Well it's out now... any comments?? (SPOILERS)

edited August 2009 in Wallace & Gromit
Noticed a lack of any feedback on Bogeyman since its release. Pity Tales seems to be getting all the attention...

I quite enjoyed it, though not as much as Muzzled. It definitely felt like the longest of the series. The puzzles were rather clever, and I spent a while scratching my head over some of the riddles. I also liked how the gameplay was well split up over all the different locations (as opposed to most of the plot taking place at the carnival in Muzzled). There was a nice amount of character switching between Wallace and Gromit, more than any of the other episodes. It was also fun to see a (albeit brief) return of Monty.

The biggest problems I felt with the episode was the lack of a central villain (there wasn’t really any to speak of), and there wasn’t as much humour as some of the other episodes. Some of the graphic glitches, such as the ‘cracks’ in some characters’ faces rather distracting, but not enough to take me out of the experience.

Overall I found Bogeyman, as with the whole series a pleasure to play. Not quite a masterpiece, but a charming experience indeed.

Comments

  • edited July 2009
    I haven't played it yet. Curse these 2am-UK-time launches! I hope they're not going to be a regular thing :(

    Anyway, I'll come back in here with feedback as soon as I get back from work and get my grubby mitts on it.
  • edited July 2009
    Yes, one comment...DOWNLOADING! :D hopefully it will be a good finale.
  • edited July 2009
    This was my first go at one of TT's Wallace and Gromit games, I'm not too far in yet, but I'm enjoying it so far.

    Have to agree about the cracks in character's faces, and the odd time Wallace's tongue was showing through the back of his head.
    Another problem was, after the cutscene, there wasn't really much to suggest anything had happened after I
    let the squirrel loose in the shop
    . I was thinking there was a showstopping glitch until I solved the next part of the puzzle
    with Wallace's picture from the paper
    .
    But the way the shopkeeper carried on talking about the policeman being a great bloke who he would be glad to give the membership to, I didn't think my actions had really changed anything yet.

    Otherwise, what I've seen's pretty good.
  • edited July 2009
    I love this series, Telltale has captured the spirit and feel of W&G perfectly. I really hope this isn't the last we see of them.
  • edited July 2009
    i definitely liked it. some of the puzzles were really interesting and i didn't mind the absence of a villain.
    the graphical errors were a bit nasty this time. the cracked faces, then i noticed something that looked like wallace had two faces and in a few scenes items seemed to be invisible or the camera seemed to be misplaced. i didn't notice anything like this in the previous episodes. like it has already been said, this doesn't disturb the actual game, but it would be nice if there would be a fixed version someday...like on the dvd.

    if was a great game afterall. at first i wasn't so fond of telltale doing wallace&gromit, but it turned out pretty good.
  • edited July 2009
    I think each episode has been better than the last, which is always a good thing.
  • edited July 2009
    I think I'm half way through. So far it was nice to play. I especially liked the golf club puzzles. But indeed the glitches were distracting but didn't hurt the gameplay. Animations seem to pass through things they shouldn't like the hands go through noses, the squirle goes through the tree, the trashcan camera angle seems weird, eye lids seemed to have a hole when they blink, tearing polygons etc.
    But the depth and the amount of character animation and expressions is absolutely great. Long dialogues, witty puzzles etc, well done again TT! If you look at a walkthrough at youtube of MI 4 you'll appreciate how much more and better animation is done in W&G and ToMI.

    The main villain of muzzled was a huge find, I would like to see that character back in another episode. This episode doesn't have such a great character but it does have a lot of other good stuff in there so I don't really miss it.
  • edited July 2009
    Badwolf wrote: »
    Another problem was, after the cutscene, there wasn't really much to suggest anything had happened after I
    let the squirrel loose in the shop
    . I was thinking there was a showstopping glitch until I solved the next part of the puzzle
    with Wallace's picture from the paper
    .

