The Walk: Fitness Tracker Game Reviews

I'm on episode 6, and so far I'd say it's A pretty good app, time and distance tracker is accurate and TheWalk itself isn't the battery burner I thought it'd be. One con was that the bonus round wasn't as easy to use as the rest of the episodes, I drew the map and walked drew the map and walked, and somehow failed to engage each time. Also going back to get missed items on alternate routes by walking isn't as smooth and easy, it's feels like you have to convince it to do the episode again. But all in all I'm loving it and my dog loves the long walks ever since we upped the length setting for episodes.

Someone else wrote essentially the same review but I’d like to uplift it: this is a great idea and I love the Zombies, Run (ZR) app but there are some key differences between these two apps that make this one more difficult to use.

(1) instead of automatically playing the story clip when you’ve gone the requisite amount of steps, which happens in ZR, you have to actually click on the speaker icon. This means that I have to be on my phone every couple of minutes, and for the bonus features you have to be on your phone even more. I’m usually walking my dog or just trying to take in the scenery so this makes me less able to use TheWalk . Even if this were an option you could turn on in settings (to automatically play the clips), that would be great.

(2) in ZR, you can connect your audio so that it plays in the background and is dimmed when the story line goes, and then comes back on automatically when the story clips are over. In TheWalk, there are several minutes of silence and I usually listen to podcasts or music while I’m walking so the silence is kind of boring. If the story clips played continuously, that would be great but then it’s essentially just a podcast. Just having the option to hook up my music to TheWalk so i can listen to both would be wonderful. This is already how ZR works so I’m not sure why it’s not included here.

Otherwise, great story and the quality of the audio clips is amazing. Thanks!

I'm enjoying the story, and wanting to find out the next part does encourage me to walk a little more (for example if I see I'm only 5 minutes away from the next story segment, I will get up and walk around the house until I get it) than I would have ordinarily. But TheWalk is pretty buggy (I'm using iPhone 6S, iOS 9.3.2 currently but it has been this way for the last few iterations of iOS 9). My main issue is, that after opening TheWalk about 3 times, on the 3rd try, the animations slow down drastically and are choppy, and TheWalk is very slow to respond to touch screen input. Killing TheWalk and restarting it does take care of it, but it gets annoying pretty fast. Also, restarting TheWalk remembers my current place in the map but it resets the arrow/path chooser so several times I accidentally ended up on the shorter path and missed out on the collectible.

Overall I enjoy TheWalk, but wish it would be updated to fix the lagging issue.

Please give us a sequel or something! I miss TheWalk! I played this when it first came out and now, years later, I still have fond memories of it and even have a quote saved that I find so incredibly inspirational that I have shared the quote with friends and even patients. “'The sea is like life.' That's what my dad used to say. Sea doesn't care about you. Doesn't know about you. It's gonna try and break you. Not because it hates you... But just because... That's what it is and that's what it does. And you've got to find a boat or learn to swim. And when the big wave come you've got to ride them or you'll drown. That's what happened to you: big wave came, you rode it, didn't drown, might have done, but didn't. . . You were brave and you were strong and you won. Here you are.”

Like others, I am having issues with this game involving activity tracking. Sometimes it works OK and other times it will hardly track at all. I have had this game for some time but haven't used it in about a year so I remember it working much better in the past.

I contacted Customer No-Service and gave them many details, even the fact that it doesn't even track equally on 2 different devices. As well as not getting notifications from TheWalk as I should.

After several e-mails with as many details I could come up with to help them track the bugs, they finally replied with "So you're aware, The Walk has been specifically designed to be a pedometer, not an activity tracker. Because of this it will only detect walking movement, not any more general movement you do during the day." And a very long list of how I had to be doing it all wrong and how I didn't understand how a pedometer/iphone accelerometer worked so I wasn't using TheWalk correctly.

I sent them back an email addressing every one of their points on Saturday and today added a note that they should read the reviews on iTunes. I can't believe every one of us is so stupid we can't figure it out. If they get back to me with a better thought out response, even a "wow, we didn't know it was this bad" then I will give TheWalk another star. If they get it fixed and I get an apology from them, then it will get more.

I played through The Walk once before about 2 years ago, and I would have easily given it 5 stars then. I had no problems with it aside from wishing that it would somehow be integrated with zombieslink or something online.

But now, it is consistently refusing to track my minutes, even if I make sure it is at the forefront of my apps when I start walking. Some days it does fine. But too many days, like today, I'll go for a 30 minute walk and it doesn't count a single minute of it, but it pulls my steps from my pedometer. So now t is telling me that I walked over 3700 steps in 3 minutes.

PLEASE fix this! I'm trying to convince some work friends to get this and do it with me, but I don't want to advocate for a broken app!!

