There’s a second throughout a very grueling fourth-season episode of The Walking Dead by which our protagonist, Rick Grimes, is interesting to the humanity of a person holding a samurai sword towards a sort, light farmer’s throat. Getting extra determined by the second, he says “We can nonetheless come again, we’re not too far gone.” We point out this as a result of it appears believable that just a few despairing builders at Brazilian studio Flux Games (Cobra Kai 2: Dojos Rising, Get Over Here) may need stated one thing much like writer GameMill earlier than submitting The Walking Dead: Destinies for certification. Unfortunately, the ultimate result’s, with out query, not solely a foul recreation however comfortably one of many worst premium-priced experiences on Switch.
So what’s all of it about then? Well, The Walking Dead: Destinies principally takes the primary story beats from the primary 4 seasons of the TV present (nicely, three and a half — it ends after the ‘Woodbury’ plotline), letting you tackle the roles of key characters like Rick Grimes, Shane Walsh, Carol Peletier, Beth Greene, and extra. The important twist is that you’re periodically introduced with decisions which can considerably alter the canon plot, often by swapping somebody who had initially checked out within the TV present with a totally completely different character.
For instance, an early scene within the recreation sees the character T-Dog arguing with the villainous Merle Dixon on the roof of a constructing in Atlanta. In the present, “Officer Friendly” Rick Grimes diffuses the argument by handcuffing Merle to a close-by pipe. In Destinies, you’ll be able to comply with this route if you want, or you’ll be able to diffuse the state of affairs with out using handcuffs. This leads to a cutscene throughout which Merle purposefully handcuffs T-Dog to the pipe whereas the others aren’t watching, thus successfully swapping their roles. In essence, then, the story nonetheless kind of performs out in the identical approach, however with slight variations on the taking part characters.
It’s a mechanic that can finally attraction extra to these intimately accustomed to the TV collection, and on paper at the very least, it’s an attention-grabbing thought. Indeed, seeing the risky Shane Walsh lead the group by the ‘jail period’ of the present as an alternative of Rick is a jarring change, however one which many passionate followers have typically hypothesised because the story took its course. Unfortunately, a good suggestion must be executed nicely, and nothing — we imply nothing — about The Walking Dead: Destinies has been executed nicely.
Starting off with the essential gameplay, Destinies primarily has you making your approach from level A to level B whereas defending your self from attacking Walkers (the IP’s time period for zombies) or human survivors. On the odd event, you get to partake in particular duties similar to capturing out alarms, switching off turbines, or finding particular gadgets, however for probably the most half, it’s fairly simplistic stuff. Either approach, navigating by the setting is nothing however a merciless chore because of the dismal visuals.
Huge property like buildings, timber, and rocks will pop out and in of view as you make your approach round locales like Atlanta, Herschel’s Farm, and Woodbury, to the purpose the place it was sufficient to make us really feel barely nauseated at occasions. Absolutely nothing has been given the care and a focus it deserves, with the overwhelming majority of objects trying as if they’ve solely partially loaded their textures. Heck, even the water present in streams or rivers is totally static. It’s absurdly fundamental.
You may assume that such crude visuals would at the very least lead to clean efficiency, however don’t anticipate something of the kind right here. The frames chug alongside at an unacceptably low charge even throughout quieter moments, and it is egregious sufficient that it straight impacts the gameplay; we misplaced depend of the variety of occasions we went to alter course, solely to utterly overstep the mark as a result of the body charge all of a sudden clips alongside at a tempo slower than these rattling Walkers. Needless to say, should you thought the efficiency in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet was iffy, you then may need to brace your self for one thing really catastrophic.
It’s throughout fight, nonetheless, the place the sport actually falls aside. You can defeat enemies by way of melee assaults or gunfire, however each strategies are rife with points. Melee assaults are broadly inconsistent, generally downing enemies in a single go, and different occasions requiring about 10 swings of your machete to do any harm. Killing enemies additionally builds up your adrenaline, after which you’ll execute a lethal ending transfer, however should you’re not urgent the designated button on the precise proper time, you’ll do nothing however immediate your character to state “Urgh, I can’t do this,” in probably the most monotonous tone possible.
Gunfire is equally atrocious, and it doesn’t matter what sensitivity setting we experimented with, we may by no means discover that candy spot to make aiming really feel reasonably snug. The recreation is seemingly conscious of this, too, defaulting your auto-aim setting onto the very best potential choice, that means you’ll immediately lock onto a Walker’s head the second you press ‘ZL’. Eventually, we simply left it because it was. It made every fight encounter mercifully shorter.
For as unhealthy because the core expertise is, every little thing surrounding it’s equally poor: the cutscenes are restricted to static pictures; dying sequences are ruined by your character yelling “Ow, I’m damage!” whereas a bunch of Walkers feast on their corpse; the sound will lower off should you go into the Switch’s Home display and again in; the secret itself is misspelled within the credit (critically); subtitles don’t match what’s being uttered within the audio dialogue; the precise voiceovers sound nothing just like the characters within the present; Walkers will visibly seem from skinny air throughout horde situations; NPCs stroll round carrying invisible weapons; our bodies — whether or not alive or lifeless — will generally merely soften by the ground and right into a neverending void. We cannot communicate to the constraints of the mission from a developmental perspective, but it surely’s clear that this wanted loads extra work to get it to a decent, releasable state.
Conclusion
Publisher GameMill needs to be embarrassed at placing out The Walking Dead: Destinies at any worth, not to mention as a $50 boxed product, and we sincerely hope AMC Networks takes a bit extra care in who it entrusts with its IP sooner or later. There’s completely nothing right here that has been executed nicely; it is a recreation that’s merely rife with technical blunders, horrible manufacturing values, and damaged mechanics. The solely factor conserving Destinies from reaching a decrease rating is that you would be able to at the very least play to the tip credit, however even these have been fumbled. In a 12 months full of bonafide classics, Destinies is the worst recreation we have performed.
