All right, so I just finished the Xbox 360 version, cause my comp can't handle any of Telltale's games from The Devil's Playhouse onwards.
I'll say it right now. I loved the cast, the storyline, the music, the setting.. I enjoyed the immersion and the atmosphere.
What I did NOT enjoy was the core gameplay. I'm no fan of Quick Time Events, nor adrenaline rushes, and certainly not anything that tries to merge both as the entire premise of the game. Not only did I typically find myself feeling sick after especially frantic sections, but there were more than a few times where I found the timing to be quite poor. Episode 2 had a big issue for me, in particular. You have to mash A and keep the dot centered, except the timer from mashing A carries over and the timer degrades at a random rate.
It took me and my cousin like an hour to finally get past it. It's not fun when you're dying cause a timed event was starting without any time.
Likewise, there was a chapter late in episode 1 where you had a whole lotta dialogue then a loading screen.. and no checkpoint (unusual since the game always has them after loading screens), where upon you had some more QTE's, and one in which a Y button shows up and nothing happens when you press it. I've never gotten a green check or a red miss, it just shows up, goes away, and I suddenly lose my gold. It's the only part of the game I haven't gotten gold in, actually.
So yeah.. I'm really on the fence. I don't think I'll be playing this game ever again, and am glad this was a rental. I'll probably just watch it on YouTube or something if I ever wanna see the storyline again.
It just felt like Telltale took two steps forwards and a great big step back, which resulted in a stumble, and then falling over a cliff and having to quickly hit buttons to not die.
I'm sorry, guys.. I know you tried to make a great game, but this is just not one I care to ever play again. Which is sad cause I loved all the others (though I can't play BttF cause it isn't on a platform I own...)
EDIT: Some stuff I thought I'd mention.
Another issue I had was the Pause Menu. You hit start, you pull out of the game, you wait at the slab, the slab opens, the dinosaur shows up, the menu shows up, the menu lag for a moment and THEN you can do something in it. I swear it took like 10+ to go from making a mistake to loading my game, and that's not counting the time it takes to reload the scene.
I had no issues with sound or framerate, not that I'd ever notice cause I've had crap computers for so long that I only notice if it drops to like 20 FPS or less, which it never did.
I really felt this could've done better as a 4-part miniseries, rather than a "game". It made me recall what Ken Williams was trying to do with Sierra. Making "interactive stories" that would rival or replace movies. That's really what this felt like, an interactive movie. I'm not big on that unless it's a choice here and there resulting in a change in the plot (not unlike those games which're similar to interactive novels). I'd have been far happier to watch this story play out and occasionally be presented with some dialogue or other options, than constantly be pushing buttons to keep my characters alive.
EDIT 2: ...okay what the hell?! I was replaying the last chapter of episode 4 for an achievement.. and I realized it's not friggin' making checkpoints anymore! What the HELL made you guys think that'd be okay? Going through that KNOWING I had to do it all in one try was NOT fun. No wonder I couldn't get a checkpoint in an earlier episode when I was replaying something.. :/
Last edited by Hiroshi Mishima; 03/04/2012 at 10:25 pm.
|