Last year’s The Walking Dead stunned the gaming world with its realistic characters, soul-crippling decisions and heart-wrenching plot. Now Telltale are back with some DLC to bridge the gap to Season 2. Does 400 Days live up to the high expectations, or is it zombie food?

The answer to that primarily lies with the former: 400 Days is a worthy addition to The Walking Dead. It’s entertaining, well-written and has all the moral dilemmas you’d ever want. The only issue is that it’s a good game, not a superb one. And so it doesn’t quite reach the lofty bar set by the original game.

Don’t get me wrong, this collection of five tangentially-related stories is fun to play. Each features a different character, and the main link between them is that they all revolve around the same gas station. These aren’t anywhere near as long as the main game’s episodes: each lasts no more than 15 minutes, and this leads me onto the first problem. It’s very difficult to become fully sympathetic with a character in such a short time frame, and thus the moral choices are a lot less hard-hitting. Some of them still feel powerful, but others are, frankly, meaningless. You’re not fully attached to any of the side characters, despite Telltale’s best efforts. It’s remarkable what is achieved in these 15 minute periods, but it’s not quite enough: I would have liked to see three 25 minute episodes instead of five shorter ones.

Other than this, you’re getting pretty much exactly what you’d expect. The gameplay is almost exactly the same, although there are a couple of new quicktime events tossed in for good measure. It’s still the weakest point of the game, whilst dialogue is the strongest. The voice acting is every bit as strong as you’d expect, and the cast is diverse enough to remain interesting. If this is, as some have been speculating, the main cast for Season 2, I wouldn’t be completely satisfied as these are not quite as compelling characters as Lee, Clementine et al. But I wouldn’t be terribly disappointed either: even when Telltale aren’t at their best, they’re significantly ahead of their competition.

That sums up 400 Days quite well, actually. Not quite as good as The Walking Dead, but really quite good when compared to most of the tiresome DLC that we get these days. And for the low low price of $5/£4, it’s certainly worth a purchase. At the very least, it will help to speed up the long wait for Season 2.

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The Walking Dead: 400 Days is out now on PC, Mac (reviewed), PS3, Xbox 360 and iOS now, and is coming to PS Vita on August 20.

The reviewer paid for the game himself.