The Walking Dead was a hit when it premiered in October 2010. Fans couldn't get enough of the storytelling and world of the zombie apocalypse. This popularity of the genre gave storytellers the idea to craft new stories within the universe, releasing new stories in all sorts of mediums.
Video games were one of those mediums that made fans feel as though they were in the story itself, witnessing it firsthand. Some of these games based on The Walking Dead grew just as popular as the show, while others left more to be desired.
I picked five of the best Walking Dead video games and ranked them best to worst! Let's get started with Telltale's The Walking Dead.
1. Telltale's The Walking Dead
Telltale's The Walking Dead is one of the most popular video game series within the universe of The Walking Dead. According to IMDB, the series has won a total of seven awards, with eight nominations. In 2012, the first game won the "Game of the Year" award, along with "Studio of the Year" award at the Spike Video Game Awards. The game also won the "Best Story" award at the 2013 BAFTA Game Awards.
This video game series was developed by Telltale Games in 2012 and is an episodic graphic adventure video game series where the player must make choices that will influence the outcome of the story. The series follows a young girl named Clementine, who is found all alone at her home after the apocalypse begins. In the first game, you play as a man named Lee Everett, who tries to reunite Clementine with her parents, who are away on vacation at the time. This game series even includes characters from the original Walking Dead comic book series.
I personally enjoyed playing this video game series, and I was still shocked by the outcome of my choices later on in the series. There are a lot of twists and turns that kept players engaged. You never knew where each decision would lead you. Telltale's The Walking Dead has the heart and story that fans love, similar to the original series of The Walking Dead.
2. The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners
The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners is another video game that a lot of fans enjoyed. This game was developed by Skydance Interactive and Skybound Entertainment in 2020. It is a virtual reality first-person shooter action game that takes place in a semi-flooded New Orleans.
In the story mode, you play as a character called the Tourist, who is shipwrecked in New Orleans. As the Tourist, you must fight to survive and escape the walker-filled city by finding supplies. The game has a lot of blood, gore, and close contact fighting, which is an amazing experience in VR.
According to IMDB, The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners was nominated for five awards, but the game sadly did not win any of the categories it was nominated for. In 2023, a second game was released called The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners - Chapter 2: Retribution. However, this game had mixed reviews compared to the mostly positive reviews left on the first game.
3. The Walking Dead: Onslaught
The Walking Dead: Onslaught was developed and published by Servios in 2020. It was released later in the year after The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners was released. It is another virtual reality action-adventure horror game.
The Walking Dead: Onslaught has two main game modes you can play, the first being a five-hour campaign where you play as Daryl Dixon, who is voiced by the original actor, Norman Reedus. The second game mode is a "Supply Run" mode where you must scavenge supplies while trying to survive a horde of walkers coming your way. Beloved characters from the original show are also featured in the gameplay, including Daryl Dixon, Carol Peletier, Rick Grimes, and Michonne.
This game did not do as well as The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners. It was rated an average Metascore of around 61% on the Metacritic website and has mixed reviews. The game isn't bad, but it doesn't seem to live up to or add anything more than other games within its genre.
4. The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct
The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct was released in 2018 and was developed by Terminal Reality. The game was published by Activision and follows Daryl and Merle Dixon's characters before they met Shane Walsh and the gang outside of Atlanta. In the story, Daryl starts the apocalypse separated from his brother Merle and must traverse the walker-filled world to find him. Fans were excited to hear that Norman Reedus and Michael Rooker were a part of the voice acting cast and would reprise their roles as Daryl and Merle Dixon.
Sadly, this game was rated below average by various gaming sites, including IGN, HonestGamers, and Gamespot. But, don't let the poor reviews stop you! I haven't played this game in a while, but from what I remember, I really enjoyed it. It was an additional story about two characters very important to The Walking Dead series. I enjoyed getting to experience another story about Daryl and his brother.
Another plus to the game was getting to hear the characters voiced by their original actors. The gameplay was fun and challenging in my opinion. It is a game that will always bring back a sense of nostalgia for me. This game is no longer available on the Steam store, but you still might be able to purchase a Steam key to download the game. You can still buy used versions of this game for consoles such as the Wii U, Playstation 3, and Xbox 360.
5. The Walking Dead: Destinies
Finally, The Walking Dead: Destinies may be the worst Walking Dead game of all time. This game was developed by Flux Game Studio and published by GameMill Entertainment. It is an action-adventure video game that was released in 2023. The story follows the original Walking Dead storyline almost exactly how the series plays out. However, the game gives you choices to differ from the original storyline ever so slightly.
This game was a cool idea, but didn't really differ from the television series. Even when you made different choices, the story went along very similarly to the show. Different characters would be alive based on your choices, but the story went on practically the same. Voice actors for certain characters also didn't have the same feel as the original actors who played them in the show. The good thing about the game is that, according to IMDB, the actors who played T-Dog, Lori Grimes, Sophia Peletier, Carl Grimes, Beth Greene, and Andrew in the original television series were brought back to voice some of the characters in the game.
This game is still available to purchase on Steam and other consoles such as the Playstation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch even though it may not be worth the price or the reviews. On Steam, this game has received mostly negative reviews and is not a game many fans enjoy.
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