The Walking Dead hits retail in one week

Come December 11, those of you who've skipped the episodic digital releases of Telltale's brilliant adventure game adaptation of Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead will finally be able to pick up a disc containing all five chapters of the first season.

Telltale Games issued a verbose email yesterday officially announcing the release date for the upcoming retail iteration of The Walking Dead. The game, which is currently available as five episodic downloads on the Xbox Live Marketplace, PlayStation Network, iOS and Steam, will hit store shelves as a single, disc-based release on December 11. Unlike standard retail releases which commonly see $60 price tags, prospective players can pick up the entire first season of The Walking Dead for a mere $30.

If it seems like we’re trying to steer you toward buying this game/compilation, well, that’s only because we are. As Telltale’s email points out, we recently awarded the first season of The Walking Dead our first perfect 10/10 score. Additionally, we also published glowing reviews for each individual episode of the game as they were released on the various digital distribution platforms. In short, we adore The Walking Dead, and feel that everyone, whether they’re looking for deep characterization, traumatic horror or simply a bunch of ugly rotting corpses, will agree that The Walking Dead is one of the best video game releases in recent history.

Telltale’s email also includes a reminder for true Walking Dead devotees to get their pre-orders for the Collector’s Edition in as quickly as possible. While this iteration of the release will set you back a sizable $70, it includes “an exclusive edition of The Walking Dead Compendium One: over 1,000 pages of Robert Kirkman’s original comic book, collecting the first 48 issues of Rick Grimes’ story.” Though the Compendium won’t cover the entirety of Kirkman’s run on the Walking Dead comic books to date, those 48 issues span the comic’s first five years — the same years in which it won its massive cult following (which, in turn, spawned both the video game we’re discussing and AMC’s Walking Dead television series). If you enjoy the dark, bleak atmosphere and complex characters of Telltale’s game, you’ll likely feel the same about Kirkman’s comics.

Oddly, Telltale seems to have struck up a deal with Best Buy on the disc-based PC edition of The Walking Dead. According to the email, Best Buy is the only place where you can buy the retail release on PC. This leaves consumers with little choice on where to shop, but on the upside, Best Buy is also the only place where you can find a “a Limited Edition cover variant for all platforms, along with an exclusive poster insert.” So that’s something, right?

Wherever you buy it, the point here is that once December 11 rolls around, no one should have an excuse for not playing this game. Now even those without internet connections can enjoy the haunting story of Lee and Clem, and those who’ve already enjoyed the game as a download can use this opportunity to play through the entire adventure again. If you do decide to replay the game though, keep in mind that attempting to be as terrible a person as possible will only make your soul hurt.