The Walking Dead Season 8 returns tonight with a kind of creeping dread that evokes the series' horror in a way the creators did perhaps not intend. It's not the kind of unease that comes with uncertainty in the face of a endless zombie horde, but rather the exhaustion that comes with an aimless series that lurches ever forward without much of a sense of where it's going, or why. The mid-season finale was one of the worst-reviewed episodes in the show's run, leaving fans confused and upset about the seemingly unnecessary -- though not totally confirmed -- death of a certain character. The show has been bleeding viewers for a while now, and you get the feeling many of those that remain are just rubbernecking. So here's a suggestion: if you don't want to see whatever nonsense happens in the mid-season premiere but still want a good dose of zombie-infused hopelessness, give this Walking Dead's video game a shot.
I'm not talking about any Walking Dead video game: unlike, say, Game of Thrones, the Walking Dead has been pretty fast and loose with its license, and there are a couple of truly awful Walking Dead games out there. I'm talking about Telltale's The Walking Dead, a story-driven experience that prioritizes tough choices and in-depth dialogue over action and led the charge for an entire genre over the past few years.
Telltale's games don't borrow any plot or characters from AMC's show, opting instead to use both the general setting and emotional atmosphere as as a jumping-off point for an entirely new story. The first season follows two survivors wandering through Georgia: Lee Everett, a History Teacher on his way to prison when society collapses and Clementine, a young girl who he takes under his wing. Throughout the game, they'll do Walking Dead stuff: meet survivors, avoid Walkers and do their best to navigate the brutal moral minefield of a new, dangerous world. The stylized visuals are pretty different from the show, but it does an impressive job evoking that same sense of survival and uncertainty that made the show so popular.
If video games aren't your thing, know that these games aren't much like other games. The gameplay revolves almost entirely around choosing what you're going to say in scenes of branching dialogue, and the action that is in the game is straightforward and easy to manage even for the novice. It's available on a ton of different platforms, as well, so you can play even if all you've got is an Android or iOS device, or even a Kindle Fire.
The Walking Dead games might borrow a bit too much from the main series: it's gotten worse as it's gone on, and the first season is still the best-reviewed. That doesn't mean the later installments are anything to sneeze at, however, and they're still a better bet than the show at this point. If you need off this particular runaway train but still can't do without your zombie fix, maybe give Telltale a roll.
