How "Newcomer Friendly" is The Enemy Within?
Telltale started their promotion of this season by saying the game was accessible to new players who hadn't played Season 1. But is that entirely true? Do people need to play Season 1? If so, could Telltale have done more with a multi-season continuity?
Personally, I don't think it's as accessible as they claim.
While the opening monologue does write off previous events in a vague fashion, and a few scenes down the line mention key choices of S1, the game does continue and evolve the relationships of both Selina and John Doe. These are key elements in the story (sort of, for Catwoman) and I don't see how someone can just jump in with those relationships established.
John's appearance at the funeral is supposed to be surprising, but the encounter familiar. We know already from Season 1 that he's attracted to Bruce Wayne's character. He seems to have an ulterior motive, last we saw him. We know he's a "different" Joker. To a new player, it must be really off-putting. He's clearly the Joker, and new players would most likely treat him as such. The encounter with him is brief, and is the only time he appears in Episode 1 so there's not enough first-impression characterisation going on for the full picture up-to-date. Is this a good first impression of John Doe to the player?
As for Catwoman, many Dialogue options hint towards previous encounters or previous relationships when you meet at the Hideout. A lot of dialogue changes depending on your relationship status with her at the end of Season 1. For a new player, it's probably easy to fill in the gaps. But, do they still miss out?
I say this season does still hinge on the last one. It's stand-alone, but relies on past knowledge.
I don't know why they want new players jumping in on "sequel seasons", but for this one I don't think it fits. Regardless, a player is going to have to play most of Season 1 for the full picture. Can't jump in on S1Ep4 for John, since Bruce was just hospitalised. Can't jump in on Ep3 for context, since Harvey was just attacked at the debate. Can't jump in on Ep2, since Bruce just found out his parents were criminals, and Falcone arrested.
I think for this season they could have done better, or done more. Next time, they should embrace the continuity they've crafted. Bring back a character from Season 1. Have one scene be Season1/2 choice-dependent. Really show that choices can matter in the long run.
Episode 5 was the benchmark of a tailored episode (it's like 80% was a different story in each playthrough), so we should see how they can push it for more scenes throughout the season.
Comments
Batman S2 is really newcomer friendly. It isnt hard at all to figure out what is happening, everything important to S2 that happened in S1 is all recapped many times throughout S2. And this is how Telltales sequels should be. Built towards players who played the last, with just small recap info for the few people who didnt play the first.
In fact most of Telltale's sequels do work for new comers (some too much though cough) For example I had a friend who played S2 of Walking Dead but not S1. They were able to understand S2's plot and what was happening despite not playing S1, and seeing that S2 is a direct sequel, it shows that all Telltale has to do to make a new game new comer friendly is just a quick recap of past events.
I hope Telltale stops trying to be overly newcomer friendly (which I think they learned to stop doing after ANF) Batman S2 does feel a lot like a direct sequel to Batman S1, but it is super easy for any newcomer to start playing. And the truth is, majority of players who are playing a sequel to a video game, played the first one, especially if its a Telltale game where its 100% about story. Hopefully games like Wolf S2 will be focused on veteran players, and not new comers. Its easy to do, quick recap of what happened last game, catch new players up. If choices have consequences in S2 from S1, then sorry, its too bad for the new comers if they have trouble understanding, veteran players shouldn't have to suffer for the extremely small minority of new players.
Do you want another ANF? This is how you get another ANF. I agree with Poogers, it's newcomer friendly enough. Important details were recapped numerous times throughout S2 so that the player can understand what's going on.
Never said that I wanted that. I don't want that. I want anything but that.
I'm against newcomer-friendly stuff.
All I want here is just to dissect whether or not Telltale's newcomer plan works and if it's better to make things less easy for newbies to understand to better service those who've experienced past events.
I vote for the latter.
It's newcomer friendly enough that you don't need to play season 1 but it still feels like a sequel to those that did.
I agree that it's good enough. I mean, how "newcomer friendly" does anybody want them to go?
"Oh I've never heard of this Batman guy, what's this game, now?"
