The Walking Dead: Michonne – Episode 1: In Too Deep

Game Review by Tom Hillman | 07 Mar 2016
Game title: The Walking Dead: Michonne - Episode 1: In Too Deep
Publisher: Telltale Games
Release date: Out Now
Price: £3.99 per episode, £14.99 for the season pass.

The Walking Dead series by Telltale Games has always had its standout moments. It's not just that you're living in a world where the decisions you make are different shades of brown, it's the dichotomy between the horror of 'the walking dead' and the horror of the survivors that really resonates.

The Walking Dead: Michonne is, unsurprisingly, centered on zombie-slaying badass Michonne. The episode opens guns blazing and you'll quickly question Michonne's sanity as she hallucinates and combines the past and present into a visceral nightmare. Michonne is running from her problems and she's become quite adept at keeping herself busy.

The subconscious has a funny way of refusing to be ignored; throughout the episode you'll get to see more of her hallucinations. She's seeing the ghosts of her past as you and I would see each other in the street. Michonne is part of a crew that stumbles upon a distress signal as they make their way across Chesapeake Bay. There's a powerful group operating in the area, headed up by dubious leaders. Things go south fast.

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If you've played a Telltale Walking Dead game before, you know what to expect with the quick time event interplay and very little has changed here. Telltale have added combo events this time around but it's essentially much more of the same. In a Choose Your Own Adventure style, the decisions and conversation choices you make send you off down different narrative paths as usual but this time the world has become a little too predictable.

If it weren’t for Michonne being such an interesting figure within The Walking Dead universe the experience would be far less satisfying. Her interactions with Pete offfer some of the more compelling gameplay; his uncompromising optimism even manages to strip away some of Michonne's characteristic stoicism. Those familiar with this adventure series will be dismayed to learn that quick time events still judder, an issue Telltale desperately need to fix.

The Walking Dead: Michonne – Episode 1: In Too Deep is an effective opener, as long as you aren't expecting dramatic changes in Telltale's modus operandi. It feels like there could be something special here in further episodes but success is very much dependent on where they'll let this character go.

http://www.telltalegames.com/walkingdead/michonne/