The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor

    The Governor is, assuredly, the most enduring villain created by Robert Kirkman for the Walking Dead franchise. He's a character who emerges fully-formed from the zombie apocalypse and proceeds to destroy everything good our heroes have tried to build in the horrors of the new world. I've seen him compared favorably to Stephen King's Randal Flagg.

    The one in the TV show is almost a completely different character but represents the same fundamental animus: the warlord who would rather destroy what competes with his kingdom than cooperate with someone other than himself.

    How does one write a book about such a character?

    Well, not like this.

    Giving a backstory for an archetype of evil is always tricky business. A lot of readers expect evil to be grand, operatic, and glorious. Like John Milton's Satan, they expect the Devil to have a beauty even as he falls from Heaven. Others, perhaps understanding we shouldn't glorify the monster, recognize the wicked are more often failed painters and petty bureaucrats. The Governor of the Walking Dead comic books was a sick and twisted man, so what is his backstory?

    Well, the answer would spoil the book but I can't say it was terribly satisfying. The book sets up a semi-grand and operatic fall from grace with the (already spoiled by the comic) loss of the Governor's daughter and then undermines it by showing us the absolutely petty mindset which misappropriates those feelings. It creates an uneven character who is as much show and flash as substance.

    Who is the Governor?

    The Governor is a man who is covering for his inadequacies by projecting an attitude of complete badassery. A warrior created from a petty man's desire to reinvent himself as a hero, even as his role-model is a pathetic shell of a man already given to insanity. Like modeling yourself on a heroic cowboy you found out murdered Native Americans for fun and adopting that part of his legend because it came with the package. If I was feeling generous, I'd say it was saying something clever about the nature of evil. That it is imitative and pathetic, not grandiose.

    I'm not feeling generous.

    The premise of this novel is Phillip Blake and his brother Brian are traveling with the former's daughter Penny through the ruins of Atlanta. Phillip is the stronger of the two brothers, a warrior and leader, while Brian is a gentle tag-along who is also kind of a screw up. Phillip wants to be the kind of hero and leader they need but he's covering up for his own inadequacies. When they reach another group of survivors, these tensions eventually snap in a horrific way that changes everything.

     The book is relatively light on action as well as scares. With the exception of the Blake Brothers and the doomed-by-canon Penny, the majority of characters don't make too much of an impression. The most likable characters disappear halfway through the novel and I was annoyed we never got to see them again. Without a strong supporting central cast, the horror of the zombie apocalypse is never quite realized as well as it should be. Say what you will about the comics but you almost always care when the heroes get one of their own eaten. The takeover of Woodbury is almost an afterthought when I thought it could justify its own book.

    Readers should be warned this book contains a rape scene about halfway through the book. I normally would be extremely harsh on this, especially given how I'm treating the rest of the book, but this actually played a major role in the narrative. It is handled not for exploitation value but to show the degeneration of a character's mindset as well as the point he degenerates from a hero into a monster. The fact the focus is on the emotional element of the event rather than the physical helps go a long way to redeeming it narratively. Still, I'm going to say a lot of readers may be uncomfortable with it and avoid the book as a result.

    Justifiably so.

    In conclusion, The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor isn't a great book. It's not a terrible book and has some excellent scenes in it, but I felt like it didn't really give us all that much insight into the mindset of the Governor. He's a guy, who some bad stuff happened to, who went crazy. I could have guessed that from his comic book appearance and the "twist" didn't really add all that much. The rest of the book is an above-average zombie story.

    Sorry guys.

6/10

The Walking Dead Vol. 4: Heart's Desire review

    The Walking Dead is a series I'm greatly fond of but I am forced to take in small doses. I am a great fan of bleakness and uncompromising narrative, but I have to spread out my appreciation of such. That's my excuse for why I haven't reviewed a trade since July of 2014 and I'm sticking to it. Totally not me getting caught up in other things.

    Hehe.

    I liked this volume because it's a follow up to Safety Behind Bars. The book begins when Rick Grimes takes his first step down the road to Hell by murdering a fellow human being in order to keep the prison for the group. Said human being was trying to force them out but "the greater good" is a very flimsy justification for doing so, especially when they'd just accused him of murdering two girls for no real reason.

    Much of this book deals with the fallout from Rick's choice, culminating in the group losing faith in his leadership. Rick doesn't really want to be the sole leader, anyway, but is outraged at the idea he's losing it. Rick needs the reassurance everything he's doing is for the greater good and having the group question that is far more hurtful than the idea he's the leader. Rick wants less to be the leader than to be "right."

    We also get the arrivel of series staple Michonne. Said character arrives with her pair of chained up zombies, a katana, and almost no past. Michonne is an interesting character because she seems to come from a different genre than the otherwise realistic survivors. Several months in and Michonne has adapted to becoming a superhero-esque zombie-slayer.

    Michonne's presence is both a blessing and a curse for the group. She brings a considerable boon to the group's security but she also seduces Tyreese within hours of her arrival. This disrupts the group's dynamic as Tyreese was in a relationship with Carol. It's not like on the outside where a break-up is a bad thing but people get over it. Everyone's hope for the future is hanging by a thread.

    One of the most memorable moments in the entire series, iconic even, ends this volume as it also reveals one of the fundamentals of the comic's "rules" for zombies. I'm not a suicidal man by nature but, I've got to tell you, this revelation would have me contemplating taking a bullet over continuing.

    I think the best part of this volume is the fact it manages to find the sweet spot between gritty depression as well as humanist hope. There's deaths in this book but they're not so overwhelming or bleak we lose hope for the survivors. Instead, it's an almost cerebral meditation on the basic questions of how much our survivors want to give up of the old world in order to survive in the new.

    In conclusion, this is one of my favorite volumes in The Walking Dead. The focus is on the characters and the situations which arise as a result of the apocalypse. It's a rather slow volume but it's entertaining, believable, and full of hints for what is to come. I'm also a fan of the Michonne character as her out-of-genreness works with the fact everyone reacts to her like she's a crazy yet awesome person.

10/10

The Walking Dead: Season 2: Episode 5: No Going Back review

    Wow.

    That was a trip.

