How the hell did Telltale do this? How did they make a game about an already amazing franchise, and somehow make it even better? I will tell you how. They took those breathtaking and soul breaking moments and decisions from the show and comic, and placed US in control of them.
It is one thing to see a scene where the survivors have to figure out who to kill and who to let live, but when it is YOU making the decisions, it REALLY hammers it home. While The Walking Dead game was FULL of these moments, I felt there was none quite like the moment you had to kill your friend’s son, Duck. The worst part is, you may not have made that decision when you played, but I did. That is how I promised myself to play the game. To be as true to the real life decisions I would have made were I really in that situation, and if I was in a situation with a friend whose son was about to turn, I wouldn’t make him go through the act of killing him. That is too much.
But in the same breath, there I am, about to shoot a little kid in his head, and I am thinking: Man, this is what it would REALLY be like to have to survive in a zombie apocalypse. I drew the gun, and regretfully, shot the kid in the head. Outside of the entirety of Shadow of the Colossus, very few moments in gaming have had as big an impact on me as that scene did.
It also drives home that fact that in a zombie apocalypse, anything goes. There is no safety anymore. There is no longevity anymore. There is no hope anymore. That is just what the stellar Telltale games drives home in that single moment. A bleak life filled with loss and sadness.