Well, it’s time I jump onto the bandwagon of praise for this one!
First of all, I don’t like the TV show… I started watching it, and decided to start calling it “The Boring Dead”… Gave up after 3 or 4 episodes…
Secondly, I’m not a big fan of zombie games…
That said, this makes my praise of “The Walking Dead” extra special!
First, let’s get the bad out the way… I wouldn’t call this a game, more of an interactive story… the gameplay elements are just too thin, and most of them are just to serve as interval between the cutscenes/story… This is as much a game, as cooking is… 
That said, on that regard, the game is bloody amazing… I picked it up on a Humble Bundle, and it was an amazing deal ($25 for a lot of great games).
My first comment to my friends after I finished this was: “Will someone please buy a copy of this for David Cage?!”…
David Cage might be the front-man for this new generation of interactive stories, but after playing this one, I don’t feel he’s even near in talent to the guys at Telltale!
The base story of TWD is quite the normal story for zombie-based games… but the way it’s written, the way it builds its characters makes it stand out…
While in Heavy Rain, the focus was on making CGI look as real as possible and over-dramatize everything so it would look “dark and gritty and real”, on TWD, the focus is on building characters… Great characters, with great depth, characters I could really give a crap about!
The graphics on TWD are cartoony (strange choice for a zombie game, but one that ultimately paid off), yet the characters feel more real than anything Quantic Dreams has ever done!
While I couldn’t care less if Ethan Mars lived, died, saved his son, etc, I really felt for Lee (the main character) and Clementine… the automated choices seemed believable, while the ones we could make were definitely hard to decide on…
The game immersed me so much in it, that I stopped doing my usual “game the system” approach (in which I choose something because it would maximize my “score”), and started doing what I believe I’d do in the situation… Specially because the decisions I made seemed meaningful to the story (for example, deciding on who lives and who dies).
This game was really amazing, and it gave me a new breath of hope for this genre of game… I was very critical of Heavy Rain when it came out, and while on TWD my main criticism is still present (the lack of “game”), it is considerably abated by the quality of story, writing and general mood the game exposes.
This game should belong in every gamer’s shelve (or Steam library)!