5 Reasons The Walking Dead Deserves To Be Game Of The Year

By Waheed Nawaz / December 9, 2012

Fear not those of you who haven't yet played the series - this article is spoiler free. First off I'd like to say congratulations to Telltale Games for the well-deserved award for Game of the Year for The Walking Dead. They also won Studio of the Year, Best Performance by a Human Female Best Downloadable Game, and Best Adaptation. What a night for them. Given the VGAs are of questionable quality, this is the first time a non AAA title has won the award, and I feel like it was the least played game overall compared to the other nominees. Is it possible that the media and industry are pushing innovation in design and storytelling, or was it simply that nothing else good came out this year?

1. Influence

Years from now, when asked about the games that were most influential during this generation of consoles, I would say that The Walking Dead would be on my list of games. From the point of view of a strictly story-telling medium novels and films have both developed their own voice. There are novels that could never be told as films or video-games, there are films that could never be told as novels or video-games, but if you ask me Video-games have never been their own story-telling medium. Usually gameplay and story are a completely separate affair from one another, however this game has a great story with a simple yet satisfying gameplay system.