'The Walking Dead: 400 Days' an incredible expansion

　　The surprise success and glowing accolades bestowed upon interactive adventure The Walking Dead is largely due to two characters: Lee and Clementine. The ex-convict and young girl in search of her parents captivated players eager to learn how they would fare together in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. Bonding with these two felt natural, making the twists and turns The Walking Dead would take all the more gutwrenching.
　　But for expansion The Walking Dead: 400 Days, studio Telltale Games takes a different approach, focusing on the journeys of five survivors during the first 400 days of the apocalypse. Although players might not forge as powerful a connection as they did with Lee and Clementine, the expansion is another impressive example of Telltale's storytelling skills.
　　The Walking Dead: 400 Days is based near a truck stop, where an unidentified character views notes plastered on a board. It displays pictures of the expansion's five characters: Vince, Shel, Russell, Bonnie and Wyatt. Each person's story takes place at a certain point during the first 400 days of the apocalypse. For example, Vince's tale picks up on Day 2 of the outbreak, while Shel's adventure starts 236 days into the apocalypse.
　　The expansion serves as a bridge between the first series of The Walking Dead episodes and the upcoming second season. Choices made in the initial season carry over, and decisions made in 400 Days impact what happens in season two. There's also no set order to the mini-episodes, as each players can choose how they want to view the stories.、
　　For players new to The Walking Dead series, it's an interactive adventure that combines context-based action with expertly-written dialogue. The game consistently presents players with several challenging decisions that impact how the story unfolds.
　　As with the original Walking Dead, 400 Days' storytelling is top notch. Players may not spend as much time with the five characters, but each of their short stories is equally fascinating. There's Shel, who's taking care of her younger sister while inside a makeshift safehouse in an abandoned diner, and Vince, who finds himself on a prison bus for murder. Every story features a different perspective of the outbreak, yet boasts the same sudden turns and challenging dilemmas.
　　Also, the scenarios Telltale creates in 400 Days play out wonderfully. One encounter features a struggle with a gunman where players must frantically fight off a gunman while fumbling to escape. Between the combination of well-timed button presses and exploring with the thumbsticks, it's a dramatic sequence that finds players quickly -- and anxiously -- skirting death and leaving unharmed. It's hard to explain in too much detail without giving away key points of the story, but Telltale again conveys action in a way that heightens tension.