The Walking Dead: 400 Days Review

The Walking Dead: 400 Days is a bridging story between the first and second seasons of Telltale Games’ game. Five bridging stories, in fact, following a series of all-new survivors during events that happened between 5 and 260 days after the zombie outbreak. Finishing with a brief segment at 400 days, it’s not really long enough to be a standalone episode, and this is its greatest flaw.

It took me about 75 minutes to complete this expansion, with each character’s story lasting around 15 minutes. This is nowhere near enough time to build any kind of bond, so the whole game just feels like a series of superficial experiences. Telltale could have used each story to show off a unique part of the world. Instead I found myself thrust into situations very similar to Season 1. Do I hurt one person to save another’s life? Is the nearby body human or zombie? How do we defend this camp? Is this offer too good to be true?

Without time to care about the characters however, the situations never feel tense, or even real. I’ve already spent 15+ hours in this world. I’m well-versed in making difficult decisions and reaping the consequences. Within this chapter, there are no consequences.

400 Days is so caught up in being the bridge that it forgets to be something in and of itself. Telltale are asking money for this chapter, and it’s just not good enough to stand alone.

All that said, the decisions made here will show their consequences during Season 2, so if you plan to buy that then 400 Days is essential. However, I’d recommend you wait until Season 2 starts and play this as an intro to the first episode. This is too superficial to enjoy on its own.