The Walking Dead: 400 Days

The Walking Dead: 400 Days bridges the first and second seasons of Telltales monumental adventure games. While it could have been longer, there's enough new questions raised and well-told personal moments to be worthwhile. Telltale still manages to deliver fantastic stories, and we can't wait to live through season two.

400 Microsoft points for an hour’s play might seem steep but is fully justified when the product is this good; a promising indication of Telltale’s increasing confidence in the genre and an assurance that we can look forward to season 2 with genuine relish.

Clementine may be nowhere to be found here, but 400 Days is nonetheless a strong entry in the Walking Dead series. It's short, but it packs a lot into every single minute of gameplay. While the game might seem like a cursory attempt to keep fans tided over until season two debuts later in 2013, it is actually one of the most imaginative, gripping, brutal, and best-written stories that you will experience all year.

A wonderful little anthology and a heartening reminder that, even in a world that has been thoroughly mined across countless media, Telltale is still able to unearth new stories.

400 Days doesn't innovate with incredible new ideas, but it's a nice "bridge" between the first and second season of The Walking Dead. Narration is effective as usual, with strong emotions and an interesting twist in the non linear timeline of events. If you loved Season 1, you will probably love this DLC.

400 Days is an experience that no fan of the first season of The Walking Dead should miss. Although it's a shorter experience and lacks the same intensity, drama and shocking moments of Lee's and Clementine's story, it maintains that unique concept and freedom to decide the fate of the characters and those around them.

I played through 400 Days on the XBLA release of the game, and it’s worth mentioning that there are a few technical hiccups that persist from the original content. Some slight stuttering and loading hesitation when saving or transitioning from one scene that could clearly go in another direction is often noticeable throughout, and it’s something that I really hope gets ironed out for consoles before Season Two starts.

While I am terribly bummed I find that I am also quite excited at the same time after playing this new DLC from Telltale Games. The Walking Dead 400 Days is far too short, just as the ride begins to get real exciting it ends. The DLC answers no real questions, but it does open one’s eyes to other viewpoints along the Walking Dead’s timeline.

The Walking Dead - 400 Days delivers action, story and horror in perfect-sized bites. Even though it lacks the strong leading characters like Clementine and Lee, it still packs a good amount of fun gameplay. Too bad it’s over way too quickly, but 400 Days does make the perfect bride between The Walking Dead Season One and Two and is strong entry to the series.

Intoxicating stuff. [Issue#138, p.102]

And however you play each story, Telltale’s seemingly simple presentation reveals its writers’ skill in surfacing humanity in even the most inhumane acts. (After all, in the zombie apocalypse, does “doing what’s right” even matter anymore?) Action segments come slightly faster and more furious in some of these stories than they did in most of Season One, with rudimentary gunplay and weapon-handling conveying a more grisly side of survival, but decision-making remains the game’s biggest challenge — and draw.

400 Days is a good introduction to five all new characters. Telltale delivers the same amazing storytelling that makes you want to move to the edge of your seat. 400 Days is a short but immersive way to get gamers ready for The Walking Dead: Season 2.

400 Days is not the emotional rollercoaster that was Season One, but it will still leave that bitter taste you get from the horrific consequences of your chosen decisions. Though the entire experience will take you less than two hours, for $4.99 it’s a good way to hold you over until we see Clementine again.

The Walking Dead: 400 Days is a good bridge between Season one and two. Five new characters with great conversations and hard decisions too make. However, the DLC is shorter than the first five chapters.

Striking and intense moments make up the bulk of 400 Days' appeal.

400 Days is by no means an essential purchase - it unfolds so quickly that you don't have that much needed time to mull everything over. But for 400MP, it's a perfectly decent-sized bite that should whet your appetite for Season Two, adding welcome layers of intrigue and complexity to an already exceptional series.

400 Days is a good standalone episode which introduces new characters in a short amount of time and creates situations which have you make very tough decisions, again and again. None of the stories even comes close to that of Lee and Clementine, but it definitely is a strong and unique episode.

Although I've spent more time in this review on the rough spots of The Walking Dead: 400 Days than I did on what was right, it's still refreshing to play a title that puts its focus on something besides large-scale slaughter, and Telltale's take on The Walking Dead remains one of the most compelling intellectual properties in gaming today. If my biggest criticism of 400 Days is that there wasn't enough of it, that can only be seen as a good thing.

Reasonably-priced, high quality DLC that's left us hungry for the next full season. [Oct 2013, p.71]

It remains close to the spirit of the series in many ways – even throwing in a handful of in-jokes and references to characters and locations from Season One – but in other ways it seems to veer away sharply from what we expect.

As a primer for Walking Dead’s upcoming sophomore season, 400 Days is absolutely a worthwhile stop-gap. More importantly, it is a great reminder that Telltale can continue to deliver on a quality of writing and characterisation far beyond many of its contemporaries, even when placed into a single chapter so fleeting compared to a full season’s worth of escalated drama.

It's testament to Telltale Games' storytelling qualities that each of the DLC's five mini-episodes could be fully developed during Season Two. While the depth and severity of the original series is missing, this quintet of sub-plots is well worth picking up for 400 MSP.