gang will be with you, but this episode is mainly lacking the suspenseful choices like in the last one. We get bigger areas to explore, a little more action, and finally, a ton of zombies.

The series has been lacking any zombies lately and has just dealt with internal turmoil, but Episode 4 skirts this and brings the gang back to realizing that the zombies are the real threat here. There’s a strange calm before the storm within the group, the conversations are tense and borderline everyone going postal on each other. I found that there was a lack of gameplay here and it focused more on delivering a story, but that is ok in this series. There is more action with some zombie shooting, action-oriented puzzles, and larger areas to explore. I sat through the whole episode in one go because it was so intense and entertaining, you always want to know what is going to happen next.

The new characters are hard to really like except Molly because of her shady personality. The new guys are brief and seem pretty generic. I really don’t care for Christa or Omid who we met at the end of the last episode. Christa is selfish and Omid is boring and just seems useless. What grows, even more, is the characters you have right now from the original group, Clementine and Lee’s relationship really blossom here and their trust will be tested.

This episode is just a mishmash of everything from the past ones, lots of zombies, action, large areas, new characters, and tense conversations but nothing very serious. What has stayed the same throughout is the constant intense atmosphere that makes you stay in the game and you never want to quit until it’s over. This is my favorite adventure series of all time. The game puts you in control just enough to make you feel like you made all the important choices. The game has been built up to the climax, and the cliffhanger ending here is so abrupt and so sudden that you just hang your end knowing you have to wait another month or two for the last episode. This is just like a good TV series, but better.

the-walking-dead-game-episode-3-walkthrough

Publisher: Telltale Games

Developer: Telltale Games

Release Date: 8/29/2012

Also Available On

The Walking Dead is probably my favorite adventure series of all time. It surpasses most adventure game clichés like inventory management, tank controls, and disjointed pacing. The Walking Dead: Episode 3 is well-paced, and there are some of the toughest choices you have to make. Things get very serious this time around because the group is starting to lose its mental stability. There’s a lot of internal fighting and you must decide how this all turns out.

The group is trying to get to Savannah, Georgia because things at the motel didn’t work out so well. They find a train engine that takes them partway, but I won’t say any more. There are a few major areas you can explore with a few simple puzzles, but like usual the opening is awesome and I played through this entire episode and wanted the next one right away. There are three new characters introduced, but at the same time, a few people in the group die. Who or how is up to you, but you will be shocked at how this all turns out. I actually had to pause the game with my mouth agape due to the shocking turns and mainly how it actually happened.

There’s more zombie killing this time around, but not nearly as much as in the first episode. I found myself glued to my computer more than Episode 2 and I felt like the story was actually progressing better. A lot of bugs are also starting to get ironed out such as the constant stuttering during cut scenes and some control issues. You won’t be exploring much, just in the main puzzle areas, but this is OK because of how much the story advances through dialog choices. This is about the time when a lot of your choices from the last two episodes will really start blossoming here. Some choices I made actually determined huge plot changes and I realized either I shouldn’t have done something or wish I did do something, but that’s the excitement of this series. You feel like you are playing a movie and directing it yourself.

I just can’t wait for the fourth episode because things will really start going downhill from there. This episode is a huge turning point for the story, and every fan will want more.

the-walking-dead-game-episode-2-walkthrough

Publisher: Telltale Games

Developer: Telltale Games

Release Date: 6/29/2012

Also Available On

The first episode was just amazing and had some shocking moments. I have been waiting for this episode, but I feel a little let down this time around. Lee and the gang need to find food because they ran out at the motel they are holding down. You go to try to find food and wind up on a dairy farm, but the food isn’t exactly what you think it might be. There aren’t as many shocking moments and they don’t come as surprising as in the first episode. The big moments are more dialog choices than actual gameplay which is disappointing. One moment does have you chopping off a guy’s leg stuck in a bear trap, but other than that the other moments are pretty typical like yanking a gun out of a guy’s hand. In fact, there aren’t even really that many zombies in this episode, they kind of take a back seat for the internal struggle on the farm.

