Telltale Games

Sadonicus · 02/21/2011, 01:45 pm

Maybe I'm just overreacting, but this quick travel thing and no character movement at all really just bugs me out. I actually want to know how many people here feel the same, cause to me skipping all kind of movement really takes much of the overall gameplay feel and immersion. I'm not talking about the simple puzzles, the QTEs or this cinematic style, I just feel that without some kind of roaming something is really missing and I fear that this dissappointment will spoil that game for me!

I'm usually not the one to say than games need to be this and that, but this is Jurassic Park and one of the things I was excited the most is visiting movie locations and walking around and exploring them. That definetly wont be achieved by switching between some screens. Not even Heavy Rain skipped movement, cause they knew it just feels different. I also dont know how they want to create suspense when you are not able to move. Only though cut-scenes?

I want to make a suggestion:

Please make this quick travel optional. I know that without it it wouldnt be possible to switch characters like seen in the demo, but at least give the player the choice wether to walk between those screens when its possible or use quick travel, maybe by switching walk-function on or off in the menue or simply as an additional way to navigate. This would please gamers who like to walk around and those who think its tedious.
When not for all non-QTE parts, then at least in sequences where bigger areas are visited without one big puzzle to solve. Maybe quick travel could then be optional by unlocking them when a place is visited the first time to shorten backtracking

In the demo when first selected the shed, there was actually a short cut-scene showing him walking to it. So you have the animations, additional camera-angles, shouldnt be a big effort to add this, though of course I dont know. But I think by this radical decision telltale just unnecessarily deters potential players and JP-Fans.

*Irishmile* · 02/21/2011, 02:02 pm

I too am a little worried that quick travel will be the only way of getting around.... Why on earth would they do that? What is this 1992? Is it going to be ported on the 3DO?

joslittle · 02/21/2011, 02:03 pm

As it looks in the gameplay video, I think I could almost play this game on a DVD remote. Please put the gameplay back into your game telltale.

Trenchfoot · 02/21/2011, 02:08 pm

I don't know... Usually walking was the part that I hated the most about most MI games. Except for LeChuck's Revenge... For some reason I loved walking and going from island to island in that game.

It depends on the game, really... Let's just wait and see if not walking around is a bad idea. Maybe we'll like it. And if we don't, they can always change this for the upcoming episodes.

*Irishmile* · 02/21/2011, 02:12 pm

If they are trying to immerse you in the world... I think travel by way of a picture menu is counterproductive.

*Icedhope* · 02/21/2011, 02:21 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by Irishmile

If they are trying to immerse you in the world... I think travel by way of a picture menu is counterproductive.

I think it would be awesome to walk around the island, and at points have random encounters with different Dino's.

RexMaster · 02/21/2011, 02:26 pm

Guess what...
Official Jurassic Park merchandise licensed by Universal= I don't really care as long as it represents the movie and brings back great memories!

Tiranno · 02/21/2011, 02:29 pm

If we can't move, then why bother making a game? Might as well make it a movie.

RexMaster · 02/21/2011, 02:32 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tiranno

If we can't move, then why bother making a game? Might as well make it a movie.

Yeah, maybe, except you cant connect and xBox controller to a movie, you can't interact at all, atleast in a game you get to choose your path!

joslittle · 02/21/2011, 05:16 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by RexMaster

Yeah, maybe, except you cant connect and xBox controller to a movie, you can't interact at all, atleast in a game you get to choose your path!

You're not choosing your path in this, your following theirs. And you're following as close as possible thanks to this interface. It looks closer to Dragon's Lair than Heavy Rain. Come on Telltale, let me have a look around in Jurassic Park.

waroftheworlds01 · 02/21/2011, 06:53 pm

You already know my opinion. I think that when it comes to the style of gameplay that Jurassic Park is going for then the walking is not important. I'll bring up Back to the Furture again as an example.

Let's look at the walking in that game. You can freely control your character in that game. But what's the point? There is no exploration in that game. Every area you are in is small and there's nothing much to look at. You can look at signs and quickly enter building and all that good stuff but is having to walk there really that big of a deal? Your character walks only a few feet between items that he looks at.

