An honest review from some nobody ASoIaF fan
Sooo. Hello everyone. This is - well, I should say was, considering I finished the game - my first Telltale interactive videogame. Granted, I only approached this game because of the GoT label on it - I'm not a huge fan of the Telltale style. But still, I found the game enjoyable, in some ways. The story is compelling, the characters are unique enough, the action scenes are well done - really, the game is solid. Nothing remarkable, but very, very solid.
But.
I can't help but feel... unsatisfied by this product. Lemme explain. I can forgive this company for minor mistakes here and there - some plotholes, sure, everyone has them, and some details here and there left forgotten (does anyone notice how many times Gared unsheathes his sword... and the sword stays in the sheath AND is in his hands at the same time? That's pretty sloppy, if I may say so). But again: minor problems. Nothing tragic. The game is fine.
So why, why do I feel nothing for this game? Why did my final choice with Gared feel so meaningless, I literally picked it RANDOMLY? Me, a guy who spends HOURS thinking about a pointless dialogue choice in Dragon Age Origins?
I can understand the concept of "game on rails" - choices change what happens around us, not the story itself. That's fine (although, Telltale, let's be honest... let's stop putting on this big "YOUR CHOICES MATTER" sign on the back of the game's box. Most of them don't). I can also understand wanting to leave a lot of plots unfinished; a company has to make money, and a sequel is a good way to do so. Again: IT'S FINE.
What is NOT fine, goddamit, is how I feel by the end of this game. I feel like NOTHING MATTERS. At all. How many times I giggled taking a choice, thinking "oh my, this is SO going to bite me in the ass! I can't wait!" only to see that choice fall in the bottomless pit of not mattering? "Jon Snow will remember that". "Maergery will remember that". "Random Lannister Guard #23 will remember that". NO THEY WON'T! They don't remember that! They literally FORGET every minor dialogue choice when, in the end, the big, final choice appears! "Sometimes, not answering is the correct answer". When? Why? How? Why? When? Help.
This is a good game. It really is. But it also REALLY should stop giving the player so many choices, only in the end to forget about most of them and carry on. It just makes me - remember, this is a personal opinion - feel like some nobody, watching a story unfold in front of me, helpless to dramatically change it in any way.
I have lots more to talk about, but really, I can't possibly expect you readers to put through too much of my blabbering. So there it is: my honest opinion about this game. Telltale: GoT is a beautiful story, watched from the eyes of a spectator who really, REALLY wants to have a saying in what happens in it - but alas, nobody listens.
Comments
Either Telltale need to step up their game in making your choices actually have a lot impact or they should go back to making fun little adventure games with solid narratives or perhaps they could create a combination of both. Part of me feels like the reason Telltale can't fully change the game's story is because of the god awful outdated engine they use. I've said it before but, Telltale, GET A NEW FUCKING ENGINE! I don't care if it's too hard, you guys got into this career of game development and sometimes things may have to change like getting a new engine or creating one yourself. It end might end up helping this studio tremendously.
I don't know what your expecting in 2-4 month intervals between episodes, but characters totally remember what you say and do. It's minor stuff, yes, but they'll quote something you said way back in episode 1 (Margaery's key) and they can't completely make HUMONGOUS branching paths because they have a story to tell. Not to mention a second season in the works. Depending on how you did stuff did you not have a different experience from someone else? Did you take down Grfy or Ludd? Did you poison the wine or decide on an ambush? Did you become Morgryns puppet or died a Forrester? Who was with you at the very end? Sure Ironwrath always ends up falling, but it could've fell apart in entirely different ways. Telltale has a story to tell first and if Ironwrath falling needs to happen in order to continue the forresters story that's what their going to do.
Also
Definition of Tailored - "to fit individual customers".
Pcgamer had an article about telltale games, and how the best way to think about the games is that your choices affect CHARACTER not PLOT. Meaning that your choices are mainly emotional and affect the way YOU view the characters, not the outcome of the games. It's not a choose your own adventure book, it's a "color in your own character" book
I think that is a great way to describe the games. The point of your choices is to help YOU determine the attitude and priorities of the characters, not to affect the outcome.
So it's more "who is with you in the end, and why did you pick them," and less "carve your own destiny in this chaotic world"
It's definitely and "illusion of choice"
I wish it were a stronger mix of character determination AND plot determination, rather than just a matter of "how does your character feel when X happens"
It is one of two aspects that Telltale could improve on. The other is the ass-ugly graphics
This.
If you've played one Telltale game in the past 3 years, you've played them all.
But also let's look at something for fun.
Walking Dead Season 1 - Started April 24 2012 to November 20 2012 - 212 days to make.
Longest Wait/Shortest Wait between episodes: 66 Days to get Episode 2 / 42 day wait tie to get Episodes 4 and 5.
Walking Dead Season 2 - Started December 17 2013 to August 26 2014 - 252 Days to make (Produced with The Wolf Among Us)
Longest Wait/Shortest Wait between episodes: 77 days to get Episode 2 / 35 days to get Episode 5
The Wolf Among Us - Started October 11 2013 to July 8 2014 - 270 Days to make (Produced with Season 2 of the Walking Dead)
Longest Wait/Shortest Wait: 116 days to get Episode 2 / 42 days to get Episode 5 (Keep in mind they had a script change.)
Tales From the Borderlands - Started November 25 2014 to October 20 2015 - 329 days to make (Produced with Game of Thrones.)
Longest Wait/Shortest Wait: 112 days to get Episode 2 / 56 days to get Episode 4.
Game of Thrones - Started December 2 2014 to November 17 2015 - 350 days to make (Produced alongside Tales from the Borderlands and slightly Minecraft.)
Longest Wait/Shortest Wait: 50 days to get Episode 3 / 119 days to get Episode 6
Minecraft Story Mode - Hasn't finished, so who cares.
Longest Wait/Shortest Wait: 14 days for Episode 2 / 28 days for Episode 3.
What's that tell me? If they do a Season 2, Telltale can get it out/churn it out faster cause they've got all their groundwork made. If the Graphics suck? They can do it within less than a month. If there's a script-change, you're going to wait an extra month for them to sort that crap out.
But yes, it seems their current engine with their current models take the longest to do. And that it seems that their games in general are taking longer to produce, but it's likely because they're multitasking. From a little under 2/3rds of a year to produce a game, to taking nearly a year to produce two.
Mind you if someone is only following one game, they're going to likely see long long waits. Also in most cases Episode 2 takes the longest to get out, while the endings are usually the quickest to pop.
Ugly is the last thing I'd call the graphics in TTG, especially now
What they might not be in terms of general aesthetic and texture quality, they make up for in solid art direction, style, and personality
TWAU might not be some graphical masterpiece, for example, but I'll be damned if it doesn't have some of the best art direction and overall personality that I've seen in a long time
I agree, the art directors and artists are talented, and I actually like the overall look of it, but the characters look and feel a bit like plastic dolls flapping their lips. It's not that they're really that bad, but I think they could drastically improve the textures and human movement models that they use it also feels like many animations are just deformations of solid objects, rather than [water, facial movements, gestures, etc]
I really enjoy the games, so I wouldn't stop playing them, but it would be nice if they applied their creative storytelling to a better graphical engine with better controls