I'm sacrificing some NaNoWriMo time because this just absolutely must be written about. Back when I started playing The Walking Dead Game from Telltale Games, I was pretty impressed. It was only episode one back then, of a planned five episodes. Since then, the remaining four episodes have come out.
The first time I played the game, I played it on the PC. It was a pretty good experience, as I detailed in my previous writeup. I held off on the subsequent episodes though, so that I could go through the whole thing.
At some point between then and now, I got it for the iPad. I've thought for a while that these games were ideally suited for the touch interface, and boy was I proven right. The iPad controls are far easier than the PC, and the game is a joy to play that way.
But really what has to be said is that The Walking Dead Game is a true mastercraft of writing.
The guys at Telltale are absolute geniuses at pacing, at character development, at making you care about Lee, the protagonist of the story, and Clementine, the little girl you've charged yourself with looking after. At different points through all five episodes, I found myself shocked, awed, scared, devastated, angry--and at the end of the game, when all was said and done, they wrapped it up with such perfection that I really, seriously lost it. It was devastating, utterly shattering in how heartbreaking it was. And then they still weren't done with you. After all, there is The Walking Dead Game Season 2 coming up.
Well played, Telltale Games, and Gary Whitta in particular. The Walking Dead Game is the only choice for Game of the Year 2012 in my book.