Why Lis has more in common with TWD S1...than S2 and S3 does....and what it means for the future.
I broke down and bought LiS BTS this morning...I had a great time with it. In parts the dialogue comes off as a bit strange...but by the end I was emotionally invested in the game...like LiS before it and TWD s1.
So why? Why is it that Life is Strange and Before the Storm have gripped me in a way that S2 and 3 have not for TWD....after all I loved S1 to death.
LiS BTS does not forget what people loved about the original and TWD S1....it is the characters...taking time to get to know the characters and building up a level of empathy for them...even seemingly minor ones that invests you to the story.
Look it does not matter if we are talking about the damn zombie apocalypse or some seemingly cursed town in Oregon, as in books you read even daytime soaps...no matter how nuts a setting is...your first mission in telling a story is having compelling characters and letting your customer feel as if the world you have created is as real as the one that they themselves live in. Customer buy-in is all about making that a compelling world. It is why so many people were upset with the Red Wedding in GoT....it is why we actually cared for a Meth Cook in Breaking Bad.
If Lee were just some bad ass mofo killing zombies and chewing gum...it would not be as compelling a game as we got.
This was the essential reason why S1 was so amazing for TWD....you cared about a little girl....you liked Carley and were fucking shocked and saddened when Lilly shot her. You were angry when Ben told you it was his fault Duck and Kat were dead.
And unless Telltale remembers why...they are never going to rebuild brand loyalty.
I have seen some positive steps...but they are only steps in a marathon. Get back to making us care about characters. If your games get delayed because you are taking your time to get things right...then do it. Everyone who buys these games go in expecting a great story...because we know that as far as gameplay goes...it just serves the story and is nothing fancy.
Comments
I agree
While I've found LiS to be a little boring, I have to agree. I haven't played Before the Storm yet, so I'm intrigued to see how this handles to the first LiS.
I'm going to assume that Telltale will not 'rebuild brand loyalty'. (At least for TWDG). A New Frontier is a perfect example of it. Another one is how Telltale is rushing Season 4 ridiculously fast, coming out in the first half of 2018. They don't seem to have taken a step back to consider all the problems that A New Frontier had.
I'm confused. You called BTS boring in the LIS thread and now you're praising it here? It kinda bothers me that people use LIS as an excuse to shit on Telltale games. Though I do like BTS. Not as much as the Walking Dead but I really like it.
This is pretty much how I approached the games. Outstanding gameplay isn't really needed in an interactive story, as long as the story is compelling and can draw you in. I thoroughly enjoyed both Seasons 1 and 2, the first season did a fantastic job of character building and eliciting emotion. Season 2 was a bit lacking in that area by comparison, nevertheless still had is following at least one character we cared about from the first season.
The stories got people emotionally invested, we stepped into one with a blank slate, and the other already emotionally invested. ANF is the Sharknado of video games. Sloppy, disjointed, and ultimately having little to no direction and relying on the goodwill of fans of the series to jump onboard with a new cast of poorly thought out characters. And when the game relies solely on story because gameplay is practically nonexistent, these flaws are made all the more obvious. There needs to be some thought or direction behind the game, especially when you're drastically who's important in a sequel, because then you don't even have the prior relationship between the player and characters to fall back on.
I replayed LiS since that first time...second time it cliked for me...what can I say...and I am not shitting on Telltale....for me the S1 of TWD is the formula in adventure games at it's most perfect....LiS tends to pay more attention to the things that made S1 TWD so good...while S2 and 3 of TWD seem to have strayed away from the formula...which is sad. Character motivations in S2 and especially 3 are seemingly chosen at random and betray at times the characters as we have known them.
I still loved S2...but I know it's issues....and S3...well the less said the better.
LiS...sure at times the dialogue comes off clunky or cringe...but overall they stick to their guns and know when to hit you in the feels and when to balance it out with proper parts drama and laughs.
I think the first time I played LiS...I really went in with the idea of it being lame...I had picked it up for 7 dollars and so I let my initial bias trash it. After watching a playthru of the Kate Marsh rooftop scene...I began to rethink it because when I first went through..I did not do the proper investigations in her room to arm myself with tools needed to save her. So I went through it again...sue me I changed my mind.
Quite reminds me of this thread from a while back.
I 100% agree with you but reminder that Batman S2E1 had 8 months of development time (probably even less unless they worked on S2E1 straight after S1 ended) and that was pretty good (and long).
I completely agree with you KSDIS1! Pm me for a chat about it!