I have an iPhone 5s, so maybe that effects my experience here, but I've had zero problems with TheWalk. No glitches or overheating my phone or anything. Also, I *like* looking at the phone to scan the landscapes and deciding when I want to hear the parts of the story I've unlocked, both things others have complained about. I think these features allow you to engage in the game, and to use TheWalk any time you're walking and only hear the story when it's convenient for you. The game is easy and it's encouraging and I like it. 😏 I just wish they'd release more stories for walking. I would be perfectly happy to buy them.

I am recovering a foot injury and can only walk, I decided to try The Walk. As an Abel Runner’s Club member, I absolutely love Zombies Run!

First, the stories do not automatically start when goal is reached.
Second, the first challenge did not guide me to the sentries (map is extremely difficult to follow). Meaning I would leave the main path and towards the sentry or the item for pick up and my marker would not deter from the path.
Third, I am always having to look at my phone, unlike ZR, it doesn't just start and go.

Although, I am walking and not running I do not want to have to constantly look at my phone for cues or to start the next story.

Am I doing something wrong?????

I have gone back to ZR to and unfortunately, that sadly reminds me that I cant run☹️
UPDATE:
I have been using TheWalk continuously since June. I see where Six to Start has bundled all their apps into an annual subscription.
TheWalk needs a minor improvement before I would commit to a bundled sub. The biggest annoyances are as follows:
1. I have to continuously look at my phone
2. The story does not automatically start when I reach the milestone.
3. The time duration cannot be tailored for the walker’s availability.

This ap is a great motivator to walk because the story is engaging. I wish the story were more continuous during the walk. It takes too long to get the next segment, even if I replay old segments in the interim even if I change the settings to make the walk “shorter.” I realize it’s not a book on tape, but an 8 minute walk between new audio segments when each segment is only a few minutes long is too much of a break and interrupts the flow of the story. The ap is pretty old, so I imagine they won’t fix this. It also likely isn’t a problem for people who leave the ap on the background all day and listen to the story later, not during a walk.

It’s a pity. The story seems fun and the production value seems top notch on that, but TheWalk objectively makes your walk worse because of the silly UX. Notifications simply do not work, at all. And it doesn’t pause whatever you where listening to previously, so you are forced to continually check TheWalk to check you progress, then play the story clip manually, then manually return to whatever you were listening to and all that fiddling around just slows you down and is a distraction from what should have been a fun story walk.

I don’t understand why TheWalk wants full always on tracking if it’s not going to pay attention and just play the clips.

Make no sense. Same company makes Zombies, Run and they manage to fix that just fine but not this? Silly.

The voice acting is top notch, as you would expect if you’ve played Zombies, Run! Some of the voice actors are also the same. However, the interface is not always intuitive. If you care about collecting the badges, you need to monitor TheWalk and tap on hard-to-see landscape features (i.e., tiny, off-white squares that might not be easy to spot on lighter backgrounds). I’d rather focus on walking and not on my screen. Additionally, I’ve run into issues with TheWalk not recognizing that I’m a subscribing member twice now, which locks me out of all missions beyond the first five. It really shouldn’t be this hard to use TheWalk . Please address these issues!

No matter which episode I’m on, when I open TheWalk , it opens to episode 1. That means I have to swipe a lot to get to my current episode. Also, the episodes have longer, optional paths. I always pick them because I enjoy the extra bits and they’re not that difficult to complete. However, a few times I’ll open TheWalk to check my progress and I’ll see that it switched back to the shorter path. I’ve walked past the fork so I can’t change it. The only way to complete it is to do the episode over and then I still run the risk of having it swap back on me.

I’m obsessed!! It has a few issues with syncing perfectly to the amount of time I actually spent walking (especially on a treadmill!!) if it could link with Apple health I would be sooo happy. Like if you could choose if you want it to be counted by minutes or miles (that way you can finish an episode faster if you walk faster). But the concept is incredible. Story is great. Just wish there were more sound bites sometimes! More often.

First off I love the idea and the story is fun and interesting. It keeps me motivated to go out on a walk so I can continue the story. However, it has a few fatal flaws.

First, you have to stare at your phone while you are out walking. Don’t make me do that! Let me enjoy my walk and be aware of my surroundings. It needs to auto play the story clips or at least ping me that there is audio to play.

Second, it is a horrible battery killer. I can barely make it through a 30-45 minute walk with TheWalk running. Yesterday I had 97% battery when I started 35 minutes later I finished with 1% to spare.

Last, after the third episode it requires a monthly subscription. Apparently it used to be a one-time charge of $5 but now it’s $5.99 a month. No thanks, I don’t want another leech sucking on me.

Conclusion, I really like the idea but the execution is poor. So instead I found the adapted story as a podcast of the same name and I’m just playing an episode of that when I go out for a walk.