    I didn't find that a problem at all because the hint system seemed to be working - Mrs Gabberly casually mentioned something about wanting to
    clip the picture out of her newspaper
    and it gave me the idea to to it myself. Also I knew that there were two parts of that first act -
    1. was to turn Paneer against Dibbins; 2. was to get Paneer to see Wallace as a sportsman.
    so I think that the script writing for that part and the hint system were working OK. It didn't leave me wondering what to do at all. I always had a clear goal.
  • edited July 2009
    i would say that this was a good conclusion to this season and hope that they make another one.
  • edited July 2009
    Badwolf wrote: »
    Another problem was, after the cutscene, there wasn't really much to suggest anything had happened after I
    let the squirrel loose in the shop
    . I was thinking there was a showstopping glitch until I solved the next part of the puzzle
    with Wallace's picture from the paper
    .
    But the way the shopkeeper carried on talking about the policeman being a great bloke who he would be glad to give the membership to, I didn't think my actions had really changed anything yet.

    I also didn't have any trouble with that part, the only part I got stuck on was
    figuring out that I needed to get Miss Flitt to leave via hearing Paneer talk about Wallace over the radio, rather than trying to get the spray from her.
  • edited July 2009
    I didn't find that a problem at all because the hint system seemed to be working

    I had the hint system turned completely off.
  • edited July 2009
    Pale Man wrote: »
    I also didn't have any trouble with that part, the only part I got stuck on was
    figuring out that I needed to get Miss Flitt to leave via hearing Paneer talk about Wallace over the radio, rather than trying to get the spray from her.

    It took me a while to piece together what I needed to do for that too. I was going to each of the characters and Mrs Gabberly and Major Crum were complaining that
    Paneer was only covering Duncan on the radio
    . Also when I was in the dining room with Ms Flitt and Miss Flitt she would always
    comment on wanting to turn the radio on
    . At that time I had Wallace already
    positioned down in the sewer
    and when I realized that I could use the
    sign with "How is Wallace doing?" on any character, it all fell into place.
    I loved that scene!
  • edited July 2009
    I don't want to come down on the game too hard, but it is certainly the episode with the most mixed feelings from having played it. The season over all has increased in quality by episode, and 4th with it in ways of variety and puzzles.

    Now, I have to say it felt too rushed. A bunch of characters having cracks in their faces (looked like unmerged vertices or something :P), and few spread out annoyances. After the sand puzzle it was all together unfun frustration and the end of the episode - and therefore season - left me annoyed and unpleased.
    I can kind of understand circumstances being as they were in the steam puzzle room with the rolling floor, but the new rules to the game caught me by surprise and rather felt punished for not grasping them in that instant, and realizing there was a spot for me to land on with some patience. All this with an endless stream of help-loops in my ears, which got too much so I had to turn off the sound completely to be able to finish the game. And the reward was a drawn out scene of all people lifelessly walking out of a suddenly empty room (and the way they all got into it was quite on the same level, I'm afraid.
    A lot things done right in the episode as I said, but also polish and sounds done poorly. I had hoped for a season finale on a higher note. Even further I hope this rush to get out episodes (in time?) is not a trend that will affect the other awesome series that the awesome Telltale have in motion! :D
  • edited July 2009
    They need to work on the glitches and facial cracks. Otherwise it was a decent finale. Longer than muzzled. Personally I feel muzzled was way to short for a 4 episode season at full price.

    I hope they improve things for whatever they do after Tales otherwise I probably wont buy whatever comes after that.
  • edited July 2009
    It is an extremely beautiful game, easily the most extravagant among the four. However, the sound needs more work -- the speech volume is not normalised. And this is the first time I notice facial cracks on characters.

    I'll comment on the plot and puzzles once I finish it.
  • edited July 2009
    I did notice the sound volume wavering a bit too... Particularly with major crumb.
  • edited July 2009
    Avast! wrote: »
    I did notice the sound volume wavering a bit too... Particularly with major crumb.

