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Rating: I will try to be brief and not redundant, because I would risk going on for too long with a complete and well-argued description of this Game-Series.
As many may know, or can imagine, The Walking Dead is the official video game of the well-known and appreciated TV series (itself inspired by an equally remarkable comic book).
Before I can totally overlook this "multi-media" aspect, let me clarify: to play and enjoy this game, it is not necessary to have watched the TV series, nor to have read a Kirkman comic, nor to be a fan of the Zombie-horror genre.
The Walking Dead is a "old style" video game, one of those that forgets those annoying words used by nerdy, chubby, and socially awkward folks like "skill, frag, achievement, noob" and the like. A video game that solely focuses on the effectiveness of the plot, in my opinion, engaging and serially very appreciable.
Engaging because, although the story follows a generic base plot, everything surrounding it is entirely influenced by the player's own choices, who, through various dialogues (unfortunately only in English, so those not well-versed in the language might end up giving random responses) juggles their affections/sympathies/hatreds/disappointments with each character in the story.
There are many examples I could give you, but spoilers are never welcome, so if the trust in what I just told you is non-existent, the only advice I can warmly give you is to play it yourself.
Working in a not too sophisticated graphic environment, the game finally allows for "mainstream" usability (meaning you don't need a NASA-level computer to play at minimum graphic details); nonetheless, this shortcoming is hardly felt. Rather, the reference to the comic is clear and effective, from my point of view, so, to put it very professionally: "it works."
Because a hyper-realistic, super-detailed graphic, with the zombies' worms recognizable from miles away, would have made no sense, except to make the game run only on advanced hardware computers.
The Walking Dead is not a horror game; it is not designed to make you jump out of your seat around every explored corner; it's not even a typical "psychotic" video game like F.E.A.R, where the fear comes from horror clichés of 2000s Japanese B-movies.
It's not even definable as "psychological," because, although there are always glimpses of sentimentality (primarily the pseudo-parental relationship that develops between Lee, the main character—a convict "saved" on his way to prison by a car accident with a zombie—and Clementine—a little girl looking for her parents), these do not dominate the game's story.
The Walking Dead, in my opinion, can be defined as a Social-Horror game. It is a video game that will lead every player to make choices, influenced by the group of survivors, by all forms of life interacting with the player himself and their survival companions. Each choice will bring approvals and equally dissents. Every button pressed, place visited, even every phrase said will be imprinted into the characters' minds, which will consequently (even chapters later) act appropriately.
Five are the chapters dividing the story, about two hours of gameplay for each of them.
Do not expect the typical "search and destroy" like Resident Evil. The zombies are merely the backdrop of The Walking Dead's story. That's why, therefore, this video game enters my list of the best ever: for the quality of its plot, storytelling (understood as scene management and serialization of various chapters - which, it must be pointed out, were not released simultaneously) and playability. It had been a long time since similar games had been seen around. It had been a long time since I felt so proud of spending my money well on a video game.
I am sure, or at least I hope, that if you decide to purchase it and play it (seeing how many wimps roam this site, probably many are offended at hearing the verb "purchase," but let's just ignore that) you will be just as satisfied as I was.
Have fun.
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