Like when Marty looks at Docs items he left behind. You don't even need to directly control Marty. You can use the triger buttons to pick what to look at and then when you hit the x button he walks over there himself. This is what Jurassic Park is doing. You select an area of the screen and you interact with it. Having to walk your character directly with the analog stick just wasn't necessary when you can just click on what you wanted to look at.

And the quick travel can hardly even be considered Quick travel when the area you're traveling to is right next to you. Quick travel to me is like in the game Oblivion. You want to get to a city that is miles away on the map so you click on it and you teleport there. This isn't what jurassic park is doing. Again, think back to the old adventure games. When you wanted to enter a different area of the game you click on the side of the screen or on a door and your character walked that way and exited to the next area. This is what they're doing in Jurassic Park just instead of clicking on the side of the screen you're clicking on a picture of the next area. All they did was take a tried and true formula and gave it a fancy new interface. They have yet to show anything that proves that there will be fast travel. I doubt we'll be in the middle of the jungle and then just be able to teleport to the Visitor Center. There might be, but they haven't shown anything like that yet.

The other issue is the linear gameplay. Personally, I don't mind linear gameplay. And I'll admit that this game looks very linear. Like joslittle said, "You're not choosing your path in this, your following theirs." But is that really such a bad thing? I mean, look at Dead Space. The Dead Space games are basicly a straight line. You go from A to B with out ever really straying from that path. But it's still a great game. And it's a great game because a lot of cool stuff happens between point A and point B. I believe the same will be for Jurassic Park. As long as the story is good and as long as some interesting things happen between point A and B then the fact that the game is linear won't be a problem.

But that's just my opinion.

I didn't vote by the way. Because I don't think walking is important in this style of gameplay, but I don't consider the way you travel to diffrent areas short cuts. (because it's the same as if you would be clicking on the side of the screen to leave the area) And I do care. lol

HK416 · 02/22/2011, 12:21 am

When i first heard about this game few days ago, i was psyked!
The games that are fun to play are the "free wold" type. I was really hoping to do that wit JP. Explore the land and buildings as the story goes on.
I havent seen the trailier (sitting on a terminal server atm) but i see people are complaning about not even be able to walk freely?

Hyper-Trance · 02/22/2011, 12:59 am

Thats exactly what i ment when i said AGES ago that it will (probabily) be to much on rails to be as fun as hoped.

I'm with you... I pray ya can walk around other wise.... well... jeez.

*Vainamoinen* · 02/22/2011, 02:50 am

I was ready to give this a chance but... nah. No Jurassic Park for me when railroads are the only means of getting around. My next Telltale game will be one of the TTG five.

Bloody Eugene · 02/22/2011, 04:09 am

I appreciate the shortcuts!
In every adventure after few minutes I end to use double click to go to other locations.
I every time use double click, and I'm annoyed if a game don't allow to use it.

I think charachter's movement is not too important. What's important to have to move Guybrush on the screen, aside 1 or 2 puzzles that use it? There's almost not gameplay use from moving character in an adventure game, 'cause the primary goal of an adventure are the puzzles.

"Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within" had no character movement and was one of the most immersive adventure that I've ever played.
Also Puzzle Agent has no player movement, and no one is compelling.

And BTW, with no character movement there will be finally no more POINT'N'CLICK vs. CLICK'N'DRAG discussions!!!!! AWESOME AND PERFECT!!!!

thesporkman · 02/22/2011, 06:29 am

I completely agree with waroftheworlds01. The ability to walk around a screen just isn't that important in an adventure game. Exploration in an adventure game means looking at and interacting with things; it doesn't have to have involve choosing where exactly on the screen you want your character to stand. This is going to feel a bit more like a 2D first-person panoramic Legend Entertainment adventure game like Callahan's Crosstime Saloon than like a Sierra or LucasArts game, and that's absolutely fine with me.

