The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct Gets a Decayed Launch Trailer
The media maelstrom that is The Walking Dead license makes its second foray into video games tomorrow. Falling in line with the branding and fiction of AMC’s nuclear hit of a TV series, Survival Instinct follows supporting character Daryl Dixon in his crossbowed quest to reunite with his scumbag brother, Merl, while fending off waves of the living dead.
Once upon a time ago, if you told me one of my absolute favorite comic series was breaking into games with an action charged first-person shooter – infused with a dose of survivalism – I would have handed you my wallet and asked you to empty it out. But this isn’t once upon a time. We live at the end of a generation lousy with FPS’s.
And, unfortunately for Terminal Reality and Activision’s take on the property, the gaming populace has been educated by Telltale on how far not just The Walking Dead name can go, but how smart and emotional gaming as a whole can be. To fans’ benefit and for the sake of variety, Telltale shouldn’t monopolize The Walking Dead universe, but the competition really should be stiffer than this sorry looking budget title (watch the trailer…I’ve seen prettier, sun-baked walkers).
I will submit Terminal Reality has the ability to surprise me; I did love me some BloodRayne back in the day and their Ghostbusters game is the closest we’ll ever get to a third movie…But licensed games are a dual-edged sword, and we’ve all been cut before.
UPDATE: Destructoid revealed something rather disheartening about this game: “It’s worth pointing out that, despite the rapidly approaching big day, review copies don’t appear to have been sent out. At least not here, anyway." In layman’s terms, Activision is saying, "Don’t review our shitastic game. People can’t find out it’s bad until after they’ve bought it.”