Have you noticed the format change? Do you like it?
The folks who have been around to see telltalegames earlier games will get this question more but please I'm interested in what everyone thinks.
Do you like the new format change of the walking dead season 2 compared to season 1? Going back all the way to monkey island and back to the future TTG was always more of a search and find type game IMO. For example Back to the future started at doc estate sale. The playable environment was 2 large rooms with maybe 30 or 40 clickable actions. In season 1 of TWD you started at clementines house that had 3 or so actions outside 3 or 4 inside to start. As soon as you got to Hershel's farm though you were given a large environment map where there was no right or wrong way to explore. You could mingle around and talk to each character without restriction. Moving to the next scene at the drug store you could explore at your own will there were dozens of clickable options and people to mingle with. Again the restrictions were very light and the game play was not linear you could move around and explore.
After TWD S1 there was a very interesting format change. I noticed it first in 400 days. The game play became very linear and there was much less exploring. I honestly thought it was because 400 days was DLC and explore the paths of multiple people.
Then I played The wolf among us and was very disciplined in the exploration gameplay. The graphics were much better but the game play environment was very linear and straight forward. It was literally like a+b+c+d then the next scene. The big exploitable environments that included many different interactions were gone and what was left is smaller very detailed interactions. I posted something in TWAU forum and was told that it was because the game was a different type...
Fair enough I guess.
But then TWDS2 debuted and again there was no large explorable game play environments. The largest was the cabin and even that was small IMO.
Most of the game was walking through the woods where you could not go left or right you literally pushed up on the game controller and moved forward. The gameplay is very linear. Gone are the large levels like in back to the future where you explored the clock tower court yard. You could literally walk around and explore the entire block, enter and exit most the buildings and even inside the buildings there were rooms that could be explored. I'm not talking about 10 or 15 clickable actions like on the cabin in season 2 but more like 40 different explorable options in the clock tower court yard park.
I attribute the chance to Telltale games having more work in the pipe that there are much smaller teams working on these projects. Where in the past when TTG was growing they had just about the entire company working on the same game.. Also the graphics are much better and I believe the increased graphic details have led to the declined exploration gameplay board.
The walking dead season 2 played like a story book to and much less like a game. It was very a->b->c->d.....
I personally hope that TTG goes back to its roots more and incorporates much larger gameplay environments.
Examples would be exploring the clock tower courtyard and buildings in back to the future.
Hershel's farm in TWD1 ep 1
Drug store in TWD ep1
TWD EP2 you explored the St. John's farm and that was the level I found the most enjoyable.
TWD EP3 you explored the motor lodge.
After the motor lodge the large explorable environments became smaller and smaller to the point where they are now in the current season.
What do you guys think?
Do you miss the old format of large explorable environments where the game play was open and there was no right or wrong?
Or of you prefer how it is now with the higher detailed graphics where the game play is much more a to b to c to d linear gameplay?