Poker Night 2 - A Badly Done Game

So I've pre-ordered this game on Steam, both hoping to get the items and just have a good time like I did with Poker Night At The Inventory. But despite the huge period of time between the original game and the sequel, Poker Night 2 was a huge disappointment. And I'll just put it out straight forward, this game is dumbed down.

This game is so badly, cheaply, sloppily done that it doesn't deserve to be called a poker game, they just took Poker Night 1 and dumbed it straight down, I'll tell you why:

1/ The Configurations

The game suddenly has less settings than it does before, the options were cut down to only some basic 3D graphical game options. The Gameplay tab now only has the line "How To Play". WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT?

In the first game, we have the options to choose difficulty, dialogue, it wasn't quite much but we can see that it's more detailed than the sequel. They could have put in many more options that allow the game itself to be friendly to everyone, all kinds of player's skills. BUT THEY DIDN'T

I feel like I was in some kind of Indie Game Demo with those options, how can it go from options to less options?!?

2/ The Little Things

Then I want to talk about the stupid things that make me angry, WE DON'T HAVE A "BACK TO THE MAIN MENU" button after a tournament. How can we not have that button?. So now that if I want to go back to the main menu, I can't, so I have to EXIT the DAMN GAME.

You maybe say that it's pointless, but we're talking about the little things that are necessary to a game, we're talking about the little conveniences that make the player feel comfortable. THEY FAILED.

And about the savings, THERE IS NO SAVING. If you're in the middle of the match and you have to go, you have no choice but to EXIT the DAMN GAME and prepare to LOSE 20k of HARD EARNED MONEY (for me and many players out there, not everyone is good at poker). Or if you're down to only 1v1 and suddenly you have to go, then all of the 100k in front of your face suddenly turns into MINUS 20k.

3/ The Gameplay

Aside from the quite fair Bounty Challenge, the gameplay was even worst than Poker Night 1. All the dialogues are boring even in the first time you hear it.

And especially GlaDOS, I mean, GlaDOS WAS FREAKING UNNECESSARY AND USELESS. Well you may say that the lines are good, I partially agree. But all GlaDOS does is WASTING TIME, her lines are long and sometimes boring. It's bad timed, it's a pain to hear them after the first time. She keeps talking and talking, delaying between turns and rounds.

More horribly, I can't turn off GlaDOS, I can't even skip her lines. You don't have any tool or option that can help your game to be faster, to be an exact poker game. I mean, this game is not a Dialogue Simulator, it's not a place where crossover dialogues are played simultaneously. This is a POKER GAME.


In Conclusion: I'm quite disappointed about the game, I used to think that it could push away the stress and give you a nice relief. Poker Night At The Inventory only did 50% of that, but Poker Night 2 only does 50% of what its precessor did.

I guess it's just something to cash in...

Comments

  • ProfanityProfanity Banned
    edited May 2013
    While you make decent points that have been made at least 50 gajillion times on this very forum, you're wrong about the saving - it autosaves, you can exit and continue on the same hand you exited on.
  • edited May 2013
    Easy there, Sparky. Don't hurt yourself with all those caps and underlines. Let's go through this point by point.

    1. The Configuration, actually still has plenty of options. Some of the manually adjustable options are gone. But also, some were added. Now you can play Texas Holdem or Omaha. Also, there are different chips, decks, and felts that you can adjust to customize the game, add in certain dialogue, change the music rotation, and even cutscenes. WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT?

    In the first game, you had to pick from normal or hard. In the sequel, the difficulty is automatic. It lightens up or hardens based on how well you're playing. And if even that is too difficult, you can buy them drinks to make them even easier with the pity chips you win just for losing. It makes the sequel several times more user friendly than the first. They could have just said 'who cares, it's a five dollar game'. BUT THEY DIDN'T.

    So actually, genius, if you read any other forum (which you didn't, this is your first post) you would realize that there are a lot more options than the first game.

    2. The Little Things, there is a main menu button, idiot.

    You hit 'escape' to go to the unlocks page, the bounty page, the stats page, the options page, and oh, the main menu.

