Why the Episodes
Ok maybe am paranoid and maybe most of you will gang up on me and beat me up for whining so much... but i feel this must be said and i havent seen anyone else mention it in these forums.
I am a huge fan of MI and it has always been my favorite game series of all time despite all the new fancy games that come out, but I am genuinly concerned that adventure games as a whole are falling down the same route as other genres... and am talking about games like Football Manager, Unreal Tournament, Half-Life and recently Sam & Max... there is apsolutly no need to create a whole string of episodes or installments where one is just a rehashed coply of the previous one with some extra features... as opposed to having one great sequel to a game and of cause they charge full retail price for each installment... what will happen to Full Throttle? Broken sword? I fear they will all gonna get the same treatment given the chance...
I've alsways loved Lucasarts for their great games but recently am swayed to support new Frenchy guys Quantic Dream... I believe they are evolving adventure games the way it should... pushing themselves to make the next game they make really great and better than the last one... their track record i think demonstrate this... i fear that Episodes will just reduce the quality, play time, and ultimatly the enjoyment of each game espessially if the issue of each episode is on a monthly basis where there isn't enough time for the developers in my opinion to improve upon the the next installment. I want to play games not entire series to get the plot of a story... i don't want a to get a "To be continued" sign at the end of the episode even after i've spent £30-£35 on a purchace... sorry for the £ am british you see :oP...
I realise most of you would want to beat me up for things i've said... but please if you hit me... not the face...
I am a huge fan of MI and it has always been my favorite game series of all time despite all the new fancy games that come out, but I am genuinly concerned that adventure games as a whole are falling down the same route as other genres... and am talking about games like Football Manager, Unreal Tournament, Half-Life and recently Sam & Max... there is apsolutly no need to create a whole string of episodes or installments where one is just a rehashed coply of the previous one with some extra features... as opposed to having one great sequel to a game and of cause they charge full retail price for each installment... what will happen to Full Throttle? Broken sword? I fear they will all gonna get the same treatment given the chance...
I've alsways loved Lucasarts for their great games but recently am swayed to support new Frenchy guys Quantic Dream... I believe they are evolving adventure games the way it should... pushing themselves to make the next game they make really great and better than the last one... their track record i think demonstrate this... i fear that Episodes will just reduce the quality, play time, and ultimatly the enjoyment of each game espessially if the issue of each episode is on a monthly basis where there isn't enough time for the developers in my opinion to improve upon the the next installment. I want to play games not entire series to get the plot of a story... i don't want a to get a "To be continued" sign at the end of the episode even after i've spent £30-£35 on a purchace... sorry for the £ am british you see :oP...
I realise most of you would want to beat me up for things i've said... but please if you hit me... not the face...
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To clarify here: When you pay the $34.95 for Tales of Monkey Island, you're buying all five episodes. They come out once a month, but you're getting the whole thing, plus the disc release at the end, for that price. So you can preorder now and play them as they come out, or you can pretend that right now we've announced that in five months we'll be putting out a new Monkey Island game and just play the DVD when that ships without ever touching the downloadable episodes. That said, I think you'd find it hard to resist playing the installments as they arrived.
Also, from what I've read, it sounds like the episodes are going to have a minimum of reused environments, which will help give it a feel more similar to the originals.
Personally, I like the idea of having five months worth of Monkey Island goodness. I'd probably play through a full game in a couple of weeks. The anticipation of new episodes coming each month is kind of appealing.
You said almost exactly what I was about to post. :P
I'm going to go over this game with a fine-toothed comb. There will not be a single line of dialogue left unheard.
I personally don't like the episodic approach as it inherently puts limitations on the scope of the gameworld and puzzle design (Jake, one of the designers, over at the private forum even said "There will probably be fewer locations than previous Monkey Island games (but probably a few more than the average Telltale game)").
However, you have to understand the episodic format is kinda a necessity. The Adventure genre is not as popular as it was 10 years ago, and it's considered a high risk for developers. I suggest if we ever want to see a non episodic MI, everyone buy both "Tales" and especially "SoMI: Special Edition" as no doubt LucasArts will be looking at the sales of those two items when considering the future of the franchise.