    No Going Back is, easily, the best of the Season 2's episodes. I also think it's got some of the most troublesome plot twists. A lot of the drama is forced and requires the characters to act like idiots but I was willing to overlook this because the story was so good. The funny thing is this is probably the least "plot-centric" episode of the series and works due to the strength of its characterization.

    The premise of this episode is the group has survived its shoot-out with some Russian Survivors and is now stuck with a teenage boy who was traveling with them. Kenny doesn't trust him because, well, the boy was part of the group which just tried to rob them.  The rest of the group doesn't trust Kenny due to his violent murder of a character in Episode 3 and his depressed rage from his second wife's death.

    The group splitting up is something which was foreshadowed in Episode 4 and the events which do it are shocking. By the end, you will probably hate some characters you previously liked and possibly killed some.

Tensions rise in the group for very good reasons. Also, because everyone hates everyone else.

    Either way, Clementine will know the sting of betrayal.

    Or she'll commit it herself.

    The theme of No Going Back seems to be, "sometimes good people will do bad things when they're scared." No one is evil in this episode. Even if you buy into some conspiracy theories about the character of Arvo, he's just a guy stuck with the people who killed his group. Everyone just wants to be safe and that means getting rid of the people they don't trust. The sad part? The only person trusted by everyone is Clementine.

    And she can't keep this group together.

    One thing I liked about this episode was the fact Telltale forgoes its usually railroading to allow no less than five different endings. While none of the choices really "matter" until this point, the final choices can have a dramatic effect on who lives or who dies. I'm happy with my ending, Clementine staying true to herself and not abandoning those she loves. I've seen the other endings, though, and they are pretty damn bleak.

    So I guess I lucked out.

Amazing how a touching moment like this can go downhill so quickly.

     Sadly, as I mentioned, some of the characters are required to be idiots. They must be willing to go over, rather than around, an avoidable natural hazard. They must be willing to trust the opinion of a relative newcomer to someone they know well. They must be willing to endanger their own lives in order to make another character appear less trustworthy. Really, the characters make stupid decisions this episode. I can't be too mad at them, though, because people in real-life do that under stress.

    As a finale to Season 2, No Going Back was a good one.There's some truly powerful moments like a flashback to Season 1, the fate of a character who I'd grown to like, all of the finales, and conversations where you get into the heads of characters who all want your approval. Clementine is the glue which keeps this group together but none of them really see her. I was glad for the opportunity to mention, in-universe, no one listens to Clementine even when she's talking sense. No wonder this group was doomed.

My ending actually brought tears to my eyes. Okay, not really, but it came close.

    Some gamers may complain the finale for Season 2 isn't very well plotted out but I think the actual plot-plot ended with Episode 3. Carver was the main threat which drove the story and everything else is just denouement. The threats which menace Clementine here are human nature and distrust, which can't be shot or beaten to death with a crowbar. It's a nice contrast to the Stranger plot which so dominated the end of Season 1.

    Goodbye Season 2, I look forward to your sequel.

    10/10

The Walking Dead Season 2: Episode 4: Amid the Ruins review

    I got spoiled for Amid the Ruins by the internet. It was my own damn fault, really, and the spoilers were so bad that I decided to put off playing the game for three whole months. I'm over my feelings, however, so I'm going to continue my review.

    Amid the Ruins picks up immediately after the events of In Harm's Way. Our heroes are fleeing from Howe's Hardware (a converted Lowes stand-in), covered in Walker-guts, with a herd of zombies descending upon it. Their plan of escape has already hit a few snags as Kenny's new wife Sarita gets bitten in the process, Carlos is mistaken for a zombie and shot, plus Sarah runs away screaming after her father is killed.

    The idea that there could actually be a video game bleaker and more tragic than the original Walking Dead video game surprises me but this episode confirms Season 2 is it. Amid the Ruins takes the already dark and tragic storyline to new lows. Without spoiling, quite a few sympathetic characters die in this episode no matter what Clementine does.

Poor Kenny. Poor, poor Kenny. Poor Sarita too.

    Much of the episode is based around the group fleeing to an old Civil War memorial which is neither filled with supplies or capable of providing adequate shelter to the survivors. It is, unfortunately, all they've got since events have utterly screwed them over. Rebecca is about ready to have her baby and Kenny is traumatized by the events back at Howe's Hardware. This includes losing an eye and what happened with his wife.

    The character of Jane gets a lot of focus this episode and we get a sense of who she is, which is good because she seems like an interesting character. We get a general idea of how traumatizing living on your own can be as well as why it might appeal to some individuals. As the Simon and Garfunkle song goes, "A rock feels no pain and an island never cries."

    Unfortunately, this episode is hampered by the fact all of Clementine's actions feel pointless. Clementine can go to extreme lengths to try to save endangered characters but nothing she does will make the slightest bit of difference. This episode is squarely on the rails and while you can choose how you're going to fail, you can't choose to succeed. I found this to be disingenuous.

No, you don't get to fire it. A pity.

    The series has always been pretty linear but this episode is one of the few times it becomes frustrating. The game feels like it's punishing you for attempting to save certain characters and there's even a lengthy lecture by Jane about how you "just can't save some people." I found this to be annoying.

    Despite this, there's several gut-wrenching and emotional moments spread throughout the episode. For those players who are fond of Kenny, as I am, this is the episode which will be the most heartbreaking for him since Episode 3 of the first season. He's truly teetering on the edge and I'm worried the game won't give me the option to save him. I was a fan of the Sarah character and her plotline during all this really moved me.

Our heroes never catch a break.

     I'll miss some of the characters killed in Amid the Ruins and I'm a little disturbed the storyline seems to be setting up Clementine for a "Lone Survivor" ending. Given she's already survived the destruction of one group already, this is problematic. In order for you to care about survivors, they have to survive.

    In conclusion, this is a really good episode but the the rail-road tracks for your decision are much-much visible than in previous episode. I'm getting a little sick of it to be honest and the lack of freedom is hampering my enjoyment. The storytelling is still top-notch, though, and I hope we'll continue to see it until the end.

