If you’re a fan of the Walking Dead you’ve probably thought a lot about what you would do if walkers were in your neighborhood. Now with the power of Google Maps, you can play “The Walking Dead:Our World” in your real world. Just like the popular Pokémon and Jurassic park games I’ve written about, players are able to hunt different walkers alongside some of the shows greatest heroes and escort survivors back to your safe house, which, if you play from home, is your actual house!
Gameplay
There are a range of instances in game that players can interact with. Once you see a walker on the street you can click them and you’ll be given the chance to pick your weapon and hero. Once you’re ready to go you have to be quick with the headshots to put the walkers down. You shoot your weapon by tapping the screen. The hero you chose to accompany you will automatically attack and run away when necessary. If the hero goes down or is too injured during the fight they will have to regenerate for a short period of time.
Some of the instances are rescue missions where the player has to eliminate the walkers before they kill the helpless survivor. Some of the instances are 3-stage encounters where the walkers are numerous and the rewards greater for taking them down successfully. Some of the instances are story based missions.
As you collect survivors on your journey you’re limited to the amount you can escort at a given time. This number increases as you increase in level. If you find that you’re too far away from your safe house you can look for other safe houses left by players or you can create your own if you have enough resources. Once you place your safe house other players can drop off their survivors as well. You’ll get a bonus from any survivors left in your safe house by others as well.
Anytime a player completes a walker instance or drops off a survivor at a safe house they are given action cards. These cards can be buffs, weapons, building parts, and new heroes. As you collect duplicate cards you’re able to upgrade the card. Increasing its weapons damage and or effectiveness accordingly. The same goes for safe, ammo, and warehouses.
There are story missions in the game that allow a little more depth and interaction in the game. At first, you’re an unproven rookie who makes too much noise. As you progress you start to earn the respect of your fellow survivors as a capable walker slayer. These missions are not limited to distance but have to be completed in succession, so if the players needs to complete story 2-3 but it isn’t available anywhere on your map, you’re going to have to get out of the house or use a “compass” to find it.
Do Players have to walk to level up in the Walking Dead Our World?
Although this is a walking “exercise” type game, developers are realizing that not everyone is going to go out or can get out to walk the neighborhood. If the player finds that a walker is just out of reach they can use a consumable “compasss” which allows them to go into free roam for 15 minutes. While they are in this free roam they can walk in any direction to engage in combat and rescue survivors. Once the time is over the player is teleported back to their starting location. Any survivors collected along the way will also be teleported to be dropped off at the nearest safe house
“The Walking Dead: Our World” has several events going on simultaneously. The real action and play doesn’t start to become available until the player reaches level 5. This is a downside to the game in my opinion because leveling isn’t that easy. It took me about 5 hours of real world play to get to level 5 and if I was a more casual gamer, probably would have lost interest before reaching that level.
If you’ve been feeling left out of the Harry Potter, Pokémon, Jurassic Park game craze and zombies are your thing, you can’t go wrong with the Walking Dead Our World.
