What Iv'e noticed about TTG so far (and Dontnod's Life is Strange)
So I'll just start with TWD S1. I think TWD S1 was really good with story but lacks the effectiveness of choices. Same with the TWAU. And these games are what everyone loves about Telltale despite the choices not mattering. TWD S2 effectiveness of choices were a bit better but lacks part of the story. TFTBL was really good in story and in choices, but not as popular as TWD S1 and TWAU. Got had good choice mechanics and better choice effectiveness then TWD S1 and TWAU, but not as popular as them. Yet it gets alot of hate because of it's ending. Life is Strange is a game that had really good choice mechanics and cool interactions but the choices don't matter in the end, yet it gets alot of respect and love. Now here's what I've seen and read from people's comments on these games:
TWD S1: "Good story. Makes me cry at the end. But your choices don't matter."
TWAU: "This game was fun as a murder mystery. I love it. The choices don't matter but I don't care, where is TWAU S2?"
TWD S2: Now to start, I will call it a house divided because on one side you have fans that hate the season saying that the story was weak and fans that love the season saying that the story was good. Also people criticizing on Kenny and Jane saying either that they are good or bad.
TFTBL: "This game was hilarious. Loved it's choices and it's dark humor. Give us TFTBL S2."
GoT S1: This pretty much has the most criticizing I've seen compared to the other games. On one hand you have most people hating it for it's bad writing, plot armor given to characters such as Ramsay Snow, the performance, the overall story structure, the pacing, the characters, some of the outcomes of the choices and the ending. People say "your choices don't matter" when this game's choices mattered more then TWD S1, TWAU, TWD S2, and some of LiS choices. Now on the other hand you have people defending the game saying it's awesome game and has a very good story with good characters. People should expect that not everyone will live in GoT and I remember some of the GoT fans wanting the bad guys to live, when others wanted all of them to die and got very disappointed. Yeah true the ending wasn't the best ending, especially for a choice based game but the hate about the choices is ridiculous. Gared was hated because people say he didn't have a personality. We get to choose what personality we have just like for S2 Clementine. And also more important characters died in TWD then GoT so I don't know why people are disappointed that the choices don't save them. It's the same thing with TWD. The only difference in TWD is that you can save people from turning or being turned. For example Nick gets eaten by a walker in S2 ep 2 and turns. But if you save him he still turns except that you get to stop him from being a walker.
MCSM: When it was first announced everyone hated it. Then those who hated it said the exact same thing as they did when previous games were announced. People are saying that TWAU and TWD is better when in this game the choices mattered far more then those games. Some people hated it at first but then they liked it. Others played it and still hated it. Others just left Telltale when it was announced still saying crap about it when they haven't even played it yet. But seriously I was excited for it. Even though it didn't live up to my expectations it was alright. But people say Minecraft is boring. Like seriously? Minecraft is about building, creativity, and survival. No one finds that interesting or fun? I agree I got bored of Minecraft a while ago but still the hate isn't right.
Dontnod's Life is Strange: "I love this game. It has became one my favorite games of all time. It's definitely better then TTG." And then you have another guy say this " your choices don't matter in the game and it's pretty boring." Here's what I have to say about this. The choice mechanics were good in LiS, even though none of it matters in the end but I don't blame Dontnod since they didn't have much of a budget. People say it's overrated while most of the fans love it.
Batman the Telltale series: Now I know it's not finished yet but I have to say I love Ep 2. It was really good. Definitely better then the first one. Better choices and story. But some complain that ep 2 wasn't long enough. While I agree it wasn't that long I still had a blast with it.
TWD S3: I know this game isn't out yet but the fanbase is messed up. Here's what Iv'e seen. "Twd S3 is coming guys, I'm so excited!" while some say "What the hell? Why are we playing as Javier and not Clementine. Why is this his story? I'm not buying it." First of all, we played as Lee in TWD S1. So why are you so disappointed? Second of all it's still part of Clementine's story just not by full. Then we have people saying this "playing as Clementine sucks. She's sooo boring." I know that you can control Clementine but I think we didn't get enough of her to show her full capability as a playable character (if you know what I mean).
Overall I'd say all Telltale needs to focus on is the story and choices. While the the choices are getting better each game I feel that the story is getting lower ( not by much though because some of the recent Telltale games had really good writing). Now this is what I've said about Telltale and the people that played their games. I'm curious to know what your thoughts on this are.
Comments
I've never cared about the 'choices don't matter'. It's about the journey that gets you there, and how you interact with characters along the way. I imagine it as a start point and an end point, but in between, you, the player, get to decide how it all works out. Tiny, insignificant choices end up deciding whether you agree with Kenny or hate him, or whether you can forgive Ben, treat him like shit, or just not care about him and so on. Sure, it all turns out the same in the end, but you've gone through the game with an ENTIRELY different experience than anyone else. This is why The Walking Dead forums has so many divisive topics and I think that's a great thing.