8/10

The Walking Dead Season 2: Episode 3: In Harm's Way review

    Note: Due to the nature of serialized storytelling, this will contain spoilers for the episodes prior to the one I'm reviewing.

    In Harm’s Way is the third installment of Season Two of The Walking Dead video game franchise. I have to admit, I’m genuinely surprised as much happened in this episode as it did. I would have thought a few of the events would have been saved for the climax. Then again, Season One threw everything but the kitchen sink at players in Episode Three so I shouldn’t be surprised.

    The premise is Clementine, Kenny, Sarita, and the Cabin Survivors have all been captured by the mysterious Carver. Carver is, apparently, the father of Rebecca’s unborn child and has captured the group in order to return them to his settlement. Telltale Games chooses a hilarious location to place Carver’s erstwhile kingdom and I can think of no better place to build an empire.

    The role of Walkers is reduced in this episode and they assume a different sort of threat to the lone stalkers from previous episodes. Instead, the Walkers take on the role of a coming natural disaster like a storm or earthquake which humans may or may not be prepared to deal with. The focus, instead, is on humans and how they react when penned in together like animals. Carver claims all of his harsh draconian methods are necessary for the greater good but are they?

The threat this time is from your fellow humans and it's a much more severe one than the St. John brothers.

    It’s interesting how roleplaying was such a major concern of mine during my playthrough. Despite this episode lacking choices to support Carver, my Clementine was torn between her burgeoning loyalty to the Cabin Survivors (who had treated her like garbage until realizing she was useful) and the desire to be part of a kingdom which is seemingly safe against Walker attacks.

Like the Governor in the television series, we get a sense as to why people would want to follow Carver while also understanding why he’s not the man they think he is. He’s an extremely well-realized character and if he’s not as terrifying or memorable as the Governor then he’s at least the best villain they’ve created for this franchise.

    The addition of Kenny to the group livens up things considerably and I found the Cabin survivors much more likable this time around than in previous episodes. It’s really a shame so many defining events happen this episode because I would have liked to have seen more of the dynamic they start to show before the climax. Unfortunately, the character of Nick is marginalized given he could die in Episode Two. I fully expect him to not play much role in future episodes or die. This is a shame since I like Nick significantly more than the character of Luke.

Carver remains the best villain of he video games thus far.

    The new survivors added to the group are interesting and offer some intriguing reflections into Clementine’s own developing character. The character of June, in particular, may represent the hardened survivor Clementine may become in the future—at the cost of nearly the entirety of her humanity. Is this the Clementine that chooses not to be a part of a group? The character of Sarah, however, shows the dangers of relying too much on others as she is almost completely helpless without her adults to look after her.

     This episode is a tight mix of action, puzzle-solving, role-playing, and everything else which makes a good Telltale episode. Clementine's character developed more in this episode than any other one save, perhaps, Episode Five of Season One. That's pretty high praise and watching poor Clem try to claim her independence from a group determined to protect her (but unable to protect themselves) is a story arc which reaches its climax here.

    The explosion action-filled final part of this chapter is something I give Telltale a lot of credit for too. Just when you think the emotional beats of this episode have reached their conclusion, the Episode throws three or four more at you. If the Cabin Survivors had been as likable and interesting as they were during this chapter, tI wouldn’t have been nearly so critical of the first two chapters. In any case, I consider this to be the best of the Season Two episodes thus far and am anxiously looking forward to Episode Four.

10/10

The Walking Dead Season 2: Episode 2: A House Divided review

    Note: Due to the nature of serialized storytelling, this will contain spoilers for the episodes prior to the one I'm reviewing.

    The episodic nature of the Telltale video games is both a blessing as well as a curse. It's a blessing because it's rare you get serialized storytelling this good. For a fraction of the cost of a full-priced video game, you get an hour and a half of re-playable storytelling for less than the price of a movie ticket.

    The curse element is, like your favorite television show, there's expansive waits between. Waiting for the end of Season 2 of The Walking Dead video game is something I know a lot of Season 1 fans are doing because they don't want to have to wait for the resolution to the plots within. I liken it to waiting for a television show to come out on DVD. Thankfully, I still have a couple of episodes before that becomes an issue.

Poor Clementine is always taking point.

    The premise of A House Divided is Clementine has been separated from her guardian, Crista. Forced to survive on her own, she's managed to find herself with a new group of survivors. Unfortunately, these survivors are considerably more hostile to her than her previous group and the only one who was unconditionally accepting is either bitten or dead by the beginning of this episode.

    A House Divided, as might be inferred by the title of the game, is about how distrustful humans have become since the apocalypse. The simple act of celebrating Christmas, something which brought about ceasefires during World War 1, has become something riff with lies and secrets. There are still good people out there but the episode examines whether or not they're smart for being so. Several times during this game, "doing the right thing" has disastrous consequences.

    Of course, so does doing the wrong thing. Clever, Telltale.

    While the first episode showed how Clementine is entirely capable of taking care of herself, this episode takes the time to develop the characters she is traveling with. We find out why they're so distrustful of strangers, even ones in the shape of an eleven-year-old girl. We also meet someone who has the potential to be the most memorable bad guy of not just this season but the entire Walking Dead video game franchise.

At least the new survivors can shoot.

    It was spoiled by the "trailer" at the end of Episode 1 that Clementine was going to be meeting up with someone she thought dead and I'm of mixed feelings about this character's survival. Still, in retrospect, I think it was necessary to bring back someone from the original group for Clementine to deal with. While already one of the darkest video games of all time, Season 2 is shaping up to make the original season look like "the good old days."

    The new villain, Carver, is a character I find quite appealing and I'm glad Telltale decided to create a "Governor-like" figure for Season 2. I felt the absence of any survivors in the "micro-nation" of Crawford was a missed opportunity. The fact Carver seems more intelligent, capable, and better suited to surviving the apocalypse than the current band Clementine is traveling with makes the developing storyline all the more intriguing to me.

    I also approve of the morality subtext to this episode. Whether or not one is religious, it's interesting to have a holiday traditionally associated with family and togetherness be a night when you might endeavor to conceal something horrible from an innocent man for your own protection. Given the way the Walking Dead video games have shown "the best intentions" to go horribly arry, it was really a struggle for me to decide what was the right thing to do.

