Walking Dead game won't follow the comic's story

The first details of story in The Walking Dead game were revealed in aninterviewJoystiq did with Telltale game designer Jake Rodkin. Rather than follow the original characters created by Robert Kirkman, the game will follow a pair of new ones: Lee, a convict being driven to prison as the game begins, and Clementine, a young girl Lee meets while seeking refuge from the zombie crisis.

Fans of the graphic novel's story shouldn't despair entirely, Rodkin did say that familiar characters like Rick Grimes and the rest of the comic's cast of survivors will “cross paths” with Lee, but as the story progresses there will be fewer encounters with the original characters as the game narrows its focus on Lee and Clementine's story.

It doesn't come as much of a surprise that Telltale has chosen to create a new story, since the AMC show of the same name that thrust The Walking Dead into the mainstream media's spotlight also chose to diverge from the comic, but then again, with a story as violent and well-crafted as The Walking Dead, it also seems like a waste to not use it.

So far there’s no release date for The Walking Dead.

Jul 27, 2011