Devil's Playhouse constructive criticism & feedback (spoilers)
Random Thoughts
The toys of power was a great idea and they were fun to play with, although I do think more could of been done with the rhinoplasty, the telephone, and Charlie Ho-Tep. The Max interface was pretty nice and cool seeing things first-person.
The dialog was good, but I found myself not laughing out loud as often as I have with previous installments. Still, I got the a decent dose of the same ol' Sam & Max humor I've come to love.
Something that really irks me is that there is practically zero replay value. Sure, there are some dialogs you may have missed, but for the most part, once you figure all the puzzles out theres no huge reason to revisit the game. This is something I'd really like for you guys to work on. Hell, giving Sam & Max alternate costumes and switching up a couple of puzzles would be grand, but I bet you guys could do even better than just that.
I completed the PC version of the game and just watched my roommate play through the PS3 version of the Penal Zone. I noticed that he had the option of going to a new location and was able to get the nutrition specs... which didn't seem to happen when I beat the game. Glitch...?
Glitches I ran into:
-Sometimes, when trying to go down the elevator at BoscoTech Sam would reappear at the top.
-Sometimes there wouldn't be a sound clip where there should be, in some cases a full line of dialog.
-Sometimes the cursor would light up green and or have the description of something you're hovering the cursor over as if something was click-able, but nothing happens when you click.
-I had a pretty weird glitch when I tried to turn into a mini-desoto in the clone chamber area and was forced to turn back. Once this happened, Max was invisible except for the floating robot toy he had. At one point Max can become visible again, and the robot appears to be embedded in his kneecap. Going to a new area fixes.
-When dragging the mouse to bring up the simulated analog-stick doo-hickey, your cursor would turn into Sam's hand even if controlling Max.
-When using Max/Max's brain to converse, its still Sam in the middle of the interface, contemplating dialog choices
-Bosco himself wasn't in the game. Clearly a glitch.
There were other things, but I can't really remember them. These were the things off of the top of my head.
Overall, I really enjoyed this season dispite the minor annoyances and glitches.
Predictions/expectations/hopes for the next Sam & Max title:
-Meeting Sybil's baby
-Finding yourself in the predicament that Max described at the very end of The City That Dares Not Sleep
-Bluster Blaster's decent into space
-Bosco will definitely have to make an appearance
-This one is probably more of a hope than anything, but I'd like to see Max as the "main character" for at least a while.
Suggestions
I would really like to see the game put into another perspective, perhaps behind the back, OR give the player control over the damned camera; it isn't always where you want it to be. Must all point-click adventure be side-scroll-ish/fixed camera types?
Why do you have to hold down a button to run? (rhetorical)
Why is it impossible to lose? There is a much greater sense of accomplishment awarded to players when they overcome things wherein they have a chance of failure. And "dying" doesn't have to be annoying, either. Something similar to when you were jumping in and out of the projector would suffice, with an added limit to the number of times you can fail. I believe that expanding on this idea may give your players a bigger sense of accomplishment and have them feeling even better when completing the game.
I touched on this previously, but replay value needs to start being considered.
I would love to see a game where you can switch between Sam & Max, wherein Max controls exactly like Sam. Meaning, no gimmicky first-person mode (well, I mean I loved the toys interface, but...), but actually walking around as Max, having a separate inventory, and being able to talk to people himself. Sure, this would just about double the amount of dialog you would have to use, but the dialog is about 65% of the reason why I love these games.
---
Hopefully I can turn some heads with my personal insight. Thanks telltalegames for continuing to make S&M awesome. Wait... that didn't come out right...
The toys of power was a great idea and they were fun to play with, although I do think more could of been done with the rhinoplasty, the telephone, and Charlie Ho-Tep. The Max interface was pretty nice and cool seeing things first-person.
The dialog was good, but I found myself not laughing out loud as often as I have with previous installments. Still, I got the a decent dose of the same ol' Sam & Max humor I've come to love.
Something that really irks me is that there is practically zero replay value. Sure, there are some dialogs you may have missed, but for the most part, once you figure all the puzzles out theres no huge reason to revisit the game. This is something I'd really like for you guys to work on. Hell, giving Sam & Max alternate costumes and switching up a couple of puzzles would be grand, but I bet you guys could do even better than just that.
I completed the PC version of the game and just watched my roommate play through the PS3 version of the Penal Zone. I noticed that he had the option of going to a new location and was able to get the nutrition specs... which didn't seem to happen when I beat the game. Glitch...?
Glitches I ran into:
-Sometimes, when trying to go down the elevator at BoscoTech Sam would reappear at the top.
-Sometimes there wouldn't be a sound clip where there should be, in some cases a full line of dialog.
-Sometimes the cursor would light up green and or have the description of something you're hovering the cursor over as if something was click-able, but nothing happens when you click.
-I had a pretty weird glitch when I tried to turn into a mini-desoto in the clone chamber area and was forced to turn back. Once this happened, Max was invisible except for the floating robot toy he had. At one point Max can become visible again, and the robot appears to be embedded in his kneecap. Going to a new area fixes.
-When dragging the mouse to bring up the simulated analog-stick doo-hickey, your cursor would turn into Sam's hand even if controlling Max.
-When using Max/Max's brain to converse, its still Sam in the middle of the interface, contemplating dialog choices
-Bosco himself wasn't in the game. Clearly a glitch.
There were other things, but I can't really remember them. These were the things off of the top of my head.
Overall, I really enjoyed this season dispite the minor annoyances and glitches.