    I was pleased by the tie-ins to 400 Days, too.

Carver and Clementine's talk is pure genius.

     Of all the new survivors, I think I'm the most fond of Nick. My Clementine and he bonded over the tragedy of the previous game and their conversation after said event was really touching. The later events flow from what happened to his uncle Pete and watching him come to terms with them as well as his later mistakes really moved me. By comparison, I can't say I've bonded with any of the other characters.

    Unfortunately, the new group of survivors isn't quite as awesome as the "original recipe" group. I instantly bonded with all of them and think of them as some of my favorite characters in video games. The only duds for me were Crista and Omid. None of the new characters here are bad, per se, but I can't say I care whether they live or die. The one I like the most is Nick and events make me wonder if he'll have much of a role at all in future episodes. Sadly, the character I'm most interested in the fate of is the Season 1 survivor.

9/10

The Walking Dead Season 2: Episode 1: All That Remains

    After finishing All That Remains, I am left with one simple fact: Clementine is one hardcore [censored].

    I've played a lot of characters over my decades of video gaming. I've played plumbers, elves, Dragonborn, white-haired half-demons, and so on but it's interesting one of the toughest seems to be the person who is outwardly the most innocent. Except, there's nothing about Clementine left which is innocent.

    Do not screw with this eleven-year-old.

    It's an interesting transition to make and one with a bunch of time-skips. At the start of the game you're several months in from the original game and a surviving character is very far along in her pregnancy. After a shocking turn of events, the game proceeds to skip ahead another sixteen month. Clementine goes from being a nine-year-old to a eleven-year-old in short order and we're left to extrapolate what's happened in the meantime.

    The fact they chose to go to some raw, emotionally disturbing moments with Clementine's relationship to the other survivors surprised me and made me wonder if Telltale was going, perhaps, too far.

    Nah. Not here at least.

The callbacks to Season One are frequent and touching.

    The premise of The Walking Dead Season Two is Clementine has taken over the role of protagonist. What has happened to Lee and her previous group is something you'll have to play the original to find out but, for the sake of discussing the story, it should be known our heroine gets separated from the only people in the world she still knows.

    Telltale Games does a masterful job of establishing the subtle horror of being a child in the post-apocalyptic world. The game emphasizes Clementine doesn't have much upper body strength so when she has to kill a zombie, and she will have to kill zombies, she can't kill them with a blow to the head like Lee. Every adult towers over her like a kind of giant, ignoring her advice because they can't take her seriously. A small wild animal is, potentially, as much a threat to her as they have been to children throughout history.

    Yet, despite this, Clementine is portrayed as an extraordinarily competent but believable example of a survivor. Lee has trained her well and she's able to make use of what few benefits she has (being able to mover quickly as well as hide) in order to survive the zombie apocalypse. Clementine still makes mistakes, some stupid ones, but how many dumb decisions did you make when you were eleven?

    The new characters introduced in this episode are a bit hit and miss for me. It's obvious Telltale Games is going for a more suspicious, less friendly bunch of survivors than the almost family-esque atmosphere of the original. I won't say more other than the fact I was longing for the days of Larry who, at least, had the decency to consider a little girl something to be protected. Time will tell if this group becomes as likable as the original. I admit, though, that's a pretty high bar to set since I loved all of the survivors but Omid and Crista from the first game.

As usual, the danger in the game is fierce.

     Even so, I've got to say that All That Remains occasionally verged on the edge of being unplayable for me. The Walking Dead was one of the darkest, most harrowing games I've ever played but it still had a lot of moments of levity. All that Remains starts off brutal, gets worse, and just when you think things are about to get better--becomes even more tragic. The fact Clementine is a child rather than an adult made me have to stop the game twice.

    While I'm not denying the storytelling is effective, I am hoping things get a little bit brighter as the darkness is becoming a little bit soul-crushing. I've never played anything else like The Walking Dead but if the game continues to remain as unflinchingly bleak as it's been, I'm not sure if I'll be able to continue.

    Call me a giant wuss or not, Clementine.

The game takes you through several baptisms of fire.

    One thing I am interested in is what the theme of this game is going to be. All That Remains goes a long way to establishing Clementine has the skills to survive in the post-apocalyptic world. Even at eleven-years-old, she's clearly better qualified to survive than some adult survived.

    However, is the game going to touch on that or is the theme perhaps something else? Not enough has yet been established for me to make a firm judgement on what the "lesson" of this season is going to be like the last time (which was about how much you'd give up of yourself to stay alive).

     In conclusion, I'm intrigued by Season Two and am willing to stick with it until the conclusion. The fact a Season Pass only costs slightly more than a single episode was more than enough to get me to shell out the entire amount. Whether Season Two will prove to be the same sort of classic as the original The Walking Dead, however, remains to be seen.

9/10   

The Walking Dead: The Road to Woodbury review

    The Road to Woodbury starts off really strong then stumbles before falling down completely.

    The second in a series of novels written as supplementary material for The Walking Dead comic books (and probably marketed to fans of the television show), The Road to Woodbury follows Lilly Caul as she goes from being a self-described coward to the hardened survivor described in the comics.

    I was already inclined to dislike this work because of the retcon to the Walking Dead Expanded Universe. Telltale Games expanded on the character of Lilly for the first season of the video game, creating a character tortured by various events as well as extremely tough. Telltale's Lilly was a tragic heroine who does an unthinkable act, driven by events beyond her control.

     TRTW's Lilly, by contrast, just isn't that interesting. Lilly has a few moments of heroism and interest like when she saves some children from a horrifying attack early in the book, her initial display of cowardice, and her attempts to comfort a grieving father which go horribly wrong but--mostly, she's just really-really unlikable. Lilly judges the sexual promiscuity of her friend Megan, she gives mixed signals to her friend Josh, and her transition nobody to badass is abrupt. The fact her change requires the death of more interesting characters doesn't help matters.

    The characters of Josh, Megan, and Bob are, by contrast, much more entertaining. Josh is a little too much of a moral paragon, which probably stems from the fact he's only meant to be a supporting character, but I still found myself entertained by his adventures.

