Skybound Entertainment and Genvid Entertainment have revealed more information regarding their new The Walking Dead: Last Mile game, which is due to launch this summer as a Facebook exclusive. This press release revealed the location of the story - a first in The Walking Dead franchise - alongside new character reveals. The announcement also went into detail as to how players will be able to control the narrative in a way that promises to be a unique experience for The Walking Dead franchise.
Skybound and Genvid's new project The Walking Dead: Last Mile, was announced last month and described as a "massively interactive live event" - or "MILE" for short - for the Facebook platform that will be part game, part interactive television show. As The Walking Dead: Last Mile is a live event, it is due to unfold in real-time minute-by-minute, day-by-day, week-by-week as players collectively control and shift the narrative, particularly influencing who lives and dies. This choice could mean that players can potentially save their fan-favorite characters, which is something The Walking Dead writers across the franchise have notoriously been less forgiving with in the past.
In their latest press release to Screen Rant, Skybound Entertainment, Pipeworks Studios, and Genvid Entertainment have gone into further detail about how this will work, stating that "unlike other ‘mass online gatherings,’ The Walking Dead: Last Mile truly places all interactive spectators in the same virtual space, creating a new kind of global communal experience that combines the ubiquity of traditional broadcast television with the immersive, interactive engagement of video games" and explained that "if players miss The Walking Dead: Last Mile content, they can keep up with the drama via a post-show that will air regularly." There will however be a reward scheme in place that offers perks such as a walk-on role in the game's cinematics to incentivize those who do regularly interact with the game. The Walking Dead: Last Mile is also due to take place on a remote Alaskan coast, which provides fans with a location not previously explored in the franchise, and one that should be advantageous to the survivors given how The Walking Dead's walkers are known to be adversely affected by cold climates. Concept art of the main cast has also been revealed that showcases an art style which pays homage to the original comics and was previously used in the Telltale games, although information surrounding the characters' backstories is still unknown.
Although the idea of players controlling the narrative in a The Walking Dead story has been explored before in the acclaimed Telltale The Walking Dead series, which were single-player experiences that had certain character deaths and events set in stone in order to progress the story, regardless of the player's actions. The Walking Dead: Last Mile promises to be a unique experience and more of a collaborative effort that includes players from across the world, and unlike Telltale's titles, The Walking Dead: Last Mile is a one-off experience, meaning that players aren't able to reload the game to make a different choice, solidifying their choices as canon once the story has concluded. Making the title even more accessible is the promise that players will only need a browser that lets them access Facebook in order to get involved.
The Walking Dead: Last Mile certainly looks set to offer fans of the franchise a new experience, and looks to be a first for the narrative-heavy video game genre on the Facebook platform. In the build-up to the game's Summer 2022 release, players are bound to learn more about the characters and build up an idea of whose fates they will be deciding.
