The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct will be out next week! Activision have released this piece of marketing material for it in advance! It specifically focuses on explaining that two characters whom you know from the television show are featured in prominent roles within the game.
These characters are Daryl and Merle Dixon, two brothers who grew up in rural Georgia and the game chronicles their journey that culminates in their appearance in the TV show.
This game shouldn’t be confused with the narrative adventure of The Walking Dead that Telltale produced. This game takes place in the universe of the television show whereas the other game is canonical with the comic series. The two lead characters of Daryl and Merle don’t appear in either the comic or the other game at all.
Each actor seems to serve a different role in this trailer, Norman Reedus attempting to convey information about the game while Michael Rooker talks about the acting process.
Gameplay’s shown, but it’s done sparingly, there’s no footage of you actually attacking a walker, there’s some light stealth, the discovery of a baseball bat and a gas canister, but otherwise it’s in-engine cutscenes between the two brothers and a little bit of time spent on three other characters.
Preview coverage of this game has been scarce and even this material is seemingly focusing more on letting audiences know that it has the clout of two famous faces involved than actually prodiving interesting gameplay. We’d love to be proven wrong, especially as we’re fans of the franchise, but there still remains a significant amount of scepticism.
Think about picking up The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct next week.
