Tie-In PS3 Video Game To 'The Walking Dead' Premieres Tomorrow

One could settle for simply picking up "The Walking Dead" game anthology's first episode, "A New Day", by its lonesome when it hits the PlayStation Network April 24.

One could also pre-order the entire five-part set and receive a grateful Telltale Games team's swag of gratitutde, PlayStation.Blog reports.

Jake from Team Telltale reminded the AMC hit's Dualshock-lovin' fans this afternoon that the tie-in's premiere will cost a lowly $4.99, but also that ordering all five for $19.99 only blows $4.99 off the season price and earns an exclusive premium PS3 theme.

Jake describes an appropriately survival horror-styled experience in the vein of early Resident Evil, but with the episodic presentation of the previously successful "Back To The Future: The Game" series. He further claims that "The Walking Dead" steps up the tensions of survival in that actions and interactions impact how the experiece that follows plays out.

"We felt that re-telling Rick's story didn't make much sense because most people will know what would come next," Jake explained. "Beyond that, it wouldn't make sense to create a new story for Rick because we'd be off into new territory, making stuff up that really has nothing to do with The Walking Dead. A new story, with a new lead character, means that we're free to create new and exciting scenarios and that we can add to the backstory of characters and locations seen in the comics."As to 'A New Day' specifically, this series rooted in Robert Kirkman's established comic canon begins with an axe-swinging new character named Lee Everett surviving one day to the next while Rick Grimes remains comatose. Sentenced to serve a life prison sentence for a murder of passion, Everett meets and affects other familiar characters inhabiting Kirkman's apocalyptic world and through their interactionsas he lives to feel his heart beating another day. Fans are predicted to learn more about these familiar faces than has ever been revealed.

As to the game-play itself, Jake promises a melee-heavy combat style specifically stressing storytelling, character development and coming face-to-face with peril rather than keeping a seat behind cover warm.

What Jake describes sounds like equal parts gaming experience and social experiment.

"It's a much more personal experience than many other zombie-based games have offered," Jake explained. "Taking down a gigantic zombie horde with ridiculous firepower is not what The Walking Dead is about. In fact, we want you to be repulsed by the true horror of killing a walker. The zombies in our game are not just fleshy targets for your high-powered weapon, and you might be forced to finish someone who was a friend or a relative before they turned.

"On top of that, resources in our world are limited and noise attracts the wrong kind of attention, so you'll have to get up close and use hand tools and weapons. We want people who think they're desensitized to zombie violence to find that, in truth, they're not," he continued.