The Walking Dead is big money these days. The initial comic series has spun off into a mega successful TV show and the fantastic game series from Telltale that many pegged as the best game of last year. Now, lo and behold, here comes The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct, the almost inevitable first-person shooter take on the franchise.
Telltale’s The Walking Dead series was based in the world of the original comics, but Survival Instinct is an FPS that takes place before the start of the TV show. Players control fan favourite and certified badass Daryl Dixon, as he and brother Merle fight their way through the Georgia countryside and try to maintain the instinct… to SURVIVE. Survival Instinct is being developed by Terminal Reality, creators of such hits as, erm, Kinect Star Wars, and, uh, BloodRayne. But hey, new
year, new start, new game!
Early alpha footage shows Daryl stalking through desolate towns with a variety of melee weapons, stealthily avoiding zombies when possible and taking them down up close if he has to. The action seems in keeping with the show, where bullets are scarce and gunshots attract zombies. Close combat is the order of the day, the footage showing swift executions with a knife to a zombified face. Daryl’s
signature crossbow has already made an appearance in early screenshots, to the delight of fans. We wait with baited breath to see if you can yank a used arrow out of an ex-zombie’s skull like in the show.
Make it happen, Terminal Reality! From what we’ve seen, Survival Instinct will reward a slower pace and a more cerebral approach. Walkers will track the player with sight, sound and smell (not taste?), and once Daryl is discovered, it isn’t long before a horde of hungry dead guys show up on his doorstep. Stealth seems to be the main course of this particular spread, but we will eat our hats if some high-octane blasting sections don’t make an appearance too. Have to appeal to the Call Of Duty crowd, after all. Norman Reedus and Michael Rooker, Daryl and Merle respectively, are confirmed to be reprising their roles, but only time will tell if it’s the good type of celebrity voice acting or the bad, “I’m really bored and only doing this because I’m contractually obliged to” kind.
Other characters from the TV show seem unlikely, but the brothers redneck will encounter various persons in their journey to the “safe-haven” of Atlanta. How much these social interactions will shape the game remains to be seen, but it seems unlikely Survival Instinct will be as open-ended as its Telltale-developed cousin. After all, here we know what happens once the game ends.
The two very different Walking Dead games highlight the differences between triple-A spin-offs and smaller, indie studios. Survival Instinct is being made to appeal to as many people as possible, ticking boxes as design rolls along. It all looks well-made, but a bit clinical and uninspired, the sort of thing you would typically expect from a licensed videogame. Telltale’s series was an adventure game, in 2012! It had framerate issues and bugs up the wazoo, but we loved it because it told a phenomenal
story. And, of course, Clementine. The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct has the potential to be a vital part of the larger Walking Dead canon. Tense firstperson zombie-dodging has already been proven to work in DayZ, and if it can make the player feel as awesome as Daryl Dixon is, we could have a winner on our hands.
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