    You could have figured that out simply by, I don't know, looking for it? but YOU FAILED.

    Also, the game does save. It automatically saves after every single hand. So if you exist in the middle of a big tournament, next time you join you'll pick off exactly where you left off. Winslow's been keeping your seat warm while you've been away. So that 20k of HARD EARNED MONEY is still there.

    3, You, I can't really defend the dialogue, because it's your opinion instead of fact. And although I personally love GLaDOS in this game, I don't really love you.

    Seeing as how many of these threads we have and how many facts are incorrect, THIS THREAD WAS FREAKING UNNECESSARY AND USELESS. Well you may say you have a right to say what you want, you should have done research by reading the other forums instead of starting your own and WASTING TIME. You kept talking and talking, nothing having an accurate point.

    But you should know that even if you could turn GLaDOS off, it wouldn't make the game faster. And you're wrong. This game is about the dialogue. The selling point is the dialogue. They advertize the dialogue. People bought the game for dialogue. And hats. If you want a hardcore poker game, find one for free online. Poker Night 2 is a DIALOGUE GAME.

    In Conclusion: Your mother would be disappointed in you. Incorrectly whining about a five-dollar video game online? Why weren't you using your brain?

    I guess it's just something to cash in...
  • edited May 2013
    Ryu-Chan wrote: »
    Easy there, Sparky. Don't hurt yourself with all those caps and underlines. Let's go through this point by point.

    1. The Configuration, actually still has plenty of options. Some of the manually adjustable options are gone. But also, some were added. Now you can play Texas Holdem or Omaha. Also, there are different chips, decks, and felts that you can adjust to customize the game, add in certain dialogue, change the music rotation, and even cutscenes. WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT?

    In the first game, you had to pick from normal or hard. In the sequel, the difficulty is automatic. It lightens up or hardens based on how well you're playing. And if even that is too difficult, you can buy them drinks to make them even easier with the pity chips you win just for losing. It makes the sequel several times more user friendly than the first. They could have just said 'who cares, it's a five dollar game'. BUT THEY DIDN'T.

    So actually, genius, if you read any other forum (which you didn't, this is your first post) you would realize that there are a lot more options than the first game.

    2. The Little Things, there is a main menu button, idiot.

    You hit 'escape' to go to the unlocks page, the bounty page, the stats page, the options page, and oh, the main menu.

    You could have figured that out simply by, I don't know, looking for it? but YOU FAILED.

    Also, the game does save. It automatically saves after every single hand. So if you exist in the middle of a big tournament, next time you join you'll pick off exactly where you left off. Winslow's been keeping your seat warm while you've been away. So that 20k of HARD EARNED MONEY is still there.

    3, You, I can't really defend the dialogue, because it's your opinion instead of fact. And although I personally love GLaDOS in this game, I don't really love you.

    Seeing as how many of these threads we have and how many facts are incorrect, THIS THREAD WAS FREAKING UNNECESSARY AND USELESS. Well you may say you have a right to say what you want, you should have done research by reading the other forums instead of starting your own and WASTING TIME. You kept talking and talking, nothing having an accurate point.

    But you should know that even if you could turn GLaDOS off, it wouldn't make the game faster. And you're wrong. This game is about the dialogue. The selling point is the dialogue. They advertize the dialogue. People bought the game for dialogue. And hats. If you want a hardcore poker game, find one for free online. Poker Night 2 is a DIALOGUE GAME.

    In Conclusion: Your mother would be disappointed in you. Incorrectly whining about a five-dollar video game online? Why weren't you using your brain?

    I guess it's just something to cash in...


    took the words right outta my mouth.
  • edited May 2013
    Firstly, I meant button that makes you go back to the screen with the Ape sitting and reading the paper, THAT MAIN MENU.

    Secondly, as I play through, I see no difference, I see no change in the game, I can just easily lose 200k and then lose another 20k then win 100k then LOSE AGAIN. No difference at all.

    Thirdly, there is no saving, I've just quitted out and restart my game and BOOM, another -20k. I can't find a "Continue Tournament" anywhere.