I'm not the biggest fan of QTEs in modern games, but I do have found memories of Dragon's Lair and Space Ace from when I was a kid. If Telltale can work out the kinks in their engine and get the scene transitions to play more smoothly, and if the button combinations and timing are sufficiently challenging, I think it could be a lot of fun.

SHODANFreeman · 02/22/2011, 07:55 am

Considering the game is out in 2 months, even if they cared what we thought anymore, they don't have time to really do anything about it.

Masta23 · 02/22/2011, 07:58 am

I really don't care. I play Telltale's games for the story.

Sadonicus · 02/22/2011, 12:56 pm

I wouldnt care if this wouldnt be Jurassic Park. I imagined no matter how the QTEs or the puzzles are, at least you can walk around in the visitors center or in the T-Rex compound after the outbreak, with cleverly given camera views that move with you as you go, simply just for the sake of looking around in the movie locations. I aint calling for big or open levels, even limited areas like in Bttf with more refined camera would be enough.

I thought about these camera angles you switch between like seen in the demo. Since you can control it, maybe when having long and various paths the camera can go, it MAY feel like a substitute for actual exploring.

Like for example when your character is standing in front of the crashed Ford explorer lying in front of that tree, moving the camera left or right it goes around the car, moving it down it kinda zooms in to see whats underneath or on some other point showing the ground with some footsteps. Moving it up changes a bit the position of the camera showing where the car went down in an appropriate angle, like simulating someone looking around and paying attention to interesting details.

But still, even when trying to imagine how this would feel like, I just cannot help but feel like it just cannot replace actual movement.

Alexrd · 02/22/2011, 01:56 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sadonicus

I wouldnt care if this wouldnt be Jurassic Park.

This.

View Poll Results: Do you think the player should be able to walk around in the game?
Yes, its important to me	27	69.23%
No, I prefer short cuts	2	5.13%
I dont care	10	25.64%
Voters: 39. You may not vote on this poll

02/21/2011, 01:45 pm	#1
Sadonicus Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2010 Posts: 279	The official Lack-of-character-movement-thread Maybe I'm just overreacting, but this quick travel thing and no character movement at all really just bugs me out. I actually want to know how many people here feel the same, cause to me skipping all kind of movement really takes much of the overall gameplay feel and immersion. I'm not talking about the simple puzzles, the QTEs or this cinematic style, I just feel that without some kind of roaming something is really missing and I fear that this dissappointment will spoil that game for me! I'm usually not the one to say than games need to be this and that, but this is Jurassic Park and one of the things I was excited the most is visiting movie locations and walking around and exploring them. That definetly wont be achieved by switching between some screens. Not even Heavy Rain skipped movement, cause they knew it just feels different. I also dont know how they want to create suspense when you are not able to move. Only though cut-scenes? I want to make a suggestion: Please make this quick travel optional. I know that without it it wouldnt be possible to switch characters like seen in the demo, but at least give the player the choice wether to walk between those screens when its possible or use quick travel, maybe by switching walk-function on or off in the menue or simply as an additional way to navigate. This would please gamers who like to walk around and those who think its tedious. When not for all non-QTE parts, then at least in sequences where bigger areas are visited without one big puzzle to solve. Maybe quick travel could then be optional by unlocking them when a place is visited the first time to shorten backtracking In the demo when first selected the shed, there was actually a short cut-scene showing him walking to it. So you have the animations, additional camera-angles, shouldnt be a big effort to add this, though of course I dont know. But I think by this radical decision telltale just unnecessarily deters potential players and JP-Fans. Last edited by Sadonicus; 02/21/2011 at 01:52 pm.

02/21/2011, 02:02 pm	#2
Irishmile The Skipping Dead Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: WI, its a paradise 3 months of the year Posts: 6,542	I too am a little worried that quick travel will be the only way of getting around.... Why on earth would they do that? What is this 1992? Is it going to be ported on the 3DO? __________________ unholy THIS! I am a community moderator, here to assist, keep the peace, and keep these boards clean and friendly for all. I am a volunteer, and not a Telltale employee, and my opinions are my own. Last edited by Irishmile; 02/21/2011 at 02:08 pm.

