Where is the Atmosphere?

Dear TellTale Team

Bear in mind this is written regarding Chapter 1 as I have yet to download the second chapter (mostly because I was so underwhelmed by the first one as I have bought the whole lot)

Where is the atmosphere?
Both the SOMI and MI2 had great atmosphere but TOMI appears to have none
where are the pirates?
This is I believe a game with a central pirate theme

Glassblowing pirate - Ridiculous
News Reporter Pirate - Rubbish
Pirate that collects Dolls - stupid
French Aristocrate - Out of place and complete twoddle
Voodo Lady - Not menacing enough
Former Captain of the Ship - Polite? are you kidding me!!!

And these are just the so called pirates, yet there is nothing pirate like about them.
Just think back to the first place you go in SOMI "the Scumm Bar" wall to wall pirates, some have scars some look normal but they dress and come across as pirates, drinking, hanging off the chandelier, cavorting in the corners with women the whole lot...
And this is the first place you go in SOMI
in TOMI, the place is practically deserted, and what pirates are there are not pirates at all they are normal/odd people who happen to be wearing lovely clean "Pirate Garb".
And these "So Called Pirates" are so polite and educated, this isnt how it was ment to be, where are the strong characters, where are the mean people, where are the largos and the Kate capsizes, the the rum rogers's of the world gone.
This is such a toned down version of Monkey Island that I dont believe that it deserves to share its name.
Guybrush is not so bad, I dont like particularly how he looks but his characters is consistant with CMI onwards.
The first thing i noticed about guybrush however is that hes having a conversation and you are given the option of him saying nice or funny things, yet when you pick the funny things he never actually says them, he says something along the lines but without the malice of the intent which the user wanted him to use....
In SOMI and MI2, if you wanted him to say something funny or insulting he said it
I think its time that the Tell Tale team actually went back and played SOMI and MI2
I dont think people would mind if guybrush got a visual overhaul to make him older and less visually silly, but more mature and slapstick, i want to laugh at what he does not what he looks like.

But most of all back to my original post, bring back the atmosphere, flotsam island was one of the lest pirate like locations I have seen in a monkey island game (excluding EFMI but lets not go there)
Where is the dank, where are the pirates? where are the skeletons?
you must remember that the majority of people who want to play this game played the originals are are now in their 20's we don't want a children's game we need sophisticated adult (yet not R rated) humor and situations

Hell i played SOMI and MI2 not 3 months ago and both of them were full of atmosphere great writing and likable characters, something TOMI is lacking is astonishing fashion.

I am looking forward to a response from one of the telltale team

Regards
Finbar O'Mahony
Ireland
«134

Comments

  • edited August 2009
    Please, go play the second Episode.
  • edited August 2009
    First of all, Flotsam was supposed to be not-very-piratey, the aim of the first chapter was for Guybrush to bring back the good-old-fashioned piracy to Flotsam (well, sorta). Secondly, chapter two contains some very fierce pirates who shoot cannons, punch, swing swords, insult, threaten, drown and bury treasure! Like Spadge said, please play episode two if you are not satisfied with the lack of traditional pirate atmosphere!
  • edited August 2009
    Hell i played SOMI and MI2 not 3 months ago and both of them were full of atmosphere great writing and likable characters, something TOMI is lacking is astonishing fashion.

    But ToMI doesn't continue on from MI2. Monkey Island series has (sadly) gone in a very different direction in the following two games.

    IMHO, Telltale is doing a great job with the material, such as it is at this point. I thought the series was insalvagable after the attrocity known as MI4, but ToMI seems to be pretty much on the right track.

