Rock, Paper, Shotgun NEW article on Ep2 Smoke and Mirrors
TheBlueSteel
Banned
First, let me say this is not flaming. I want a mature, civil discussion. I know some mods have been trigger happy with deleting threads that no not praise Tell Tale. This is an article written by a third party. I don't believe this thread is violating anything, simply by sharing that information.
Some interesting points. I always understood the fans were upset by the delay. Now the main stream gaming articles are starting to pick up on it. The entire thing is too long to post here. I bolded some interesting parts.
Preview of the Article:
Arriving some four months after October’s first installment of Telltale’s adventurish adaptation of fairy tales in the real world comic Fables, Smoke & Mirrors sees protagonist Bigby Wolf continue to investigate a series of murders. Given the cliffhanger ending of episode 2, you’ll forgive me if I’m plot-light in the below. I.e. no spoilers, but it does presume you’re fairly familiar with the game already.
Four months of waiting, for around 60-90 minutes of game (even less, if you’re a dialogue-skipping hurry-pants). Whatever the reason, it’s a big dent in Telltale’s recently-skyrocketed reputation, and one that makes it significantly harder to keep faith in the oft-broken promise of episodic gaming. I’m invested in Wolf Among Us’ story, some of its characters and especially its neon-brooding mood, but it’s only reviewer’s duty that keeps me from deciding to wait until the whole lot’s released rather than play episode by episode.
The wait was too long, for too little, though Smoke & Mirrors’ tone and characterisation does at least remind me why I cared in the first place. But its inevitable cliffhanger fails where the first episode’s succeeded, because this time around I feel like I’m being baited. (Also I’d already second-guessed it, but that’s because I make a habit of striving to do so rather than that it’s screamingly obvious. Never, ever watch a detective series in my company, I’ll drive you spare). It is so much harder to care, and no longer natural to feel that nagging need to know, when one is aware that answers may not be forthcoming for months and that you’re simply at the whims of someone’s misjudged schedule. If I want to pay another visit to the narrative Skinner box, there are any number of reliably monthly comics or weekly TV serials to turn my attention to instead. My point being that a schedule is coal to this kind of fiction’s engine, and not a matter of angry internet people acting over-entitled
Full Article Here: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/02/05/wolf-among-us-episode-2-review-pc/
Comments
I have to very much agree with this article, I feel that this project was entirely rushed and when I did my first playthrough of the first episode I was absolutely engrossed in the environment and really loved what they were doing with it. There are quite a few complaints that I can file as part of this.
For one, the trailer of the second episode influenced my decisions before I even started playing it because I was conscious that toad would be watching me. This removed a ton of immersive value not to mention I was absolutely taken aback by how two of six chapters within the episode were finished by the 20 minute mark when I remember the explosive opening that took roughly a good 18 minutes. And when I proceeded through the whole game I found that the overall quality became incredibly toned down compared to episode 1 because I was running on pure incentive to just be entirely peaceful. Whereas in episode 1 I had incentive to be rough with people and there was ellicited emotional response that I could connect with.
The environments that were given to us for exploration we were either already entirely familiar with already such as the business office, otherwise there was georgie's club which I feel was handled well exploration wise because if you were astute enough and wanted to truly investigate anything you were rewarded with finding the money that you gave faith from the beginning of episode 1 which allowed you to get confirmations or crossing offs of theories that you had which really added to the immersive aspect. However immediately after you get into the hotel lobby which only has 4 things to interact with, a soda machine, a telephone, a sign, and a bell, you already find yourself finishing yet another chapter. This really grated on me because I could feel the ending coming too fast and too soon when I was absolutely hungering for more after waiting for so long and being obsessive over episode 1 in general. After that you get to go up to the rooms which don't even offer too much in the way of impact on the storyline because all you get is the same thing out of everyone (outside of that one specific one) until you go to room 207.
I could say that I've become quite bitter about the series as a result of episode 2 but that wouldn't be giving it the chance it deserves because there's the off-chance that episode 2 is setting up for an even better episode 3 that will blow episode 1 out of the water, but I am not holding my hopes up until it happens. I've become of the opinion that there are a multitude of reasons for the long wait on telltale's part and that includes working hard to get the nudity aspect out of the way. This tells me that they're willing to sacrifice the integrity and sheer awesomeness of this game just so that they can make game of thrones. As much as I'd love for another game that is well done and incredible, I'd rather it please not undermine and throw away all the good things that it started with. I also of course speculate the mysterious disappearance of the ginger haired man and speculate that perhaps it's possible too many people figured him out for a killer and telltale decided not to rise to the challenge of convincing us otherwise opting to rewrite the story hastily so that we're lead in a different direction. Many factors could be behind the reason why we had to wait so long, but in the end we just have to voice our feedback constructively and see what telltale does and whether or not we will see this game done justice.
Overall, I'm not impressed with the way this series has gone after being so pumped up from the first episode.
Nope. They do delete and will continue to delete messages and threads by people who have earned an eternal ban long, long, looooong ago and continously try to sneak back into the forum with account number six, seven or eight and still are too stupid to understand that it's absolutely only them who have no right to lead that discussion here. None at all.
You can easily see how far users can go in their critique of Telltale here, naturally, by looking at other posts which do not get deleted, fusedmass.