Telltale’s The Walking Dead surprised many last year, including myself, by telling one of the most memorable stories in gaming. By pairing tense scenarios with incredible characters, the episodic game caught wildfire and became a smash success, winning multiple games of the year accolades.  To no surprise, the success of season one means that a season two is inevitable, but in the meantime, Telltale decided to tease us with a DLC that gives us insight on the future of the series.

To accomplish this, 400 Days takes players along the span of 400 days after the initial zombie outbreak. The story puts you in the shoes of five individuals, whose fates cross paths in various ways during the game.

 Unlike the previous Walking Dead episodes, where you are led along a linear path, you are given the choice to pick which of the five characters to play as. These characters— Wyatt, Russell, Bonnie, Shel, and Vince— all come from different places, and you get to experience their histories in small, 25 minute packages. While this obviously doesn’t allow for the level of attachment to the characters that was present during the five previous episodes, you’re still able to get a good grasp on their plights.

This is due to the strong writing and dialogue. Each short story tells an emotional tale that players will be either cringing at, or relating to. The series is also known for its emphasis on choice, and there is no shortage of that here. The choices you must make are gruesome, and difficult. On more than one occasion, I paused the game to mull over a choice. In a couple of instances, I was so caught up in the situation that I hastily made a choice that might not have been optimal, but it was one that I felt I had to make.

Though the decision making and the story are intact, there are still some standing issues that carry over from season one. For example, frame rate and minor glitches still exist on the Xbox 360 version of the game, though they might not have occurred as often as they did in the first season. Also, though it’s only a taste of what is to come, some of the characters aren’t introduced as well as others and are harder to relate to. Wyatt in this case was hard for me to understand because you are thrown into his situation with little context, and while they try to flesh it out with dialogue, it doesn’t come together as well as other characters stories did.

Despite those issues, I still consider 400 Days an achievement. Not only were the stories interesting and the choices difficult, but seeing how each story intertwined was awesome. Additionally, there are many small Easter eggs that hint to the original season and while they are easy to miss, they sure are satisfying.

Overall, I think that 400 Days is a must play if you have played the first season of The Walking Dead. By the end, I felt like I had a good idea where season two is headed, and I immediately started to speculate how certain characters might return, and how everything will ultimately tie together. 400 Days only adds to the greatness that was season one, and should definitely be experienced.