Actually i'm quite surprised that there haven't been more complains about this from new users since TOMI has been announced.
When i'm going back the memory lane then i remember myself beeing not a fan of this and wanting full game releases instead of episodes. I still do like full size games but i also think there is room for both concepts and they both have their pros and cons for the gamer as well as for the developer.
In my opinion episodes are a disadvantage if you're playing too fast through them and waiting too long for the next one or if you prefer playing a bigger more complex story instead of smaller less dependent games although this also would be possible but hasn't been done so far.
Now the reasons why i like the episodic format are that i simply got used to them. Secondly TTG over the years has improved on what to offer in an episode as well. Todays episodes feel more complete, self contained and leave you more satisfied than they did in the beginning.
I just always wished that it should be more complex and slighty harder and i'm missing inventory combinations. Guess what! Both is said to happen in TOMI, so if this is well done, i'm really a happy camper here as well.
I trust TTG that they are able to cut the open world into reasonable episodes. Maybe you're even able to remain the open spirit of MI in a way that previous data is accessible by later episodes as well.
Anyway todays episodes are nicely done, they just need to be slightly harder/a bit more complex. It would be great if one day there would show up a serie with one big complex story too.
Ouch, that must hurt
The full game is the whole series, and not just one episode. This means that 'Episode 2' is not the sequel to 'Episode 1'. Now, 'Season 2' is a sequel to 'Season 1' So if you want 'one great sequel to a game', you'll have to wait for the next season AKA the next batch of episodes. This means that Telltale have plenty of time to improve on the next game, which is the next series. Episodes are not small games, they are small pieces of a big one.
You know, they don't start working on an episode right after they release the previous one. They develop the whole series at the same time, like a normal video game or TV show (except South Park), then release them one episode per month. Now, during these months of releasing the series, they start working on a new series, improved from the last, which will be released after the current series ends. I think it's called 'Buffering', I dunno.
The episodic nature of the games might hide this fact, but I'm pretty sure that Telltale works the same way your average videogame company does.
But if you really have a problem with playing episodically, just start a petition about putting the 'Play All' button on the CD release, then avoid the individual episodes.
I asked about this for the Sam & Max Season 2 DVD as well and was told that they can't do that.
probably because they are too busy bitching about graphics.
If TTgames pisses me off with ToMI, I'll just not buy a season 2 if there is one, realize that this was the end of the MI adventures, drop it, and move on.
But for now, I for sure pre-ordered to make sure I give maximum support to the one company catering to my gaming needs. Who knows what could happen if this spread on the internet to be a giant success? Maybe MI5. Maybe more.
Criticism is pointless and not fruitful in this stage, we all should just encourage TT and try to spread the word. TT consists of employees like all other companies and like all other people they react to optimism with creativity. So I dislike the whole "picky comic book store guy" deal because that serves no other purpose than destroying and disencouraging.
I agree with you. It was like one big game!
Beat me, I've never read any of Purcell's comics, but based on LucasArt's Hit The Road game, this license was tailor-fit for a serial format from the get-go. I mean, the game was like going from one whacked off episode to the next, and in the end, somehow the Bigfoots win. Dunno what kind of juice LA were back on in the day, but it definitely wasn't Coke.
I'm confident that they found the right format for Monkey Island as well. As each episode is meant to be a part of a bigger story, there'd be still be no doubt a fitting conclusion to the tasks just finished at hand. But I have a feeling they'll also tease you with cliffhangers that make "Who shot J.R.?" look like "Planescape:Torment" at least once.
I can also see some crazy time-travelling episodic sh*t being done with a similar format involving certain characters from another 1993 LA adventure game in a not so distant future. Or was it past? Whatever.
One thing I've been wondering for myself though is whether Telltale are going to approach every project of theirs like this for all eternity. Relatively small portions of a series or a game once a month. Or whether they'll one day be in the position to decide based on the project at hand.
Regardless, I see no point in complaining about the format. It's not like you're forced to go along with it! Well, at least not the release schedule. And if Telltale are reading: You realize you missed the opportunity of a lifetime? Stan was just waiting in line to sell this game to us!
The chapters in previous games were of much different length so i don't think it is possible to just convert chapters to episodes.