    And damn it, if this game was a dialogue game, it still sucked worst than Poker Night 1.

    PS: The game is still lack of options, the drink-buying mechanics almost doesn't matter, the difficulties aren't even distinguishable, and I can't even lower or raise the blinds
  • edited May 2013
    The blinds are raised automatically, as you progress further through the tournament.

    Frankly, i thought Poker Night 2 had better dialogue. In Poker Night 1, you rarely seen the characters do anything on the table besides just sit and talk (Plus Max and Strong Bad were trying way too hard to be funny in my opinion), while here, there are quite a few surprises and special stuff that definitely got me laughing.

    Did you quit the game normally? As in, found an "Exit Game" option in it, or did you just alt + f4?

    Also, i think the difficulty doesn't lower or raise when you lose or win money, it lowers and raises when you lose or win a tournament. Unless that's what you meant?
  • edited May 2013
    The blinds are raised automatically, as you progress further through the tournament.

    Frankly, i thought Poker Night 2 had better dialogue. In Poker Night 1, you rarely seen the characters do anything on the table besides just sit and talk (Plus Max and Strong Bad were trying way too hard to be funny in my opinion), while here, there are quite a few surprises and special stuff that definitely got me laughing.

    Did you quit the game normally? As in, found an "Exit Game" option in it, or did you just alt + f4?

    Also, i think the difficulty doesn't lower or raise when you lose or win money, it lowers and raises when you lose or win a tournament. Unless that's what you meant?

    I can't config the starting blinds, I can't save my game in ANY way, the difficulty isn't making any change
  • edited May 2013
    That's because you can't. The starting blinds are always the same, and they raise as the game progresses.

    As for your save problems, that might just be something with you, not the game, you're the first guy over here to report save problems.

    And what's the problem with the difficulty anyway? You said you won at least once, right? ("I can just easily lose 200k and then lose another 20k then win 100k then LOSE AGAIN.") There is a difference. You won at least once.
  • edited May 2013
    The_Markie wrote: »
    Thirdly, there is no saving, I've just quitted out and restart my game and BOOM, another -20k. I can't find a "Continue Tournament" anywhere.

    Impossible. The game constantly auto-saves, hence the reason why the PS3 version plays so horribly.

    The "continue tournament" option is there at the top of the main menu. You would have to be as blind as Ray Charles to have missed that one.
  • edited May 2013
    The_Markie wrote: »
    Firstly, I meant button that makes you go back to the screen with the Ape sitting and reading the paper, THAT MAIN MENU.

    That same main menu is in the Escape Options menu, only without Skun-Ka'pe. Other than the view in the background everything is the same in that. EVERYTHING. Seriously. Just press the escape key and keep hitting left or right and you will see a menu headed with the words "Main Menu".
    The_Markie wrote: »
    Thirdly, there is no saving, I've just quitted out and restart my game and BOOM, another -20k. I can't find a "Continue Tournament" anywhere.

    Which way are you quitting out? Alt-F4 or Exit Game in the Escape Menu's Main Menu screen? Because I can exit out of the game using the latter option and the next time I start up it will say "Continue Tournament".
    The_Markie wrote: »
    the difficulties aren't even distinguishable, and I can't even lower or raise the blinds

    There aren't multiple levels of difficulties in PN2 to "distinguish" and you don't have any control over the blinds. Only Winslow (in PN1) and GLaDOS (in PN2) have control over the blinds and they only raise them every 5 hands.

    Unless you mean the blinds on your house/apartment/whatever domicile you live in. Then neither us, Telltale, or the game can give you any help in that area.

    edit: Poker Night 1 did not have any option to lower the starting blinds. I think you were thinking of another poker game if you are trying to say PN2 dropped that option.
  • edited May 2013
    Ryu-Chan wrote: »
    Poker Night 2 is a DIALOGUE GAME.
    IMO, "dialogue game" should be an oxymoron. Games are about what you do. Interactivity is what distinguishes games from other media -- the only thing. What do you do in this game? You play poker. Therefore, the poker should be the #1 priority. Anything else is a nice extra at best.