The game plays out exactly the same, but there are fewer exploring segments, and even less puzzle solving. In fact, this mainly felt like an interactively animated episode more than an adventure game. Not to say that is bad, but fans of the first episode may find it disappointing. There are some more important choices you have to make and that is probably the biggest switch from the first episode. Some changes actually determine the lives of a few characters you probably got attached to. Episode 2 does what this series is doing best and that’s slowly drawing the character’s personalities out and constantly making you question how you feel about them.

The game isn’t so much tense gameplay-wise, but story-wise. The whole time I was surprised when something did happen. You are thrown important choices and need to make decisions quickly at times when you least expect them and they really make you think. Almost every choice I had such a hard time picking because sometimes the right thing to do isn’t the best thing to do. A lot of times I wonder how that would affect me later on in the series.

Overall, Episode 2 doesn’t have as much action or surprising moments, but it expands the character’s personality and gives you some seriously heavy situations that force you to make big decisions. The episode also puts zombies on the back burner for the problems on this farm and the group so be prepared for that.

Hector: Badge of Carnage – Episode 1: We Negotiate With Terrorists

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 06/13/2012

Posted in: iOS, Mac, Mobile Reviews, PC Reviews, Steam Deck Playable, Steam Deck Verification. Tagged: adventure, badge of carnage, episode 1, funny, hector, humor, pc, point and click, we negotiate with terrorists. Leave a comment

Publisher: Telltale Games

Developer: Straandlooper

Release Date: 4/27/2011

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Hector is an adventure game for adults, which there aren’t many of. Most have cutesy colorful graphics, crappy voice acting, and a cheesy story to keep teenagers and unknowing casual gamers interested. This game may be shallow in gameplay, but it makes up for it with crass British humor that is disgusting and funny at the same time. The game is about a deadbeat police investigator who has to deal with a hostage situation. Instead of storming in and dealing with it the right way he does everything the terrorist says. This leads to the three main areas of the game where you have to solve puzzles.

You start by just clicking on everything and seeing what you can take, interact with, and talk to. This is a standard adventure game affair, and there’s nothing different at all. This is a by-the-books adventure game and doesn’t try anything fancy or new. The three areas are a park, clock tower, and porn shop which all need to be dealt with as demanded by the terrorist. The porn shop needs to be shut down, the clock tower up and running again, and the guy at the park needs money to restore it. What makes the game interesting are Hector’s comments, and the wisecracks and gross jokes thrown between characters. The game even makes fun of Brits themselves with chavs, and overall British terms and inside jokes.

Most of the puzzles are decent, but the hint system is there to help you and insult you. Instead of just simple hints, you have to read all the insults the game throws at you which is entertaining. Thankfully the areas can be completed in any order so that adventure game quirk is out the door here. Most items are so absurd that you know there’s only one thing you can do with them. The entertainment value also comes in the form of what you need to solve the puzzles like a garter belt for a fan belt in a beat-up police car. The battery is also dead so you use the chav in the station as teaser bait on a psycho old woman at a bus stop. Push him down into the hood of the car and you have a charged battery. This is funny, disgusting, and entertaining. The graphics are nicely drawn in a flash animation cartoon style, but the voice acting is spotty. Overall, Hector Episode 1 is an entertaining adventure game, but not for the light-hearted.

Sanitarium – 13 Years Later

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 04/15/2012

Posted in: Android, iOS, Mobile Reviews, PC Reviews, Steam Deck Unknown, Steam Deck Verification. Tagged: adventure, gog.com, horror, old school, pc, point and click, sanitarium, scary. Leave a comment

Publisher: ASC Games

Developer: DreamForge Intertainment

Release Date: 4/30/1998

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Adventure, strategy, and RPGs were the pinnacle of PC games back in the mid to late 90s, and Sanitarium is one of those games. You play as Max who suffers a car accident and is stuck in his own insane delusions, or is he? You explore 12 sick and twisted chapters with excellent voice acting and very interesting characters, but don’t forget those adventure puzzles.

