Friday 23 November 2012

In Which I Heap Untold Praise on The Walking Dead: The Game

Telltale Games has done something truly remarkable with The Walking Dead: The Game. They took a choose-your-own adventure in a recognizable, post-apocalyptic society - an ingenious enough idea on its own - yet managed to turn it into something more. It furthers the idea of games as a storytelling medium and over the course of all five chapters of season 1 they manage to redefine the very genre of adventure gaming.

I've held off reviewing each individual episode as they came out because I felt the game was better-served to be judged on the whole rather than as the sum of its varying parts. This is something I stand by as the game has high points (episodes 2 and 5 are brilliant) and parts where the story bogs down a little bit (parts of episodes 3 and 4), but taken a single, overarching story you can really appreciate it that much more.

Episode 1 starts out simply enough - as Lee Everett, you find yourself in the back of a cop car, headed towards prison just outside of Atlanta as the world is very slowly going to Hell in a handbasket. For the first time in Walking Dead canon, this shows what the apocalypse was like in the early days (as previous instances had Rick waking up from his coma several weeks after the fall of society) so it's interesting to see things from a slightly different perspective this time around. Inevitably, of course, the car hits a walker, crashes and Lee escapes - thus starting his journey.

I'm not going to touch on any plot points because this is really something you should experience for yourself, but, as you would expect in a zombie game, you meet people who will form the basis of a survival group. You'll get along with some, you'll want to kill some, some you'll just wish would get eaten alive so you won't have to listen to them anymore (*cough* Ben *cough*). Episode 1 has a couple of cameos from existing Walking Dead characters (Hershel of 'Hershel's Farm' fame and everyone's favourite college-educated pizza-delivery guy, Glenn) but thankfully they are off-screen quick enough that they don't act as a distraction. I liken it to the developers saying, "Hey, look - our story is taking place in the same universe!" but they smartly allow it to become Lee's story. And that's important because, as Lee, you will mould the way your group of survivors react. Will they be forthright and honest? Will you backstab them? When the going gets tough, will you run or will you refuse to leave anyone behind? All of these choices - some of which appear to be rather inconsequential at the time you make them - serve to round out your playthrough. Couple this with several quick-time events that can dramatically change how scenes play out and the time-limit you're given to choose your dialoague options (gone are the days where you can just mindlessly ask every single question that comes up on your dialogue wheel until you find out what you need to know - The Walking Dead demands you pay stay on your toes and you can only say one thing. And the character you're speaking to *will remember*. So think long and hard before you call Lily a bitch.) and it's not surprising to find that this is a game that encourages multiple playthroughs. How many other adventure games can say that, right?

A game that's as heavily character driven as this one needs good voice acting to really enhance the story that the writers are trying to tell and thankfully The Walking Dead has some of the best voice acting I've heard in a while. Featuring several of the company's stable of voice actors (If you've played Back To The Future or Sam & Max chances are you'll recognize some of the voices), the work is uniformly excellent. What might be most shocking is 8-year old Clementine - a character who you will quickly learn serves as the emotional heart of the story - who is actually played by a 40-year old woman.

If a game can be judged on artistic merit by its ability to illicit emotional responses, the finale of The Walking Dead may well be Telltale's Mona Lisa. The finale is frantic yet emotional and heartfelt and as beautiful as something knee-deep in zombie gore could possibly be. The fact that it can manage to be that satisfying, however, is only because the previous acts grew and developed characters and a story that we were interested and invested in. It is truly a case where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Geek Score: 10 out of 10 bacon strips (Golden Bacon award!)

What I'm Playing: The Old Republic (free to play!) on PC, Dishonored on XBox 360

What I'm Reading: Sweet Tooth vol. 5 by Jeff Lemire (only one more trade after this one. *sniff*)

Friday 2 November 2012

Denzel Helps Flight Navigate Turbulent Air

Flight soars in its opening act, levels off and then loses altitude in its final third. In spite of this, it's still a great film, owing mainly to a fantastic, tour-de-force performance by Denzel Washington.

In the opening sequence we meet Captain 'Whip' Whitaker (Denzel Washington), a fellow whom we quickly discover is not your atypical film hero. We open to find Whip in a hotel room with a nude woman and several half-empty liquor bottles strewn about. His phone rings, he answers, has a relatively uncomfortable conversation with his ex-wife and then, bleary-eyed and half-drunk, proceeds to the airport where the movie really takes off (both literally *and* figuratively).

Part of what makes Whitaker such a compelling character is the fact that, at times, he is downright despicable. He's impossible to root for, yet Denzel plays him with enough longing and depth that you can't help but feel for him on some level. Part of you hates him, but you can't look away. And while the opening sequence demonstrates that even though he's a damaged human being, he is an *incredible* pilot. He's simultaneously a hero and a cad. Throughout the film, a classic rock soundtrack (featuring several Rolling Stones songs) harkens back to the 60s and 70s - a time when pilots were rock stars. This is fitting with the way that Whitaker sees himself. He's brash and egotistical (he'll tell anyone who listens, "No one but me could have landed that plane!") and downright abrasive - a true anti-hero.

In addition to Denzel, director Robert Zemeckis has assembled a great cast featuring Don Cheadle (as Whitaker's lawyer) and John Goodman (who is continuing his recent renaissance as a supporting role-player, following his brilliant turn in Argo - as Whitaker's coke dealer). Though much will be made of the fact that Zemeckis hasn't dealt with 'live' actors in over a decade, he still gets quite a bit out of his cast - dramatic when they need to be, wrenching when they can be and even darkly comedic when the opportunities arise.

And speaking of Zemeckis, his first live action film since Cast Away suffers from some mild pacing issues (the middle third of the film runs on a little too long - yes, we get it. Whitaker is a drunk.) but the high points definitely outweigh the lows. Specifically, the scene featuring the crash is quite simply the most terrifying on-screen representation of a plane crashing that I've ever seen. Forget about the pilot of Lost - this will make you never want to board a 747 again. Throughout the film, the use of classic rock (specifically the Rolling Stones) harkens back to the 70s - an era when

A review of this film would be incomplete if it didn't touch on the somewhat-hamfisted (in my opinion, anyway) denouement. I'll remain as spoiler-free as I can, but let's just say that the end of the film doesn't quite fit with how I perceived Whitaker's character. I understand *why* it ended the way it did, I totally get the motivation, I just don't know if I 'felt' it. It just struck me as rather abrupt, mainly - the entire film had been running one way and then they make a sharp turn. It felt like the ending was forced.

Despite the turbulence in its final act, Flight is a daring, dramatic character-study that still manages to soar at times, and will likely earn Denzel Washington another Best Actor nomination.

Geek Score:

7 out of 10 Bacon Strips



What I'm Playing: Borderlands 2 for PC, Dishonored for XBox

What I'm Reading: Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman