Why I am dissappointed with the Episode-Model
Hello there, I bought the game because it looked cool and started playing. TBH I didn't do much research on the episodes or lenght of the game etc. I started playing at roughly 4pm. 2 Hours later I was done. Don't get me wrong the game was great and all but it was just far too short and leaves me with a disgusting taste. I don't want to wait for 1 or 2 months or however long every time for ONLY playing 2 hours. That's kind of ridicilous.
I told 2 of my friends about the game and they want to buy it too but I adviced them to wait until ALL GAME has been released in its entirely and THEN buy it. I would certainly have donew that if I knew beforehand. I mean 2 hours is just too short no matter if the game is great. I felt really empty and Like "WTF? that was IT??!" after finishing the episode after such an ridicilously short amount of time.
Any one else feels the same kind of frustration?
I told 2 of my friends about the game and they want to buy it too but I adviced them to wait until ALL GAME has been released in its entirely and THEN buy it. I would certainly have donew that if I knew beforehand. I mean 2 hours is just too short no matter if the game is great. I felt really empty and Like "WTF? that was IT??!" after finishing the episode after such an ridicilously short amount of time.
Any one else feels the same kind of frustration?
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Comments
But when you look at their register dates, you might find that they are mostly entirely new to the concept of episodic gaming. First they're shocked, and some really do start to wait until a Season is finished before they buy. But a lot of community members, especially in these forums, have understood what this is all about. The wait, anticipation, discussion, guesses, the immediate feedback to and from the makers of the game while it is still in progress, all these things are merits of the episodic gaming concept.
As I said before, you've come to what could more or less be considered the home of episodic gaming. The concept works great, it is unlikely to be changed.
That's a bad point. I registered today but I have played MANY episodic games before even from telltale games (Hector, Puzzle Agent, Monkey Island & Sam&Max). I am NOT new. But this was the first time (maybe because It is one hard connecting story) I felt REALLY empty after finishing an episode. Not so with any other episodic games, which felt like games on their own, and completing them had a feel of satisfaction to it.
Now, I just feel bad. To be continued... TBH I wouldn't mind if the episodes were longer. Like 10 hours each.And less episodes. Or more expensive. I dunno, but I am very unhappy about it.
Nonetheless - the cliffhanger is undoubtedly THE key feature of Telltale's episodes, don't you think? As for the emptiness, I can see that too, but it might come with the franchise. It IS a pretty depressing scenario. And it will not end well this time.
I agree it's a bit different than Telltale's other games in that the episodes aren't really self-contained, so it's a bit different of a feeling in finishing the game than Sam & Max. Though, the Walking Dead television show is the same way (at least from the first season episodes I've seen), so it fits for the license.
On a semi-related note, why must American TV shows insist on astronomical gaps between seasons (series)? I can appreciate some shows can take a lot of time and effort to produce, but come on now. The walking dead season 2 finished up and isn't due back for 6 months, season 1 finished and wasn't due back for a year!
Here in the UK you could quite easily see 4 seasons of a show release in a year.
What kind of cliffhanger/ending is that?
Telltale:
A character becoming godzilla!
The main character dieing!
The main characters seeing THEIR OWN corpses!
Walking Dead:
The numerious death
Someone shouting out that THEY are the Walking Dead, NOT the walkers!
So many scenarios of near-death I can't even pick to list!
Combine the two:
Power goes out...
I do wish each episode was longer but oh well, we'll just have to wait.
You have to admit though. Hype IS free advertisement. Episodic gaming like this is just brewing up more hype for the public.
How is this any different?
You get us back by making us wait so damn long in between seasons of Sherlock.
And those seasons are only three episodes long!
Get over it. TTG does this since years. It's their thing. It's not their fault, if the customers don't inform themselves. Yes, now that they sell the games on STEAM, Xbox live and PSN, the buyers there aren't aware as much, as the people buying it from the website. And yes, it might be annoying to have to wait a month each time to get a new episode, but it's they business model and I'm sure that they are legally on the safe side.
If you don't like it, don't buy their games or learn to live with it otherwise (or how about you buy the game or start playing the game after all episodes are available?). Other people can manage it as well. Anticipation is part of the experience.
The only thing that I dislike about this model is that a game can never open up completely as it happened in games like the original Simon The Sorcerer or Monkey Island 2.
Backtracking many times in those huge worlds while thinking hard about how to solve one of the countless puzzles that filled those scenarios is the best feeling I experienced in adventure games, but sadly this feature seems to have been dropped altogether. Well, apart in Edna and Harvey perhaps. =P
However if you don't want to play 2 hours per month you could wait like months (like any another game) and buy the whole game when the 5 episodes are out.
Sorry for my basic english I hope you all know what I mean.
What this guy said. TTG are episodic, that won't change. Nothing you can say will change that, so just try and enjoy it, if you can't then don't.