    I noticed that only during the part when they were all talking at once.
  • edited July 2009
    I say, I say, I say! Great finale. Outside of the glitches, I have very little complaint. Only thing I didn't like was that the house was almost entirely off-limits. All the contraptions laying around the rooms from episodes past could have made for great golf-related puzzles.
  • edited July 2009
    I did not enjoy "The Bogey Man" too much.

    1) Riddles
    • The way to get to the golden key was really annoying. To find out which combination of club / tee-off line had which effect, you had to go through the same cut-scene several times.
    • The sandbox puzzle was just boring. I skipped most of the dialog there to get that finished as soon as possible.
    • The "big finale" was too turbulent. Everything in motion and Gromit getting kicked several times by the panels while the player loses control. Then grabbing items while trying to stay on the carpet... - If this is the "cinematic look" Telltale advertises and gives as a reason for the WASD controls, then please, please don't do this any further. - If I had wanted to play an "action adventure", I would have bought another game!

    2) Storytelling / Logical Errors
    • First of all the whole story is a bit far-fetched, isn't it? - Wallace joining a golf club to escape marriage, while almost all the other characters from previous games happen to be members of that club, that happen to look for exactly one new member? - And one coincidence follows the next, like where Wallace shoots the ball for the 17th and 18th hole or how all characters get caught in the same room.
    • Many important clues are given by written notes, like how to find the keys or where to find the 18th hole. This makes the riddles more difficult for people who do not speak English very well.
    • Nobody knows how all the sand got out of the room in the sandbox riddle.
    • I still do not know why McBiscuit sometimes noticed Wallace's "switcheroo" and sometimes not.
    • Bye the way, you see McBiscuit putting his club in the left corner by the fire-place during the "indoor tournament", but in the next scene when Wallace is in control again, it magically appears in the right corner. And if you try to exchange it with the driver after it got the gloves glued to it, the gloves will be gone in the following cut-scene.
    • Some tools from the living room always re-appeared there again after switching from Wallace to Gromit or vice versa.
    • There were several "red herrings" in the game. Or have I already forgotten what the
      wrench
      and the
      cue
      are needed for, for example?
    3) Technical issues
    • "Cracks" in the main characters.
    • Characters "passing through walls", like when you look at the squirrel on the tree.
    • I think somebody else mentioned already that Wallace plays at the snooker table empty-handed before you have "modified" your tools to solve this riddle.
    • Volume of the spoken language not adjusted in some cases.
    • Rough cut scenes without smooth transitions.
    My personal Gromit & Wallace season summary:

    I really like the characters and voice talents, most of the story, the artwork (graphics, sound music, etc.), but...
    • the season was 4 episodes only for the same price than all other games which contain 5 or even 6 episodes, though the episodes were not longer.
    • I still do not like that "WASD control scheme" at all!
    • It might be Telltale's ultimate goal to publish one episode per months, but they are obviously not ready for it yet. - W&G was their buggiest game by far and most problems with the previous episodes have still not been fixed yet.
    • With all the hype about "Monkey Island", W&G got extremely neglected! - There is still no walkthrough for "Muzzled!" (though it should have been out in June already) and nobody put a "sticky" thread for "The Bogey Man" here in the forum; just to mention two examples which make this very obvious (apart from all the bugs in the game itself).
    Personally I intend to play some European "point & click" adventures next, like "Ceville" or "Secret Files 2". - Maybe I will buy ToMI later, if they offer it for a 50% discount, like they do for W&G already. - And whatever Telltale brings out next, I will certainly not pre-order the game, but wait for a demo first.
  • edited July 2009
    I didn't see any graphics issues.

    I did notice a logical issue, however.
    While Paneer was commenting on Wallace during the tournament, I heard him advertise his store - even though it had been shut down.
  • edited July 2009
    The way to get to the golden key was really annoying. To find out which combination of club / tee-off line had which effect, you had to go through the same cut-scene several times.

    Blue went right, and Red was left. Didn't take me too long to figure out.
    First of all the whole story is a bit far-fetched, isn't it?

