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Generally unfavorable reviews - based on 12 Critics What's this?

User Score

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 159 Ratings

  • Summary: Terminal Reality’s The Walking Dead video game takes the undead and brings them out of the TV show and into console gaming systems in a new, terrifying way. The iconic walkers will relentlessly hunt down players like their television counterparts, using a combination of sight, sound and smemell. As Daryl, players will need to tread carefully throughout each new area they explore. Once discovered, it doesn’t take much to attract an unstoppable horde of undead walkers, so every threat needs to be assessed, and every situation analyzed. Players will have to choose between whether to stay and fight while risking a gruesome death or using stealth to avoid the undead. No place is truly safe for Daryl as he makes his way through the Georgia countryside in this new, post-apocalyptic world. Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 12
  2. Negative: 11 out of 12
  1. Mar 22, 2013
    55
    Survival Instinct left me feeling empty. It’s less of a story arc and more of a montage of “Here’s what Daryl and Merle did before Season One.” Unfortunately, technical problems and frustrating design decisions prevent its one redeeming feature — the survival gameplay — from reaching its potential.
  2. Mar 21, 2013
    45
    It’s boilerplate first-person shooter mechanics paired with dated visuals and cool ideas that never develop into cool experiences.
  3. Apr 21, 2013
    40
    Survival Instinct focuses on the less interesting part of a zombie apocalypse and does not follows the quality of writing we have come to expect after the series, the game from Telltale and especially the comic books of Image Comics.
  4. It almost feels as though developer Terminal Reality ran out of money, right on the home stretch. If only the game was shot in the head long before it ever got to that point. [June 2013, p79]

See all 12 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 12 out of 39
  2. Negative: 18 out of 39
  1. Got this game first thing today at gamestop and its all I hoped it would be, the game is amazing! I have played for about three hours now and I can't put it down! Expand
  2. Ok... I've been playing this game for a day now. Yes. It is a rushed licensed game. There is no doubt about that. But I feel as though Terminal Reality chose to focus less on graphics and more on gameplay which is where the game shines. You absolutely have to play the game stealthily. If you fire your gun, Walkers will just make your day very bad. It has great atmosphere. The sound is great too. But I feel as though Terminal Reality could of tried harder with the dialogue. Still, Norman Reedus and Michael Rooker both deliver their line with that redneckish gusto that we have come to enjoy from the show. The game falls apart in the graphics department. The graphics would be excusable if the framerate was fine, but it is not. The game chugs in places (mostly in darker areas). But I honestly enjoy this game so I will give it a 8. Expand
  3. The Walking Dead is a successful comic that has since been adapted to AMC's hit TV show of the same name. The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct focuses on a character who is exclusive to the TV show called Daryl Dixon and is currently a fan favourite. Daryl Dixon started out as a racist redneck who only cared for his own survival, since the second and third series of the TV show, the character has changed a lot and has attracted a large number of fans.

    The game is a prequel to the show and you start out by learning what happened during Daryl's early days during the undead scourge. While there aren't any amazing revelations, you do get a bit more information about the characters and there are some characters that get referenced in passing.

    The good things about this game include a solid combat engine and a range of weapons to choose from. While the combat is not quite as good as Dead Island, you can reliably take down Walkers with stealth attacks and later get stronger weapons.

    Each melee weapon is different from the speedy but weak hammer to the heavy and slow sledgehammer that can take down walkers in a single hit. In terms of guns you have pistols, shotguns, rifle and of course Daryl's trusty crossbow. You'll want to use the crossbow as much as you can to kill walkers silently and retrieve your crossbow bolts.

    Silence is important because walkers pick up on sound a lot. One way you can draw walkers away is by throwing a bottle or a flare in the opposite direction, when they charge towards the noise you slip past them the other way.

    As you progress through the game you'll want to pick up food rations, weapons, ammunition and fuel. Fuel is important for making your way across the map on the road sections. Some of these sections will give you a choice, do you move the car stuck on the road or take an alternative route?

    One great feature of the game is the survivor management. As you progress in the game, you get access to different survivors. You can only pick up a certain number of survivors, based on the size of your vehicle. While you may sometimes want to save everyone, ultimately you sometimes have to choose a location and hope for the best. Some survivors are also only found on the random encounters and so can be overlooked. It's worth helping them survive since you get a bonus at the end of the game.