The game isn’t much different from the standard adventure game where you wander around and click on items to proceed to the next area. Your icon is a magnifying glass and you hold down the right mouse button to move your character around. This was my first annoyance with the game being that the characters walk so slowly and there’s no run button. Despite this clicking on things is actually interesting because most of it doesn’t even pertain to the real world. Your first area is an asylum where guys are bashing their heads against walls, and the people you talk to are completely out of their minds. This gets even worse as the game progresses, but that’s a good thing.

As you collect items you find ways to use them in interesting ways, and it actually makes sense. However, most of the time the way to use them is so obvious that you will miss it. This game isn’t exactly easy and just gets harder as the game progresses. You get thrown a couple of puzzles at the beginning, but towards the end, the game gets very puzzle heavy and they are not fun or easy. Sure they are unique to the individual worlds, but they aren’t easy. I had to use a walkthrough through most of the game because I just couldn’t get what to do most of the time.

My favorite part of the game was wandering around and talking to people and hearing their strange voices or weird stories. The world themselves are characters because each one has a big problem to solve, but thankfully each level is small and it’s not easy to get lost. The game is paced well with some CGI cutscenes (of course they look horrible being from 1998), but it’s nice that this game feels high budget for its time. I always looked forward to the next zany world and what weird character I would run into. I never got bored, and always wanted more. The game is nicely paced at around 5-6 hours, and it had a satisfying ending. The one surprise I had, however, was a couple of boss fights. Most adventure games don’t have these, but these were strange.

Overall, Sanitarium is an excellent adventure game that shows how great the 90s were on the PC. You can pick the game up on GoG.com for only $6, but I did run into one huge problem. The game crashes a lot on the newer operating systems, and GoG never addressed the issue. If you can, get the CD and use it on an older operating system (like Windows 98), but otherwise, you will have to trudge through the constant crashes.

Yesterday

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 03/24/2012

Posted in: PC Reviews, Steam Deck Unknown, Steam Deck Verification. Tagged: adventure, indie, pc, point and click, steam, yesterday. Leave a comment

Publisher: Focus Home Interactive

Developer: Pendulo Studios

Release Date: 3/22/2012

Available Exclusively On

The adventure genre has struggled for years and rarely are any of them any good. Yesterday is one of those gems because it does everything right and doesn’t do what other adventure games do. The story is the part that’s most interesting here with you playing John Yesterday who is a man investigating an occult called The Order of the Flesh and has something to do with killing homeless people. You get mixed up into a huge mess after waking up with amnesia, so you travel around trying to figure all this stuff out. There are plenty of plot twists and the game keeps you playing because you want to know more. The problem is that the story is so short that it leaves you wanting more.

The gameplay itself is extremely simple because all you do is find objects and come up with ways to use them. This isn’t new for adventure games, but the constant scene changing means there’s always new stuff to find. The game completely wipes out tiresome pixel hunting because there is an object of interest button that will display things you can click on for a few seconds. Every adventure game needs this, and very few do it. There is also a hint button that actually is useful and gives you know…hints so you are never stuck. If you use a hint you have to click around some to refill the light bulb so there is some encouragement to figure things out on your own.

Another thing I’m glad this game does is that when you click on something or try to move to different areas, there are no annoying walking animations or door-opening animations. The character warps to that spot and the item pops up on-screen. Thank you, Pendulo Studios for not putting annoying useless crap into an already annoying and dead genre. This makes playing the game much easier and makes progressing quick. Another complaint would be the lack of puzzles because there are very few and not very challenging. This is no Myst, but instead, you have to just figure out what item does what. This is kind of fun and keeps the pace up, but brainiacs will contest this and probably get bored with the game.

