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The Walking Dead: 400 Days
The five episodes that made up the first season of The Walking Dead spent a lot of time making you care for characters before asking you to make hard choices. 400 Days, the DLC episode instead focuses on five separate stories, so it doesn't have the luxury of lavish character introductions. You are thrown into the middle of an important event in your chosen character's life and then have to deal with the fallout.
Because the stories are so short, the entire episode can be completed in about 90 minutes, it is hard to reveal anything without any spoilers. You can play the stories in any order and the only real connection most of them have is their location-- a truck stop on a Georgia highway. The timeframes also differ wildly, from the first day of the zombie outbreak up until 400 days later. The focus is once again on the characters and how they deal with the chaotic circumstances that have been thrust upon them instead of the actual undead. Vince is a convicted prisoner on his way to jail when the apocalypse hits, while Russell, a young hitchhiker, gets into even more trouble while trying to flee from a bad situation. Then there is Shel, a young woman trying to shield her little sister from the horrors of a zombie infested world and Bonnie, the reformed drug addict, who finds herself being chased by mysterious assailants. Finally we have Wyatt who, along with his friend, is on the run after an encounter with some other survivors apparently went south. Each episode offers only the bare minimum of back-story before you are required to start making life or death choices. It is a testament to the brilliance of the Telltale writers that they manage to establish such strong character personalities in such a short time. The writing is very solid and the dialogue interesting throughout. Obviously the shorter runtime doesn't allow for the kind of empathy that Lee and Clementine garnered throughout season one, but I still found myself torn between some of the choices I was forced to make. Some of the choices felt a little bit forced in the "damned if you do, damned if you don't" kind of way, but overall I was impressed by the dilemmas that Telltale has introduced this time round. 400 Days is a DLC episode, so it requires at least one episode of the original season to run, but don't expect to find out more about Lee or Clementine. There are a few nods to the choices you made during season one but these are relatively minor. Telltale has also hinted that your actions will influence season two, but I have no idea to what extend this will be the case. The focus of this episode is storytelling, so it wastes no time on exploration or puzzle solving. Instead, you talk to other survivors and then make your choices based on the facts presented. Each story is different so one scenario might see you sneaking around to avoid pursuers while another has you desperately scrambling to find and pick up a set of car keys dropped inside a car. The variation and different pace that each story has, along with the short runtime, prevents the episode from ever becoming boring. I didn't like all of the characters, but I can appreciate the story and circumstances that Telltale has crafted for them. This episode runs on the same engine as the original episodes so things look pretty much the same as always. The graphic novel style has lost none of its charm and the new locations look great. I was also impressed all over by the caliber of voice acting and none of the performances hit a sour note. While 400 Days wasn't quite as good as the best episodes in season one, it does bridge the gap until season two. You don't need to have played any of the previous episodes to enjoy this DLC, but if you have not yet played season one you really should. Whether the choices made in 400 Days will have a major impact on season two remains to be seen, but despite the brevity of the story it is still an essential purchase for fans of the series.
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System Requirements
TAGS: The Walking Dead, 400 Days, DLC, Vince, Shel, Bonnie, Russell, Wyatt,
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