How Telltale can Improve the difficulty of their games (S&M puzzle spoilers)

edited November 2010 in General Chat
Many people, including me, agree that Telltale's games are too easy. We all want the difficulty to increase. I am not sure if this is intentional or unintentional but the difficulty should be increased in my opinion. I do not believe that the difficulty was decreased on purpose but if it was then I would like to inform Telltale that I am fairly new to Adventure Gaming and I want the difficulty to be increased. What I am saying is just because someone is new to adventure games doesn't mean they do not want the game to be easy.

However, if the easy difficulty has been unintentional, which I believe to be the case, then I would like to inform Telltale on how they could improve the difficulty of their games. There are five reasons that the games are most of the time easy.

1. Overuse of one inventory item or puzzle solution. The Devil's Playhouse was worst at this. You had psychic powers that seemed interesting, but got very repetitive with its solutions. If you saw a picture of something, use rhinoplasty. If you need to distract somebody, use ventriliquisim, etc. The corndogs in 303 and 305 also seemed to have repetitive solutions with them.

2. Being stuck at one location at a time. If you are stuck at one screen/ location at a time, then puzzles that could otherwise be hard become very easy since there aren't as many things to try. The City That Dares Not Sleep was the worst at this. With the exception of the second act, you were always limited to one or two screens at a time.

Continued on the next post.

Comments

  • edited November 2010
    3. Giving out hints when not asked for one. I don't even need to explain how this one makes the games easier. Throughout The Devil's Playhouse, you were often given hints that you did not want. The Future Vision in 301, 303, and 304, the dimensional destableizer sticking on the correct answer in 304, Momma Bosco telling you to make a clone of herself to get her a body (I would have preferred to figure this out by myself), and other hints in dialogue.

    4. Overuse of dialogue puzzles. While dialogue puzzles don't make the puzzles easier, they take away more oppurtunity for harder puzzles. Especially in episodes like They Stole Max's Brain where half of the episode is made up of dialogue puzzles (the 1st and final acts).

    5. Directing a player on what to do This isn't as big as the other reasons though I still want for people to know. The Launch of the Screaming Narwhal had quite a few treasure maps that weren't much more than "go left, go forward..." Let's try to cut down on those.

    I really hope the difficulty will increase sometime or another. Please reply!
  • edited November 2010
    I admit, Season 3 was more of an interactive 3D cartoon than an actual adventure game. It's a good idea, you know, for instance, if they erased all the hints about cooking a new body for Momma Bosco solving it would be a lot more fun.
  • edited November 2010
    Your opinion is automatically correct so clearly the game needs to be facedeskingly difficult to be fun.
  • edited November 2010
    Can I add about the dialogue puzzles; it's also impossible to get the puzzles wrong if you say the wrong thing the character will be shocked or offended but you can just go back and select the right answer and it will be like they heard it for the first time.
  • edited November 2010
    Your opinion is automatically correct so clearly the game needs to be facedeskingly difficult to be fun.

    I nevr said my opinion was automatically correct nor that it needs to be facedeskingly difficult to be fun. Honestly, in my opinion, if its too difficult it can be annoying too. It was just that I found TDP to be way too easy, IMO. Honestly, Telltale's earlier seasons had most of the time a good difficulty. I have not read a single post that has said that they have found the earlier seasons too hard (minus a few illogical puzzles, which I do not support either).
  • edited November 2010
    I've been playing Curse Of Monkey Island lately (had it for a long time, just sat on my shelf due to lack of time to play it... Escape is there, too). Anyway, one of the things I noticed is up front, you can choose to play the normal version or "Mega-Monkey," which supposedly has more and harder puzzles. Telltale might consider something similar, if they want to appeal to those who just want to be entertained with a few simple puzzles, versus those who want to be unable to sleep until they figure them out. It would also increase playability for those who solve it the easy way, then decide to tackle the harder way, though some plot twists would be spoiled for them. Absolutely no getting stuck in an unsolvable situation, though.

    And they should bring back the "use inventory item with other inventory item" scenario, too. That increases the number of things you can try when you're not sure what to do.
  • edited November 2010
    Can I add about the dialogue puzzles; it's also impossible to get the puzzles wrong if you say the wrong thing the character will be shocked or offended but you can just go back and select the right answer and it will be like they heard it for the first time.

    If you want to get frustrated and pissed for getting a puzzle wrong and being unable to go back, go play a Sierra game.

    This was one of my favorite Telltale seasons, but I wouldn't mind if they cranked the difficulty up a little bit. I don't like getting stuck for too long, but I don't like automatically knowing what I have to do without having to think either (they made up for that with the story, but still, this is a game, not a movie).
    Harder puzzles would also increase the game's durability, so instead of beating it in 6 hours, we would take 12.
  • edited November 2010
    Okay, those are pretty good points, joseppey. Interestingly, though, I think making these kinds of tweaks wouldn't make the games more *difficult* per se, just less repetitive and more entertaining (in the actual gaming aspect), period.

    So...a couple of opinions:
    -I'd assume #2 is to cut down on extraneous, barren screens and just pack as much content and character into one setting (and the environment itself might be altered, too). I think it's hit or miss. Sounds like the route BttF is taking.
    -Mileage varies with #3; I dig (good) dialogue puzzles--it can be good for character development.
    -I'm not quite sure what #5 refers to.
  • edited November 2010
    Neelo wrote: »
    If you want to get frustrated and pissed for getting a puzzle wrong and being unable to go back, go play a Sierra game.

    It's more of an immersion thing than difficulty, I just think it would be better if after selecting the wrong option a character will treat you differently or change the path of the story.
  • edited November 2010
    Neelo wrote: »
    If you want to get frustrated and pissed for getting a puzzle wrong and being unable to go back, go play a Sierra game.

    Good idea! I think I'll do just that. In fact I think I'll play all of them. And I think I'll do so many times in my lifespan. Gee, I'm glad you recommended I do so. ^^
  • edited November 2010
    I think it is actually harder when items are re-used. If something is only used once, its used and bam gone from the inventory. if items stay there for re-use later, they can be red herrings for other puzzles.

    I'd quite like to see a seperate "Mega Monkey" difficulty... mega max? bumper bosco? super sam? Im sure telltale would think of a better name haha.

    I dont mind games being a bit easy, it makes me feel smart. Theyre still enjoyable!
Sign in to comment in this discussion.