The Walking Dead: Michonne - Episode 1: In Too Deep Reviews
The Walking Dead: Michonne is off to an excellent start, bringing back all the tension and emotion that we have come to expect from the highly regarding series.
The first episode of The Walking Dead: Michonne is a fun, interesting journey into the psyche of Michonne and how she handles a new violent group of survivors.
Telltale Games take a different approach with their The Walking Dead series by placing us in the shoes of established character Michonne. But with an attachment already made with some fans, will this mini-series be able to capture the emotional drama that the talented development studio is known for?
New cast, new story, new creative team - just what The Walking Dead needs.
The premiere episode of The Walking Dead: Michonne provides a combat-filled experience that will please fans of both TellTale Games and The Walking Dead.
She's no Clementine
This brief journey into Michonne's world of The Walking Dead has begun with a promising start and has the potential to be an extremely good game, exploring mature themes but maintaining a good degree of tension. Telltale have well established Michonne; now they need to show us just what she is capable of.
Fans of the comic books will surely love this addition to Michonne's story, as it gives a glimpse into what went on during her disappearance in the comics
The Walking Dead: Michonne Episode 1 – In Too Deep is a solid debut of this spinoff mini-series. Michonne is a good main character and the adventures she goes through, as well as those that await her, are quite interesting. While there may not be that many changes in terms of gameplay, it's still worth it for those who've enjoyed the past experiences from Telltale.
'In Too Deep' is an auspicious opener for Telltale's new series. It has flaws, and the release schedule is probably too tight for the studio to take any player feedback into account, but I have a feeling it is going to give insight into the intricate personality of its lead and deepen her fandom even further.
Despite a slow start and slow character development with secondary characters, The Walking Dead: Michonne has a lot of promise looking ahead. If the momentum gained in the last half of this episode keeps rolling into Episodes Two and Three, I have no doubt that this series will be regarded as highly as it's two predecessors.
Michonne travels the apocalyptic world, never staying in the same place long and never letting false promises of security get in her way. She never gives in to threats and faces adversity head on, which makes for a promising adventure.
This won't create any new fans of the series or bring anything extremely different to the foray, but it's still a solid first start to a 3 part miniseries. I do hope the other two episode play out just a little longer than the 90 minutes this lasted, but otherwise, I'm definitely down for the next episodes.
Michonne is a fascinating character, and one that makes for some interesting storytelling. Unfortunately, the first episode of her tale loses steam after the first few minutes, and boils down into something that feels like it's been done before.
Will you enjoy In Too Deep if you liked Telltale's other The Walking Dead series? Absolutely. Does it stand up to our expectations based on the previous series? Not really. A Walking Dead game in shape and form, Michonne just lacks the tension in atmosphere and decision making.
True to its title, The Walking Dead: Michonne - Episode 1 is all about one character, somewhat to the detriment of the story and other characters. Michonne is so well done, though, from her impressive survival skills to the hollow look in her eyes, that she easily carries the entire episode. Even though I wasn't invested in the story, I did care about Michonne — everything she said, every walker she killed, and what will happen to her moving forward.
After a dull start the tension amps up, resulting in a promising-but-rocky beginning
I'm still kind of let down that the core gameplay remains mainly unchanged over the years. Telltale is great with character choices and delivering a striking painterly color palate, but all of that can grind to a halt since the hacking and slashing gameplay feels repetitive, especially compared to last year's adventure breakout Life Is Strange. Telltale is still the king at what they do, making the active conversation in a game feel tense, urgent. I just hope that's enough for the remaining two episodes of The Walking Dead: Michonne.
At this point I'm starting to tire from the Telltale formula, especially when it doesn't provide a cast of memorable characters from the get-go, but Michonne herself was enough to power me through the episode and keep me interested. In Too Deep hasn't topped either season of The Walking Dead so far, but if you can still stomach a few empty "remember" prompts, you'll enjoy the story they're trying to tell.
In Too Deep is a stepping stone to introduce Michonne that detrimentally plays it safe. There aren't any advances in Telltale's formula or notable sequences that we haven't seen in other forms before, but the miniseries can be a cut above its predecessors if it takes advantage of the brutality and moral centre of the protagonist by embroiling her in more memorable confrontations with both the infected and the living.