Telltale, please, take advantage of the environments you create.
Clem_is_awesome
Banned
Come on Telltale, from the time Clementine walks back into the cabin and the time they all leave the cabin it took me 12 minutes and 55 seconds. That was while taking 2 seconds to pick each dialogue option. Now the entire time that Clem was able to walk around was 31 seconds, without sprinting and clicking both windows. So 96% of the entire scene was just a long cinematic and 4% was actually playable then after that the Cabin is gone forever.
I know they probably worked really hard into creating , modeling and everything else that went with the Cabin so why the hell cant they let us control Clem for much longer in there? Let us drink some water or get something to eat after Clem has been outside for so long. Let us walk around and enter every room and just click anything that is around. The same can be said about the Ski Lodge.
How about the 5 day timeskip? They could have made it a 2 day timeskip then play around in whatever place the group found to sleep and then do the 3 day timeskip and get to the bridge. There are so many ways to milk to content they've already created that could easily give us 30-40 more minutes per episode.
Comments
I've said it before and I'll say it again, they really need to give us time to speak to the new characters and learn their backstories. I didn't care about any of the characters that died because I don't know a thing about them. It's (noticeably!) shortening the length of each episode and really taking away from character development. There are also fewer chances to look at stuff and get "flavor text," which is a shame. Lee's adorkable observations were one of my favorite parts of the last game.
That said, Ep1 was spent showing where Clem ended up, Ep2 was spent establishing the villain. Maybe from here on out it'll be awesomeness and rainbows? I'm hoping so, since it's obvious a lot more people are going to die and I can't imagine many players caring all that much.
I'm 100% with you. One of the great things about Season 1 was that it had lots of hub moments (When you get too walk arund and click the hell out of the environment). Let's hope TTG hears our prayers and gets us hub moments! Atleast Season 2 had some small hub moments (the station, the cabin).
We need to be heard!
I think they don't want us to learn completely everything about the Cabin group right now. Just look at Walter, he's probably the one we learned the most about so far and that was in a very short time.
I do agree with the dialogue stuff, after we cross the bridge we could talk to Rebecca, Alvin and Nick but i also wanted to talk to Sarah as the was sitting there alone but the option never came up, she was really scared of Carver so we should have had the opportunity to ask if she was ok, as we where in the forest we could have talked about leaf rubbing or shown her how to do it as a reference to season 1.
I thought the ski resort was a perfect moment for a open hub so we could talk some with everyone without time limits or restrictions. Instead we got projected along a certain route with limited discussion options.
One of the best features of season one was the option of initiating dialogue with different topics that added more character development without continuing the story. Lets hope episode 3 will allow for more open spaces and more time for dialogue between story segments
since we are in the camp it should have more open dialogue but I think we get the camp survivors' and carver background then our group. I felt for Alvin a little but I really didn't care if Walter kill nick (second play-through and I try but fail) however Clem does look little like she bonds with bonnie next episode so I can't wait to see how they stop me from hating her.
I hope its not just a long cutscene or QTE of Clementine doing slave chores around the camp. That would depress the hell out of me
I think they do need to find the right balance where this is concerned. For instance, I did like the conversations that provided depth to the story and exploring the environment was a nice way to interact with the game but some were just downright pointless (Lee: hmm, pointy) Some players like this sort of thing, some don't. However, now there is less travelling and escaping after episode 2 for obvious reasons, maybe we will get the opportunity to explore a bit more.
Maybe. But given how much we have been told I can't see that being the case. For example, we can't talk to people and find out what they did before the apocalypse like we could in Season 1, but Nick still has no problem telling us he had to shoot his mum? Rebecca has no problem confiding with you, openly, about Alvin not being her baby's father? I find that a little bit hard to believe. Even with Walter, everything about him was presented via two conversations.
Episode 2 of last season had one of my favorite openings. I spent at least half an hour walking around the camp talking to everybody before the episode even really began. Not only that, some of the best moments in season 1 were hidden within the dialogue trees. WIthout them you wouldn't have the immortal line "like shit! Right, Lee?" or the legendary "he's always blaming me for stuff" sequence.
I guess so far Season 2 just feels a lot less interactive. That isn't necessarily bad, I just think that isn't the intention. I still love the game and rank Clementine as one of my all-time favorite characters, I just wish it'd return to being more hands-on.
:edit
Also, awesome avatar!
I know that this whole "we have hostages" thing is supposed to make us worry for some characters made out of pixels but only character I could care besides Clementine was Kenny. I can't remember feeling much during this season other than neutral and boredom mostly.
However season 1, that was me engaged from beginning to end. These new characters suck and season 2 feels more like "let's make money" instead of "let's make money AND a good game."
Giving this thread a shameless bump because I feel this needs more exposure.
Once again, I enjoyed the episode, I really did. However, it still left me thinking something was missing from the core experience, and that is the more open-ended conversations that fleshed out the characters. Character development is crucial to the way they approach making these episodes, and we got a passable amount in A House Divided, but not nearly as much as last season.
It kind of puzzles me. Why would they cut something that works so well for the series like the "casual" conversations with our cast? Do people find them pace-breaking? To them I say, many of those conversations were not required to advance the plot, but merely to add flavor to the group.
Time constraints affect the making of these? You could certainly use the blog to post some small insight into the development of the episode and explain why you might need some more time to finish it. Or come out and say there is a delay because of x.
Maybe it is just a consciously chosen new direction? Well, hopefully fan feedback can sway that decision.
I, of course, do not work at Telltale and cannot say what the process and issues of developing such scenes are, but I offer my honest opinion as a fan who wants to help in any little way possible to improve S2.
Thanks for the bump. I'm thinking of making an even bigger thread tomorrow btw.
No problem. I'd do one myself, but I'm far too lazy. :P
I really wish this was discussed more thoroughly and that Telltale took notice of it.
Im no game developer but time constraints seems like the smallest issue here since these casual conversations are based mostly in dialogue and few animations since you are mostly stationary. Time constraints overall affect the episodes but working another hour or so with a few voice actors for some extra lines for casual conversation seems like a worthwile pursuit when it gives the game so much flavor.
In a interview with Melissa Hutchison she said that she did suprisingly little voice acting for season one, timewise but now in season two when she voices the protagonist there is obviously alot more. My point is that many of these side characters dont actually voice that much dialogue and adding some more lines would hopefully not take up too much time. I think the interview was up at noon with IGN.