iGR One Sheet Preview - The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct

Rober Kirkman’s The Walking Dead is one of the most successful brands in comics, television, and even video games. The reason it’s so wildly popular boils down to spectating the human experience during the end of the world. Telltale Games has already enjoyed huge success with The Walking Dead. The reason for Telltale’s success was their ability to capture the drama from the comic books and television show.

This is what tends to worry me about Activision’s The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct. I’m not convinced we’ll see the same quality in plot and character development that we saw in Telltale’s outing. Since the announcement of The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct the level of coverage on the title has been little to none. The bulk of video coverage we’ve seen have simply been Norman Reedus and Michael Rooker talking about playing their respective characters in a video game.

Some game play footage has been released recently, but no where near the level of other Activision titles such as Call of Duty on their way to release. Another title to employ such a marketing strategy recently was Aliens: Colonial Marines. We all know how that went. I have no doubt in my mind that Activision will deliver polished shooter mechanics, but what of the trials and tribulations that are sure to beset the Brothers Dixon? The Walking Dead’s selling point revolves around it’s story and characters, and we’ve heard very little about the any actual plot points present in The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct.

As you can see the “actual” game play footage is slim pickings at best. Even in a trailer titled “official game play trailer” were treated to mere seconds worth of actual in game action. Add the fact that there’s a review embargo on the title, and we may have little more than a cash grab on our hands. Regardless of the smoke and mirrors I’m willing to bet there’s going to be a fair amount of day one purchases, but if I were you I’d wait for the reviews to come rolling in.