However with so many people on the development team who have worked on MI before, I am convinced that these problems have been solved adequetely.
That is why I have preordered
People keep on talking about the narrative and how the previous MI had chapters. The narrative and overall story-telling ability is not what's going to be affected, though. What episodic content does, no matter what, is decrease the size of the game world which creates more linear and easier puzzles. Since each episode doesn't have access to the data of other episodes you end up being limited in where you can travel. Sure other MI games had this in part, like say in MI 2 when you got stranded on Dinky Island, but for most of the game you could freely travel between all the islands and puzzles required obtaining items, interacting, etc throughout the whole game world.
Yes, and that is one of MI2's greatest stregths. However, none of the other MI games lets you travel back and forth between (the main) islands at will.
When i bought the complete First Sam and Max - Season on DVD-Rom, i was kinda sad, that i had not the feeling about playing one big Game. It just felt like playing episodes. After playing a few hours on each episode, there were this closing credits, you return back to the desktop, and have to start the next one. That was kinda annoying.
I totally missed the flow of a full version game.
So i think it would be great, if the completed "Tales of Monkey Island" - version on DVD would be arranged in the way, like the first 4 Monkey Island Games. So you would have 5 Chapters, but you could play the whole game in one, without returning to the desktop, after each Chapter, and you would have the closing credits only at the end of the whole game.
That would be awsome.
Anyway, thank you so much, for continuing the Number 1 - Adventure Series.
Absolutely.
Exactly what I was thinking. I really hope they do this and I wouldn't mind waiting an extra month or so for the DVD if they add this.
I completely agree with this statement. I also feel like irishsmile gratefull for reviving the franchise of MI as it was on of the pioneers and leading franchise of adventure games. I kinda would like to ask that they release the dvd as one whole complete game, composed of 5 chapters. If we finish the chapter I, we remain in the game for chapter II. I totally agree that making the game in an episodic formar reduces the quality. Therefor in the DVD when the game is put completely there it will retain the essence of a continued storyline.
Sam and Max as exposed by the guy i quoted, was hurt deeply by it. I hope they avoid doing that with the dvd release. I would love for it to not send me back at my desktop for the next chapter.
Thanks TTG for entertaining your growing fanbase.
I know we haven't even seen the first episode yet but I hope that the TOMI continues into a 2nd season at least.
It's a different animal. You wouldn't watch TV with the expectations of a movie but you can still love and appreciate both.
Then again I haven't played Sam & Max Season 1/2 or any episodic games yet so I dunno.
Well I have good news for you, then. This game is not being released in episodes. It's a single, epic story in 5 chapters, and the chapter breaks are more like they were in Curse and Escape, rather than Telltale's previous games.
If you're just complaining about the wait between chapters, then I suggest you just buy it when they're all done. A lot of people wait for the box sets to watch TV shows.
I can't really say anything til the game's out, but I will say this: If the first chapter is any indication, this is a real Monkey Island 5 and all that that implies. It's not the mini-adventures of Guybrush.
I actually played Sam and Max Season 1 over the course of a week when I discovered it on Gametap, then played Season 2 as each episode came out and I must say that I enjoyed playing each episode as it was released rather than in one shot. It truly feels much fuller that way. When I played one episode after another after another, I really didn’t appreciate the pacing of the story arc as much. When it's spread out over 5-6 months, the season finale seems much more epic because you truly have been waiting months for it. Then again, I like my games shorter and like shorter gaming sessions, so I can see how this may seen diffrently from person to person.
I really disagree with the statement that each episode is just a fragment of one large game. Each episode is completely self contained and has it's own beginning, middle, and end. Each episode is shorter than a full length game, but not a fragment of a larger game and should not be looked at as such. It really is like the difference between a television series and a movie. You would normally not claim that each episode of Lost is a tiny piece of a movie that is the season, it is an episode of a larger story arc. And, as such, you normally would not sit down and watch the entire season of Lost in one shot because it's not really meant to be watched that way and is paced differently than watching a movie. I think it's the same with an episodic series vs a full length release. Also, I think each individual episode deserves the respect of being regarded as its own game because some, such as Chariots of the Dogs, are true masterpieces.
Plus £6.20 for shipping the DVD...