I feel Yesterday is actually geared more toward hardcore gamers who don’t have the patience for long-drawn-out stories and tiresome puzzles. This is both good or bad depending on the player. I do detest the lack of challenge, but the fast-paced narrative is nice. Other than this the animations are terrible with horrible lip-syncing and some audio glitches along with spotty voice acting. The graphics have a cell-shaded cartoony look which is nice, but technically the game doesn’t look that great. One thing I found odd is that the game depicts a sick twisted torture-type story with murder and killing yet there’s hardly any blood and violent scenes are almost censored. I found this odd and kind of detracted from the experience, but what can you do?

Overall, Yesterday provides a fine narrative and quickens the pace of most sludgy adventure games, but the lack of puzzles, challenge, and the extremely short story will turn hardcore adventure fans away. Yesterday is a fun weekend play, but other than that you won’t come back.

Gray Matter

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 09/08/2011

Posted in: Microsoft Consoles, PC Reviews, Steam Deck Playable, Steam Deck Verification, Xbox 360. Tagged: adventure, gray matter, indie, point and click. Leave a comment

Publisher: Viva Media

Developer: Wizarbox

Release Date: 2/22/2011

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Point and click adventures are still abundant, but good ones are hard to come by, and even rarer are ones that make it mainstream. Gray Matter is a game that has a story a bit more sophisticated than your typical adventure game. You play as both Samantha Everett and David Styles who are probably the most interesting characters in the game. Sam is an orphan who is traveling the world, but her bike breaks down in London and she winds up at Dread Hill which is the home of Dr. Styles. Dr. Styles is researching ways to bring his wife’s spirit back after a fatal car accident and he’ll do anything to get this research done. The rest of the characters are people you recruit for the research, but their personalities aren’t as likable as the main characters.

The story really gets involved and has a twist ending that will surprise you so playing the game is worth it. The gameplay consists of your typical clicking on things to find the clues and move on. However, Gray Matter is severely flawed in that you have missions to complete and each mission has a number of points associated with finding things. If you miss a few points you have to scour the huge world in the game to find what you missed. This can lead to hours of hunting and clicking on everything until you find it. Certain events won’t trigger until missions are done which I really hate. It is also little to no direction on where to go and what to do in the game. There are different areas in the game you can jump to, but there are so many things to click on that the game is nearly impossible to beat without a guide. Later in the game, you run into a labyrinthine maze-type area and this will take forever without some kind of guide.

There are a few interesting things Gray Matter does for the adventure genre and these are magic tricks. You get a book of magic and you have to use it to get certain things done in the game. Things bring up a new window that has you following instructions on how to map out the trick. It’s interesting and changes the pace a bit. Of course, there is a mini-game tossed in here and there, but most of the time you will be running around clicking on everything almost blindly and this really hurts the flow and pacing of the game.

The visuals in the game are decent, but the drawn cutscenes that are just a few frames really aren’t that great. The art is smudgy, and the character design is inconsistent throughout the whole game. The in-game models will be completely different from the hand-drawn scenes, but then some scenes will have the characters looking different. I found this very weird and annoying. Overall the art is very nice, especially towards the end of the game in the Daedalus Club.

The voice acting is decent at best, but Sam’s actress is pretty bad and sounds cheesy. Most of the game is all British actors so there isn’t much variety. My favorite character of them all is Dr. Styles who is struggling within himself to go out and socialize, but he feels like a monster due to the scar on his face. The game is really an acquired taste among both adventure gamers and hardcore gamers alike.

If you can stomach the goalless wandering of the game by either using a guide or just aimlessly clicking everywhere you will be rewarded with a rich and dark story. The game also has a decent length that will run you about 8-10 hours and that’s if you just use a guide and run through the game. I really wish the game would guide you more because it almost breaks the entire game.

Back-to-the-Future-Episode-1-Its-About-Time

Publisher: Telltale Games

Developer: Telltale Games

Release Date: 12/22/2010

Also Available On

Back to the Future hasn’t really done well when it comes to games. There were a couple of bad games in the 8 and 16-bit era, but Telltale games finally picked up the license and injected its excellent adventure formula into the beloved series. You play Marty McFly who has to go back in time and save Doc Brown from his own deadly fate. He gets a message from Doc to save him, and Marty must find out how to do it with the help of young Emmet Brown.