Having come to TheWalk from the developer's "Zombies, Run!" I knew what to expect: an engaging storyline, good voice acting, and motivation to keep on the move so I could continue to hear more. Only real issue is that after it has been running for a while, TheWalk starts to slow down - but a kill and restart has always fixed that with no problems. And in some of the levels, particularly the ones with snow, some of the collectibles you have the click on can be pretty tough to find. But overall a nice app for walkers.

I really like the idea and implementation of it. While I don’t see it as a stand alone app to use when I walk say 3 miles, I do see it more to encourage me to get my steps in for the day. Here is where it fails.

In this day and age of trackers, especially the Apple Watch, to force me to pop my phone on walks or in my pocket to capture steps in my office environment is ridiculous. Why can’t this health app, like everyone else I have take my steps from the watch and apply it towards my goal or “walk” in this case.

Please fix this so I don’t have to carry my phone in my pocket in the office, on a treadmill or frankly even outdoors.

The trick to keeping TheWalk from resetting your episodes is tapping on the amount walked in the upper left before anything else whenever you open TheWalk . That allows TheWalk to suddenly remember where you are. TheWalk still crashes periodically if multiple apps are open in the background. Still the story is good enough that I keep playing despite the problems with TheWalk . I enjoy it. It gets me moving.

I agree with the other reviewer who said this a waste of money. You are not able to play your playlist while using TheWalk. You have to play the story line whereas zombie run, even zombie run 5k it's plays automatically. I guess I just could not resist giving six to start more money. Anyway if your not willing to pay the $7.99 a month for zombie run. I recommend buying zombie 5k instead. Don't be intimidated, you will walk/jog 3x a wk only and by the end you will run 5k. Since I finished 5k, I wanted to try their other app. Really TheWalk still needs work. I guess their main focus is zombie run, since it makes more money (subscription). Hopefully this review helps you out. Wish I can get my $2.99 back :(

Before you pay for TheWalk, just be warned that support will not respond if you have issues. And there are issues.

For all the permissions you have to give TheWalk, you’d think it would be able to track your steps, but it’s count is consistently less than any other app counts. Also, if you’re not walking with the phone, it counts nothing. Even when you’re walking with a watch recording a workout.

If you still want to get it, you probably don’t need a full year subscription to finish it. There’s not any updates or seasons like with zombies run.

This was TheWalk several years ago that started it all for me, motivated me to start walking after I got a prediabetes diagnosis. I’d never been able to stick with a walking plan for any length of time until The Walk. The story line was intriguing and the voice actors did an excellent job to move the story along. Great and unexpected ending, too. I was totally surprised. I wish TheWalk company or another would come up with another story. I bought Zombies Run but it wasn’t as interesting for me.

TheWalk was a great motivator, I bow to the creative genius of Naomi Alderman and Six to Start! There are things I wish were different (automatically playing the audio, not having to be looking at and tapping on my device to find the landscape features so as to be able to keep walking). But the story and concept are amazing and I'm proud to have completed the mission! Highly recommend to folks who need a little extra incentive to get that constitutional walk in.

I am obsessed with TheWalk! As a lover of all things Scotland, I found this lovely little thing right after a trip to the UK and just as I retired as a school administrator. I now have the time to walk, and TheWalk makes me go the extra mile just to hear the next sound bite. Yes, it can be glitchy, and twice I've had to repeat an episode in order to move on, but who cares? I'm walking my *****ss off, and I'm already worried about what I'll do when it's over!

I am a huge Zombies, Run! and Superhero fan and was excited to try this game but I was disappointed.
The story is great and very entertaining but everything else is sucky. TheWalk itself is difficult to learn to use (no tutorial) and actually listening to the story is not easy. You also have to choose the option to keep your GPS on all the time even when not using TheWalk and that uses my precious data. It would be great if there was a step counter but alas...
TheWalk also has a ton of glitches and runs super slow if it doesn't just turn itself off mid-mission.
If you are on the fence to get The Walk, I'd choose no

I us d TheWalk for the first time today. I didn’t experience any bugs and the voice acting and story in the first episode were good, but there were a couple things that I think will keep me from using it again. It was surprisingly difficult to figure out how to start the episode in the first place. But maybe that’s just me. My biggest problem is that I reeeeally wish the clips would play automatically as you walk. I really don’t like having my phone in my hand or looking at it while I walk, so I don’t think this will work for me. I want to like it, but it just doesn’t suit my purposes.

Love the story, also love my Zombies apps. What's annoying about this one is have to stop and fiddle with my phone every so often to manually play the audio clips. It would be great if they played automatically at certain points like they do in Zombies. Also, the dead quiet between clips with no sync to my playlist has become an annoyance, as after every clip I have to flip between apps to play music. I was surprised and sad that the other apps by this company have this feature but this one doesn't.