Editorials
[Premature Evaluation] ‘The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct’
Zombies are big right now. Much like a real zombie apocalypse scenario, there’s no escaping them. They’ve shambled onto pretty much every facet of entertainment, and one of the brands that’s leading the undead hordes is The Walking Dead. So far, TWD has seen quite a bit of success in its transition from comics to television and video games, the latter of which has been led by Telltale Games’ amazing episodic adventure series and even a surprisingly great Facebook game based on the series.
Next up is The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct, a prequel to to the TV series that follows brothers Daryl and Merle Dixon. It’s had an alarmingly rocky marketing campaign, and with the comics, TV series, and games having set the bar so high, many fans are wondering if this is going to be a solid entry in the franchise or an obvious cash-in. TJ and I ask ourselves this very question, and others, in our premature evaluation of the game, which you can read after the jump.
Adam: Let’s start things off with what The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct is all about. It’s set before the events in the first season of the television series and follows brothers Merle and Daryl Dixon before they met up with Rick and his gang. It’s being developed by Terminal Reality, the guys behind the surprisingly solid Ghostbusters video game — the 2009 one, not that awful arcade game — and published by the house of Call of Duty.
The game had some issues last month when a fan uploaded alpha build gameplay and called it a trailer. This stunt managed to fool most of the Internet, including Activision’s community manager and maybe us too. Everything we’ve seen since then, and I’m referring to the “official” stuff now, hasn’t been terribly impressive either, including screenshots and a trailer. So TJ, what are your thoughts on the game so far?
TJ: I’m so torn on this game. We really haven’t seen enough for it to look promising, but I can’t help but still be kind of pumped for it. I love the Walking Dead universe. I want this game to be good. I crave it. I’m still so skeptical.
Adam: I feel like if Activision thought this game was good, then they would be promoting it. They would be touting it as a worthy addition to the Walking Dead universe. Instead, they’re hiding it under a mountain of new releases, many of which have had their respective hype trains rolling for months, or in the case of BioShock Infinite, years. They’re just tossing it out there with a single gameplay trailer, a few screenshots, and the desperate hope that fans of the brand will see “The Walking Dead” and excitedly throw their money at it.
TJ: Tonight, on Night Court. Adam Dodd v Activision. Though I am inclined to agree. Mostly because of the way you talk to me all sexy and with that thick bassy tone. I feel like Activision dropped the ball as well. I feel like they had gold in their hands and may be letting it turn to crap. They should postpone the release of the game and throw some more money at Terminal Reality. Tell them not to frak this up because it’s the chance of a lifetime.
Adam: So we agree that Activision isn’t handling the marketing of this game well. I’d go so far as to call it a disaster. This obviously doesn’t mean the game isn’t going to be good. Our first look at it was pre-alpha footage, and it lacked many of the details that are usually added when the developer focuses on polishing up their game. The “official” gameplay trailer Activision released after that was significantly better, though to be completely honest, it still failed to wow me, at least visually.
TJ: The scariest thing about it is its release is a month away. This is the time when you want to be blasting gamers with all the good stuff. Getting people amped up, showing their friends, talking about it on super famous Bloody Disgusting news pages. Yet here we are, stuck with one gameplay trailer that ends with some unsynced Daryl voice overs. Boo.
Adam: To me, the one area where this game could still really impress is in its storytelling. That’s always been the strength of this series, and the relationship between Daryl and Merle is one of the more fascinating ones from the show. I think it could impress us all in this department, even though I’m not certain I can handle 8-10 hours of Merle talking about coons and shit.
TJ: I’ll agree with that. Lately, in the TV show, Merle has been pissing me off more and more. I’m glad Daryl has developed how he has and is now the “good” brother. The story between them could end up being very interesting. I’m also curious to see what new and possibly familiar faces they run into. Maybe the game will end where the show began?
Adam: I can see that happening, though I wouldn’t mind if they kept this story completely separate from the television series. The neat thing about having two lead characters like the brothers is they’re survivors. They lived off the land before the zombocalypse, so they know how to handle themselves. I hope Terminal Reality can use this in interesting ways, because all I’ve seen so far has been a lot of running and the occasional stealth section. I’m a fan of the game’s focus on flight over fight, because I’ve had my fill of killing zombies at this point — never thought I’d say that — so I’m looking forward to trying to find a way around the undead, rather than through them.
