*Major Spoilers for Telltale’s The Walking Dead*
Welcome back to “Games that Define Me,” where I’m ranking my top ten most influential games on me as a gamer. My personal favorite games. Donkey Kong Country holds the 10th spot. Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy takes the 9th spot. In the eighth spot, we journey back twelve years to Macon, Georgia, where we witness the revelation of people’s true nature when the world goes to hell.

Telltale Games was founded in 2004 with a focus on episodic adventure games. Their initial success revolved around the Sam and Max series, but the company exploded in popularity after being awarded one of the most popular franchises of the 21st century — The Walking Dead. The success of the first season of The Walking Dead sent the young company into the stratosphere, with multiple Game of the Year awards. In the following years, Telltale released plenty more games based on massive IP — Tales from the Borderlands, Game of Thrones, Batman, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Wolf Among Us were all fun games that followed the same Telltale formula. Unfortunately, fans grew tired of this formula, causing the closure and subsequent ‘revival’ under new ownership.
I have a soft spot for Telltale Games. Maybe I’m easy to please, but their episodic formula works on me. They create interactive shows with perfect cliffhangers. I have played every big release and loved them all.

But Walking Dead Season One stands head and shoulders above the rest because of its story.
2012 was peak Walking Dead. Seasons 2 and 3 of the series were the show at its best, and also when I jumped in. That show was incredible in the early years! It was one of those shows that became a weekly ‘must see’ event (something that’s now lost in the era of streaming). Telltale Games then got put on the map by releasing Season One in April 2012. It wasn’t just a lame duck attempt to cash in. This game finds its footing in the amazing world by Robert Kirkman, and stands out thanks to its main duo.
Lee and Clementine shine as characters. Their journey is genuine, adorable, and heartbreaking from start to finish. Lee is an escaped convict who killed the man sleeping with his wife. Clementine is alone after her parents go missing, and Lee is there to help find them. She’s just a little girl who lost the two people tasked with keeping her safe. Lee lost his life partner and was about to spend life in prison. Both are vulnerable and in desperate need of a companion.
And its through these two that we enjoy an incredible story of love, pain, and the power of a group. Community is power in the apocalypse, but you need to trust those around you. The only two people Lee and Clementine ever truly trust is each other. Which makes Lee’s sacrifice at the end all that much more beautiful and gut-wrenching.
This game was the first that made me shed a tear.

The “Games that Define Me” have discussed a love of platforming gameplay with Donkey Kong Country and touched on narrative with my Guardians of the Galaxy entry. Walking Dead Season One is where my love of the story became one of the top things I look for in a game. It’s why I love Telltale Games. Their stories are great and easy to digest over a two hour episode.
And Telltale showed me how games can have the best kind of storytelling: where the player makes the choices and lives with the consequences. Walking Dead makes the player, albeit a little binary by 2024 standards, choose things during intense situations. You can’t pause and think about it either because there’s a timer counting down. Early 2010s gaming was rampant with the Quick-Time Event gameplay, but Telltale put them to good use with its horror elements.
And once you make a choice, whether to save someone or allow someone to die, the other characters in the game remember for the rest of the story. Those choices even carry over into later seasons. I love when games do that. Mass Effect does that brilliantly (possibly later on this list).
I will remember Lee and Clementine’s story for the rest of my life. That’s why this game is on the list. The final scenes of Season One are burned into my brain forever. Gaming can produce some of the highest highs in media storytelling. That’s why I love it so much. Getting to participate in a heartwarming story, or devastating one, creates a connection vastly different than a movie.
And it was Walking Dead Season One that birthed that realization.