    Certainly, more so than the star's own.

    Despite the book's attempt to beat us over the head with Megan's "unlikable" nature, I found her to be charming and more concerned with the well-being of others than Lilly ever proved to be. Bob, creepy voyeurism aside, could have carried the book on his own.

    The book takes a good long time to get to Woodbury proper and, for most of the book, we're just following a typical band of survivors. I didn't mind this as it's the best part of the book. Woodbury, itself, is portrayed as just short of a hellhole and you have to wonder why anyone would want to live there even during a zombie apocalypse. While perhaps more believable than the TV show's Mayberry-esque depiction, I found this less interesting.

    The Governor, one of the best villains in comics, is  more or less  reduced to a cameo in his own series. Lilly develops hateful feelings towards him more or less because she must have evil-sensing powers, Bob befriends him despite the fact he acts like a psychopath around him (but no one else), and he reveals his crimes very causally. The character's split-personality is also played up when I found it to be the least interesting element of previous books.

     Then there's the climax which, bluntly, just makes no sense.

    In short, The Road to Woodbury is a very uneven book.  There's some great stuff in the beginning but the second half is just confusing. Lilly's character development makes sense and better characters are sacrificed on the altar of her being the star. I would not recommend this book unless you were a big Walking Dead fan and, even then, the audio book version because the voice-acting adds some extra entertainment value.

6/10

Buy at Amazon.com

The Walking Dead vol 3#: Safety Behind Bars

    The Walking Dead's third trade paperback is an interesting change-up in the narrative and something I'm quite glad of. It's also the first of the volumes I have some serious reservations of, in part because I think the story goes some places which are unnecessary. This is the first volume I have started to see some of the fan's complaints that it might be "misery porn." I don't agree with them but I can certainly see why they would come to such a conclusion.

    The premise of Safety Behind Bars is Rick Grimes and his gang have decided they need to create a fortified settlement in order to survive the zombie apocalypse. They need to find a place which has food, space, strong walls, and hopefully a defensible position. In the end, they decide the best place is a nearby prison they stumble onto.

    The arc consists of dealing with the slow but inevitable realization the biggest problem facing them may not be zombies anymore, but their fellow humans. This is a common enough story arc in zombie tales but particularly poignant here because we've let our guard down. Like the characters, we think the prison will be safe.

    We're wrong.

    The addition of a new group of survivors broadens the cast a bit and gives a new dynamic to the group. The prisoners who survived in the prison until this time seem to be a fairly harmless group. While Lori is suspicious of them, Rick Grimes is willing to accept the prisoners as fellow human beings. Whether this turns out to be a mistake or not is the focus of both this and the next volume.

    I liked that Robert Kirkman decided to bring Herschel, Glenn, Maggie, and the rest of the farm characters to the prison. I was quite fond of them all and watching them adjust to life in the prison as well as cope with the fallout from Miles Behind Us was a great thing. Herschel's new-found pacifism is something that's simultaneously admirable as well as stupid in an environment where only the strongest survive.

    My earlier mention of misery porn has to deal with a horrific event which occur midway through the books to characters I never expected would suffer such a nightmarish fate. Given what's already happened to a certain character related to them, this just seemed gratuitous. Of course, I read The Walking Dead because it doesn't pull any punches. This is a just a warning, the books only get darker from here.

    Oddly, my favorite moment in the book is an equally bleak moment. A suicide-compact which has been alluded to in previous volumes and comes to its conclusion here. Why I liked this one and disliked the other can be chalked up to a number of reasons, mostly spoilerific but boil down to my feeling this was a better example of characterization as well as plotting. The affects it has a on surviving character are both enthralling as well as heartbreaking. I also applaud a "fake out" with a character's death that had me cheering when it was revealed he was alive.

    In conclusion, The Walking Dead continues to be a gripping and violent story about people pushed to the brink of survival. If you like dark comics, and why would you be reading it otherwise, you'll continue to like this series. Still, I can't help if I think this one was a little exploitative.

8/10

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The Walking Dead (video game): 400 Days

    The Walking Dead: 400 Days is a DLC containing a series of vignettes centered around a group of survivors struggling to make it to the titular 400 days in. The vignettes are all during different parts of the zombie apocalypse and involve different casts of characters. At the end of the game, we see how all of their stories tie-together.

    I got my copy of 400 Days with my Game of the Year Edition for Xbox 360. As a result, I played it directly after The Walking Dead video game. A part of me was disappointed I didn't get to continue the adventures of the "main cast" (such as it remained) but given the events of the finale as well as the existence of Season Two, it was probably for the best this dealt with a new cast.

    So what did I think?

The new cast of characters have some real gems.

    I have mixed feelings.

    I respect what Telltale Games was trying to do with 400 Days but I kind of feel this comes off like the "webisodes" from the Walking Dead DVDs. There's some really great moments and storytelling going on but it feels like there's only enough to wet the appetite versus giving a truly satisfying meal. With rare exceptions, I feel like I was just getting to know the characters involved when we switched them.

    If I had to choose, I'd say I would have preferred to have stuck with a single protagonist or maybe three with roughly twice the length. The odd thing is, any of the existing protagonists would have been a decent one to follow this format as nobody is boring. I do think that everyone is a trifle underdeveloped, though.

    You get just as long with them as to become intrigued by their storylines, only for whatever happened in your episode to become irrelevant by the end of the game. It left me feeling more than a trifle cheated as I never found out what happened to X character from Vinny's story, Y from Shel's, or Z's from Bonnie's. Yes, it's a zombie apocalypse and we can infer but that's just not the same.

There's some genuinely shocking moments in the game too.

    I think Vince, Wyatt, and Shel's stories are the closest to being "complete" though. Russell's story seems like we should have seen his original group and Bonnie feels like it ends before we find out some vital information about what happens next. The ending with Tavia also felt a little confusing as I was suddenly someone talking to "my" characters and unable to make the choices I feel they would make. Awkward.

