TellTale, stop being lazy and make all choices mean something
[b] WARNING! [/b] massive spoilers ahead and this post is awfully organised, turn away if you get easy headaches.
Telltale's had a history of implementing major choices that mean fuck all. At least in season 1 they brought more than 1 line, in season 2? Not so much.
Stealing medicine from Arvo or leaving the medicine should be a major choice, it should affect how the ending plays out. Maybe if you don't steal the medicine then his group doesn't ambush you and you can a small shelter and some animals to hunt, resulting in Bec surviving. Sure, maybe he ambushes you another time but because he had no choice. This would present a great opportunity to give Arvo some back story, hell maybe he could even help us along the way.
What did we get?
Steal From Arvo: "I only took the pills"
Leave Arvo alone with the medicine: "Jane took it not me!"
That was it. That was all we got..... ARE YOU F*CKING SERIOUS? No, SERIOUSLY? That is laziness at it's absolute F****** worst! Not to mention that the borderline group still blames you for it. Seriously, come on. This is disturbing. Maybe in episode 5 it will change some things, but when were given things like this.... it colours your expectations of episode 5!
There are some other completely useless choices that are never even mentioned again as well. Give water to the dying man? Waste of water and he probably has rabies so I hope you threw away that bottle!
Kill sam? Fuck it who cares? Not like he's gonna come back and eat your face off
Another choice that should of affected the ending is deciding whether or not to go in the morning to find bec some food or stay a few days. For fucks sake, this should affected the story more than just 1 or 2 god damn lines!
Maybe, if you decide to go straight in the morning then you find some where to stay, or maybe that could of caused the death of bec because of the exhaustion! Or if you waited a few days, then bec isn't overly exhausted and everyone isn't cranky resulting in less tension between the group! What do we get?
A different line. Maybe one or two. You may as well have changed the choice name to "Side with luke or kenny".
I know you can't make every single little choice mean something big. You can't decide to throw an acorn at kenny that branches out into kenny spending half the episode looking for it to throw it back at you resulting in the group dying because kenny isn't there to protect them. That would be stupid, but you can't make a what should be a major choice change a line or 2 from another character, and then tell us that the story is tailored by how we play!
Don't even get me started on the half truth advertisments specifically desinged to trick you into thinking it's something else. Remember when that trailer came out for TWDS2 and it showed a hat that looked like kenny's hat, and hair that looked like kenny's? Remember that guys? Remember when everyone said it was kenny and it wasn't? Telltale knew exactly what they were doing there, underhanded sly as all hell.
What about the trailer for S2E4? Remember when kenny and mike were walking up to them 2 walkers ready to get into an epic battle between walkers and humans? Remember how fucking cool that looked? And what did we get?
We got kenny (and just kenny) walking up to 1 walker (and just 1 walker) and smashing it in the face with a crowbar................. and we didn't even get to see much of it.
Sigh, this is turning into a rant. Let's get back to the choices ~
What about... saving Nick in episode 2. There was a choice for that. Now since everyone loves ben 2.0, err Nick, everyone saved him. Then episode 3 struts along and Nick is confined to the background with barely any lines. It's even worse in episode 4, but I'm not going into that because it's been beaten to death already.
Cutting of Sarita's arm or leaving her arm intact was a good choice, I'll admit that. Cutting off her arm resulted in her dying right there, resulting in an effective goodbye to her character. LEAVING her arm intanct on the other hand wasn't. Cutting her arm off means kenny gets super mad at you, but kenny's a c*nt so I don't care. Leaving her arm intact results in kenny still being super mad at you....
Kenny blabs on about how he wants to have his final moments with his dying girlfriend, not realising that if it weren't for you, she'd be fuckin' dead, kenny wouldn't have them final moments with her. Either way, Kenny is still an arse to you, a few lines of dialogue changed. This should've had long term effects throughout Ep4, but it didn't. hopefully it will in Ep5 but we can only hope.
It's incredibly saddening to see that Season 2 has turned into a cash grab. They put some amount of effort into the first 2 episodes, but it's like they gave up on episode 3...
I know implementing stronger branching paths will take considerably longer to make an episode, and with more funds involved. But what would you rather do? Would you A:
Wait 2 months for an episode to be released only to find out that it's mediocre and forgettable, OR
Wait 3 months for an episode to be released and realising that it's great and interesting, and has better branching paths leading to a much more immersive experience?
I'd wait 3 months. Sure it may cost more, but you have to spend money to make money. You could rely on your fan base (a loyal one) to spread everything the game has to offer...you know, like they did with season 1? I got 2 of my friends to try out TWDS1, and they ended up buying all the episodes! There's no way In hell I would recommend the game in this state. You know that kind of press damages a games reputation, and a damaged reputation means lower copies sold.