Predictions/expectations/hopes for the next Sam & Max title:
-Meeting Sybil's baby
-Finding yourself in the predicament that Max described at the very end of The City That Dares Not Sleep
-Bluster Blaster's decent into space
-Bosco will definitely have to make an appearance
-This one is probably more of a hope than anything, but I'd like to see Max as the "main character" for at least a while.
Suggestions
I would really like to see the game put into another perspective, perhaps behind the back, OR give the player control over the damned camera; it isn't always where you want it to be. Must all point-click adventure be side-scroll-ish/fixed camera types?
Why do you have to hold down a button to run? (rhetorical)
Why is it impossible to lose? There is a much greater sense of accomplishment awarded to players when they overcome things wherein they have a chance of failure. And "dying" doesn't have to be annoying, either. Something similar to when you were jumping in and out of the projector would suffice, with an added limit to the number of times you can fail. I believe that expanding on this idea may give your players a bigger sense of accomplishment and have them feeling even better when completing the game.
I touched on this previously, but replay value needs to start being considered.
I would love to see a game where you can switch between Sam & Max, wherein Max controls exactly like Sam. Meaning, no gimmicky first-person mode (well, I mean I loved the toys interface, but...), but actually walking around as Max, having a separate inventory, and being able to talk to people himself. Sure, this would just about double the amount of dialog you would have to use, but the dialog is about 65% of the reason why I love these games.
---
Hopefully I can turn some heads with my personal insight. Thanks telltalegames for continuing to make S&M awesome. Wait... that didn't come out right...
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Comments
Isn't zero replay value a common problem for all adventure games, except for the nostalgia, perhaps? Since once you know the solution the only thing you'd want to know is to get the missed dialouges. Alternate costumes... Unnecessary. A lot of adventure gamers have gotten used to the "zero replay value" thingamabob. Plus, they did try working on it a little by introducing NutriSpecs... which is currently a PS3 exclusive. Meaning, no, it's not a glitch.
-It's better if these games continue to have fixed cameras. So that you won't go pixelhunting everywhere and/or miss an item because of YOUR camera angle and get frustrated on the gameplay. This way, you trust the developers that everything you need is on the screen. Oh and, giving free cameras mean that the developers has to design a wider range of environment and put a lot of stuff, which would be even harder for Telltale to pull it off because of the episodic distribution of the game. There isn't enough time for them to work on such a thing.
-You can't lose the game, for nostalgic value. This game is based on a LucasArts game, and all LucasArts games back then had no way to lose. Trust me, if they decide to go the way you want then a lot of people will bitch about it. "Why did you have to ruin the perfect formula?", "Are you trying to mess a great franchise?"... Seriously, I don't want to see more of those in these forums. Plus, I don't think you have a PROBLEM with that, you're suggesting it just because it sounds new to you. But... I don't think it will work. It's not a platformer or an FPS that you can pass a level by trying the same thing over and over, it's an adventure game that makes you try different combinations. It would be a cheap beginner's trap if they start to put a health bar or life count, you know. I mean, you HAVE to do some stuff wrong in order to get to do the right thing. And punishing people because of it? It'd piss some people off.
-Playing as Max... Why? Okay, you guys want to control Max as the same as controlling Sam just because... in order to see Max walking around as you want. But think about it, it's unnecessary. You are already able to walk around with Sam and bring Max with you. Giving the same control to Max is not new, and not something worthy to try. UNLESS; they bring a new puzzle solving system in Season 4 in which puzzles are designed to be solved in such a way that you have to use both characters in spesific places. It's a hard thing to pull off, of course. They didn't want to go with that and instead they gave Max psychic powers in Season 3, which is understandable. It's more meaningful to give Sam the main controls and inventory, and Max the keys of solutions. They both accomplish the different parts of a task, as in, TEAMWORK. It's unnecessary and redundant to give the same part to both of the characters.
It wasn't a problem with the earlier seasons. Also, if the storytelling is good, then it's like re-watching a movie or re-reading a book.
Oh, and don't call someone "kid" and act like a sarcastic jerk just because someone disagrees with you. I didn't see Falanca blindly cut down your suggestions once. She had valid points.
Lol, I start to regret posting in this thread. Other than that, thanks for the heads up.
I have given my thoughts, my reviews and my ideas looong before. You're new to the forums (which is ironic since YOU called me a "kid") and obviously haven't wandered around the threads to actually read about them. Sorry if I offended you in any way, but I didn't try to do so. The only problem is that your suggestions and "ideas" were already discussed by many people and well, generally disagreed in the end. What I did is just to deliver those to you, since you're new and all.
Well, my apologies. I'm not disagreeing with you because I'm blockheaded or unable to think in constructive ways or anything, since you try to defend yourself with that (while I'm not even attacking you), I'm disagreeing with you because your ideas are generally simplistic and sounds good at first, but in the end not so open ended.
If that is the case, I replayed each of the episodes at least twice just for the storytelling. I think this season has as much replayability as the previous seasons, if you don't count Season 2's gimmicky driving minigames.
Oh. Well, uh, heh, sorry about that. My bad.
It's not the first and shall not be the last. I guess I give off a feminine vibe, complete with the nickname
I have a terrible knack for mistaking guys for women and women for guys on the internet. Maybe I should just stick to the always useful "they". It's better than "it" at least.
Your mileage may vary, I guess. I sense much better replay value in the first two seasons, mostly for the sake of the snaaaaaaapppppppy dialogs.