Decisions, decisions.
As I sat in front of my television waiting for 400 Days to download from the Playstation Store, I thought I knew exactly what Telltale had in store for us: there’d be some new characters, some new drama, and some uncomfortable decisions, but there was no way that it would be able to match the level of intensity of the game’s seven-month-long first season. Apparently, I had no idea what I was really in for.
The board of survivors, again, playable in any order.
The Walking Dead: 400 Days takes a stark departure from the linearity of the previous chapters. As the game opens, you’ll have to make your first intriguing, yet tough decision: whose story will you play first? See, instead of following a few characters through a lengthy set of episodes, 400 Days offers five separate, short tales, beginning with a story just two days after the initial outbreak, and closing with an epilogue, fittingly 400 days into the zombie apocalypse.
That first choice is one of the most incredible and defining aspects of 400 Days. Each character’s journey is completely separate, yet oddly connected (there’s even a connection to events in Season One). The order that you play them in can and will drastically change the way you feel about characters, locations, and events that you experience later in the game. And what memorable events they are! Each character’s story in the DLC, be it Vince, Wyatt, Russell, Bonnie, or Shel, features events that will change you, decisions that you will question for days, and moments that will haunt you until Season Two releases this fall. The nail-biting intensity and “so nerve wracking that I need to pause or take a break” moments from every episode of the game’s first season are back in full force here.
I’m getting chills just thinking about this scene.
The fact that these moments hold such weight is a true testament to Telltale’s consistent quality of writing and direction. Because 400 Days has so many stories to tell, each section’s playtime is astoundingly short. We spend only 20-30 minutes with each character, with someone’s life or well being in jeopardy for the bulk of that time, and yet I feel as though I’ve already had the opportunity to come to know each and every one of our new survivors. I’m still asking myself how that’s even possible, but Telltale’s writing ability is really what shines here, where character’s traits, hopes, fears, skills, past lives, and more are all revealed subtly, satisfyingly, and sometimes heartbreakingly, exactly when they need to be. I’ve said time and time again that Telltale’s The Walking Dead has featured some of gaming’s best writing, possibly ever, and 400 Days definitely keeps with that trend. I don’t want to give away too much, but again, the Telltale team does an exceptional job of putting you immediately in the shoes of characters who are both incredibly diverse and find themselves in incredibly diverse situations, like playing Roshambo to decide who checks outside the car for a possible survivor or pulling the trigger on another human being in order to maintain the safety of the group. The situations become so stressful to navigate that our Editor in Chief Jonathan told me he and his wife Laura had to start flipping a coin just to continue making decisions.
I have a great deal of praise to give 400 Days, but like all things in life, nothing is perfect. The PS3 version of the DLC, as with all previous chapters, plays host to a myriad of technical issues (I can’t comment on technical issues on other platforms). This time however, things were even worse: constant framerate drops, a lot of out-of-sync audio, and a consistently choppy camera actually had me concerned for my console’s health.
It’s hard to say whose story was the most intense.
Of course, as incredible and intense as these miniature tales manage to be, it’s simply impossible for them to match the cripplingly emotional tale of Lee, Clementine, and the other stars of season one. Our previous journey was seven months long, with hours upon hours of gameplay, countless tough decisions, and more moments of despair than any gamer should ever have to go through. At times, 400 Days simply feels paltry in comparison. Each tale could act as an extended scene of a bigger episode, and I think that it’s safe to say that all of us would love to play through these stories in their entirety.
That may lead to the most important and exciting aspect of 400 Days: what on Earth will come next? We’re nearly halfway through the Summer now, with Telltale set to begin a second season in the fall. Could 400 Days act as an introduction to our next group of survivors? I almost feel as though it has to. If not, why would the developer create a new batch of amazingly real, relatable characters if we were only meant to spend a few minutes with each of them? And how does 400 Days continue to connect to Season One? Could our new group meet up with a hardened and alone Clementine? Could our choices from the game’s first season affect the character that Clementine has become?
Clementine ranks among video gaming’s best characters… ever.
If this insanely dramatic and intense DLC chapter is a direct prologue for what’s next, then 400 Days is one hell of a start, and season two of Telltale’s The Walking Dead could easily follow in season one’s footsteps, and be one of the best games of the year. Whatever platform you’re playing on, The Walking Dead: 400 Days is well worth the $4.99 asking price. As soon as the credits roll you’ll be dying to begin the experience again. If not, you’ll simply be spending days wondering what could have happened had you made that other decision.
The Walking Dead: 400 Days scores a cool 4/5. If you’re already a fan of Telltale’s Walking Dead series, give it a download immediately. If not, begin with episode one: A New Day, and brace yourself…