Telltale Games Forums - View Single Post - Trying for intelligent conversation? The Path

PecanBlue · 01/07/2010, 03:04 pm

I think Alice might have been a great inspiration for it, as they have mentioned it several times and even interviewed McGee about psychological horror games during development of the game.

Anyway, the controls aren't actually so bad since it's such a simple gameplay mechanic. You don't need to fight any monsters or anything, just explore areas and interact with a few things. Of course, with the exception of the running which is annoying as hell. You see, every time you try to run, the camera goes upwards so you can't see what's ahead of you and the screen blackens after a while with some of those cheesy scribbles on the screen and some annoying horror game sound effects. Sure it might be scary/confusing the first time when you don't realize what's happening in the forest but it gets on your nerves quickly, especially when you realize how repetitive the gameplay aspect is and when you've come to an understanding of what is happening around you in that you must do the same thing with each of the six girls. When I was on the second girl I've already realized what was happening and was getting increasingly frustrated that the game wanted to be annoying when I just wanted to explore more efficently by running.

There are a lot more annoying things than the controls, though. There is that ridiculous "walk of shame" at some point in the game where the girl is walking incredibly slowly to grandma's house and it takes about two minutes to get there with nothing happening at all. And of course this must happen with EACH GIRL. >:|

There's also the stupid flower collecting, which was put there mostly to mock the gamer who decides to collect them all. Because if you go through the tedious process of finding them all, NOTHING HAPPENS. It's been confirmed this was done to mock players who feel the need to collect everything within a game. Yes, god forbid I want to appreciate the way a game was made by trying to experience everything it has to offer, but thank you for mocking me for trying, game!

Some girls also have some memories to collect which are only found in a certain area, but sometimes that area is only randomized to appear for a certain girl, and sometimes it's randomized to not appear at all no matter how many times you load the specific girl who is the only one who can get that memory unless you "beat" or start the file over, and even then you have to pray the randomization system likes you.

I could go on and on, but the icing on the cake is how easily the creator dismisses criticisms of these unnecessary mechanics, sometimes creating these bizarro "artistic" reasons for why they were put in there. To quote someone on Steam: "What would you say if the game kept crashing to the desktop? 'That's to make you feel like the game is eluding you, and doesn't want you to play it! You must keep pursuing it!'" Basically, it's just a bunch of pretentious BS.

01/07/2010, 03:04 pm	#5
PecanBlue I warned you about stairs Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Not telling, I don't want rocks thrown at my house Posts: 743	I think Alice might have been a great inspiration for it, as they have mentioned it several times and even interviewed McGee about psychological horror games during development of the game. Anyway, the controls aren't actually so bad since it's such a simple gameplay mechanic. You don't need to fight any monsters or anything, just explore areas and interact with a few things. Of course, with the exception of the running which is annoying as hell. You see, every time you try to run, the camera goes upwards so you can't see what's ahead of you and the screen blackens after a while with some of those cheesy scribbles on the screen and some annoying horror game sound effects. Sure it might be scary/confusing the first time when you don't realize what's happening in the forest but it gets on your nerves quickly, especially when you realize how repetitive the gameplay aspect is and when you've come to an understanding of what is happening around you in that you must do the same thing with each of the six girls. When I was on the second girl I've already realized what was happening and was getting increasingly frustrated that the game wanted to be annoying when I just wanted to explore more efficently by running. There are a lot more annoying things than the controls, though. There is that ridiculous "walk of shame" at some point in the game where the girl is walking incredibly slowly to grandma's house and it takes about two minutes to get there with nothing happening at all. And of course this must happen with EACH GIRL. >:\| There's also the stupid flower collecting, which was put there mostly to mock the gamer who decides to collect them all. Because if you go through the tedious process of finding them all, NOTHING HAPPENS. It's been confirmed this was done to mock players who feel the need to collect everything within a game. Yes, god forbid I want to appreciate the way a game was made by trying to experience everything it has to offer, but thank you for mocking me for trying, game! Some girls also have some memories to collect which are only found in a certain area, but sometimes that area is only randomized to appear for a certain girl, and sometimes it's randomized to not appear at all no matter how many times you load the specific girl who is the only one who can get that memory unless you "beat" or start the file over, and even then you have to pray the randomization system likes you. I could go on and on, but the icing on the cake is how easily the creator dismisses criticisms of these unnecessary mechanics, sometimes creating these bizarro "artistic" reasons for why they were put in there. To quote someone on Steam: "What would you say if the game kept crashing to the desktop? 'That's to make you feel like the game is eluding you, and doesn't want you to play it! You must keep pursuing it!'" Basically, it's just a bunch of pretentious BS.