    In short, I suggest you play MI3 and MI4 first and then re-check ToMI. You might change your opinion significantly.
  • edited August 2009
    hi friend!

    you are right
    telltale has a realy sterile touch

    I must admit that i realy enjoyed Sam y Max

    damn bosco alone stumped every adventuregamecharacter
    created before to the grounds.

    everything was just so extremely psychoschool,
    that i realy spaced of and just feeled as a human
    being filled with a childish innocence in dealing
    with my suroundings again

    the design the dialogues .. all the heavy chars maaaan
    it was more than i could possibly expect.

    monkey islands licence now is still in the same
    spirit as sam and max, sterile puristic without
    any oldschool stuff in it.

    the heroes again are very heavy and in my view
    perfect .. the real le chuck .. transformed back
    to the point of his life were he was not poxed out
    by the dark side is just a feast to talk to ..

    though we all now he plays the innocent and
    just wants to get back his monkeys for
    his evil plans

    he still is a real personality and enriches the game a lot
    like elaine now finaly has a real character too
    somehow she reminds me extremely of brend spinner for some reason
    and Guy very much of william turner

    its the old battle between the democrats and republicans...
    the one want to be free and live out .. create things
    with an heavy newschool touch to it .. (telltale)

    the other side is rigid capitalistic but by that can
    bind a much more versatile gang of designers and
    coders to them (lucasarts)

    the human being by itself works well under a
    financial pressure .. you can see that in the
    lucasarts games .. they lack the smart thinking
    a lot but on the other hand are very atmospheric
    because all the versatile designers coders moneyjugglers
    are much more under fire.... working for money ..
    not neccesarily living out but be part of the greater.

    i am talking about nuances .. say the oldschool
    lucasarts adventures were created under more
    suppression, restriction etc. but on the other hand
    by that with much more human emotions.

    the individual had much less say .. the goal
    was not to build an state to the art engine, style
    or trend .. but rather to make compromises
    use inferior graphic engines .. no fancy
    coding .. the chars were much to small ..
    the code was to slow .. but the whole
    package was more ripe .. filled to the
    top with mojo .. less mental but more
    out of the stomach .. the heart .. the soul.

    take michael lands soundtrack .. i bet
    he was underpayed had to fullfill a tight
    accord scedule but for that his music
    was godlike .. i still have all his music
    and listen to it every day..

    i read that the cook reviving scene from oldschool monkey
    island took ONE WEEK .. only possible when
    under financial pressure.

    i bet those guys back then had pale faces and more
    coffee than blood in their veins... or take full throttle
    drawing all this cutscenes realy must have taken time.

    my say is .. that the same gang that created oldschool monkey
    island would possibly not gather under a democratic reign..
    but only by force under a republican one ..

    let it be as it is ... i lived my life very successfully
    following the one top rule ..

    think only when it is absolutely inevitable ..
    try to solve everything as if you were an ewok ...

    simpler puristic more natural..

    so all i did before was not what i would use to
    persuade myself.. i would persuade myself with the
    following:

    monkey island .. invented by ron gilbert ..
    an average american guy .. nothing fancy or special..

    he invented the playable graphicadventure .. maniac mansion

    a rich collection of stuff that happens and people that bug
    each other... a lot to fix run etc.

    it was a simple game .. for that time an cultural equivalent
    of the faked moon landings. arrr we realy staged the moon
    landing .. ON VENUS .. lol

    simple .. human ..

    to be honest .. monkey island was a step back .. completely
    linear .. even the chars were tinier now ..
    monkey island lacked a lot that maniac mansion excelled with

    zack mc cracken even was worse ... (i am talking of nuances,
    oldschool monkey island and mindbenders are excellent)

    ron gilbert had no intention to create trends with his hero
    he did not even give him a name .. he just mockered
    about the inferiour graphics engine with the description
    of the heroes appearance on the monitor.

    he did not want to create dialogues and characters that could
    win an academy award .. like telltale seems to try.

    just plain simple people from the street.

    this telltale typical 3d graphicsengine makes everything more
    concrete jungle like .. ron gilbert would have a hard time
    to let the heroes find the right words in such a hectical
    surrounding. as we all hated telltales guybrush for raping
    the cowfighting and threeheaded monkey jokes..

    even that is to complicated ..

    rides of the caribbean .. that was gilberts inspiration for
    his adventure .. monkey island perfectly developed its
    run fix and bug each other story around this idea..

    some fantasy of a child being a mighty pirate

    though i presume that gilbert intended to resolve this
    plot in monkeyisland3 ... as a kind of lechucks curse or so.

    but of course he left and the remaining team was not able
    to keep the genuine story alive.. ron gilberts way of thinking was the
    core of this all ... maniac mansion and monkey island only
    blossom when ron guilbert is participated when he is put
    in the center .. not just to watch from a relative distance
  • edited August 2009
    Uhm... did anyone manage to read jedai's post?
  • edited August 2009
    Is this not the speculation thread

    my bad
  • edited August 2009
    I think it's a poem.

