Drop everything and try: The Walk, the pedometer app with a riveting plot
Your legwork unfolds a gripping spy thriller in this innovative fitness game
So what is The Walk?
It’s an activity-tracking fitness app for iOS and Android.
Fitness apps? Boring!
Not this one. The Walk is actually part pedometer, part interactive story. As you walk, the story – a compelling spy thriller in the vein of North By Northwest – is told. Every step counts towards its completion, so the player is encouraged to get outside and walk – and therefore achieve a certain level of fitness.
OK, sounds intriguing. How does the story work?
Developer Six to Start has designed the story to last around three months and hundreds of miles of walking – although it can be adapted to your level of fitness to ensure that you do finish it. There are over 65 episodes, 800 minutes of audio, and detailed maps, and those that walk more will receive bonuses in the way of items and information, as well as unlocking achievements. We won’t ruin any of the story, except to say that it involves an electromagnetic pulse bomb that disables all the cars, trains and planes in the UK – meaning players have to embark on an adventure where they ‘walk’ the length of the country.
Where did the idea come from?
Six to Start previously made Zombies, Run! which had a similar method of encouragement (yes, you had to run to avoid the undead). The Walk, however, has been funded by the UK Department of Health and given the NHS’s blessing as a way to get people off their sofas and exercising. Six to Start says the game “has the potential to save the NHS millions of pounds” which, while it seems a touch optimistic, is a fair point.
Sam Kieldsen
Contributor 
