How does a game developer turn something good into something better? The task is never as easy as it seems. For the most part, the process of creating a good game has been already hard, and when a developer manages to come up with something great, there is the added pressure of delivering more of the same. With the Walking Dead: Assault 2, however, the expectations are a little different. The original game is already impressive, and proves that games based on popular titles are more than just novelty pieces.
Laid Out for All
The great thing about Skybound games, the developers of Walking Dead Assault , is the fact that they have already made clear what their future plans for the game is. If you browse the game’s stage selection screen or click on the more episodes option on the main menu, you will be shown advertisements for the second and third episodes of Assault.
It makes for very little guesswork about what else the game needs to have in order to make it as successful as the first: more of the same! The Walking Dead: Assault is a great game with easy to use touch controls, well detailed backgrounds and characters, smooth animations, impressive hand-drawn illustrations, and a gameplay system that is so cleverly made that if you were not too busy trying to fend off flesh eating zombies, you may have a few moments to actually stop long enough to be impressed by it.
Spoilers are Expected
The one catch about having a poster for upcoming episodes: you have a clue about what is going to happen next. Episode two will obviously have something related to prisons while the third one will have you fending off against other human beings instead of just zombies. It really is not hard to imagine the scenario, after all, zombie apocalypse situations have been used time and again across countless media. Regardless, if you are familiar with the culture, you would know what to expect.
Those who have read the comics or watched the TV series would need a little background information regarding the story of the Walking Dead. On the other hand, those who are new to the series or to the concept of zombies in general, would find it hard to figure out the story through this game alone. The first WD: Assault has shown that it reveals little to nothing at all when it comes to the actual circumstances of the characters and the events that unfold around them. Stages are a simply an assortment of objective that must be completed without any form or reason or story to provide a cohesive playing experience. That being said, the game itself is so fun that the near-complete lack of a storyline is not all that bad.
What Not to Change
As much as we would love to see improvements in the game, there are more things that we would like the developers to retain. The most obvious one is the use of a visual delivery that complements that of the comics. The cel-shaded black and white visuals give the game an eye popping edge that few other titles have (and it is not often that you see black and white work so well in a game). Another thing we would want the devs to keep is the presence of the zombie hordes. These large masses of zombies are the biggest problems that any protagonist would face, and not having to worry about the noise you make takes away some of that much-needed tension in the game.
