On the Download: 400 Days Review

Telltale Games has been around for years as one of the few developers that continue to work on traditional point-and-click adventure games.  Gaining a cult following for their Sam & Max, Monkey Island and Back to the Future adventure games, the first season of their Walking Dead adventure series was the game to finally garner Telltale some mainstream success.  The Walking Dead not only marked Telltale’s rise as a prominent developer when it comes to adventure games; it marked the revitalization of a genre which has not seen much love in the last decade.  The story of Lee Everett and Clementine was a touching and disturbing tale of how far people will go to protect what they cherish in the most dire of situations.  While the door closes on that story, it does not close on Telltale’s Walking Dead universe as there are still many more stories to tell.

400 Days is the start of a new story that will come to further fruition in the second season of the Walking Dead.  In 400 Days, the player follows five poor souls at various points during a four hundred day period.  Each of the five segments takes about twenty minutes and serves as an introduction of some of the key characters of the second season.  From escaping a prison bus to fleeing from enemies in a cornfield, 400 Days has a key focus on action due to how little time there is dedicated to each character’s story.  This action gives 400 Days a much different pace than the first season of the game, which is very refreshing and engaging.  Even with such a short time with these characters, Telltale does a phenomenal job of investing you in their stories and making you truly care about their well-being.  400 Days allows you to tackle the stories of these characters in any order.  Also some of the smaller choices you make in one segment will affect something in another.  While these changes are more on the cosmetic side, it is still neat to see how each segment interweaves with one another.

Much like the first season of Walking Dead, 400 Days suffers from the same technical problems.  These problems are the cursor becoming next to impossible to move at times, some lip syncing hiccups and the stuttering which happens a few times when changing between scenes and camera angles.  These technical problems are easy to work through, but they do break the immersion 400 Days tries to establish.  Clocking in between one and half to two hours in length, 400 Days is one of the shorter episodes in the Walking Dead series.  While length does not determine the quality of a game, it does determine how long one experiences said quality.  400 Days gives a great taste of what there is being set-up for the upcoming season, but you are left wanting more.  Do not get this writer wrong; wanting more is not a bad thing.  Just 400 Days seems a little incomplete considering the story of how these characters all come together is not included.  This omission will not be much of a problem if and only if Telltale allows gamers to play said omission in the second season of the Walking Dead.  Right now, it just feels like a missed opportunity. 

The Walking Dead: 400 Days is a very good yet short episode of Telltale’s acclaimed adventure series.  For those who have played through the whole first season and cannot wait for the second season, 400 Days is a worthwhile investment.  For those who have not given the Walking Dead a try, 400 Days is not the preferred episode to jump right into as the focus is more on rapidly introducing these new characters rather than sinking your teeth in a getting to know each character on a personal level like in the main game.  400 Days serves as a great bridge between season one and two of the Walking Dead, but not as a standalone entry in the series.