    This can be borne out simply by playing the game a while. Soon enough you exhaust all the dialogue and you've already heard almost everything, but the gameplay is still there. The gameplay is the thing that lasts.
    Dedlok wrote: »
    edit: Poker Night 1 did not have any option to lower the starting blinds. I think you were thinking of another poker game if you are trying to say PN2 dropped that option.
    This is true. I'm not sure why this would be such a desirable option either, considering everyone starts with $10,000, meaning the range of sensible starting blinds is rather limited. I think controlling the rate of the blind increases would be much more interesting than controlling what blinds you start at.
  • edited May 2013
    The_Markie wrote: »
    I mean, this game is not a Dialogue Simulator, it's not a place where crossover dialogues are played simultaneously. This is a POKER GAME.

    Stop.
  • edited May 2013
    Hammer time?
  • edited May 2013
    I very rarely see threads like this!
  • edited May 2013
    I'm going to step in here and ask people to try not to be so insulting with your responses. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and everyone was a newbie at some point, so being so condescending to others just finding their way is NOT COOL.

    Yes, there have been threads like this before. That doesn't stop them from being valid. Drop the attitudes, please.

    Let's go through the various points made throughout the thread and see if we can't respond to them properly.

    1) Configurations

    Yes, the manual options have been cut back, but that's because the game now automatically adjusts the difficulty depending on how well (or badly) you've been playing.

    The lack of a dialogue frequency option... that I can't defend.

    2) The Little Things

    The 'back to the main menu' button is Escape, same as it usually is in games. I haven't played the game in a while so I can't remember if there's an actual option on the HUD, but as always - if in doubt, hit Esc.

    Both Poker Night games use an autosave feature as opposed to a manual one. If you quit, then you should get an option to 'Continue Tournament' on the main menu when you reload the game. In PN1 you had to hit Play Game first, then the option to start a new game or continue the old one would appear. Have you tried that?

    3) The Gameplay

    Whether you think the dialogue is boring or not is entirely subjective. I personally thought it was a mixed bag, but overall enjoyed it. you may think differently - I won't say you're right or wrong to do so.

    I very much enjoyed GLaDoS, as I always do, but I must agree that the fact you can't skip her lines is insane and I can offer no defence for it. It's a terrible decision on Telltale's part and an option they desperately need to patch in considering how the dialogue can loop.

    And I must respectively disagree when you say this is a POKER game. There are plenty of other poker games out there if that's all you want. The main draw of these games is to see the interactions of four (well, five now) characters who would normally never meet outside of fan-fiction, all tied together by the basic plot point of them playing poker.

    4) The Drink-Buying Mechanic

    The whole purpose of buying drinks for other players is that it makes their tells easier to read. It's an entirely optional aspect of the game and if you don't need it, then you're free not to use it. Some people, however, aren't as observant as others, and this tactic is useful to them.

    5) The Blinds

    As with the first game, the blinds start low are raised automatically by the dealer as the game continues. It's to prevent the game from dragging on and helps to speed things up the longer the game goes on.

    6) There is NO Point 6.

    7) NO POOFTERS.
  • edited May 2013

    Imagine playing poker with Bruce.
  • edited May 2013
    Seriously guys, I can't save any game, in ANY way.

    And finally, Darth Marsden, someone with a neutral opinion. What I'm trying to say is that PN2 doesn't have that "thing" that can keep the players from playing it over and over again, even when you've achieved everything. I really enjoy the custom decks, the atmosphere when you put on a full set of cards and decks and felts. But PN2 should have more, they should have more gameplay option than just 3 words "HOW TO PLAY".
  • edited May 2013
    RE: Your problems with saving. What version of the game are you playing? PC, PS3, Xbox360?
  • edited May 2013
    I'm more concerned about the game's blatant cheating.
  • edited May 2013
    Andreus wrote: »
    I'm more concerned about the game's blatant cheating.
    Keep it in the relevant thread, please.
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