Anyway, whatever you decide to do Telltale. do the right thing for fucks sake. Can't keep skating through a friggin minefield and expect not to be blown to pieces.
Comments
I usually get annoyed by threads like this (because we had them all day) but actually gave out your reasons. I'll give you a like.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrNjun9zaXk
Remember when they said there would be more branching this season. They lied. There's less. I'm not even sure how they did it. They somehow went backwards. It's truly sad.
OH MY GOD, REALLY?!
While I have liked season 2 I do agree they need to make the choices actually matter somewhat like they did in season 1. They did a better job making choices matter in TWAU more than they have in season 2 of TWD.
arvo blaming you is part of the story, but I agree with you on the rest and over all. Telltale needs to stop being cheap and live up to their motto. "choices matter"
god dammit telltale
THIS, Telltale, THIS
I, too, have convinced a few friends to try TWD S1, by telling them it would be worth their money, and they thanked me later for the recommendation. Unfortunately, they have also bought the season 2 pass, so you win this time, Telltale, but know that neither me nor any of my friends (and we have already talked A LOT about the current state of the game) would recommend playing season 2 to anyone: quite the contrary, I would tell people to buy season 1 and stay the hell away from season 2.
Just give us a better illusion of choice like they did with Season 1.
I think Telltale should stop adding the line "The story is tailored by how you play".
What they said was BS.
I have already said the same to another friend when he asked about it. Season 1 is worth it but season 2 is not.
I've actually been telling people /not/ to get it and just watch a Let's Play of it because I don't want them to feel ripped off. ;v; One of them who already had it said he understood now why I didn't like it as much as season 1.
Though I'll still replay episodes 1 to 3 I loved those (besides the fact that they should have stayed in Carver's camp for like...a few weeks maybe? So it wasn't built up for nothing?)
Episode 5 - you thought your decisions wouldn't mean shit? Well your decisions are about to eat the shit out of you like Mike eats the shit out of Raccoons!
Best choice was to chose of help out Christa or not.
.....joking of course.
"There are some other completely useless choices that are never even mentioned again as well. Give water to the dying man? Waste of water and he probably has rabies so I hope you threw away that bottle!
Kill sam? Fuck it who cares? Not like he's gonna come back and eat your face off"
You gave the worst possible examples. I'm sorry but if you genuinely expected these choices to mean anything than you would probably do an even worse job at writing this season than TTG. If you killed Sam you gave him a merciful death, if you left him, you left him dying a slow and painful death. The giving water choice is nearly the exact same choice, be merciful or not. That's all there is to them, and that's all that it should be.
This post doesn't make me dislike the game any less, i still enjoy it thoroughly.
But then again i wholeheartedly agree.
What scares me the most at this moment is that when ep5's episode will have a Save Luke/Save Kenny moment or something.
Since its not a choice. Its a statement that both characters will die. One just takes a bit longer, but they are both lifeless after that point. Being alive or dead is besides the point.
I sincerely hope they will listen to people like the OP, and change things up a notch. And not brush it off as whiny trolling. People that criticize this game are usually the people that care the most.
And replace it with ''The story is tailored how we want you to play this game''.
I have already said to a friend of my about this season and he was very surprised to hear it he knows I love TWD
You actually can get mike to walk up
Say: (Mike, help kenny!)
LETS DO IT LET GO TO TWITTER AND SEND JOB THE TWEETS AND DO IT
agree some choices are really lame:
Held the baby(lol)
Admitted to stealing the walkie talkie?
Told Bonnie about Luke?
"The dialogue is tailored by how you play."
I agree with the first one, holding the baby not that big of a deal over 90% choose it. However those other 2 choices were a bit unpredictable with the consequences, first time through you wouldn't know what Carver would do to Clem and it seemed Bonnie could yet again betray your trust depending on how you feel in that moment.
The game is more about how the player is free to react to the plot, rather than the plot reacting to the player. The story will always end the same way, nothing wrong with that. Just enjoy what you can.
Yesterday my friend , who is also a fan of this game, called and asked me if I played EP4, he did not ,he only wondered how "good" the episode was, later he tells me he lost his game files and that is too bad cuz he was looking forward to the consequences of the choices...
I told him losing your save files doesn't even matter in the new episode...
It's sorta sad when I wish we had Season 1's choices back.
Even if they didn't have a large impact, at least the illusion was a lot stronger. So far in Season 2 the most important choice has been Nick/Pete, which resulted in a 1-2 scene difference. Back in Season 1, we had multiple choices that resulted in this, while in Season 2 they are few and far between.