    There is, however, one benefit to the 400 Days format, however, and that's the in media res nature of it. You're dumped into the middle of every story with very little to go on and have to decide, in an instant, "just who is my character?" I decided in very short order: Vince is a scumbag, Wyatt was a coward, Shel was a basically good person who'd do anything to protect her little sister, Russell was a normal kid dominated by strong personalities his entire life, and Bonnie was grateful but creeped out by her fellow survivors.

There's some very eccentric but likable characters in this game. Nate is basically Z-Day Trevor Phillips.

    There's a good deal of freedom to be able to play through the stories of the survivors and not be beholden to whether they're good men or bad. The consequences of my playthrough was a lot more diverse than with my Lee. My Lee was a good man who did everything in his power to stay the righteous path until he couldn't physically go on anymore. My attempts to do differently resulted in some powerful moments during my playthrough. Evil deeds, cowardly decisions, and pragmatic choices which would never otherwise be contemplated all happened.

    So there is that.

    Of all the episodes of 400 Days, I think I'd have to choose Shel's story as the most standout. We get a real sense of the community she and the other survivors in her group have built and get to watch it change dramatically in very short order. It was a short-story, doubly so because it's essentially two episodes in one, but the emotional weight of it was powerful.

    I also liked her and Rebecca's relationship with the former watching the latter's humanity slip away a little bit at a time. I'm going to be sad if I don't get to see Roman again as he was the kind of anti-villain I like. A guy who thinks he's doing the right thing by everyone. Plus, he dresses like a biker from GTAIV and V's the Lost MC. In Shel's story, my Shel did what she felt had to be done--which makes the ending doubly tragic.

    I recommend people pick up 400 Days if they've enjoyed the original Walking Dead video game. It's not up to the standards of the original but it's close. I just think it's more a supplemental material than a real expansion.

8/10

The Walking Dead (video game, spoiler) review

*warning - this will be LONG*

    The Walking Dead is a very difficult game to review because you have to take the game in two different ways. The first way is on an individual level, which is that it is five separate short video games connected by a single narrative but capable of standing on their own. The second is taking the game as a whole, which shows how all of these individual episodes relate. Both methods have their appeals and, ironically, expose strengths and weaknesses which would otherwise not be readily apparent.

    Taken as a whole, The Walking Dead is a tragedy which has the courage to go places many zombie stories don't. Night of the Living Dead was one of the few stories to end on a complete downer as virtually all sequels and movies inspired by it tend to have at least a few survivors.

    The Walking Dead ends on a note of hope with the survival of Clementine but, virtually, the entire rest of the group is wiped out and the only two other survivors are ones we barely got to know. The protagonist, Lee, is the most distressing casualty as he dies handcuffed to a radiator either from being bitten or getting shot in the head by Clementine as an act of mercy.

    Usually, the protagonist dying in video games [censored] me off. It was irritating as hell in Fallout 3 before the Broken Steel expansion and doubly so with Mass Effect 3. The internet broke with the latter. Here, however, I can't think of an ending which would feel more authentic. The emotional journey and constant death wore my Lee down so that when he passed, it was because he didn't have enough juice to continue.

The tragedies just keep piling up.

    Watching my Lee Everett go from being an unrepentant criminal who claimed killing the Senator was "an accident" and was desperate for his freedom transform into a father-figure for Clen and the only sane man in the survivor's group was uplifting. Watching the group, which had become his family, deteriorate and gradually die off was heartbreaking.

    By the time Clementine is kidnapped, he's already one of the titular Walking Dead. He's only moving one foot forward at a time for Clem's sake. It's an astounding journey that wouldn't work as a single narrative but works very well with the Five Act structure. We get the Redemption of Lee Everett, the Rise of Lee Everett, and the Fall of Lee Everett all over again.

    I could sit here talking all about the game and its various decisions so I'll just hit some of the highlights:

    Episode One: The initial survival situation is a nice baptism by fire. The game always let's you get to know the characters before it kills them. The police officer transferring you to prison, Shawn Greene, and Doug (does anyone not save Carley?) are all killed in brutal ways but only after you see they're decent human beings. I didn't much care for the police officer, thinking he was patronizing, but I understood him.

    Doug I didn't care as much about as Carley but I think he and my Lee could have been friends. I think there were too many cameos in this episode, though, with Glenn being completely unnecessary. I thought it was hilarious he was thinking with his libido the entire time but it stretched credibility to have him, Hershel, and someone who was supposed to be Lilly from the comics. The ending was great, though, with the power turning off at the motel being both humorous as well as foreboding.

    Episode Two: My least favorite of the five missions, Episode Two is the lightest of the five episodes in my opinion. Despite the fact it deals with a pair of serial killer hillbilly cannibals, I can say that since I live in Kentucky and know some, the only people who die are Mark (who gets a form of posthumous revenge) and Larry who was an [censored].

    The episode is so over the top that it's hard to take seriously. It's fairly early in the apocalypse too so I had a bit of trouble believing the Saint John Brothers would have reverted to cannibalism so quickly, especially with the giant corn field outside. Despite this, Episode Two had some great moments. "Eat up, Larry" being something I wish I'd done. I didn't kill either of the brothers because my Lee was desperate to leave his past as a killer behind. He would fail.

Carley forgot she wasn't the only girl with a gun.

    Episode Three: The situation at the end of Episode One felt fairly stable and Episode Two didn't really interrupt that feeling but Episode Three makes it clear everything is coming to a head. This may surprise some people but I preferred Lilly to Carley and was hoping there would be a romance option for her. Yeah-yeah, I know, I forgot this wasn't that kind of story. Still, I liked Carley a lot and watching Lilly kill her was one of the most horrible moments I've had in gaming.

    My Lee took Lilly with her, knowing it was a crime of passion and desperately trying to put the pieces of their group back together despite the fact it was impossible. The death of Duck and Katjaa was expected by me from the start, since they were all Kenny had, but the way they died was horrible. I never expected Katjaa to commit suicide. Wow. Given the way Omid and Crista show up, I never quite warmed to them as they felt somewhat like replacement goldfish.