02/21/2011, 02:08 pm	#4
Trenchfoot Watching you... Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Argentina Posts: 712	I don't know... Usually walking was the part that I hated the most about most MI games. Except for LeChuck's Revenge... For some reason I loved walking and going from island to island in that game. It depends on the game, really... Let's just wait and see if not walking around is a bad idea. Maybe we'll like it. And if we don't, they can always change this for the upcoming episodes. __________________ Tales of Monkey Island: The Unofficial Soundtrack Professional Pirate - Max: The King of Broadway - The Plagues of Monkey Island

02/21/2011, 02:12 pm	#5
Irishmile The Skipping Dead Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: WI, its a paradise 3 months of the year Posts: 6,542	If they are trying to immerse you in the world... I think travel by way of a picture menu is counterproductive. __________________ unholy THIS! I am a community moderator, here to assist, keep the peace, and keep these boards clean and friendly for all. I am a volunteer, and not a Telltale employee, and my opinions are my own.

02/21/2011, 02:03 pm	#3
joslittle Junior Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 23	As it looks in the gameplay video, I think I could almost play this game on a DVD remote. Please put the gameplay back into your game telltale.

02/21/2011, 02:26 pm	#7
RexMaster Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Isla Sorna Posts: 377	Guess what... Official Jurassic Park merchandise licensed by Universal= I don't really care as long as it represents the movie and brings back great memories!

02/21/2011, 02:29 pm	#8
Tiranno Member Join Date: Oct 2010 Posts: 48	If we can't move, then why bother making a game? Might as well make it a movie.

02/21/2011, 06:53 pm	#11
waroftheworlds01 Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2010 Posts: 866	You already know my opinion. I think that when it comes to the style of gameplay that Jurassic Park is going for then the walking is not important. I'll bring up Back to the Furture again as an example. Let's look at the walking in that game. You can freely control your character in that game. But what's the point? There is no exploration in that game. Every area you are in is small and there's nothing much to look at. You can look at signs and quickly enter building and all that good stuff but is having to walk there really that big of a deal? Your character walks only a few feet between items that he looks at. Like when Marty looks at Docs items he left behind. You don't even need to directly control Marty. You can use the triger buttons to pick what to look at and then when you hit the x button he walks over there himself. This is what Jurassic Park is doing. You select an area of the screen and you interact with it. Having to walk your character directly with the analog stick just wasn't necessary when you can just click on what you wanted to look at. And the quick travel can hardly even be considered Quick travel when the area you're traveling to is right next to you. Quick travel to me is like in the game Oblivion. You want to get to a city that is miles away on the map so you click on it and you teleport there. This isn't what jurassic park is doing. Again, think back to the old adventure games. When you wanted to enter a different area of the game you click on the side of the screen or on a door and your character walked that way and exited to the next area. This is what they're doing in Jurassic Park just instead of clicking on the side of the screen you're clicking on a picture of the next area. All they did was take a tried and true formula and gave it a fancy new interface. They have yet to show anything that proves that there will be fast travel. I doubt we'll be in the middle of the jungle and then just be able to teleport to the Visitor Center. There might be, but they haven't shown anything like that yet. The other issue is the linear gameplay. Personally, I don't mind linear gameplay. And I'll admit that this game looks very linear. Like joslittle said, "You're not choosing your path in this, your following theirs." But is that really such a bad thing? I mean, look at Dead Space. The Dead Space games are basicly a straight line. You go from A to B with out ever really straying from that path. But it's still a great game. And it's a great game because a lot of cool stuff happens between point A and point B. I believe the same will be for Jurassic Park. As long as the story is good and as long as some interesting things happen between point A and B then the fact that the game is linear won't be a problem. But that's just my opinion. I didn't vote by the way. Because I don't think walking is important in this style of gameplay, but I don't consider the way you travel to diffrent areas short cuts. (because it's the same as if you would be clicking on the side of the screen to leave the area) And I do care. lol Last edited by waroftheworlds01; 02/21/2011 at 06:56 pm.