    Anyway, they're getting there with the atmosphere, I think by the end of the season they'll have nailed it.
  • edited August 2009
    If you are looking for a hardcore pirate experience maybe you should try something like Sid Meier's Pirates! (Or something in that vain.)

    Monkey Island has always taken it's pirate theme tongue-in-cheek. SoMI's Scumm bar was filled with pirate's who were afraid of sailing on the open ocean. MI2 didn't really have many pirates, except those two guys at the start. In CoMI you formed a crew of pirates who had previously retired from pirating to form a barber shop quartet (despite the fact that there were only three of them). And EFMI was about an Australian Entrepreneur forcing pirates out of their livelihood and rehabilitating them for jobs such as perfume salesmen and coffee brewers.

    No offense but I think your interpretation of what the Monkey Island games are about is skewed. The oddball pirates met at Flotsam Island are perfectly in-tune with what the rest of the series has presented so far.
  • edited August 2009
    Farlander wrote: »
    Uhm... did anyone manage to read jedai's post?

    No. I'm waiting for the movie.
  • edited August 2009
    No. I'm waiting for the movie.

    It will get everything wrong, trust me.
  • edited August 2009
    Chapter 1 had a nice tropical-style atmosphere, I thought (or at least on Flotsam Island), which isn't dark, I know, but still faithful to the series. The opening to Chapter 1 had plenty of pirate-y goodness though!

    And yes, Chapter 2 is much more a typical pirate game, introducing new characters and involving pirate weapons like cannons and whatnot.

    But like some have already said, Monkey Island never was a hardcore pirate atmosphere series. It focuses mostly on pirates, true, but it always has the odd few extra touches you wouldn't necessarily expect in a pirate game too.

    Personally I think Telltale did well to capture the different styles of atmospheres you get in a Monkey Island game.

    It's always good to add your own extra touches too. It would be boring if every Monkey Island game was the same as the last.
  • edited August 2009
    ha .. i knew it ..

    the peoples do not have a commen understanding what
    makes an adventuregame pirate a pirate ..

    first of all real pirates..
    in the large i presume they were real monsters,
    sexually completely disturbed,
    treacherous.. the very last filth of society.

    no real pirate would even manage to get a
    chance to be a part in any adventure game.

    like in the world of warcraft world

    gnomes can swing weapons that are threetimes heavier than
    themselves... female avatars are allowed to walk outside the
    house without male escort .. not talking about possessing arms
    or even leave the city..

    this computeradventure universe is just a fantasy
    not to the slightest connected to reality..

    so pirates in adventuregames are the equivalent of whom??

    of us all .. the dairy farmer .. the guy that works in the
    office .. or like me the guy that lives a barebone life without
    anything but the bare essentials .. not even possessing a bike.

    they are not pirates .. they are americans, germans, irish ..etc.

    people from nowadays that play to be free .. but in reality can
    not even through a rock LOL LOL (B+ for that two times occuring joke)

    in short when thinking about the monkeyisland pirates
    do not think about the raping slaughtering monsters from
    degenerated european seafaring ages,
    but rather about yourselves ..

    they all just pretend to be nasty but in reality are poor goons
    that hardly are accepted by anyone.. except their own ego.

    so the approach by telltale is purely logical .. sterile, but logical.

