'Reviews are that way, Daryl.'
The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct hit shelves today, and yet you would be hard pressed to find very many reviews of the game. The ones you do find are likely from untested blogs struggling to make a name for themselves. What about the 'big names' in games journalism, where are the Kotaku reviews or the Joystiq pieces on Survival Instinct? What about Destructoid or IGN?
Most of these blogs have not put up a whole lot of content on The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct and we're pretty sure we know why.
The answer comes in two parts:
The Stigma
Last year, Telltale Games released a point-and-click game based on The Walking Dead comic books. While the genre may have faded out over the years, it is absolutely perfect for what Telltale was trying to do with their version of The Walking Dead. Robert Kirkman, the comic book creator, worked closely with Telltale and oversaw story development on the game. Telltale's game was a massive hit, lauding nothing but amazingly good press and reviews and taking home dozens of gaming awards and honors.
When The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct was announced, it already had a stigma surrounding it. This was that other Walking Dead game. You know, not the one that Telltale did. This one is made by Activision, it's a shooter.
Survival Instinct may be the best game released this year for all we know, but the fact of the matter is that, to many people, this game is already associated as the lesser version of its more well-known and already established cousin. With Season Two of Telltale's series coming out, most of The Walking Dead community is hyped up for that and a lot of them had no idea that a shooter was even being produced.