Dear Telltale...
I love The Walking Dead game. I was excited when you first announced it way back, and preordered directly from your web site almost as soon as you made preorders available. The game's story has not disappointed; the game's bugs however...
First, we had the problem that those of us who ordered directly from you were unable to download the game when it was initially released. Within a day or two, you acknolwedged the problem and gave all of us preorders a Steam keycode, since Steam based downloads were working fine. I used the code, but really didn't want to play the game through Steam, assuming I'd be able to do so via my direct download account. A short time later, sure enough, the game was able to be downloaded directly and all seemed good.
Episode 2 came out, and it was good.
Then Episode 3 came out. Once again, those of us who had purchased direct had issues. The game suddenly claimed many of us hadn't played before, and didn't even have the second episode. Through much efort and experimenting on my own, I figured out (at least for me), that the game had suddenly decided the save game directory (which also apparently houses the episode downloads when using the "direct" version) should be changed from "The Walking Dead" to "Game Data". I copied everything in my "The Walking Dead" directory and pasted it into "Game Data," and I was able to continue as expected.
Then Episode 4 came. I, and apparently many others if these boards are to be believed, couldn't download it. Ever. Repeated attempts were met with "Connection Lost" errors. It never even seemed to try for a connection, since the download never progressed past 0%. I checked the save directories again, just in case the game decided to go back to "The Walking Dead" directory. I copied everything from "Game Data" back to "The Walking Dead" to no avail, same error. Finally, I gave up and downloaded the Steam version. I renamed both save game directories, let the Steam version create a new save directory called "The Walking Dead", and copied only my save files into this new directory.
That seemed to work, and I was able to play Episode 4, but not how I expected. When it started with the "Previously on The Walking Dead..." segment, every decision I made in Episode 3 was reversed. To avoid spoilers, I'll be vague. If I chose to save person A instead of person B, the game now said I saved person B. If I spared somebody from having to deal with some walkers and took care of them myself, the game now says I made the other character deal with it. Would my save game file have worked if I stuck with the direct version? I don't know, since I couldn't download Episode 4.
As I said at the start of this post, I love the game, I really do. But it has become a major chore to be able to actually experience the game and all it offers for a PC customer who bought the game directly from you. It has honestly left me feeling that buying an episodic game before every episode is available is probably a bad decision. I am hopeful by the final episode, most of these issues will be worked out. Of course, it doesn't erase the fact that many of us have still had to go through all this to get to this point.
I figure by the time Episode 5 comes out, I'll just download it via Steam and start the game over again, hopefully without any issues. Please, please, fix this game for PC users, particularly those who bought directly from your web site.
Thank you.
First, we had the problem that those of us who ordered directly from you were unable to download the game when it was initially released. Within a day or two, you acknolwedged the problem and gave all of us preorders a Steam keycode, since Steam based downloads were working fine. I used the code, but really didn't want to play the game through Steam, assuming I'd be able to do so via my direct download account. A short time later, sure enough, the game was able to be downloaded directly and all seemed good.
Episode 2 came out, and it was good.
Then Episode 3 came out. Once again, those of us who had purchased direct had issues. The game suddenly claimed many of us hadn't played before, and didn't even have the second episode. Through much efort and experimenting on my own, I figured out (at least for me), that the game had suddenly decided the save game directory (which also apparently houses the episode downloads when using the "direct" version) should be changed from "The Walking Dead" to "Game Data". I copied everything in my "The Walking Dead" directory and pasted it into "Game Data," and I was able to continue as expected.
Then Episode 4 came. I, and apparently many others if these boards are to be believed, couldn't download it. Ever. Repeated attempts were met with "Connection Lost" errors. It never even seemed to try for a connection, since the download never progressed past 0%. I checked the save directories again, just in case the game decided to go back to "The Walking Dead" directory. I copied everything from "Game Data" back to "The Walking Dead" to no avail, same error. Finally, I gave up and downloaded the Steam version. I renamed both save game directories, let the Steam version create a new save directory called "The Walking Dead", and copied only my save files into this new directory.
That seemed to work, and I was able to play Episode 4, but not how I expected. When it started with the "Previously on The Walking Dead..." segment, every decision I made in Episode 3 was reversed. To avoid spoilers, I'll be vague. If I chose to save person A instead of person B, the game now said I saved person B. If I spared somebody from having to deal with some walkers and took care of them myself, the game now says I made the other character deal with it. Would my save game file have worked if I stuck with the direct version? I don't know, since I couldn't download Episode 4.
As I said at the start of this post, I love the game, I really do. But it has become a major chore to be able to actually experience the game and all it offers for a PC customer who bought the game directly from you. It has honestly left me feeling that buying an episodic game before every episode is available is probably a bad decision. I am hopeful by the final episode, most of these issues will be worked out. Of course, it doesn't erase the fact that many of us have still had to go through all this to get to this point.
I figure by the time Episode 5 comes out, I'll just download it via Steam and start the game over again, hopefully without any issues. Please, please, fix this game for PC users, particularly those who bought directly from your web site.
Thank you.
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
steam is annoying! Yes its good, and it's true that it won't effect the experience in the game.
BUT, the fact that steam has to be launched before ANY game can be played, is the reason many (including me) want to avoid it whenever possible.
But for me, if I had to choose between a crappy in-game downloader and steam, I would go with steam, even though I would prefer a more direct download.
If you bought an appliance and it did not work as advertised, would you not request it be repaired? That is all I have done here, in what I thought was a polite manner. I did not intend for it sound "entitled" or "petty." I want to play the game, I still want to play the game, I still reccommend the game to friends. But I still don't think I should have to go through such lengths to be able to play the game.