    (damn i miss the glory days of lucasarts adventure games.. )
  • edited August 2009
    Jedai, if you use some gramatic rules your posts will be easier to understand. Like... start sentences with capital letter and end it with dot\question mark.
  • edited August 2009
    Maybe he is a pirate. I hope he's a pirate. I love pirates
  • edited August 2009
    You want to know where the atmosphere is? Pull my finger...
  • edited August 2009
    Jazzy, you forgot the rimshot.
  • edited August 2009
    Jazzy wrote: »
    You want to know where the atmosphere is? Pull my finger...
    Oh, that's just charming XD
  • edited August 2009
    Most people laugh at a glass blowinng pirate. That's not his really funny quirk. IT's unusual but it is at the edge of plausibilty. Since glass can be used to repair certain parts(portholes) on ships. His funny quirk is unicorns. A news reporter is actually a good job for a ex-pirate. (Need to gather informationNow publishing the news is unusual.)

    A carpenter pirate would seem funny at first glance but really look at it and it makes sense.
  • edited August 2009
    Spadge wrote: »
    Jazzy, you forgot the rimshot.

    When I saw rimshot, I so had the wrong idea cross my mind. Still clicked on it though...
    Scrawffler wrote: »
    Oh, that's just charming XD

    But of course, use that line on the ladies all the time...
  • edited August 2009
    Jedai's posts remind me of time cube (http://www.timecube.com/).
  • edited August 2009
    Farlander wrote: »
    Uhm... did anyone manage to read jedai's post?

    Do u get points for trying ?
  • edited August 2009
    But ToMI doesn't continue on from MI2. Monkey Island series has (sadly) gone in a very different direction in the following two games.

    IMHO, Telltale is doing a great job with the material, such as it is at this point. I thought the series was insalvagable after the attrocity known as MI4, but ToMI seems to be pretty much on the right track.

    In short, I suggest you play MI3 and MI4 first and then re-check ToMI. You might change your opinion significantly.

    Right, great to see there is a good bit of chat about this

    Firstly i have played COMI and EFMI (and just since COMI and EFMI has gone in a different visual direction does not mean that telltale is stuck with it, if that was the case COMI would have been just a jazzed up version of MI2 (which would have been super))

    Curse had good puzzles and Escape was simply not all that entertaining

    I agree with some of what i could understand from Jedai
    jedai wrote:
    telltale has a realy sterile touch......
    monkey islands licence now is still in the same
    spirit as sam and max, sterile puristic without
    any oldschool stuff in it.......

    I think what he says sums it up, its sterile, its too clean, its too crisp
    its not edgy enough, where is the witty dialog?

    this is not so much a graphics thing but the FEEL of it

    I quite liked and still like the "inferior" graphics of the old school adventure game, maybe im just not cut out for these new adventures

    I liked the way there was no definition so every character had to be filled out by your own imagination, i liked the way you had to read the text so you could put your own voices to the characters (which is what i will be doing when i play chapter 2)

    Im sorry i just found part one a bit boring, devoid of actual verbal humour, and generally just a bit dumbed down.

    Oh and as for
    Most people laugh at a glass blowinng pirate. That's not his really funny quirk. IT's unusual but it is at the edge of plausibilty. Since glass can be used to repair certain parts(portholes) on ships. His funny quirk is unicorns.
    Im sorry but that just doesn't cut the mustard for me, giving a pirate which is admittedly a valid profession such as glass making; a ridiculous obsession like that! it is no different than in the simpsons when they go to africa and they see Rhino's being born from Eggs, that for me was when the simpsons really jumped the shark, its plain silly and not the least bit funny.
    Sarcasm is good, stupid obsessions/things that dont drive the story are not.
    Lowest jaded form of humor going .
  • edited August 2009
    wth would I read jedai's post? if someone goes so far that they create their own grammatic style then they can read it by themselves.

    and OP; play ep 2.
  • edited August 2009
    Spadge wrote: »
    Please, go play the second Episode.
    and OP; play ep 2.