TJ: Yes, those elements could make for one awesome zombie game. Scavenging is my jam, I love that. People are annoyed when I’m super far behind searching every body and opening everything I can. Something that really grinds my gears is the lack of co-op in the game. It’s definitely the ideal game for something like that, with its two player situation. It seems like a game that could have been built for it.
Adam: It should’ve had co-op, but a feature like that would have put the game’s release too far away from the debut of the (second half of) third season of TWD. So again, we see another reason to be worried about this game. They have the money and even the talent to make a great Walking Dead game, but the signs of it being pushed out the door too early are everywhere.
TJ: It really saddens me to my core that rather than put some more time and money (which Activision has by the truckloads) into a potentially amazing game, they would rather just prematurely push it out into the world for it to most likely fail.
Adam: In its defense, it is a $50 game, so it’s sort of being released at a budget price. Even still, it’s disappointing that there isn’t any co-op, especially when it’d be so easy to implement story-wise. For a publisher like Activision to release something like this, which is guaranteed to sell well, at a budget price? That’s a big deal. I’m also looking forward to seeing how they support it post-release. What will they do with DLC, outside of the already announced “Herd Mode,” which is so generic I don’t even want to talk about it.
TJ: Budget prices are scary because they know the game isn’t worth the full 60 bucks. Deadly Premonition however, that could be argued. How dare they give us a Herd Mode. Especially if we are going to have to pay for it. Even more so if we can’t play it with anyone but ourselves. It would HAVE to be co-op to be fun. The Fight ‘Till Dawn Mode in Alan Wake’s American Nightmare was an epic failure in my eyes because it was single player.
Adam: I wouldn’t call American Nightmare’s Fight ‘Till Dawn mode a failure, because it was fun and surprisingly well done. I still stopped playing it after about a week, but I also can’t imagine a cooperative Alan Wake. That just feels… weird.
TJ: Maybe I just have so much more fun in situations like that playing with others. It was fun the first couple times, but I felt alone and I need companionship. I never liked playing Halo’s Lone Wolf multiplayer, I was always more into the team games, and the Herd Mode sounds like it should be played by a team.
Adam: I think that, for me at least, Survival Instinct has a lot going against it. It’s being released by a developer that hasn’t proven themselves consistently capable of delivering quality games, it’s following after the release of Telltale’s critically acclaimed series (and my my pick for GotY), and it’s the culmination of two things I’ve become increasingly tired of: zombies and wave survival modes. I love zombies, I really do, but we may have reached a boiling point for me. There are just too many.
TJ: I feel bad in a sense for Terminal Reality. It almost sounds like they got the short end of the stick on this game. There will always be a Horde Mode soft spot in my heart. I guess I always have hope that it will be as good as the best ones out there. Mixing it up with being in a new game with a new way to play it always sounds fresh, but doesn’t always come out smelling like roses.
The Verdict:
Adam: As a fan of the Walking Dead brand, I hate to say this, but I am only barely interested in this game.
TJ: I’m still holding onto a small shred of hope. But the game thus far fails to impress.
Have a question? Feel free to ever-so-gently toss Adam an email, or follow him on Twitter and Bloody Disgusting.
Due to a complex series of anthropological mishaps, the Wayans Brothers are a huge deal in Brazil. Around these parts, White Chicks is considered a national treasure by a lot of people, so it stands to reason that Brazilian audiences would continue to accompany the Wayans’ comedic output long after North America had stopped taking them seriously as comedic titans.
This is the only reason why I originally watched Michael Tiddes and Marlon Wayans’ 2013 horror spoof A Haunted House – appropriately known as “Paranormal Inactivity” in South America – despite having abandoned this kind of movie shortly after the excellent Scary Movie 3. However, to my complete and utter amazement, I found myself mostly enjoying this unhinged parody of Found Footage films almost as much as the iconic spoofs that spear-headed the genre during the 2000s. And with Paramount having recently announced a reboot of the Scary Movie franchise, I think this is the perfect time to revisit the divisive humor of A Haunted House and maybe figure out why this kind of film hasn’t been popular in a long time.