"Okay. I'm lost."
It's good enough if you've seen any other Batman stuff around. Nothing really continues and the previous stuff that is brought up, isn't really important to the contained story.
If anything, I think it might a little TOO newcomer friendly. I would have loved to see more S1 choices have direct consequences on the Enemy Within, really my only problem with this second season.
I honestly think that's more a mistake of season one, and not the other way around.
Most choices from season one were quite irrelevant in the long run and you could tell before TEW, that they wouldn't have big consequences. The story ended the same way no matter what you did.
Just compare the final choice in season 2, with the go as Bruce/go as Batman from the first one. Huge difference.
It's not that ANF was newcomer friendly that was the problem, it was that it was poorly written
It's a bit too much newcpmer friendly. Direct sequels are much better. Would have liked S1 to have more impact or a character returning instead of a few snippets here and there.
Eh, not just choices in general but things seemingly forgotten in S2, like whatever John was doing in the bar and all that was thrown away in Season 2.
Also gotta disagree with Enemy Within's ending being "way different" than Season 1's ending. Season 2's ending is really abrupt, we make that choice but dont see any "real" effect from our choice. It just ends.
I'm sure they made it this newcomer friendly because of not the bad but more critical reception that season 1 received. They wanted to kinda have a new start with season 2, i think that's also why it isn't called "Season 2" but has a own name like normally games do. I agree that it could've had more choices imported and have their impact in season 2 but well, i'm more than happy with what we got.
Do you think it's the same to choose between going to a public event as Batman or Bruce Wayne, and having to decide if you give up being Batman or let Alfred leave you? Do you think they have the same narrative weight and potential for implementing future determinant scenarios? The second one its a much more important choice and can have a lot of consequences.
I don't know why you are bringing up the Joker teaser, my point is that the choices from season one were irrelevant even inside their own plot, and that's why you can't really critizice TEW for not having almost any differences depending on what you did at the first game. The first season always ended the same no matter what you did, characters were all stuck in the same place and not even your reputation would change based on how you acted (you can't be a real jerk as Batman and Gordon will still like you by the final episode, despite acting the other way before).
Compare that to The Enemy Within, where you can have several characters end up in a lot of different situations, your relationships with some of them completely destroyed and buried, and the game even lets you have Bruce retiring.
Second season gave us a lot more of agency to decide how everything gets wrapped up, that's a fact, even the ending is abrupt. And if there is a third season, Telltale will have a lot of room and possibilities to change things based on your choices.
But that didn't happen in season one. Most choices were completely irrelevant in the long run and that's why I find absurd that people complain about The Enemy Within not making your choices count. How are they gonna make a difference, when the first season didn't let you change barely anything important about it's plot?
I said not just choices in general. I wasn't disagreeing about choices and their impacts in season 2, I was saying how there are parts of the story from S1 that should carry into Season 2, but are seemingly forgotten, like what I said with John in the bar.
Enemy Within ends with lots of determinant things, but like I was saying, then the game ends before we see any real consequences. Sure Catwoman maybe here or there and Gordon maybe here or there and Alfred left or not, but we don't really see a consequence. Our endings are all kinda the same, we dont see any effect afterword. Alfred goes out the door. episode ends Bruce Hugs Alfred and he doesnt walk out the door episode ends What Im saying is, there isnt really that big a difference in the outcome because we dont really do anything after. Alfred just goes "bye" or goes "ok Ill stay" and then the episode cuts to black. I wasnt saying Batman S1's ending was DRASTICALLY DIFFERENT but in reality Season 2's ending is that different either because like I keep saying, it just ends before anything truly different blooms.
Obviously a Season 3 may happen (and probably will) and Enemy Within's many determant outcomes Im sure will have some type of effect. However this is Telltale so I wont be too surprised if they find some quick way to just rush everyone into the same place or just time jump and just really quickly "explain" why everyone is at a certain spot. If we are lucky Season 3's first episode would be determinant to pretty much focus just on getting everyone into place for the future season.