I’m a longtime fan of The Walking Dead franchise, having read the comic since the beginning and enjoying the television show based on it. For whatever reason though, the game version, an adventure game released in five episodes throughout 2012, was never high on my list of priorities.

However, with the complete game now available at Redbox, the long weekend gave me a chance to finally sit down and see if the project was really something worth getting excited over.

Of course, this isn’t a review, so I can get my opinion on the game out of the way early. Simply put, The Walking Dead: The Game is every bit the creative masterpiece game journalists have labeled it to be, but that’s not really what I’m writing about it for.

Video games as a medium have yet to really receive much in the way of mainstream acceptance. Sure, there are millions of people with video game consoles, but unlike any other entertainment media, games have a tendency to become a scapegoat in a crisis.

Recently, there have been an unfortunate number of school shootings across the country. As a result, the video game industry has come under fire once again, with claims that violent video games warp young minds because of the direct interaction they take part in.

Whether or not this is true is a matter of constant debate, something I have no intention of looking at in depth. What I do want to address is the effect these sorts of arguments have. For many people, an outcry against violent video games is an outcry against gaming in general with no real appreciation of what those games are really trying to say to the players.

Now more than ever, developers are making games that directly address the idea of violence and what it can ultimately do. They are portraying it in a way that makes the idea of simulating the acts seen on screen seem disgusting and vile.

That’s where The Walking Dead comes in. Over the course of its five-episode narrative, players are tasked with protecting a young girl named Clementine from the harshness of a post-apocalyptic world. They’re faced with violence and cruelty at every turn, and sometimes the player is made to choose between two horrible acts.

However, this behavior is never presented in a glamorized way. It’s meant to make the player think about what they would do in a situation, how they would really react. There’s a main character in The Walking Dead, but he simply acts as a proxy for the real player.

Horrible things happen, and The Walking Dead is able to make the player feel the full weight and consequences of those choices. There’s no maniacal glee to be had in chopping off a character’s leg or choosing who lives and dies, only a growing sense of discomfort.

In short, The Walking Dead doesn’t desensitize players to violence, it makes it hit close to home. More than any game I’ve played before, it brought out a physical and emotional reaction in me by the time the credits rolled.

For many, The Walking Dead is just another game that shows how sick and twisted M-rated video games can be. In truth, though, it’s proof that video games are evolving as a medium, changing into a genuine synthesis of art and storytelling.

There will always be violence for the sake of violence in video games, but the same is true for movies, television and comics. Hopefully, the praise and word-of-mouth surrounding The Walking Dead and games like it will help show a national audience that just like any other medium, violence in video games is a more complex issue than what it’s made out to be.