    Sadly it's not all non-stop fun and there are a few bad points about this game. This game is relentlessly hard, with no difficulty select screen. This means that if you're not careful, you will die many times until you learn how to move around properly and what areas are dangerous to be in. You can sometimes get away from walkers in buildings, but often you can get trapped and face an early demise.

    Another gripe with many people is the game length. At most, the campaign mode can be completed in around 5-8 hours. In other games this isn't such a major problem, but since there is no multiplayer or co-operative modes of any kind, it's a big big problem. The ending is also a bit of a let down as it doesn't really fill in any gaps or explain anything of importance.

    If you have the option of getting Dead Island then I would suggest that you try that game out first, as it's fairly cheap. Otherwise you could potentially get this game but I would say you should get it cheap, simply because of it's length and problems. It's still pretty fun at times though.
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  4. Let's just say that because this game isn't as bad as we thought, doesn't give us an excuse to fool ourselves into thinking this game is decent. We all know the graphics were lackluster in this game, so I will move through that point fast. The graphics are a little better than a ps2 game, maybe early this generation of consoles. The backgrounds looks better than the walkers(only 3 different types) and humans in the game. However, the locations in this game are very generic and boring. Here a few points that I want to hit in this review: As you will notice early on in the game is the combat. While using the knife, you basically have to slap the zombie in the face 4 times causing them to fly backwards as stiff as a board. Later on in the game some melee weapons will allow you to one-hit kill a walker in mediocre style. The knife stealth kill animation is nice at first when you sneak up on walkers, however it gets boring and actually hinders your ability to fight in some aspects. While this animation unfolds, there is no way to stop it, so walkers from all sides of you can hit you while you perform this move. Nevertheless, it would have been nice if they created animations for stealth kills with other weapons, but they didn't. Other weapons can been found such as shotguns, rifles, pistols, a crossbow(of course), axes, bats and other weapons. However, guns usually are the secondary weapon of choice and all guns act the same(since you can only shoot the zombies in the head to kill them). Creating too much noise will cause zombies to come find you(sometimes). That brings me to my next point...the zombie AI. In some situations, the AI is spot on. If you make a noise, they will find you, investigate or they will see you from yards away and confront you. Other times, you can shoot their friend right next to them and they might walk the other way. Also, they cannot reach you if you stand on top of a car or in a train car, giving you the chance to pick them off one by one. This unpredictable nature of the zombies can make the game too easy. Other times, zombies will spawn behind you and overrun you quickly. In this case, there is a real-time event when a zombie grabs you, where you have to line the button up to the zombies head(while pressing it), this in turn puts you one on one with a zombie(in a crowd) and allows you to kill them in one hit. In many cases, it is easier to use this real-time event to your advantage and pick zombies off one by one while fighting a horde. Another way in which this game disappoints is the traveling sequences(staring at a map much of the time), it all gets too predictable over the course of the game. I really wish they allowed you actually drive the vehicle. You can choose three routes(text based choices), which include highways(conserves the most gas). Each of the three choices gives you the chances of finding supplies and breaking down. If you break down, the game will bring you on a side mission to fight a horde of zombies and receive gas and supplies. Again, this gets old after a while. I agree that the inventory works pretty well, where you only have a set amount of space for weapons and supplies. However, collecting the same weapons and supplies over and over(such as energy drinks for health), drags the game down. The voice acting in this game is actually one of the things that shines. Norman and Mike really seem like they put a lot into these roles and make the game bearable. Without those two, the game wouldn't even be worth mentioning. The other survivors do a pretty good job at supporting them, albeit the story is lackluster. One other positive about this game are the survivors. The aspect of having a team and allowing survivors to help you find supplies is a great idea. However, a lot of times the survivors only find 1/3 of what you would find on your own. In most cases the reward isn't that great, but might make a difference when your close to running out of bullets. My final point has to do with the reason many people have bought the game. As a prequel to TWD show, explaining how Daryl got his crossbow. To tell you the truth, I expected an Excalibur moment. Yet, I was very underwhelmed at the point he received his crossbow. I will not go into too much depth, but it was basically like "Oh, ok that's how he got it...that sucked." I feel as though the walking dead's name was sold out here. There was so much source material to make this game great, but it just seems rushed. Also, Merle and Daryl without co-op? What a waste! I really wanted to like this game, since I am a big Walking Dead fan, but it was a 6-7 hour let down. I would say this game is not worth more than $20, if that. There is no game ending glitches that I have noticed yet, but there is nothing special about this game. This game is nothing more than a half-finished disappointment. Expand

See all 39 User Reviews