The Escapists: The Walking Dead

When we first played Mouldy Toof Studios' original prison simulator, The Escapists, we actually thought of the prison Rick Grimes and company were inhabiting in The Walking Dead on TV around the same time. Apparently we weren't alone, as Team 17 and Skybound Entertainment have picked up where Mouldy Toof left off in order to create an entire game based on this, even if the story appears to lie somewhere in-between the original comic books and the TV series that it's based on, rather than sticking closely to either one.

Zombies in video games are common place in today's landscape. But not every zombie-infested title can boast pixelated 16-bit inspired undead, and this fact alone makes the concept more appealing than many other games out there that exist in the same space. The undead end up making it far more interesting to take Rick and his gang and walk them through the five different environments, craft various items with scrap, and solve puzzles.

The first environment is the hospital where Rick awakes at the start of The Walking Dead, and after this we're taken to familiar settings such as the Meriweather Correctional Facility and the haven that is Alexandria. All of this is beautifully and cleverly recreated with pixels, and key scenes from the fiction are depicted. Hershel's farm features a wonderful sequence where you have to clear out a barn full of walkers, for example.

Much as it is in The Escapists you can simply launch yourself into the action, and this concept is perfectly fitting for a game based on The Walking Dead - a series that itself has a very slow pace. You have to make sure that you are well prepared at all times and have some sort of game plan for what's about to happen next. It can be exercise, sorting supplies, and even doing the laundry.

There's a lot to do to keep the fragile community together and functioning. If you don't take care you'll level up slowly and things will get unnecessarily difficult. There is even a Walker meter that shows you the risk of getting attacked if you deviate from the routine. The concept is often reminiscent of an RPG where you have to search the surroundings, explore, talk to people, and along the way grow stronger and better equipped for more difficult tasks.

Whether the game takes place at and around the Meriweather Correctional Facility because of the game's origins as a prison simulator or due to fact that the show was stuck in that prison for such a long time, is something we can't comment on. What is clear is that this section, at least in our play-through, is what took up the majority of our time. We collected wood, looked for scrap, built a pick from a crowbar and so on. There's lots of busywork.

Much as in the original the game is fairly repetitive and requires more patience than we're normally able to muster. Your companions hand out missions that involve finding things like kitchen appliances or lighters, and you're given some money as thanks when you turn the items in. Much revolves around searching for and picking things up. At times you search in vain, and we've spent hours trying to find important items. Thankfully there are shady individuals who sell merchandise from time to time, and here you can get hold of the much sought after tool that lets you craft a ladder or a gun.

Crafting the various objects you need takes time, and there is no assistance. Often we created new items by accident, but it never comes across as a negative factor. It's fun to experiment, to try and discover what works instead of knowing exactly what you need to do next. Plus this approach makes the satisfaction of actually accomplishing something much greater and adds to the fantastic old school atmosphere that the pixels produce.

The Escapists: The Walking Dead can be recommended to everyone who enjoys the series (both the graphic novels and the TV show), and it's a wonderfully charming interpretation that strikes a balance between loving tribute and gentle parody. The pace is slow, but the game demands your full attention and it never gets boring - you're always motivated to keep at it and solve the problems you're faced with. The wonderful graphics and the captivating music adds to a rather nice whole that in the end makes this just as good an experience as The Escapists.