The Walking Feels

Many of us have at least heard of "The Walking Dead" series. The comic books are pretty popular, and the show is practically ubiquitous nowadays. I, however, have been heavily involved in another aspect of the series: the video game. Now before you make any assumptions, it's not what you think. You're not running around capping zombies in the head with an AK, or anything ridiculous like that. Similar to the comic book, and from what I've heard the TV series, the game focuses more on the relationships and the choices made by the characters. The big catch is that very often, YOU are making the decisions. The worst part is, most of them are timed. Every once in a while, they make you choose whose life to save, but most often the choices are social. Who do you give rations to? In the middle of an argument, who do you side with?

Perhaps a little more background. You play as Lee Everett, a man on his way to prison for murdering the man who slept with his wife when the zombies came. After stumbling through the forest along the highway, you come upon Clementine, a young girl whose parents were in Savannah when the apocalypse started. You adventure onward with Clementine, struggling to stay alive.
The interesting thing about this game is that none of the choices are even remotely black and white. Every argument has two valid sides, every conflict has consequences both obvious and unseen. This creates a very real test of morality that shows an almost embarrassingly large amount about the person playing. More than that though, it creates real genuine feelings and emotions throughout the game. Losing a member of my group felt like losing a family member (obviously on a much smaller scale, but still). To link to a previous blog post of Chris Hodge's, I feel that this power to create simulated relationships as well as mimic real life decisions to the point that I actually feel bad about actions I've taken or things I've said is what makes video games truly art, not pretty visuals.

Minor Update:
I just finished a couple of nights ago. I actually cried. What I realized is that because the decisions Lee was making were really MY decisions, I was able to identify with him and relate to him in a significantly stronger way than any book or movie would have been able to.