400 Days (The Walking Dead DLC) Review

     I've got The Walking Dead Season 2 Episode 1 sitting on my hard-drive, but first I have to play 400 Days.

     400 Days is a DLC chapter for Season 1 of the Walking Dead. See my review of season 1 for details on how it plays, as it's exactly the same. In 400 Days, you play through five short stories in any order you choose. Each takes place at different points within the first 400 days of the zombie outbreak, and each stars a different playable character.

     When I started up the first story, I thought I wasn't going to care enough about the characters to make meaningful choices since each story is pretty short (about 10 to 25 minutes each). A few minutes later, I was totally sucked in to the situation I was dropped into. Each of the 5 mini-chapters are a few scenes in a person's life, and you get dropped right in the middle of it. I hesitated for a good minute or two at the final decision in the first chapter I played, trying to make up my mind what I would do and what the character would do in the situation. Two of the choices you have to make are especially agonizing.

     Much like the main game, 400 days is engaging and excellent. It's very different, since you play new characters in much shorter scenarios, but it does a great job of putting you into the mind of the character.

This review is a repeat of the review of the main game. I don't want to tell you much about the story, other than to say it's excellent. Each mini-chapter is so short, telling you anything about them would ruin the experience. The way each character is introduced and then put into horrible situations and dire choices is done really great. It's also fun to try to get into someone else's head besides Lee's and play a little differently since you aren't playing as Lee. Each time you start up one of the mini-chapters, you don't know what's going to happen. I love that in games (like El Shaddai) and tv shows (like Lost). The feeling that when you start up the next segment anything could happen is born when a show or game's creators have the guts to make things that are different and the skills and wisdom that lets you trust them to do a good job and know that whatever comes up will be great.

     Unfortunately the technical problems remain from the main game (I am so hoping they are absent in season 2!). There's some bad freezing in one scene, a character pops into a scene very noticeably in another, and a plant in the background of one scene moves crazily. It literally sinks into the ground, straight down, and doesn't stop during the scene as if there is a black hole beneath it. Fortunately, there aren't any ugly character models like in the main game; all the new character look great.

     If you're paying attention, there is a lot of overlap and things that make sense depending on the order you play the mini-chapters. You'll see references to things that happened in a chapter you just played, or see why something that wasn't explained is the way it is when you play a chapter that takes place before one you've already done. I'd love to see a whole game done this way, with chapters played out of order and by player choice, with the amount of understanding the player has varying depending on the order they play the scenarios. This could lead to widely varying player experiences and great discussions in an epic sized game that used this mechanic. Imagine finding out that one of the big reveals at the end of your game was the first thing someone else learned about in their's. Even in this short game seeing little details explained in this manner was very cool, so seeing it on a bigger scale with important plot points would be really great if it was handled correctly. Telltale should try it, although obviously it wouldn't work with an episodic game (unless you got a random episode each time you bought one or something weird like that. But then all the episodes would need to be done before they sold any, which would mean the wait time would be artificial. There's got to be a way to do it though. Try it Telltale!).

     I don't get why there are 2 missable trophies, especially since I don't believe in going back and re-playing these games. What's done is done, part of the experience is that you can't go back and do things differently, for me anyway. So I don't get why there are some trophies you get for doing some random stuff that is part of your decision making. It kind of punishes you for doing what you wanted to do, which is bad for a game like this. So I won't be going back to get the one I missed, despite how much I love trophies.

     To summarize, the stories told here are great little snapshots in the lives of people trying to survive the zombie outbreak. Much like the main game, I made decisions and said things, and then second-guessed myself and wondered if I had done the right thing. I made mistakes, and had my conscience genuinely engaged. Once again, the technical problems are pretty bad, but can't drag down the experience. 400 days is short but satisfying. It is a great game, tier 2.