02/22/2011, 12:21 am	#12
HK416 Junior Member Join Date: Feb 2011 Posts: 1	When i first heard about this game few days ago, i was psyked! The games that are fun to play are the "free wold" type. I was really hoping to do that wit JP. Explore the land and buildings as the story goes on. I havent seen the trailier (sitting on a terminal server atm) but i see people are complaning about not even be able to walk freely?

02/22/2011, 12:59 am	#13
Hyper-Trance Member Join Date: Jan 2011 Posts: 34	Thats exactly what i ment when i said AGES ago that it will (probabily) be to much on rails to be as fun as hoped. I'm with you... I pray ya can walk around other wise.... well... jeez.

02/22/2011, 02:50 am	#14
Vainamoinen Community Moderator Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 6,649	I was ready to give this a chance but... nah. No Jurassic Park for me when railroads are the only means of getting around. My next Telltale game will be one of the TTG five. __________________ Moderators on the TTG forums are all volunteers from the community and still belong to the community. They are not employees of the company. The opinions expressed in their posts are those of individual fans and must not be confused with official company statements.

02/22/2011, 04:09 am	#15
Bloody Eugene Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 612	I appreciate the shortcuts! In every adventure after few minutes I end to use double click to go to other locations. I every time use double click, and I'm annoyed if a game don't allow to use it. I think charachter's movement is not too important. What's important to have to move Guybrush on the screen, aside 1 or 2 puzzles that use it? There's almost not gameplay use from moving character in an adventure game, 'cause the primary goal of an adventure are the puzzles. "Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within" had no character movement and was one of the most immersive adventure that I've ever played. Also Puzzle Agent has no player movement, and no one is compelling. And BTW, with no character movement there will be finally no more POINT'N'CLICK vs. CLICK'N'DRAG discussions!!!!! AWESOME AND PERFECT!!!!

02/22/2011, 06:29 am	#16
thesporkman Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 952	I completely agree with waroftheworlds01. The ability to walk around a screen just isn't that important in an adventure game. Exploration in an adventure game means looking at and interacting with things; it doesn't have to have involve choosing where exactly on the screen you want your character to stand. This is going to feel a bit more like a 2D first-person panoramic Legend Entertainment adventure game like Callahan's Crosstime Saloon than like a Sierra or LucasArts game, and that's absolutely fine with me. I'm not the biggest fan of QTEs in modern games, but I do have found memories of Dragon's Lair and Space Ace from when I was a kid. If Telltale can work out the kinks in their engine and get the scene transitions to play more smoothly, and if the button combinations and timing are sufficiently challenging, I think it could be a lot of fun.

02/22/2011, 07:55 am	#17
SHODANFreeman Mute Ruler of Insects Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Wisconsin Posts: 3,741	Considering the game is out in 2 months, even if they cared what we thought anymore, they don't have time to really do anything about it.

02/22/2011, 07:58 am	#18
Masta23 Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2007 Posts: 830	I really don't care. I play Telltale's games for the story.

02/22/2011, 12:56 pm	#19
Sadonicus Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2010 Posts: 279	I wouldnt care if this wouldnt be Jurassic Park. I imagined no matter how the QTEs or the puzzles are, at least you can walk around in the visitors center or in the T-Rex compound after the outbreak, with cleverly given camera views that move with you as you go, simply just for the sake of looking around in the movie locations. I aint calling for big or open levels, even limited areas like in Bttf with more refined camera would be enough. I thought about these camera angles you switch between like seen in the demo. Since you can control it, maybe when having long and various paths the camera can go, it MAY feel like a substitute for actual exploring. Like for example when your character is standing in front of the crashed Ford explorer lying in front of that tree, moving the camera left or right it goes around the car, moving it down it kinda zooms in to see whats underneath or on some other point showing the ground with some footsteps. Moving it up changes a bit the position of the camera showing where the car went down in an appropriate angle, like simulating someone looking around and paying attention to interesting details. But still, even when trying to imagine how this would feel like, I just cannot help but feel like it just cannot replace actual movement.

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