    Episode Four: This was one of the most emotionally intense episodes of the game as after Katjaa and Duck's death, the loss of Lilly, and the murder of Carley, I was starting to feel like one of the Walking Dead. The unceremonious way Chuck is killed, especially since it's a heroic sacrifice to save Clem, felt like an emotional misstep as he proved himself to be more likable than most of the cast in that moment by far. The character of Molly was a great addition to lighten the mood and I was saddened when she left.

More than half of these people are dead by the end.

    The city of Crawford, though, I felt was a misstep as I never quite "believed" the city in the same way I didn't quite believe the Saint John Brothers. Which is a shame because it seemed like a pretty sound concept. My Lee said he was Clem's father, which Vernon took to be an attempt to emotionally manipulate him--I'm not sure I agree. The ending, though, wow. I *KNEW* there was a Walker beneath the cardboard box! Why didn't you be more cautious, Lee!

    Episode Five: The ending of the game is really more of an epilogue to Chapter Four than a new adventure like the others. It's mostly chase sequences, zombie-slayings, and the occasional moment of people breaking down. I don't think Kenny died in this version as we never see the body and we see the Walkers moving to eat Ben's body. Still, it seems like a total party kill.

    The Stranger was both well-written as well as annoying. He's not a supervillain, just a guy with an ax to grind and nothing to live for but revenge. I think his conversation also should have been more effected by your choices, though, even if I understand he's just looking for someone to blame. Still, the ending was utterly heartbreaking. Telltale couldn't have ended The Walking Dead better. As much as I loved Lee, his death was appropriate and moves the game from really-really good to great.

10/10

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The Walking Dead (video game, non-spoiler) review

    The Walking Dead franchise has done more to mainstream zombie movies since, well, just about anything. It's been a fight to do so for some time now and there have been plenty of victories along the way. The fact World War Z was made into a 100+ million dollar film starring Brad Pitt says everything you need to know about the progress made. I didn't think the movie had anything to do with the book but, hey, baby steps.

    I'm a personal huge fan of The Walking Dead and my only hesitation at reviewing the series is, A:] I'm not sure if I could add much more to praise and B:] I'm terrible at reviewing individual episodes of a show. I just started reading the comics and have a long way to catch up. Why did I start reading the comics? Not because of the television show, which is a superb adaptation (I hear), but because of the video game.

    The Walking Dead video game by Telltale is a extremely popular game which has won numerous awards--mostly, for the fact it's a break from the "old standards" of gameplay which have dominated the medium since the beginning. While adventure games are nothing new, this is one of the few games where the primary appeal is talking.

    Yes, talking.

Lee and Clementine are some of the most likable characters in video game history. I exaggerate not.

     This is the real feature which blows my mind about The Walking Dead video game. Vast sections of the plot are determined by what sort of statements you make to your fellow crew members. I love it when dialogue plays a major role in the story but, outside of Bioware and Bethesda, there's not that many places that do it. Certainly, not to the extent in this game. Even then, these games are mostly combat while talking and decision making is the point of TWD.

     The game is divided into five separate "episodes" that form short video games which can be played independently of one another. This isn't the first time I've encountered that, having been exposed to the concept in the extremely enjoyable The Wolf Among Us video game (which would be the Fables video game if not for another major series already having that title).

    The premise is unrelated to the events of the show/comic save for a few cameos. It is a wholly original survivor's tale. African American History Professor Lee Everett has been convicted of a murder he may or may not have committed. The importance of this grows less as the mores of the old civilization pass away in the Zombie Apocalypse. Like everyone else in the universe, Lee is taken off-guard by the sudden rise of the dead. Escaping police custody as a matter of survival, he comes across a young girl named Clementine and becomes her protector in the wake of the world's collapse into anarchy.

The zombies are a constant struggle to survive and can kill in one-blow. Which is the way it should be.

     To talk anymore would be to spoil but what makes the comics so invigorating is the same thing which makes this game great. The illusion of safety is punctured repeatedly and no one is safe save possibly Lee (and even this is in question). Characters are vividly realized and go through emotional journeys based on events and your treatment of them. Yes, the majority of events will happen no matter what you do but they feel perfectly justified when they do.

     I'm particularly fond of the characters Kenny and Lilly. Kenny is a fisherman far from the coast who is trying to protect his wife and son from the zombie apocalypse. Lilly is a USAF mechanic who is guarding her cantankerous old father. Both of them believe they have the best interests of the group in mind but can't agree over which way to butter bread. Really, of the initial group, I can't think of anyone I didn't like and if I wasn't too fond of later additions then the story still maintained its momentum.

The human emotion in this game is tremendous. You feel for these characters.

     Despite this, I would be remiss if I didn't bring up a few minor technical issues. Lip-synching and the transition of scenes on my Xbox copy was occasionally a bit choppy. Likewise, I didn't much care for the story in the second half of the game as much as I did the first half. I think I became so attached to the main characters that I felt the emotional high point of the game was in reached in Episode 3 and could never quite get where it used to be. This is, of course, largely redeemed by the absolutely killer ending. It's one of the few times I've been moved in gaming and won't be a story I forget.

    Another complaint is the illusion of choice is, just that, an illusion. Even if I appreciate the way Telltale makes you feel every decision Lee makes has weight, the truth is they don't. Lee can choose how he responds to events but only a few differences happen regardless of your choices. All roads lead to Rome and this is disappointing. I would have preferred if Telltale had been more upfront with the fact this is a story they're telling and you're just along for the ride. The Last of Us and Bioshock Infinite are no less effecting for the fact you can't change the ending.

    Overall, I think this is probably one of the best games I've ever played. It's very different from almost everything I've ever played. Anyone who doesn't believe that video games are an art form should give this game a whirl as if it doesn't change their mind, nothing will. Yes, there's some serious flaws and I dislike being deceived about the importance of my choices but that's like smudges at the base of the Mona Lisa. I have to judge the game on the scale of how much entertainment I derived from that and this game blows nearly all of its competitors out of the water. If you don't play this game, you're denying yourself a real treat.

10/10

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The Walking Dead vol. 2#: Miles Behind Us review

    The Walking Dead vol. 1# (reviewed here) ended with the survivors on the road as winter fell in Atlanta. With their first losses from both zombie attacks and internal struggles, the survivors need some place they can hold up in order to survive. But in a world overrun by the Living Dead, is any place safe?

