How to Play The Walking Dead on Steam

I’m brand new to Steam. I’ve been playing Valve games for years, but always on a console. It wasn’t until Blogcritics gave me a download code to review The Walking Dead that I joined the Steam party. Here’s what I’ve learned about how to play the The Walking Dead on Steam.

How to Join Steam

The first step in playing The Walking Dead on Steam — or any other game for that matter — is to join Steam. The membership is free (unlike my customary Xbox Live); you just pay when you buy video games.

To join Steam, simply go to store.steampowered.com/join to create a Steam account. After you’ve created your account, download the Steam client. This is an application for your computer that allows you to access Steam without your browser, and it stores all your game information.

Any games that you have purchased will be visible in the Steam client, and if they aren’t already downloaded to your computer, you can download them there. You also use the Steam client to launch your games.

Playing The Walking Dead on Steam

Because I’ve spent the last decade or so playing console games exclusively, I’m used to playing with a controller. The problem is: I don’t have a video game controller for my Mac. I was a bit nervous about this when accepting my assignment from Blogcritics, but I took it anyway. And now I can share my knowledge with you. 🙂

The big question in my mind was “Do I need a controller to play The Walking Dead on PC or Mac?” Based on my traffic stats, it seems like a lot of other potential zombie-killers are wondering the same thing.

There’s good news.

You do not have to have a controller to play The Walking Dead on PC or Mac. The game is mostly point and click, and there are only a few possible actions you can take when interacting with any given object, so being able to quickly press a lot of buttons isn’t necessary.

Playing The Walking Dead with a PS3 Controller

I wasn’t able to get my Xbox 360 controller to work on my Macbook Pro at all. I read on a few forums that you have to install some drivers to make it work, but I didn’t feel compelled to put that much effort into it. (Have you tried using an Xbox 360 controller on a Mac? How did it work for you?)

I connected my PlayStation 3 controller with the help of a video on YouTube. The one linked here isn’t exactly the one that I used, but it’s pretty close:

http://youtu.be/xP5B63jNgQA

The good thing about the Macbook is that it has a bluetooth built in. If you don’t have bluetooth on your computer, you can play with the PS3 controller connected to your computer’s USB port.

However…

I gave up on using a PS3 controller also because the buttons on the controller didn’t map correctly to The Walking Dead. It was more confusing trying to remember which button did what than to just play with a keyboard and mouse. Actually, since the controls are so simple, I just used the Macbook trackpad.

Have you played The Walking Dead yet? Did you use a controller?