Terminal Reality has developed this tie-in that covers some of the events that happened to Daryl Dixon and his brother Merle, before the events narrated in the television series. This resulted in a very uninspired title, sometimes gruesome for the total lack of quality and the heavy irreparable flaws that compromise the gaming experience.
The Phenomenon The Walking Dead
The Walking Dead is without a doubt one of the phenomena of the past few months, both for the television universe that the world of video games. The TV series, produced by the broadcaster AMC American – and passed on in our country by FOX – has collected over the past three years, more and more support.
In recent days, the final episode of the third season was followed by more than twelve million Americans, surpassing even the fierce competition of Game of Thrones on HBO, which debuted on the same evening with the new season.
Moreover, as we know, the comic by Robert Kirkman was also picked up by Telltale and masterfully transposed in key gaming, through successful formula episodes. The Walking Dead The Game was one of the most important titles of 2012, especially for the depth of the situations, the facets of the characters, the plot and the goodness of having to make choices during the campaign. A bolt from the blue, who led Telltale among the first of the class, even allowing her to win the award for game of the year at the Spike video game Awards last December.
Leaving aside the doubts raised by many fans on the third season finale, it seems that The Walking Dead is living a golden moment. What better time then to decide to give birth to a tie-in and resume the stories of some of the characters have already appeared on the small screen? Yeah I know what you’re thinking: tie-in is in most cases synonymous with misfortune for the player and a more careful search of easy money with minimal effort for producers, exploiting the good name of a brand and make a necessary virtue.
Well, we assure you that The Walking Dead Survival Instinct unable to go beyond even these dire expectations. Moreover, developer’s terminal realities are not new to this kind of exploit negative, just remember the recent, and totally failed, Kinect Star Wars.
Fellow Travelers
The story of The Walking Dead Survival Instinct lie above the facts narrated during the show. The game focuses – if I may say so – the figure of Daryl Dixon, a character that will certainly already be known to fans of the series. In the company of his father and some friends, we find him engaged in a shooting near a ranch. Soon the group is attacked by some zombies and the father of Daryl, there will be no possibility of salvation. After you put an end to his sufferings, Daryl and his friend, Jess decide to move south to the edge of a pick-up and get on the trail of Merle Dixon.
As it can be seen from this terse summary, the plot is totally inconsistent. The beginning is remarkably brisk and decontextualized, but the situation will not improve in any way in the continuation of the campaign. It ends with the start of a trip that will not help in any way to shed new light on the character of Daryl and Merle or investigate their past and enrich what has already been learned during the show.
If these are the conditions, we leave you to imagine how they might appear charismatic others who you meet along the way. At times, it would almost ask what are humans and, which are the zombies, because after all, we do not perceive much difference. Take, for example Warren Bedford, a young pharmacist who is locked away inside a vending machine. Upon our arrival, we tell you that you need to refuel retrieve a set of keys and to do that it is essential to get on the trail of his uncle.
The news that the latter does not have it done to survive does not shake Warren, rather just say that the information makes its way into his state of mind more or less like water on the marble. We could ask him to get the card points in the distributor, and the reaction would have been identical.
The few ideas that are developed in the game seem much of a hurry, without due attention to the balance. One of the key points is made up of the travel system. At the end of each level you can get on board your vehicle and decide the next destination. The discriminant is constituted by the main fuel supplies, which must be recovered at each new shift, so as to be able to ensure the achievement of the next destination.
To do that you will be able to choose three types of routes. While the secondary roads require higher amounts of fuel but provide fewer chances of undergoing faults, the highway will decrease significantly the consumption of petrol, but will submit the midst of the greatest risks of stopping and facing some unexpected problems.
Finally, following the normal path will be faced with a consumption and to a risk of intermediate reach. The obstacles that arise from time to time can also be circumvented by choosing to go an alternative route, which also lead to a further waste of resources.
This gameplay was clearly introduced to try to break the rhythm compared to the sequences of exploration and accomplishment of the missions, but soon reveals its weakness. There is a spectrum of variables and alternatives such as to make these sections interesting or necessary in some way for the continuation of the adventure, also because of the smallness of its allies and the system of interaction with the latter.
During the campaign, you can meet some characters, which should be complemented by Daryl and provide support. Each of these subjects can be instructed to perform the tasks and has unique qualities, both in the use of weapons that the approach favored by the completion of missions.
The system would have worked if only it had been implemented in a more intelligent, effectively giving the player the opportunity to take advantage of the support of these people. Each of these characters has a bar of variable energy, in relation to missions that are imparted and equipment made available to him.
