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If you’ve somehow missed out on Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead, or have been on the fence on whether it’s for you, you’re in for some luck – the first of the game’s five episodes, “A New Day,” is currently as cheap as free on the Xbox Live Marketplace, giving waffling players the perfect excuse to try out one of the biggest surprise hits of 2012.

Telltale PR rep Job Stauffer confirmed on Twitter that the debut episode will enjoy its 100 percent discount through Monday. Other episodes sell for 400 MSP a pop, meaning the entire first “season” of the game is available at one of the lowest prices it’s yet seen.

Telltale’s surprise hit, based in the same universe as Robert Kirkman’s immensely popular Image Comics series of the same name, puts players in the shoes of Lee Everett, a professor-turned-convict who finds himself knee deep in the zombie apocalypse. Along the way he encounters young, possibly-orphaned Clementine, and the two traverse the post-apocalyptic landscape, trying to survive and carve out a life for themselves with a small band of other survivors. Much of the game is based on player choice, finding the player tasked more than once with making seemingly impossible choices that reverberate throughout the game’s five episodes.

It’s safe to say the game was something of a surprise hit; since the first episode’s release in April, The Walking Dead has been a commercial and critical darling that has ended up on almost every gaming press outlet’s best of lists, with a few big names in the industry – including the Spike Video Game Awards – awarding it coveted Game of the Year honors; we here at XBLAFans gave it the same consideration. To say few began 2012 expecting a digital adventure title to garner such (well-deserved) critical acclaim is an understatement.

After Monday, “A New Day” will presumably revert back to its regular pricing of 400 MSP along with the other four episodes – “Starved for Help,” “Long Road Ahead,” “Around Every Corner” and “No Time Left.” The Walking Dead is also available on disc at retail outlets, as well as just about every non-XBLA digital gaming format imaginable (and the first episode is currently free on iOS devices, as well).