The story is original but uses the BthF license very nicely. The voice actors sound almost spot on, and everything from the DeLorean, to Doc’s dog Einstein and even Marty’s relatives, are voiced well and resemble their live-action selves. It’s great to explore the BthF universe with the same clever writing and storytelling. There is a simple adventure game interface where you click around on objects and listen to Marty explain them, but the puzzles are more involved than just slider puzzles or matching symbols. The puzzles are broader and story-driven, and that’s what Telltale is famous for from their Sam & Max games.

You can have items in your inventory, but you don’t just wander around and use them for every pixel in the game. It’s usually pretty obvious to use your recorder to record young Doc’s mumbling so old Doc can solve them. You aren’t overburdened with a ton of items that you have to constantly use a million times on everything so it’s straightforward and simple, but you do have to think a bit. One great feature to resolve pixel hunting is a button that will show every icon you can interact with. This saves time and frustration so you’re not wandering around and missing that one item that’s almost off-screen.

While the interface and interaction are smooth and simple the game is very short, and it’s still lacking some gameplay depth. I would like more cerebral puzzles, but Telltale is more about the story than anything else. The game doesn’t get super exciting until the last 30 minutes during the last two sequences. You can beat the game in one to two sittings (about 3 hours), so for $25, the game is highly overpriced and not worth the money unless you’re a die-hard BthF fan. I would wait for the full season to come out and not spend a ton of money on each episode. Also, the graphics are pretty horrible considering the nice art style. Telltale really needs to upgrade their 8-year-old engine to something more modern.

Publisher: Telltale Games

Developer: Telltale Games

Release Date: 8/11/2008

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Everyone knows Strong Bad from their famous song on Guitar Hero II!!! What you never heard of them? Well, that’s ok we all forgive you, but now’s your chance to meet the almighty only-cool-enough-to-look-at-unless-you’re-an-attractive-women and sometimes known as “Flexapecs” Strong Bad. The game’s main attraction is the crazy humor and the nice graphics style. The game is basically a flash point & click adventure where you try to show off your Strong Badiness by making Homestar (the town’s “Cool Guy”) look like a total jack @$$. With great voice acting to support these neat characters the basic gameplay element always stays the same: Click on this thing, hear what Strong Bad says, laugh, wander around aimlessly trying to figure out where to go next with no hints, rinse and repeat.

My biggest gripe is the fact that you never really know where to go and most of the game is really well…a guessing game. You slowly unlock different locations and warping to these places on the fly is easy via your map. Go around collecting special items and even take photos! But seriously, even though the game has strong humor it doesn’t save the gameplay. Just double-click and hold the mouse button to make Strong Bad run here, go into your inventory, and try to make certain things work, but I guarantee most of the time you’ll resort to a FAQ. The beginning of the game starts out easy enough where you just follow the plot of the game then about halfway through it lets go of your hand and you sort of get lost in everything. Trying to spoil Homestar’s fame isn’t really easy since it takes lots of different running back and forth to and fro collecting things to make this work over here. With no quest log or anything like that you never know what to do and there are really no hints to help you. Some parts of the game I didn’t even know existed until I resorted to a FAQ and that was after over an hour of trying to figure out where this one inventory item goes. Trying to go around experimenting isn’t really fun and makes you really annoyed and frustrated.

With all of that aside the game’s dialog and writing are hilarious and fit the characters very well. The humor is more random, stupid, and full of bathroom jokes than witty and smart. This works just as well and somehow the game pulls it off cleverly without making you feel you’re playing something lame. I just really like all of the details that went into this game like the Snake Boxer 5 mini-game, and all of the extra dialogs when you talk to someone more than once. It just really makes things that much more interesting. Now, this is meant for young teens and kids so there is no mature humor even though you’d expect it from this kind of character. I really feel these characters should have been given more mature dialog, but what’s here works and works well if you can get around the annoying hunt & seek. I really do recommend this game on the Wii or PC because you’ll love the hilarious dialog, great art style, and funny characters.