Tell Tales, The Walking Dead (Vita) Game Review

http://www.telltalegames.com/games/
Rating - M 17 (US), PEGI 18 (Europe), MA 15+ (Australia)

Last year Tell Tales, The Walking Dead got most people's Game of the Year on all major consoles.  In July 2013 we got 400 Days as a DLC to keep us going until Season 2.  Now it's all wrapped up for AU$25 through digital download for Vita.  In some ways, it works better than it did on the other consoles.

You start off playing as Lee Everett on his way to jail, and then you are thrown into the Apocalypse about five minutes into the game. You then meet Clementine, and take on a father role for the rest of the series.  You are eventually introduced to the rest of the group, and the choices you make will effect the overall ending, even the minor choices.

The great thing about The Walking Dead is that it is so simple that anyone who isn't particularly good at games can just pick it up and enjoy the story, and the controls are simple, point and click, 'pick up this object and take it over there' types.  The cell animation hasn't changed from the other console versions, as far as I can tell, and in some ways it looks better, with the occasional loading lag. I played through at least one of the episodes with the touch screen controls and it just felt like playing a good mobile phone game, but a bit wonky at times, because sometimes I accidentally picked the wrong conversation box and insulted somebody when meaning to say something else.

Sometimes the voice acting can be a bit goofy, and some of the characters can be a bit thick, eg. at one point in the game someone could not get a radio working and it turned out that there were no batteries inside; when I found the batteries for her she put them in backwards, so I had to redo them for her.  Guess who's going to get eaten?

The music is as good as ever but the Vita's speakers don't enhance it, so I recommend headphones.

Overall score

Presentation    9.3 (with the occasional pointy bit of cell animation  popping out, and the relationships you make over the game are brilliant)

Sound     9.0 (great soundtrack, and mostly good voice acting with some exceptions)

Gameplay    8.5 (good if you are teaching someone mature to play a good game, but maybe a bit boring for advanced gamers; more something you do in your leisure time)

Lasting Appeal    9.3 (great game if you ever just want to go back and experience the story again, and explore the different choices you can make)

Verdict                             9.6
  (they took one of last year's game and redid it slightly, but it's better than the original)

Look out for regular weekly reviews.  I welcome any suggestions for games to review (but not for the X-box).