If Telltale started making their games with too many outcomes I think we'd lose a sense of that, and it would harm how great their narrative is.
Since I've only actually finished one TTG, here's what I think of it...
TWD S1: Amazing story, made me cry about 5 or 6 times. And I was actually surprised that the choices sort of mattered more then I thought they would.
I don't really care for different endings to a game. To me, good choice mechanics is making me immersed in the experience. For example, if you talk to someone in real life, the things you bring up and the subjects you discuss might not change your relationship to that person at all, it doesn't change anything, but you might have bonded or connected with them over the conversations you had anyway, and I feel like Telltale are really good at simulating that feeling, making me really care about the characters and the story.
The story is definitely more important and so is the enjoyment of the journey. True we all have different outcomes but still doesn't change the fate of some like Kenny and Ben.
As long as the writing is good and everything makes sense they can make as many outcomes as they want. But I agree too many is too much. But having one, or two isn't enough (for me at least).
Again just to be clear, some of the things that are in my post are NOT what I think. They are from people's comments I've seen on Youtube and Telltale.
Alright. Cool opinions I guess.
I like playing these games for the story and nothing else.
But to each their own opinions.
Are you gonna pick up any of the other games?
Yes, I own Minecraft: Story Mode (Haven't played episodes 5-8 yet) and TWD S2 (Haven't played episode 4-5 yet)
I'll also be preordering TWD S3 and I'm hoping to get TWAU and TFTBL soon. And maybe GOT and BTTF later.
You know, on that subject, I never got why LiS gets praise for the handling of choice, while Telltale still gets singled out by most people. I don't really have any problems with LiS, but I never got why people acted like it was such a huge step up from Telltale, when in all honesty, they handled choices about as well as Telltale in the end.
Sure, LiS handled some aspects of choice better than Telltale did, but they still fell victim to a lot of the same follies as Telltale, especially in their finale. The final choice of episode 5 isn't even subtle about it, if you ask me; option A or option B, they're both pretty much asking the player how they want to render their previous choices null. I remember reading in old press releases and what such for LiS, and they said that the game was "setting out to revolutionize choice-based games". With all due respect, I don't think having a final choice of erasing all your previous choices, or destroying everything related to the choices in order to nullify their consequences, is doing much in the way of 'revolutionizing' choice-based games. That seems more like... well, doing the same thing most other choice-based games end up doing in the end.
Do you use Steam for your games?
No, I play TWD S1 and S2 on PS Vita and MC:SM on PS3.
I'll be getting TWD S3, TFTBL and TWAU on PS4.
Though I wouldn't mind using my computer for them.
Most of us are aware that the choices have little to no effect. We play the games purely for the narrative and not much else. At least that why I do. And who can blame me? Most of Telltale's games have pretty good stories. Life is Strange had some pretty questionable writing at certain points, but it did have a lot more exploration and your choices actually did matter until the bullshit ending in the totally uneven and convoluted finale.
I think Dotnod just took inspiration from the Mass Effect 3 ending. Haha.
I've always said that whether a choice matters is up to each individual to decide for themselves but objectively, the choices in all of the games affect the story, even if only by a small or moderate amount.
I mean, if we want to argue semantics, Telltale hasn't really lied about anything. The specific phrasing they use when they talk about how their choices matter isn't technically wrong.
Well, it does. If you kill someone, the game does accommodate for it. At a fundamental level, it does adapt. Whether or not it personalizes... that's something else.
Also technically true. The story does tailor itself based on how you play. If you choose certain options, things can change. The end of S1E4 is a prime example; how you treated the people up to that point, combined with choices made during that scene will ultimately effect who goes with you. You could have no one, you could have everyone, you could only have a certain person, or you can choose to go alone, and sometimes, a character won't even let you go alone because of the positive relationship you had with them. If you ask me, that definitely fits the definition of tailoring; modifying something to fit individual people.
If we want to be overly technical, they've been quite transparent about how their choices matter.
This is spot on. I'm actually not interested in our choices mattering so much so that the story itself changes. I want to experience the vision of the writers, not some forced game in which they've had to come up with numerous different pathways. I think it'd be near on impossible to write a coherent, meaningful narrative if that were the case. Being able to experience relationships through dialogue choices and other minor additions is enough for me.
In a similar vein as what Deltino is saying, I don't understand why Life is Strange is hailed as something that revolutionized choice-based gaming, because yeah, it was way more blatant than telltale at the end that choices didn't matter. You can't even say it's about the journey because even the journey gets erased.