Among the tasks selected you can charge them to find fuel, retrieve food or ammunition, or to remain on guard at the vehicle. The success rate of the mission assigned permits to identify the possibility that the given character be able to accomplish the goal without getting killed.
There is not a single moment in the course of the campaign, during which he has truly felt that the contribution made by the survivor of the moment can somehow benefit the cause and help to the protagonist. Research missions are almost always sparse results and end up seriously compromising the health of their ally.
Taking note of the situation you will stop sending these poor people into the fray, preferring to safeguard the medikit at its disposal inventory. To top it off the criterion of choice and maintenance of the team is not satisfactory. For most of the campaign was forced to systematically discard their allies, even when there would be no real need to separate.
Hordes Increasing
Putting a lid on a plot and characters, the agony proceeds also going to analyze the other features of this title. Terminal Reality has tried to implement a system that would give preference to, circumvention of zombies than frontal attack.
In official statements has been fetched the word stealth mechanics, but the entire gaming rig really leaves much to be desired. Daryl has two options to deal with every level: use the resources at the bottom of your inventory and make their way to shots of a firearm, or try to go unnoticed by removing a limited number of zombies with melee attacks.
In reality, the total lack of balance between the two different phases compromises good part of the experience. The noise generated from firearms is becoming counterproductive, hordes of zombies begin to converge quickly to the position of the player, making it much more difficult to accomplish the tasks.
You cannot deliberately choose one or the other approach, mainly because of the limited amount of ammunition available with the exploration (and the help of allies in this sense, as we have already pointed out, is almost equal to zero).
So here you will find for almost the entire duration of the campaign using only the knife, ax or hammer, leaving mostly the use of the gun, the rifle, the shotgun or crossbow (the only one that allows a more discreet approach, but only unlockable in the last part of the game).
In many cases, it becomes all too easy to be able to escape their enemies, while the melee fights are nothing short of embarrassing. The zombies can be caught from behind and finished with threading vehemently knife in their skull, but the front is the approach that emerges throughout the inadequacy of this title. When they are attacked individually, the unfortunates are completely helpless in front of the player, undergo four shots without flinching and then fall to the ground almost as if they were wooden boards.
When you are in a group, the situation is reversed and proceed almost becomes frustrating. In these cases, you will be immobilized, and at this point it will be necessary to address the pointer on the screen, with the face of his opponent, then finish it with an improbable stab.
There are even repeated bugs, zombie cavorting with his face glued to the wall, wooden doors that are torn up and disappear from the setting, the character controlled by the player who gets stuck in some areas of the map, becoming easy prey to the raging hordes.
A disaster down the line. Even the use of the inventory leaves a lot to be desired. It is expected a gradual expansion of the objects that you can take with you, as it was not introduced any mechanism for character growth or improvement of weapons at their disposal.
If you happen to retrieve an ax or a grenade, it will be necessary to abandon one of the two guns you carry. A choice that will be quite obvious. After finding that the only possible approach is to resort to melee attacks and only when absolutely necessary.
We close the circle with the graphics, which is among the worst in recent years. The scenarios are flat in their entirety, anonymous and static. There is no type of interaction with the environment with the exception of those few objects that can be collected, for a car to be moved by hand to clear the road or go to another area of the map. Not to mention the level design, at least distressing to the predictability and the amount of unnecessary or areas of dead ends that accentuate the feeling of being in closed environments and very limit.
Conclusions
Survival Instinct is an epic failure across the board. A title that right now is a candidate to be one of the worst products appeared on the shelves in 2013, and these saddest and most poorly-inspired games of this generation. The few present ideas have been completely undermined by a superficial and hasty implementation.
The total lack of balance between the phases melee and use of firearms, coupled with the poverty-level design and the technical sector, this product makes it daunting even for the most ardent fans. Not to mention the complete absence of references and references to the TV series.
Since this is a prequel would be desirable to receive further information and details on the characters of Daryl and Merle Dixon and their past, or at least some element that could reconnect to the main story.
The smallness of the setting, the presence of bugs, the lack of utility of the allies and the superficiality of the travel system do the rest, making it inadvisable to all intents and purposes the purchase, even at the cost budget. In short, you want to immerse yourself in a video game set in the universe of The Walking Dead and do it properly? So forget about this tie-in and choose the correct side: rush without fail on the masterpiece of Telltale, no look back. You will not regret.
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