If you're a regular fan of the comics, you have to wait for "issues" (they're kinda like episodes!) to be released, and you get a lot less time out of a single issue than you do an episode of the game. I reckon you're probably a TPB collector - in which case you could adopt this model of "six issues in a book" to the game. Wait til the end of the season, get the inevitable disc release and live long and happy.
though I see why others might not like it
I'm not the best with some of the puzzles in, say "Sam & Max" for example, so I would typically get 4 hours or so out of each episode of those, and would play them over 2-3 days.
As a credit to Telltale, "Walking Dead" went by in what seemed like a heartbeat (started at 7:00pm, was done by 9:00pm), so I was a bit "That's it?" when the credits were rolling - but I enjoyed it - and like many others, I'm used to the waiting period between episodes at this point.
Besides, just started playing through "Alan Wake" again - that's keeping me occupied!
First off, if you're going to deem that quality a flaw, you should do the same to their other games, or even The Walking Dead mediums such as the comics and TV show. For many reasons they are doing this model: to give themselves more time to program the next episode, to replicate the hype and anticipation felt by fans of the other mediums, and to take in the responses and algorithms (sequences) of how player do things and what they don't do..hence the stats at the end of the episode.
And no, they will not deviate from this episodic method..they didn't before, why start now? And those who want a "full hearty meal" out of this will just have to wait the many months until the season is finished. Like others said, there are also people who can take the hype and anticipation rather positively, me included. Hell, I spend time replaying episode one just thinking of what me, in Lee's shoes, could be doing at this and that time, and I find it fun. Especially what I COULD say to Larry or Hershel.
Welcome to Telltale Games. I'm with you.
Why don't you wait until they're all released and then play it? That's what I do.
Haha, I'm the opposite of you, then. I play the next episode as soon as it comes out (season pass FTW!) and plot my courses over the episodes I have currently..makes it more fun for seeing how my path would go.
Because its like to starving to dead, and someone put you on table in parts full big meal. Do you wait than they put full meal on table, or start eating everything they put? And you know that between every part of this meal you must wait so long that you will feel again starving to dead. Not mention that this parts are tiny and you never feel full.
Telltale had mastered in some Chinese tortures.
...damn... now I'm hungry
Their TV show is Episodic. Their Comics is Episodic. It's already part of the system. If this were BTTF, I would be mad (and I'm still a bit peeved, but what's done is done, let it rest), but Walking Dead is DESIGNED to be Episodic in the first place. It's hard to complain about it being Episodic when it's ALREADY designed to be Episodic.
I have noticed that a lot of the discussion on this point from the other side seems to be devaluing our opinion in this. It may not be deliberate but there is a tone I am picking up on.
That said, this is not really about the this game now but more so for the future. I will NEVER buy another game like this with this type of episode lag.
If the developers are not interested in our opinion on this so be it, they might just not sell as many games.
We don't have to wait a month between episodes of the series...
Like I said, love the game just can't understand this 1 month thing.
For mine, big mistake and I should have read the fine print a little better. Won't be doing it again.
Thanks
TB
It TAKES one month to finish the episode, and that's the tone you might have picked up from members who understood that. It's what episodic gaming is all about. If you can't wait, it is - as I said elsewhere - completely valid and not offensive if you wait for the entire Season to finish before you buy.
"Hey guys why to invest huge money into project and work it by two years, to give people long and satisfy gameplay. Lets release every month demo version for 5$."
In 90s some demo versions of games was longer than 2h and you can play it repeatable with same excitment. Its quite to do same with quick event game like. Some people see this like this. And some people just hate today model of selling games like:
- special dlc to collectioners version (in old days was only special real items)
- special dlc to for example (dr Pepper, like do EA)
- dlc for few more $ who like cut off from main game before realease.
- addon politicy, to earn for lower cost job same money per addon like for full game.
And now to my bad list im adding:
- episode system, to torture players with 2h demo release. :P
First, I actually read about the game prior to buying into it, duh! Geez, what kind of person just buys whatever game pops up? Sure this type of game may not appeal to everyone, no problem, perfectly understandable, but if you don't like it why buy in the first place? We are on the internet here. Lots of avenues for exploration. Easy to get reviews, insights and the like. So if you bought blind that's your own fault, not the fault of Telltale. It' not like they were hiding the fact this game is episodic.
Second, the issue of having to wait. Man, that is one area I can't stand people whining about. No matter what game or software or movie or device, there is always a bunch of people that have absolutely no patience. It's going to take a few months? So what! You'll still be here when the item shows up. Think about how happy you'll be then. Until then do something else, play a different game, get together with a friend, watch a movie. It's like dealing with my kids.
Now as far as the game. I liked it. A lot. Being an adult with patience and not having endless time to sit around playing games, what with a wife and kids and a job and the lawn to mow and bills to pay, in other words, with a life to lead, I don't mind the month or so wait between episodes. Also, I found the game a bit short but not overly so. Would I like more, of course, but as with all things in life, moderation is best.