Since Tell Tale announced that they were going to make a The Walking Dead: Michonne series, I have been sitting at my desk waiting and keeping an eye on any update. Days ago, I finally got around to play episode 1: In Too Deep.
The Walking Dead: Michonne features a much younger Michonne. It seems that it could be taking place between issue #126 and #139 and I surely am intrigued. Episode 1 starts with a clearly distressed Michonne, who is haunted by her past and things that have happened, or that she has done. We meet the group that she is currently travelling with, and the story introduces a bunch of male characters, most of which I thought were a bit forgettable. Only the leader of the group, Pete, so far has caught my interest.
The Walking Dead: Michonne, In Too Deep offers you right away some pretty intense choices such as defining the emotional and mental stability of Michonne and how open or closed off she is with the people around her. Early on in the episode, the group gets into an impasse and you are charged to go off, along with Pete, to get into a ferry that sits in the distance, to find something that could help fixing the boat, which then gets you into another kind of trouble. When I was talking to my partner, right after having finished In Too Deep, he asked me if the theme of the episode, thus far, reminded me of season 1 of Tell Tale’s The Walking Dead, or season 2. I didn’t need to think too much about it, In Too Deep definitely resembles Season 2 of The Walking Dead more than it does season 1, which isn’t a bad thing, but isn’t necessarily good either. Season 2 had some great stuff to offer, but also departed from the sort of small group, personal journey we got in Season 1 when we followed Lee, Clementine and their group as they met other people and lost their own along the way. Season 2 simply was a bit more crowded, and more action packed, and that’s the vibe that I got from this first episode.
As I got closer to the end of the episode, I decided that I liked this younger, less stable but emotional Michonne (or at least the one that I created with my decisions). Although the episode seems to be pretty 50-50 in terms of female and male characters, it is the women who lead the show, and who make up almost 90% of the main characters, the ones who make the story move, and we get a pretty nice range of different personalities and morals, with some dark background hinted at that I cannot wait to uncover. The episode is much shorter than what I am used to getting from a Tell Tale game, but I was satisfied with where it choose to end, and the amount of time and information that I was given in what I think could be rounded up to an hour and a half for an episode.
To conclude, Tell Tale’s The Walking Dead: Michonne, In Too Deep definitely doesn't so far feel like just another cash grab of a walking dead game with the walking dead name, but an actual story about Michonne, and the things that she cannot let go of and that continue to haunt her. I can honestly say that I am quite curious to see what episode 2 and the rest of the series has prepared for us.