If you haven't seen the video posted by http://www.insidethemagic.net/ then you can find it HERE. It gives you a really good run through. I just thought I'd share some opinions on the experience!
I love The Walking Dead. I'm tied between flicking through the depths of Youtube and beating one out all day because all I can think about is the next episode, which just happens to be the mid-season finale. It is rare for me to praise... Well... Anything... But I really like what The Walking Dead has done for the genre. Sure, it still has the usual limitations... Let's find a place to hold up. Oh no the Zombies got in... Let's go live on a farm. Oh no the Zombies turned up... Let's go live on an island. Fuck me Zombies can swim... And the wheels on the bus go round and round.
What I like about The Walking Dead is it's move away from the other tradition aspects of the genre. The focus is on the people and the relationships between them despite the constant threat of becoming NOMNOMNOM material. The survivors that we, as an audience, have become used to, aren't exactly ripping with character and sub-plot. Bland springs to mind. But enough about The Walking Dead. I'll cover the episodes and perhaps the comics elsewhere. We're focused on the run.
If you hadn't noticed already, I'm fairly bad at pulling out the good. It's so much easier to claw it apart, thrust the bloated dangling bits in your face before skipping off on my merry way... So why change a winning strategy?
On what I highlighted above The Walking Dead, I felt this run lacking. I feel they should have integrated staff into the groups. For example, when it all kicks off at the start with the Zombies attacking, have it happen to people who queued up with the group. There's nothing worse than seeing that guy who was reminiscing to you about his trip to Disney Land getting chomped on in the first two minutes of your run. Then he gets up and chases you. Hot. Introduce characters. Everyone loves a "Samuel. L. I'm getting you motherfuckin' out of here. Jackson." before he gets closed on and eaten. The Walking Dead is more about those around you than those trying to eat you. I think they could've done more with that on the run.
Then we come to the obstacles. There were some I thought were very good. The blockades, for example, and the fences. But then there's the bit with the cargo netting and the wooden ladders. What carpenter said to himself, "Oh fuck, one Zombie. I know, I'll build a Viking Trireme to pass him! The environment, the stadium, etc. on the whole was fantastically realistic and that's what is needed in Zombie films. You always hear fan-boys bang on about the realism before some dickface comes along and says "It's a Zombie film and you expect realism lol lol I was molested as a child so I troll comments on Youtube". Fact is, all horror films, work on the suspension of disbelief. If you don't think it could be real, it's not scary. In that, we are all part of the act.
They should have done more with some of the settings. The guy holding up people, letting them out one at a time, brilliant. It's a good tool to break up the groups into smaller people but I thought it was ill timed. Everything had just kicked off behind them with biters biting then the crowd was just milling and chilling. The use of interior, darkness and more open spaces. Think sandbox game. Unleash everyone inside the stadium, give them a map of the "safe areas" (which happily get overrun) and let them go about their business. There needs to be more tension, not just OBSTACLE A TO OBSTACLE B LOL GUYS TAKE 5.
Which leads me to my next point and my infinite depths of understanding. This run was situated opposite, well, what is Comic Con. I may be a nerd, but I am a nerd with a body crafted in the spirit of Hercules. Unfortunately, other keyboard warriors do not have the same benefit. That is why there is the need for the constant stops.
I bang on and on about how important the characters are in The Walking Dead and how the Zombies are just circumstance. So let's look at the Zombies. They could've been much better. The use of gore, particularly limbs, was excellent but the actual Zombies I felt were lacking in both make-up and they weren't nearly hungry(bro) enough.
I guess this is the problem when catering to Comic Con nerds. You have to let those fish go when you catch them!