The Walking Dead: Betrayal Is a Fun Spin on a Crowded Genre

Recently, I was given the opportunity to hop into a few games of The Walking Dead: Betrayal alongside some of the developers and members of the press. While still very early in development (it is launching in early access, after all), there's certainly the core of a fun hidden deduction game that makes good use of the comic and TV behemoth it has backing it up. Anyone who has played Among Us or Mafia is going to slide right into Betrayal's gameplay, but when things actually kick off, it starts to emerge as something with a little more meat on the bones.

The Walking Dead: Betrayal plops players into a small town giving them 30 minutes to complete two tasks and escape the encroaching zombie herd. You and up to seven other players will join together for the journey, but up to two players will be working against the team as Traitors. Betrayal isn't very narrative-heavy, so there's not a great justification for why the Traitors are working against the rest of the team, but those kinds of details both don't matter and can be ironed out during early access as needed.

What helps set Betrayal apart from the digital social deception games I've played is that it really embraces the different roles in physical card games like Mafia and Werewolf. Of course, the Traitor role is pretty straightforward, but at early access launch, there are six or seven other roles that you can get, which change your gameplay in key ways. For example, the Traitor gets easy access to a zombie skin suit that lets them blend in with the baddies and walk among them. The Tailor can also craft these suits by harvesting flesh, but using them means other players might think they're zombies.

Most of the roles have fun crossovers that will make your fellow players doubt your trustworthiness. I, unfortunately, didn't really get to test these out too much because I died early in our first game and was a traitor in the second. That said, anyone who's played these types of games will quickly notice how useful these roles can be and how fun it is to fight with your friends as you try to convince them you're the Confidant and not trying to trick them.

Speaking of dying, The Walking Dead: Betrayal makes the smart choice to keep you in the game if you are bitten, by letting you control the zombies yourself. This means you'll be able to get revenge on a Traitor who killed you or just chase after the friend who decided to let you die. Of course, you move slowly, which means you'll need to make careful use of your ability to bear hug a Survivor to keep them in place. I actually had a blast playing as the zombies. Sure, you won't technically "win," but hearing the other players scream and holler as you tear apart the base and eat them was a ton of fun.

That said, the best part was playing as the Traitor. Obviously, I only played one match, but it seems like you have almost too many tools at your disposal. Granted, Survivors will get better when the game is out, but I was able to do so much damage to my team before they found out I was the traitor that it almost felt unfair. You can leave doors open at the main base to let zombies in, drop noise traps that call zombies to a location, and even steal resource materials from the objective if you're feeling bold. Being a despicable rogue has rarely felt quite this fun with the right group involved.

All of that said, I'll be very interested to see if Betrayal hits the critical mass it needs to become a player in the crowded social deception space. As someone who used to spend hours playing Werewolf as a camp counselor, it was a blast to hop into a game that mixes that with light zombie survival. However, games that use social deception are all over the place right now, and it's tough to tell if The Walking Dead backdrop will be enough to take it over the edge. 

On top of that, The Walking Dead: Betrayal will definitely need to grow in early access. We only played on a single map, and I can see that becoming a bit boring after a bit, especially with matches lasting 30 minutes. If they're able to increase the number of maps and add several more roles to keep things fresh, Betrayal could definitely gain some traction. The team at Other Ocean will also likely be using the comics and TV show for cosmetics, as we did see a hint of currencies in our time, but we don't know the exact details just yet.

Either way, it's tough to see Betrayal breaking through in the same way Among Us did, though it certainly has the IP behind it to do so. At the very least, publisher Skybound has a game that's a good time with friends and has the potential to be more. We'll just have to see how much it progresses during early access as the team works toward its current early 2024 release window.