Has TellTale single handidly revolutionized video game narrative's as we know it?
I think yes.
This might just be our "citizen kane" in terms of video game importance and a template of how to create video game narrative and story development.
Hell, I wouldn't even be surprised if the walking dead becomes the focus towards college lectures as well.
bravo tell tale!
This might just be our "citizen kane" in terms of video game importance and a template of how to create video game narrative and story development.
Hell, I wouldn't even be surprised if the walking dead becomes the focus towards college lectures as well.
bravo tell tale!
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Comments
PS: they didn't revolutionized it, but improved it.
The episodic style of TWD is actually great for gaming. There is no place for long, filler moments while you still get the connection to characters that only a long investment gives.
I think a common problem with game storytelling is that the writers isn't as highly regarded in that medium. I've read a lot of writers being forced to tell a story through a fixed set of game mechanics, places or whatever.
Hopefully games will be a writer's medium.
Good job TellTale
If were being technical than Omikron, and Fahrenheit (david cages previous games) were first.
Yeah I want to try those sometime. I love David Cage. Really love his passion for getting the gaming industry to focus on emotional storytelling.
I feel your love.
I love David Cage as well...though I think the Walking Dead had better writing, character development, and overall narrative than Heavy Rain.
Of course the production values aren't even comparable (though a big budget tell tales walking dead game could very well be the benchmark of video games in general)....
But, yeah, regardless super hyped for Beyond Two Souls. The fact that he's not afraid to take risks and try new things when it comes to narrative in the medium of video games makes me cheer. We need more guys like him imo
But what I think TTG did really well was have your choices meaningfully alter the way the story was told. It got to the same point, but the relationships and some events along the way altered based on your choices to make it feel like *your* story.
So I think it is encouraging to see more effort go into that. I would have preferred though that TTG had put more thought into having more variety in e ending than they did. Not a trite "pick one of four" kind of thing, but genuinely have a very different finish as a result of all the different decisions you made along the way. Having different characters in your group should have had more variation. Knowing that Kenny dies at the same point in the story regardless kind of lessens the impact of his death because it becomes unavoidable.
Knowing that he survives in some playthroughs makes his death in your game carry more weight, I feel. If TTG had done something like that, really made all those big decisions have real weight on the story and its outcome for Lee and Clem - then they could call it revolutionary.
As it is, it's just another game with the illusion of choice and consequence just executed really well.
Ever heard of Wasteland?
That said, TTG DID tell the best serious narrative dramatic story I've seen told in a video game in a long while with The Walking Dead Season 1.
I'm almost worried to play Season 2, on the off chance that it might not be quite so amazing. Why not let it end there, with hope for Clem? Every good story needs to end, and it needs to end before it trips up and fails. I'll have to think about it. Maybe buy the Season 2 as support but not play? I dunno. Will have to figure it out.
Jay-Son! Jay-Son! Jay-Son! Jay-Son! Jay-Son! Jay-Son! Jay-Son!
Shaun! Shaun! Shaun! Shaun! SHAUN! SHAUN! SHAUN!
The character development.
Most games have characters that you don't give 2 shits about. They created a great supporting cast of characters. The characters were intriguing, they werent your typical mary sue archtype characters. They had pasts, they had depth, they had genuine human condition parallels. This also had one of the best writing in a game to date in my opinion as well.
The voice acting was top notch and well delivered. The pacing was great, and the various plot devices that were used were very intuitive for a video game to use.
Maybe the walking dead isn't "revolutionary" but it does set a new benchmark in terms of what to expect in terms of narrative and writing in a video game format.
An don't worry..I'm not sucking telltales dick. This game is genuinely that incredible. Read the various reviews, browse other gaming forums besides this one. They all agree, what telltale has done with the walking dead is incredible and sets new standards.
Bioware. Eat your heart out!
Now if they could get their shit together on coding.....
Hell no.
The railroading dead could as well have been a movie, or a comic or simply leave out the entire fighting, buttonmashing and illusionary choices out and just make it the giant cutscene that this game actually is.
Why bother making a video game where your choices don't matter at all? Like totally not at all?
L.A. Noir, for me at least. And Red Dead Redemption, regarding a brilliant storytelling. (It brought tears to my eyes, when
But yeah, they did a pretty good job - they had a cool inspiration, I love the comics. I wouldn't call it revolutionary, though.
Try Heavy Rain. Beware: Your choices there do actually matter and....surprise: There are many different endings, depending on your choices. How did they do it? There's not just one hipster "main character must die" ending, there are many different endings and everyone can be happy. Crazy, right?
Mass Effect 1 and 2 have a great story as well.
TWD is nothing special. The story is great, but they used the wrong media for it, I mean if I wanted to watch one giant cutscene and have absolutely 0 impact on the story whatsoever, I'd read a book or watch a movie instead of playing a video game that's supposed to be interactive.
What do you mean, wrong media? The story is based on the comic books. There is already a tv show. They are a game company. What media do you think they should have chosen. Board game?
You're comparing two different levels here, in my opinion. Yes, Mass Effect, yes, Heavy Rain - outstanding games, but those games depleted much more money, time and resources. Or am I wrong?
This is the point. It's not a game, it's just a giant cutscene, that is ocasionally interrupted by point&click/WASD movement, fight scenes, buttonmashing, some ridiculously easy to solve puzzles and some dialogue choices that put the illusion of choice in your mind. It could as well have been a novel, comic or a movie since my choices have absolutely 0 impact on the story whatsoever. It's a great story, don't get me wrong, but I expected more from a video game where my choices are supposed to tailor my gaming experience. I think a company in 2012 should be able to do better than that.
I understand, but I think the designers decided to tailor the story more on the emotional level. The choices you made may not have affected the whole plot, but the relationships within, don't you think? What would have happened, if they would've added different endings to the story? Or what if Heavy Rain wouldnt have had those. After all, the ending in Heavy Rain depended on the last chapter of the game. (Correct me, if I'm wrong. It's been a while.)
It's difficult to compare a 'full-format' game to a episodic game, I think. I am just saying, there had to be a reason for a non multiple ending solution. I mean, there is even a second season coming, so who knows?
But not everyone can always be satisfied, so I respect your opinion!
Want to run off with Lilly?
Okay, but you can't
Don't want to kill Larry?
Okay, but he still dies
Many of the choices we make have little outcome because the result is the same. I understand that If you could run off with Lilly that would be almost an entire game they would have to create just from that single choice. So I get the technical reasons why these limitations are in place. But I don't consider anything I saw here revolutionary.
I still enjoyed it though.
Why are we nit picking the choice elements? I'm talking purely about the narrative and character development + writing aspect.
The whole choices scenario probably revolved more around telltale being a small budget studio.
Some of you comparing it to heavy rain who had a 50+ million budget, and the good tidings of sony pushing how ever much money david cage wanted, while the walking dead had half of that.
For a small studio, like telltale, who was..well let's be honest a company that was making extremely medicore games..to make something like the walking dead..with this level of narrative..while big budget studios who have 60-70, 80 million budgets can't EVEN COMPARE to the narratives that telltale wove. That's whats so amazing...and the level of the narrative and writing as well.
The choices is a gameplay mechanic,.
such well thought out reasoning.