Before we had memes and internet personalities to make fun of movie tropes for free on the internet, parody movies had been entertaining audiences with meta-humor since the very dawn of cinema. And since the genre attracted large audiences without the need for a serious budget, it made sense for studios to encourage parodies of their own productions – which is precisely what happened with Miramax when they commissioned a parody of the Scream franchise, the original Scary Movie.
The unprecedented success of the spoof (especially overseas) led to a series of sequels, spin-offs and rip-offs that came along throughout the 2000s. While some of these were still quite funny (I have a soft spot for 2008’s Superhero Movie), they ended up flooding the market much like the Guitar Hero games that plagued video game stores during that same timeframe.
You could really confuse someone by editing this scene into Paranormal Activity.
Of course, that didn’t stop Tiddes and Marlon Wayans from wanting to make another spoof meant to lampoon a sub-genre that had been mostly overlooked by the Scary Movie series – namely the second wave of Found Footage films inspired by Paranormal Activity. Wayans actually had an easier time than usual funding the picture due to the project’s Found Footage presentation, with the format allowing for a lower budget without compromising box office appeal.
In the finished film, we’re presented with supposedly real footage recovered from the home of Malcom Johnson (Wayans). The recordings themselves depict a series of unexplainable events that begin to plague his home when Kisha Davis (Essence Atkins) decides to move in, with the couple slowly realizing that the difficulties of a shared life are no match for demonic shenanigans.
In practice, this means that viewers are subjected to a series of familiar scares subverted by wacky hijinks, with the flick featuring everything from a humorous recreation of the iconic fan-camera from Paranormal Activity 3 to bizarre dance numbers replacing Katy’s late-night trances from Oren Peli’s original movie.
Your enjoyment of these antics will obviously depend on how accepting you are of Wayans’ patented brand of crass comedy. From advanced potty humor to some exaggerated racial commentary – including a clever moment where Malcom actually attempts to move out of the titular haunted house because he’s not white enough to deal with the haunting – it’s not all that surprising that the flick wound up with a 10% rating on Rotten Tomatoes despite making a killing at the box office.
However, while this isn’t my preferred kind of humor, I think the inherent limitations of Found Footage ended up curtailing the usual excesses present in this kind of parody, with the filmmakers being forced to focus on character-based comedy and a smaller scale story. This is why I mostly appreciate the love-hate rapport between Kisha and Malcom even if it wouldn’t translate to a healthy relationship in real life.
Of course, the jokes themselves can also be pretty entertaining on their own, with cartoony gags like the ghost getting high with the protagonists (complete with smoke-filled invisible lungs) and a series of silly The Exorcist homages towards the end of the movie. The major issue here is that these legitimately funny and genre-specific jokes are often accompanied by repetitive attempts at low-brow humor that you could find in any other cheap comedy.
Not a good idea.
Not only are some of these painfully drawn out “jokes” incredibly unfunny, but they can also be remarkably offensive in some cases. There are some pretty insensitive allusions to sexual assault here, as well as a collection of secondary characters defined by negative racial stereotypes (even though I chuckled heartily when the Latina maid was revealed to have been faking her poor English the entire time).
Cinephiles often claim that increasingly sloppy writing led to audiences giving up on spoof movies, but the fact is that many of the more beloved examples of the genre contain some of the same issues as later films like A Haunted House – it’s just that we as an audience have (mostly) grown up and are now demanding more from our comedy. However, this isn’t the case everywhere, as – much like the Elves from Lord of the Rings – spoof movies never really died, they simply diminished.
A Haunted House made so much money that they immediately started working on a second one that released the following year (to even worse reviews), and the same team would later collaborate once again on yet another spoof, 50 Shades of Black. This kind of film clearly still exists and still makes a lot of money (especially here in Brazil), they just don’t have the same cultural impact that they used to in a pre-social-media-humor world.
At the end of the day, A Haunted House is no comedic masterpiece, failing to live up to the laugh-out-loud thrills of films like Scary Movie 3, but it’s also not the trainwreck that most critics made it out to be back in 2013. Comedy is extremely subjective, and while the raunchy humor behind this flick definitely isn’t for everyone, I still think that this satirical romp is mostly harmless fun that might entertain Found Footage fans that don’t take themselves too seriously.
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