    A lot of games or shows that want a big story but a small cast work like this. (The Simpsons or the Phoenix Wright series would be other examples.) Generally I don't mind putting up with all the coincidences, if it means the stories can be a little more epic.
    The only thing that bothered me was Goodman Willace being placed so far in the past compared to the level of technology he had. Goodman Willace could have lived in the early 20th century and the story with the deed would have still worked.
    Technical issues
    W&G was their buggiest game by far
    Personally I intend to play some European "point & click" adventures next, like "Ceville"

    Given what you didn't like about Wallace & Gromit, I really don't think you're going to like Ceville at all. Cracks in the characters are an annoyance, but at least Wallace & Gromit doesn't crash every 10 minutes or have hotspots for items half the room away from where they actually are.
  • edited August 2009
    Chris1 wrote: »
    Blue went right, and Red was left. Didn't take me too long to figure out.

    Plus the clubs are called "hook" and "slice", golfing terms for veering left and right. The closer you are to the tee the less they'll get to cirve.
  • edited August 2009
    I enjoyed it. For those that have beaten the game, what I'd like to know is
    why did Wallace go behind the corner before leaving the club at the end?
    :confused: I had to watch it again because I thought I might have missed
    him switch his sweater but that wasn't it.
  • edited August 2009
    The way to get to the golden key was really annoying. To find out which combination of club / tee-off line had which effect, you had to go through the same cut-scene several times.
    Rubarack wrote: »
    Plus the clubs are called "hook" and "slice", golfing terms for veering left and right. The closer you are to the tee the less they'll get to cirve.
    Whether a ball is hooked or sliced also depends on the handedness of the player. So, not only do you have to know the terms, but you also need to know that Wallace will swing right-handed if you want to know which club will send the ball in which direction before you pick up a club.
    Having said that, a 50/50 trial and error is not really a big deal. (It's straight logic that
    when you are closer to the target, the ball won't go as wide as a shot from further from the target
    .)
    Nobody knows how
    all the sand got out of the room in the sandbox riddle.

    I assume there is
    a drain in the room, like the drain that the unused tea cups fall down, that is being held closed by the steam power.
    This is just over-thinking it anyway and really doesn't require an explanation.
    There were several "red herrings" in the game. Or have I already forgotten what the
    wrench
    and the
    cue
    are needed for, for example?

    There is nothing wrong with red herrings. Some people believe they add to a game, others believe they detract. I guess it's just a matter of opinion.

    You could actually use the two items you listed, but nothing was gained by using them.
  • aHartzellaHartzell Telltale Alumni
    edited August 2009
    tobar wrote: »
    I enjoyed it. For those that have beaten the game, what I'd like to know is
    why did Wallace go behind the corner before leaving the club at the end?
    :confused: I had to watch it again because I thought I might have missed
    him switch his sweater but that wasn't it.

    Wallace
    went back into the closet to tear up the deed. You can hear him tearing it,
    but it's easy to miss.
  • aHartzellaHartzell Telltale Alumni
    edited August 2009
    I didn't see any graphics issues.

    I did notice a logical issue, however.
    While Paneer was commenting on Wallace during the tournament, I heard him advertise his store - even though it had been shut down.

    Ah! But if you had hung around and listened to Paneer, you would have heard
    that the advertisement turned into a rant against Dibbins and the fact that the store had been closed down.
  • edited August 2009
    1) Riddles
    • The way to get to the golden key was really annoying. To find out which combination of club / tee-off line had which effect, you had to go through the same cut-scene several times.
    God yes. That was so annoying...
    You use the incorrect club, and he notices. You use the correct club, and he dosn't? Why?
    Seriously, I tried everything I could think of and when I finaly found the logical solution - To switch his yellow club with the one Wallace has after painting it yellow with peanute butter - I was very disapointed to find out what they actualy wanted us to do wastrial and error (using the booklet as hints of course).
    Seriously, that's a cheap puzzle.
    2) Storytelling / Logical Errors
    • First of all the whole story is a bit far-fetched, isn't it? - Wallace joining a golf club to escape marriage, while almost all the other characters from previous games happen to be members of that club, that happen to look for exactly one new member? - And one coincidence follows the next, like where Wallace shoots the ball for the 17th and 18th hole or how all characters get caught in the same room.
    • Many important clues are given by written notes, like how to find the keys or where to find the 18th hole. This makes the riddles more difficult for people who do not speak English very well.
    First point, its a classic Woodhouse-esque plot. Big plunder caused by protagonist that draws in all characters by stepping on all the wrong toes and fixed by the butler (or dog in this case). I rather liked it.
    Second point, these notes were really annnnnnnnoying. I mean, I'm not British or American and even thought I love the superb voice acting in this series I need both subtitles and the actor's voices to understand that hellish british dialect of thiers. The main difficulty in that puzzle was just understanding what the hell the text meant >.<;

