I am significantly disappointed in the artificial choices the game offers.
The way it's being marketed, It really sounds like your choices should impact the
story but it doesn't at all. Everyone plays the exact same story, the only difference is the way the characters act.
Look at some of this marketing and tell me if I'm wrong.
Remember this screen?
Don't get me wrong, I like the game. It's a great adventure game, and this is what telltale excels at. It's just linear and the marketing is misleading. I had much higher hopes, and to be honest I think TTG did too. There are a few things I noticed that seem to imply a more meaningful decision. For example, what was the purpose of having the dialogue options available to tell the St.Johns "Nobody fucks with our group" or "We have enough people to defend ourselves" if not some device to discourage them from feeding Mark to you?
I expected the game to be like other "interactive dramas" For example, in "Heavy Rain" there is a scene where you run away from the police, and you can get shot, arrested, brought back to the station, and interrogated. You can also escape and skip the police station arc of the story. I was expecting decisions in TWD to be more along the lines of
-Go into Clem's house / Go out the gate and keep looking for help
-Help Larry get meds / Let the fucker die
-Go to the Greene farm / Continue on your own
-Fail to save Clem from walkers --> Instant autosave, Clem permanently dead
-Go upstairs in St.John house to find Mark / Wash hands and eat dinner
-Approach Brenda to rescue Katjaa / Walk away and let her fend for herself
etc, you know,
drastic, lasting decisions. They said they want you to think first and think "what have I done" afterward; No "right" decisions etc... So far that hasn't been the case at all.
I know there are 3 episodes left in the season, so I'll keep a hopeful mind, but I am very very confidant there will only be one narrative, and that disappoints me. Someone mentioned the possibility of a Woodbury with Lilly / Boat with Kenny decision in ep.3 and while I am in love with that idea or any other idea that would create a split narrative, We probably won't see it.
And the excuse that "To write multiple narratives would be like writing multiple games, telltale can't do all that for 5 bucks a game, one month per episode isnt enough to do that" etc -- At the release of episode 1, I read TTG would be working simultaneously on ALL the episodes throughout the release period, and that they were all in late phases, so it's not like they're pushing out entire games within a 1-month (lol more like 2-month) agenda.
I'll still play TellTale Games because they are great adventures, but TTG needs to be really careful with their marketing (or hire new marketing people for fucks sake) because so far they have set two really high bars for themselves and failed to meet either of them. (tailored story and monthly releases)
/2cents