The Walking Dead: Episode 5 - No Time Left
Overview -
Telltale Games already had a solid reputation amongst gamers with their prior episodic game offerings including “Tales of Monkey Island,” new “Sam and Max” adventures, and their not groundbreaking, but enjoyable “Back to the Future” offering. “The Walking Dead” managed to buck expectations, by making a zombie game less about split-second action (ala “Left 4 Dead”) and more about what goes on in between attacks from creeping death; in other words, the often intense human interactions.
Over four installments, Telltale has built up a tremendously emotionally trying story, having players assume the role of Lee Everett; a prisoner turned group leader and protector of an orphaned girl, Clementine. As Lee and Clementine’s journey progressed to the epic conclusion laid out in the fifth and final installment, the aptly named, “No Time Left,” Lee’s group has changed, often as a result of player choices, most dramatically at the conclusion of episode four, where your attitudes and interactions with characters might leave some players racing against impending death, following Lee’s heart stopping encounter with a walker, but more importantly on a quest to save Clementine from a mysterious and sinister voice on the walkie talkie.
Video Review
The stylized look of the series continues in this installment, with solid colors and strong texture work; however, like prior installments, there are some technical hiccups. Apart from some animations not being as fluid as desired, the framerate can still drop during cutscenes as the game engine has to adjust for changes in the narrative based on your decisions. While some of these snags can be jarring, it doesn’t detract terribly from the immersion in the game. The bottom line is the game as a whole will never be flawless in the visuals department unless, what now seems like unavoidable, technical glitches are completely wiped from the game engine.
Audio Review
Nothing in the game, save for the voice work, in “The Walking Dead” games fights for the spotlight in terms of being outstanding. As with other titles, the game goes for a realistic, if minimalist sound design with silence or the most subtle environmental sound effects providing handfuls more tension than a cloying creepy score or cheap jump effects could ever dream of. Effects are naturally and cleanly mixed, providing immersion, while the voice work once again is top notch.
Smart, brilliantly executed, and heartbreaking, the fifth and final chapter of “The Walking Dead” is not only the finest episodic game released to date, but worthy of being called the 2012 Game of the Year. It might not be as visually stunning as your cookie-cutter annual franchise offerings, but it’s the heart and raw emotion, professionally conveyed through smart, careful planning and writing, that elevates it beyond a mere game to a work of art, that frankly, surpasses its source roots and television counterpart.