    I'm fond of Miles Behind Us because it deals with as much the issues of day-to-day survival as it does the zombie menace. While the Walkers are certainly a threat, a bigger problem is the fact food can no longer be bought from grocery stores and things like heat during the wintertime are now issues of vital importance.

    We also get some answers to obvious questions which emerge in the zombie apocalypse like--why not find a well-fortified location and hold up there. The answer in this is "what qualifies as well-fortified?" Seemingly secure locations can turn out to be in severe danger of being overrun by the Walkers and their surprising ability to hide in the most innocuous locations can get people killed.

    The majority of Miles Behind Us deals with the interaction between the Survivors and the family of Hershel Greene. A kindly veterinarian and farmer, Hershel is ill-equipped for the apocalypse in sense but well-equipped in position. His farm is well-defended against the Walkers due to its fence and the ample food supplies growing around him. The Survivors want to settle there but their (sensible) practice of killing Walkers offends Hershel.

    Hershel wants desperately to believe there's some trace of the original humans inside the Walkers and that things aren't nearly as bad as they've become. His patriarchal control over his extended family threatens everyone, both Atlanta camp survivor and Greene, due to how terribly wrong he is about the Walkers' menace.

    It's interesting to have the primary enemy here be compassion and hope as opposed to something more malevolent. It is becoming a running theme in the comics that a balance has to be struck between pure ruthlessness and a person's higher ideals. Being a good person will not save you in the zombie apocalypse and may destroy you. Being a bad person won't protect you any better.

    It seems Team Neutral is going to win the day for once.

    A running theme of this volume is also how people cope with grief. Hershel's belief in the humanity of Walkers is motivated in large part by his denial over the deaths of so many loved ones. Other characters who have lost close loved ones find themselves unable to function and resent the implication they need to "get over it." In real life, a lot of people don't get over grief and it destroys them. Others have it change them, turning once-benevolent and good people into angry individuals looking for someone to strike at.

    Such is the case in The Walking Dead.

    Life.is.not.fair.

    Surprisingly, this volume contains quite a bit of sex. Characters attempt to find something to distract themselves from the destruction around them. Some of them find love (or at least think they do) while others just sink further into oblivion. I found this to be quite a human reaction and am pleased Kirkland addressed it so early. I'm also fond of the newly introduced character of Tyreese, who is every bit as capable as Rick in surviving.

    The books art remains consistently good and the sight of Atlanta in winter contrasted against the rural paradise of the Greene farm. I am amazed at the artists' ability to capture so many expressions and convey the emotions of our suffering protagonists. The black and white art also manages to make the images more emotional as colorized zombie attacks would probably distract a person from the event's meaning to focus on the gore. At least, IMHO.

    So far, still one of the best comics I'm reading.

10/10

The Walking Dead Vol. 1#: Days Gone By review

    I'm a big fan of The Walking Dead television series. However, as with any adaptation, there's going to be lots of changes from one medium to the next. I suspect this comic would have been as shocking as the television show (if not more so) if I'd come into it unspoiled. As such, I'm still very impressed with the work done by the writer. The art, too, despite being in black and white.

    Before I get into anything, I'm going to say upfront this is one of the definitive works of zombie fiction and anyone who is fond of the genre should consider getting the trades or the compendiums as a "must have." While fans of the television show will get almost everything the comics bring, they're different enough that I still recommend this as a prospective purchase.

    The premise of The Walking Dead's first volume is pretty simple. Kentucky Sheriff's Deputy, Rick Grimes, is critically injured during a shoot-out with prison escapees. Going into a coma, he wakes up days after the zombie apocalypse. It's a lovely Day of the Triffids homage and works well here as it does in so many other stories like Resident Evil: Apocalypse or 28 Days Later.

    The heart of this volume is Rick's search for his family and how he deals with them once he finds them. It's a very elemental story, working on a lot of primal archetypes. A man attempting to protect his family during war and/or natural disaster is one of the most relatable stories in fiction. It's not the most progressive of tales but we see how author Robert Kirkman lays seeds for the story to progress in unexpected ways along this front too.

    The characters of The Walking Dead are lovingly realized in the short time we get to know them. Glenn the pizza-delivery boy, Andrea the lawyer, Lori the housewife, Dale the cantankerous old man, Shane the jealous alpha male, and others. Quite a few of these characters, I won't say which, will end up as zombie chow over the course of the story but the fact Robert Kirkman is willing to kill his darlings is a major appeal of the comic.

    There's too often very little sense of real danger for horror story protagonists and this series blows that idea out of the water. You like the heroes of the Walking Dead and want them to survive. When they don't, you mourn them. When they do, you cheer them on.

    Which is how you do it in horror.

    While the majority of story was familiar to me as a fan of the TV series, I still enjoyed reading it and am glad to have purchased it. The introduction by Robert Kirkman where he explains the "essence" of the zombie's appeal, was almost worth the price of the volume ($10) alone. He says, as should be obvious but isn't, the zombies are never the stars of good zombie fiction--the survivors are.

    I think what I liked best about The Walking Dead volume 1# is all the human elements. Robert Kirkman takes time to have the characters chat about their previous lives, have arguments over teaching children to carry firearms, and share their fears for lost loved ones as well as what they'll do when everything gets better. These are the most moving moments of the book for me.

    I will say that I wasn't 100% sold on all the decisions in the story. The character of Lori is hard to like with the majority of her dialogue being about nagging Rick, how she couldn't finish college, how she's fine doing so-called "woman's work", and how it's a bad thing to teach 7-year-old Carl how to shoot. The death of a very interesting character at the end of the volume also feels like a wasted opportunity. These are minor complaints in the grand scheme of things, though.

    As mentioned, the art is in black and white but Tony Moore's work is quite striking. He manages to make each character distinct and believable. His expression was great and add much of the humanity the book needs to survive. Really, the monochromatic color scheme makes the comic feel more stark in a way. I don't think the comic would be nearly as entertaining without his great work here.

    In conclusion, great stuff. Not much more to say than that.

9/10

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