So, that episode was a little bit short, wasn't it?
I don’t want to complain about the overall quality of Fright of the Bumblebees, which is as good as expected since it’s W&G and made by Telltale. 
It’s fun and everything. 
But given the pre-release statements that this episode will be longer than episodes of previous Telltale games [due to being a season with four episodes only], I’m a little bit disappointed. I didn’t stop the time as I was playing FotB, but subjectively speaking I have to say that I’ve spend more time on any Strong Bad’s episode than on FotB.
[I didn’t play Sam and Max 104 or 201 yet...]
Is it just me or do others have the same feeling?
It’s fun and everything. But given the pre-release statements that this episode will be longer than episodes of previous Telltale games [due to being a season with four episodes only], I’m a little bit disappointed. I didn’t stop the time as I was playing FotB, but subjectively speaking I have to say that I’ve spend more time on any Strong Bad’s episode than on FotB.
[I didn’t play Sam and Max 104 or 201 yet...]
Is it just me or do others have the same feeling?
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Maybe it's just because I played both seasons of Sam and Max, and so I've sort of attuned to the TTG puzzle modality, and it's faster to go through the content than it would be if I weren't expecting the puzzles to be insanely silly and funny.
Don't get me wrong, I think it was a brilliant episode as well, but I hope the future episodes have more content.
Most of thos 40-or-more-$-Adventures only have 10 hours of playtime.
The strong Bad adventures all took me about 4 hours.
this one 3.2 hours.
The shortest Adventure from telltale was out from boneville (1.8 hours) but still I loved every minute of it.
To our playtesters and most of us in the office, it felt like a much longer episode. When I replayed it recently it took me 2.5 hours and that was knowing all the puzzle solutions. I can't imagine I would have finished it in 3 hours the first time through.
The solution of the riddles are pretty obvious anyway.
There are still a lot of hints in the game.
I think it's evan easier then the sam and max games.
But that's not too bad for me.
I really enjoyed playing it.
It's really like the Wallace and Gromit movies.
Great work!
I thought it was nice to be able to play through the game without getting stuck, and as I mentioned in the other thread, I don't think the quality of the game should be measured in play time alone. Personally, I would like the games to be a little longer, the world a bit bigger, and the puzzles to be a little more challenging (especially since this is only a four-part series), but I don't have a huge problem with the situation as it is.
Indeed
But as I said, all in all it’s a good and funny episode with the W&G style like it should be.
But I guess I have to confirm that it can be finished (without skipping any dialogue or looking at walkthroughs) in three hours and a few minutes.
I still think I'm getting a lot for my money, but some of the riddles might have been harder. Maybe in episode 2. Really looking forward to it!!!
Thanks again for the wonderful work.
ahem. excuse me.
The puzzles are GREAT.
My main problem is that I tended to run into something and guess what I was SUPPOSED to do, but didn't know WHY because I was apparently doing the second half of a puzzle, after simply missing a trigger that starts it. This wouldn't be a problem, if I hadn't done it something like three or four times! =p
But I found the puzzle design to be pretty good! The only disappoint was the final puzzle.
I'm with Emily, I thought it felt like a nice good length. However, as I'm sure all of you felt I didn't want it to end!
I agree with emily, If you know all the stuff you breeze through, if your too good maybe just go around a bit, find easter eggs and stuff, I find those sam and max games take me upwards of 5 hours as I try and drain every last ounce out of the game. Sometimes its just good to play a game rather than do a game, thats why I love ratchet and clank games, you can go through the game, or you can get all the weapons and gadgets and bolts and whatever. Theres a fork in the road, do you take the easy route with a conveyer belt, or the fun route with fun things?
Agreed, my approach too. In W&G, it took me some 40 minutes to get the breakfast for Wallace, as I spent a lot of time exploring the house with Gromit. The game has a fantastic atmosphere if you like the W&G universe.
That said, I still wouldn't mind if there were some more difficult puzzles. Are the two different difficulty levels totally out of the question in the future?
Turning the hints off essentially changes the difficulty level, because when you get stuck you won't have another character making suggestions for what to try next.
True - although personally I always play with hints off. So, to rephrase - is there a chance for a third difficulty level, aimed at notorious adventure players?
Undoubtly, you can finish a game faster when you know what to do. But like Soultaker mentioned: You cannot really compare a single episode of an episodic game like FotB and a “full” game like Portal [though it’s shorter than HL2, e.g.].
Haven't tried that, but I made an attempt to play Sam & Max via mind control. It worked to some extent - Max mostly did what I wanted him to
Longer than what? I think that's the problem: the game may take a bit more than just a couple of hours, but still isn't as long as SBCG4AP or S&M-Time&Space. And surely seemed easier to me.
That wouldn't have been such a big disappointment hadn't Telltale more than once anticipated otherwise (countless interviews really, Giantbomb.com being the latest): we expected more because we had been told there would be more. Fair and square.
True, but environments certainly aren't as detailed as those in S&M, and - although atmosphere really is fantastic and lingering in rooms more pleasant than ever - exploration ends soon. Furthermore, all those bugs which occur when the player tries to solve puzzles in a different order (a lot were reported in the second part of the game) certainly don't help: previous games (just have a look at the "Have you tried?" lists) were much more rewarding in that sense.
Too easy, too, but I think this is more of a kid's game than S&M, so I won't complain too much about that. But yes, too short.
From a technical point of view, as far as the number of puzzles goes, I think there were actually more than usual.
I think the issue is that most of the puzzles are either very easy, very simple, or you are pretty much lead to the answers, so it doesn't seem like a long game.
I don't think that the new conversation system really helped either, as there was a lot less examining objects and talking to the characters you meet.
I replayed it yesterday, and it took less than an hour. I do think it's a bit short.
Game as brilliant production values. These things takes time to do...also at the initial price it comes up to 6$ per episodes. A sandwich at subways takes less than 30 minutes to eat and provides a lot less satisfying experience at a higher price. Think value people, value.
Lol don't think that, i really do enjoy that grill chicken sandwitch and macadame cookies :P
True. I felt like something was just missing from the first episode of SBCG4AP, but the other episodes were great. Episode 2 will be a blast.
I dont think i have ever seen that but on monkey island 3. i think there was an old indiana jones adventure that had different dificulty also, think that was an atlantis themed I Jones game. hmm maby when the games get put on disc they could add the option for different dificulty because of the effort to examine the game again.
I've seen it on a few games, I specifically remember the Tex Murphy series, but this method wasn't very widespread, I agree. However, it would be a welcome addition to Telltale's episodic games - I understand they cannot crank up the difficulty too much as it would cause frustration for the less seasoned players, but I'm missing the challenge from these otherwise delightful games.
I agree.
I don't think The Last Resort was longer than Fright. I've finished both games in three hours, and I didn't breeze through them. Sometimes I even had to "brake", because I had already understood the solution to a puzzle and I wanted to try different things before going on.
Overall, I think Telltale has lowered the difficulty level they set with Sam & Max episodes. This is true for W&G and Strong Bad too. They've probably done it on purpose, with this being part of their research for a kind of entertainment which is different from the old LucasArts adventure gaming approach.
The problem could be heavier with W&G, because Strong Bad can be replayed to complete the subquests, but W&G can't. Compared to Strong Bad, W&G is even an episode shorter.
I still hope to be proven wrong with Muzzled! and The Bogey Man.
The same for me.
There was only one time where I did not even know where to look for an item because I could not even see it until it was "triggered right".