The game gives players a chance to rewrite the story of The Walking Dead as you know it, reliving the biggest moments from seasons 1-4 of the TV show with the chance to change the destiny of The Walking Dead Universe by killing characters before their television counterparts or sparing them; choosing different group members; and making different choices.
Due to the nature of the game's storyline, all spoilers for The Walking Dead are unmarked. You have been warned.
This game provides examples of the following tropes:
- Adaptational Heroism: While this is Downplayed with Merle if he's spared, and definitely Averted with Shane should the player choose him over Rick, it is Played Straight with Philip Blake, otherwise known as the Governor if you choose to spare his zombie daughter.
- Adapted Out: A lot of characters do not appear in this game.
- The camp site does not include Andrea, Amy, Jim, Jacqui and the Morales family. Ed does not appear either, though Carol does mention him at one point.
- As result of the CDC arc being omitted, Dr. Jenner does not appear.
- At the Greene farm, neither Otis nor Patricia nor Jimmy appear.
- Duane Jones is never mentioned, not even by his father Morgan, who does appear in the game.
- Out of all convicts in the prison, only Andrew is present.
- Tyreese and Sasha Williams don't appear in the game, and nor do the prison newcomers.
- In Woodbury, only Merle is still present as the Governor's right hand man (and potentially, T-Dog can take his place), with no sign of Martinez or Shumpert. Because the prison assault takes place shortly after the first encounter in Woodbury, Tara Chambler and other Governor's army newcomers are all absent as well.
- Adaptational Villainy: T-Dog can take over Merle's role as The Governor's lieutenant in Season 3 if he's left on the roof instead. And depending on how you deal with the Governor's daughter, either T-Dog or Merle can end up filling the role of the Governor instead.
- Artificial Stupidity:
- The walkers are far from smart, often failing to register the Player Character and generally making serious pathfinding mistakes. The human enemies aren't much better.
- Under the right circumstances, the boss tank at the end of the game can actually damage itself, if it gets within the blast radius of its own cannon.
- Bait-and-Switch: The announcement trailer uses different voice actors to lead up to its' central twist. A man is heard giving Rick's iconic Ricktatorship speech from the end of Season 2, but the viewer can assume it's still Rick, albeit played by another actor besides Andrew Lincoln. However, it's eventually revealed that it's not Rick... it's Shane, who was also disguised since it's not Jon Bernthal delivering the lines either.
- Compressed Adaptation: The game takes the events of Seasons 1-4 while compressing them down, to the point that certain plot threads (like the CDC facility) or characters such as Andrea don't appear at all.
- Death by Adaptation:
- An exploitable trope, as players can choose to have certain character perish long before their show counterparts, most notably Rick during "Better Angels" instead of Shane. The second trailer also shows a scenario where Carl dies at Hershel's farm whereas his show counterpart survived until Season 8.
- In the climax, the Atlanta leader would present Glenn and Michonne and would promptly kill one of them if they attempt to talk them down. In one of the endings, Michonne is the one killed, as the canon story did not kill her off.
- Dies Differently Inthe Adaptation: The Governer/Merle/T-Dog would present Glenn and Michonne as hostages. Glenn is beheaded by the Atlanta leader if the player chose him to negotiate. Glenn in the cannon story is noted to be brutally killed by Negan whereas the video game beheads him.
- In Spite of a Nail:
- Sophia will still be found as a walker in Hershel's barn, just like in canon.
- The Penny walker will still be put down, regardless if it's done by Michonne, T-Dog or Merle.
- Andrew will still be killed in the correction facility, be it by Rick's hand or Shane's.
- Karma Houdini: If the player chooses to talk Merle down instead of handcuffing him in his confrontation with T-Dog, he goes back later and handcuffs T-Dog to the roof, leading to T-Dog being found by the Governor and becoming the latter's Dragon. He never suffers any consequences for this.
- Killed Offscreen: If the player has Shane save one of Hershel's daughters (Maggie or Beth) instead of getting the medicament bag to Carl, the latter will die offscreen from the wound, and the game will cut straight to his funeral.
- Murder by Inaction: If Shane is the one who leads the group, then once Hershel gets bit in the leg by a walker, Shane coldly leaves him to die. Unlike any other divergence points where the choice is up to the player, this time they get no choice in the matter.
- Mythology Gag:
- Hershel potentially losing one of his daughters hearkens back to the comics where he had one hell of a Trauma Conga Line losing his children one-by-one until only Maggie was left.
- If Shane manages to win the "Better Angels" fight, Rick reanimates as a walker before being shot in the head with a pistol, a fate that befell his comic counterpart in the penultimate issue.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Rick and Lori have to endure thisnote if Shane saves Beth instead of grabbing the medical supplies during Season 2, resulting in Carl dying of his gunshot wound which came from either of Green sisters or from a random survivor (since Otis is Adapted Out). Hershel is also subjected to this if Shane grabs the medical supplies instead, leaving Beth to be devoured by walkers.
- Ruder and Cruder: This game drops many more F-bombs than the show, bringing it more in line with the comic series.
- Spared by the Adaptation: An exploitable trope, as one choice shows sees Shane spared during the events of "Better Angels" at the cost of Rick's life. Lori is also shown holding the newborn baby Judith when she had died in childbirth in "Killer Within". In fact, the only characters who still die regardless of choice are Sophia, Andrew and Penny.
- Truer to the Text: Some of the game's differences actually bring it more in line with the comic series, such as the game being Ruder and Cruder as noted above. The absence of Jenner is also true to the comic since he and the CDC story were an invention for the show.
- What If?: This is the core premise of the game, granting you the ability to alternate certain events by making choices. One of the biggest changes that can be made is if Shane had succeeded in killing Rick and taking over the group at the end of Season 2.
