As Good As Dead

I’ve always been ‘good’ in games. Whether in Fable, Mass Effect, Black and White, or Fallout, I've constantly opted for the most positive action, regardless of whether I believe in it or not. I’ll play the mediator, keep the peace, sacrifice my youth and turn the other cheek rather than lash out in a moment of frustration or rage. To me, a good ending has traditionally meant the best ending, where I play the hero and always - always - do the 'right' thing.

The latest instalment of The Walking Dead - Long Road Ahead - not so much caused me to rethink my calculated old ways as it held a gun to my head and forced me to change them. 

Episode Three picks up a few weeks after Starved For Help, the second entry in the series. The Macon survivors are still holed up at the motel, and with supplies dwindling, morale is low. Self-proclaimed group leader Lily wants to stay put, but with her increasingly irrational behaviour and murderous bandits closing in around them, there's a growing consensus that the time has come to leave for newer and possibly less contested and infested pastures. Hot-headed family man Kenny in particular is keen to move on, and makes no bones squaring off to anyone that disagrees with him. By the end of this episode's two and a half hour runtime, he gets his way, but it comes at a heavy cost to both him and the rest of the group.

The player character, ex-con Lee Everett, is as always stuck in the middle of the bickering, trying to keep everyone alive whilst continuing to be a father figure to his ward, eight year old Clementine. This presents players with some of their toughest decisions yet, along with a couple of events that they cannot divert the outcome of, try as they might. There are some genuine heart-in-mouth moments, and a few rather cruel touches thrown in by developers to give you a taste of what could happen should you ultimately fail. And to someone invested in this story and its characters, it's a sight far more devastating than any 'game over' screen.

In saying that, Long Road Ahead didn't feel like the strongest entry to the series thus far. There are more traditionally 'gamey' sequences than in previous episodes, but for all their excitement, the shooting and sleuthing are never as torturous - and brilliant - as the seemingly simple task of dividing too-few rations amongst a hungry group. More varied gameplay also means the episode as a whole doesn't feel as well paced, and a few major events, including a rushed cliffhanger, aren't really given the time to resonate that they richly deserve. A few audio/visual glitches also commit the heinous crime of hauling you out of the experience at key emotional moments.

Despite this, Long Road Ahead has continued this series' stellar success. It laid the tracks to tragedy, sent Lee down a no-win path and forced me to deal with the consequences. It taught me that in a world where there is no good and bad, rather than do the right thing, I'll simply do whatever it takes to survive.