Telltale Games has come out with quite a few story driven, choice based games which have generally delivered fantastic stories set in different universes. Our The Walking Dead: Michonne review takes a look at Episode 1: “In Too Deep” as Telltale returns to the popular zombie universe.
Story
The Walking Dead: Michonne – Episode 1: “In Too Deep” starts off with Michonne in the woods, hacking through bushes, and reminiscing in her head about those she lost. There are two she can never forget, a pair of children, and she sees them briefly through the bushes before they run off. Next Michonne sees a door in the middle of the woods, just a door… and walks over and opens it. After walking through the door, Michonne is taken into the past where the rest of the opening scene is a blend of the past in a room in a house with two children playing, and the present woods with zombies milling about, Michonne doing what Michonne does best as she hacks her way through zombies both in the living room of the past and the real world of the present.
The opening chapter ends with the first choice of the game as we see Michonne load a gun with a single bullet and point it at her head. Obviously your choice is to pull the trigger or not. After you make your choice, a hand reaches out, and queue opening credit scene — which I must say I quite enjoyed.
The story picks up about three weeks later, but we’ll leave the rest to you to play and experience first hand. The rest of the first episode consists of Michonne in the present, but flashes of the past keep creeping in which gives us a great look at the history behind one of The Walking Dead‘s main characters. The story is off to a great start and it’s definitely building up to the next couple episodes, and I can’t wait to see how it unfolds — although on that note, knowing that it is only going to be three episodes is a bit disappointing considering how it’s started out so far!
Gameplay
It’s been awhile since I’ve played both of Telltale Games previous The Walking Dead games, but The Walking Dead: Michonne seems much grittier and gorier than the previous outings. It definitely has that “Michonne vibe” in terms of violence — of course you’re getting up close and personal with her machete, while at the same time experiencing her troubled past. The game definitely earned its M rating with the level of violence and language that is present. It’s not only satisfying, but also refreshing, when one of your speech choices is being able to tell someone to go f*** themselves.
Telltale has done a fantastic job of better integrating the buttons and movement cues into the artwork and gameplay design, with the buttons being bloodied and angled to the same perspective as the current scene. For the most part, gameplay is pretty fluid and well done. Like previous Telltale Games it does stutter now and again, but it’s not as bad as it has been in the past and doesn’t detract from the gameplay too much.
It took me about an hour and a half to complete the first episode, which is a bit short and I definitely would have liked to see it a bit longer.
Graphics
The graphics fit the comic book style of The Walking Dead perfectly. Michonne is closer to the comic book version in looks and appearance than the TV show, but having lived off the AMC series for the past few years it was still a bit tough to not picture Danai Gurira (the actress who plays Michonne on the show) now and again. All in all, the artwork has the right amount of gore, and the atmosphere presented is well done.
Sound
The background music in The Walking Dead: Michonne is good, and definitely fits the tone and mood of the game. The voice acting is pretty well done as well, and pretty much all the characters are believable in their parts with the chosen casting.
Wrap-up
The Walking Dead: Michonne – Episode 1 “In Too Deep” is a great start into this three part series which delves into the past of Michonne with the right amount of gore, great art direction, and gameplay.
[rwp-review id=”0″]*We were sent a review copy of The Walking Dead: Michonne – Episode 1: “In Too Deep” on the Xbox One for the purposes of this review.
Last Updated on March 30, 2016.
Comments are closed.