I’m not normally the one to play suspenseful, scary video games. I prefer more peaceful games, such as Slime Rancher, in which you can just breed and harvest giant sentient slime balls that eat fruits and vegetables and can glow in the dark and fly. I have played some scary games, such as Outlast (which was NOT fun to play my first time around- eventually I got used to the horror) and Phasmophobia, where you hunt for ghosts with your friends online.

The Walking Dead is an adventure-based, interactive “choose your own story” horror game based in an apocalyptic world. You are thrown into the world just as the zombies are coming to life, and you must make decisions all the time, that will be remembered by the other characters in the game, and determine how the rest of the story will play out for you.

Sometimes, some of those decisions are as simple as lying about your past to someone such as Hershel Greene, the first man who takes you in during the apocalypse. Other times, the decisions are way more drastic. Having to choose between saving the life of a child or a grown man whose leg broke while zombies are surrounding you wasn’t something I was expecting to experience within the first hour of gameplay, but that was more than enough emotion for me to handle during my first sit-down playing the game.

I especially love Clementine’s character. As someone who has a younger sibling and many young-aged cousins, I can’t help to fear for Clementine’s life every moment in the gaming. Seeing a young child hurt breaks my heart. But that was probably the intent of the creators all along- they selected Clementine to be the “secondary character” in the game because children invoke a lot of human instincts and strong emotions to anyone who has a soul and a heart.

I also make sure to keep Clementine in mind with every decision I make while playing. If I lie to Kenny about my character’s past life pre-apocalypse or to any new characters that I meet, will that affect Clementine’s safety in any way? The must be the human in me, but that was my thought process while playing through these episodes.

Well, except for the swearing. I could probably censor myself around Clementine, but I choose not to. And then she started cursing. But that was kinda funny to watch.