If you ask me the game that came the closest to beating telltale at their own game is Until Dawn. I was genuinely impressed with its level of intricate choice consequences, even if there were a few "wait that choice didn't matter" moments. An example of intricate choice-based consequence I was impressed with: the web of possible results stemming from Emily and Matt's relationship and what they do with the flare gun.
Example (spoilers for until dawn): if Matt had been more submissive, and he is made to take the flare first, he will shoot it. Then when the player is most likely to have tried to save Emily in the mines because they have been submissive to this point, he will die because he does not have the flare gun for defense. However Matt being stubborn means he does not shoot the flare, and he has it to defend himself if he does try to save Emily, and will be able to talk about it later to a determinedly alive Jess. If Emily has the flare gun and does not shoot it then she can defend herself in the mines, meaning the wendigo does not bite her, and the entire life-threatening exchange with Mike and Ashley never happens. I believe this also means Ashley can escape the Cabin before Emily because Emily will not push her.
To me that is such a complicated sequence if consequences for mostly just supporting characters, and I applaud the level of detail it takes to make that work. It's a level I hope telltale strives for to make more apparent in their work. I definitely don't think it's impossible for them.
I love technicalities xD
I'm one of those people. To be fair there are a few flaws in the writing of GOT, most notably whenever the game tries to align with the events of the show and the hbo characters( Mira's story arc suffers for this, which is unfortunate considering I thought her sub plot was engaging), but when it focuses on its own conflict with the forresters, the game is really compelling.
Not as bas as ME3, considering it wasn't something that spanned 3 games, over the course of 5 years and 100+ hours of playtime.
Stopped reading after that ......
Until Dawn has several different outcomes for several different situations, true, but the story ended up being just half as good as it should have been in the end.
I'm talking more from a "choices matter" standpoint than story standpoint, though I liked until dawn's story
Until Dawn did a great job with a series of different scenario's, but the effect of the complicated series of outcomes only adds to 5 more minutes for Matt's character to walk inside a cavern and possibly find another character if they didn't die. He was essentially written off the moment he could have possibly died. Still kudos to the devs for making it not a walk in the park to be able to save Matt.
But, I will say that I find it super impressive that some decisions don't even need to be made due to characters having an item or something happened earlier in the story. very impressive stuff.
Yes, especially maintaining those choices and pathways in future games. It would become too convoluted and messy. I think Telltale have hit a good balance with the formula they are working with.
Most people, when they heard about MCSM, had one of two reactions: utter frustration or optimistic curiosity.
My own feelings were somewhat disimilar. My reaction was sheer excitement. At the time, I thought that this was it. This was going to be the greatest Telltale game of all time. This was going to prove that Telltale was a valid force to be reckoned with in modern gaming within the family living room. I had always seen Telltale's style as another outlet for enjoying entertainment- a way to unite those who want interactivity in their stories with those who just want to watch stories unfold. This is the mindset I went in with, but there seemed slightly less passion with this project compared to Telltale's other works somehow.
Still, the potential for shared casual interactive storytelling is still in companies like Telltale, so really I just want to see more content pumped out. As Telltale adapts to the new kind of sub genre it's created, their style can only improve, according to their dedication.
Life is Strange was incredible and I hope that Don't Nod makes another game similar to that. I hope that TT makes bigger choices that matters, I agree, yet I still will be buying the games.
WD season 1. Got me into TT and I loved it. I cried at the end.
The Wolf among us. I loved it and would say that it is my second favorite TT game. I really liked the ending.
WD Season 2. I made a thread detailing the writing errors and this was a huge disappointment.
Tales from the Borderlands. I bought it when I was crazy about Borderlands. Needless to say I stopped caring after a few months and I had to force myself to play this after I had already bought the pass. I didn't like it of course.
Game of Thrones. I know nothing about the series and that hurt my playthrough. I screwed up everything as I didn't know the characters. I hated the "Are you ready for the fight you've been waiting for ? We know you paid 25$ up until now, come back when season 2 is here to find out what happens."
WD Michonne. I really loved this game and the characters. I only wished that it was 5 episodes instead of 3.
Minecraft Story Mode. I mocked it when it was announced, yet I absolutely loved it. I bought all 8 episodes and I had a blast.
Batman TT. I normally don't like Dc, yet I really like Batman. This has been an incredible game thus far. I look forward to episode 4.
WD season 3. I think that they have realized their mistakes from season 2 and it will be as good as s1.
Life Is strange. I enjoyed it and I loved the characters and story. In my opinion the choices did matter and so did the ending if you paid attention to the story from start to finish. I cried for ages at the ending due to choosing the right choice of letting everything fall into place. I got to spend one week with my former best friend again and in a way we both stopped a psycho.