    Play episode 2.
  • edited August 2009
    jedai wrote: »
    first of all real pirates..
    in the large i presume they were real monsters,
    sexually completely disturbed,
    treacherous.. the very last filth of society.
    I think you're exaggerating a bit there. Sure, pirates have been romanticized, but there were pretty decent pirates out there too. I think I'd much rather have my ship taken by a bunch of 17th or 18th century pirates, than by a band of modern-day pirates, who really have no sense of morality at all.
  • edited August 2009
    Do u get points for trying ?

    well i read the first couple stanzas(since its a poem) does that count?
  • edited August 2009
    Wow, I was scared for a while when I read the title of the topic ...


    ... now I can 'breathe' again
  • edited August 2009
    jedai wrote:
    Lots of words

    It's like watching being in a train wreck in slow motion.

    I think people need to take control of their loudmouth nostalgia. If there was no nostalgia then you would think that the older games are just as sterile as the new ones. They're not really that different. Had they been released in the Golden Age you'd all be comparing adventure games of today to it by saying "They've lost the magic of TMI."
  • edited August 2009
    have you enven played monkey island before?
    1.used car dealer type boat salesmen
    2.dry cleaner
    3.hair dressers
    4.fried chicken joint owner
    5.towel boy
    6.producer
    7.a theme park
    9.star bucks, planet hollywood,a freaking school how not to be a pirate and a ginant monkey robot.

    if a glass blower and a french doctor seem out of place to you ,you must be suffering from Nostalgiavtis (convinceing yourself that nothing can be as good as the old stuff becasue well....its old stuff)
  • edited August 2009
    balin2k wrote:
    Nostalgiavtis

    Don't you mean "nostalgiosis?" "-itis" means "inflammation of." "-osis" means "illness caused by." Many people say "-itis" when they mean "-osis."
  • edited August 2009
    Don't you mean "nostalgiosis?" "-itis" means "inflammation of." "-osis" means "illness caused by." Many people say "-itis" when they mean "-osis."

    maybe nostradamus?
  • edited August 2009
    shref wrote: »
    maybe nostradamus?

    hehehe. That's from latin "Nostra domina" or "Our lady"
  • edited August 2009
    Don't you mean "nostalgiosis?" "-itis" means "inflammation of." "-osis" means "illness caused by." Many people say "-itis" when they mean "-osis."

    So "Bronchitis" is "inflamed lung"? Fun, never knew that (learned English and French instead of Latin and Greek at school).
  • edited August 2009
    Dear finbar_omahony,

    I agree with everything you've said about the OLD games. They truley are amazing. However, I'll be interested to hear your thoughts on Episode 2. It is MUCH better than episode 1 and the Monkey Island atmosphere is there in full swing along with, in my opinion, the best written Guybrush in years and some of the best supporting characters in any Monkey Island game so far. There will be a few things you may not like but, in my opinion, its really, really great.

    Hopefully you'll change your mind a little when/if you play it.
  • edited August 2009
    ....
    Where is the atmosphere?
    ....

    It's here, my dear!
    It's here, it's there, it's everywhere!
  • edited August 2009
    Don't you mean "nostalgiosis?" "-itis" means "inflammation of." "-osis" means "illness caused by." Many people say "-itis" when they mean "-osis."

    "nostalgiosis my mistake. :p
  • edited August 2009
    yeah, Your right Haggis..

    i exagerated quite a bit,
    but the mass of pirates back then realy was scum.

    i presume that a minority of them was a lot like
    what most of us expect from them.

    but these nice pirates sure had a hard time to
    deal wih all the 'normal' pirates.

    and i doubt they didn't commit horrible
    war crimes though only because they had to.
  • edited August 2009
    as muscialinspired said,

    its hard to critizise this threedee stuff in a fair manner.

    Its much more complex to develope a char in 3d than
    in 2d. As we have seen in both episodes the side characters
    only had three to four different bodies; sharing the very
    identical bodyobject, only altered slightly in their appearance.
  • edited August 2009
    The pirate captian in ep 2 brings some more piratey feeling, it's a bit negated by the happy go lucky merfolks though
  • edited August 2009
    The pirate captian in ep 2 brings some more piratey feeling, it's a bit negated by the happy go lucky merfolks though

    For some reason i thought his men did so even more, especially the tall one.
    I really don't know why but i freaking love that guy :eek:
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