    Lots of technical issues, lots of bugs, the loop audio of eight people in a panic with grinding sfx from the machinery.... Gah.
    It felt unpolished and unproffesional. Same script with another week of debugging would have been a much more enjoyable experiance.
  • edited August 2009
    Ophenix wrote: »
    God yes. That was so annoying...
    You use the incorrect club, and he notices. You use the correct club, and he dosn't? Why?
    Seriously, I tried everything I could think of and when I finaly found the logical solution - To switch his yellow club with the one Wallace has after painting it yellow with peanute butter - I was very disapointed to find out what they actualy wanted us to do wastrial and error (using the booklet as hints of course).
    Seriously, that's a cheap puzzle.

    ...all you have to do is
    swap his club with the hooking and slicing clubs at the right times so that you hit the paintings in the order of the booklet, no peanut butter involved.
    You only need the driver with
    peanut butter to get the Ganges grip from Dibbins, it has nothing to do with the Duncan puzzle.
  • edited August 2009
    Pale Man wrote: »
    ...all you have to do is
    swap his club with the hooking and slicing clubs at the right times so that you hit the paintings in the order of the booklet, no peanut butter involved.
    You only need the driver with
    peanut butter to get the Ganges grip from Dibbins, it has nothing to do with the Duncan puzzle.
    I know, I finished the game.
    But why does Duncan notice the wrong club and not the right one?
    Cos the puzzle wasn't thought through. The hints helped but this episode had too many puzzles that made no sense in the context of the game.
  • edited August 2009
    Ophenix wrote: »
    I know, I finished the game.
    But why does Duncan notice the wrong club and not the right one?
    Cos the puzzle wasn't thought through. The hints helped but this episode had too many puzzles that made no sense in the context of the game.

    He notices the driver because it's a totally different type of club, and he notices it so that you know that that's not the club you need him to use at any point. I solved all the puzzles in the game and found them to actually be pretty simple and obvious overall.
  • edited August 2009
    I really enjoyed this episode. Definitely my favorite (with The Last Resort being a close second.)

    I was disappointed with the credits, though. In both Sam & Max seasons they do something during the credits, but nothing happened at all in here. :(
  • edited August 2009
    Yeah, at least have something after the credits like in Ep2.
    Ophenix, I was scratching my head over the same thing.
    Few things:
    The story was great and for the most part, the puzzles made sense and tied in nicely. I liked the new room, they sure did make the most out of it. However, it was still just one room. I was expecting perhaps just one more scene, maybe out on the green like the launch screen implies. I gotta admit, TT are great at recycling rooms :D
    The most annoying thing in the game was the screaming during the final puzzle. I had to turn the volume right down it became that annoying.
    I also had those graphical issues where the models had cracks or seams in them. Also, sometimes the camera wasn't focussed on the person who was talking, it would point at some random thing in the background.
    All in all, well done TT for knowing how to make a W&G series good on the computer.
  • edited August 2009
    That was so annoying...
    You use the incorrect club, and he notices. You use the correct club, and he dosn't? Why?
    Seriously, I tried everything I could think of and when I finaly found the logical solution - To switch his yellow club with the one Wallace has after painting it yellow with peanute butter - I was very disapointed to find out what they actualy wanted us to do wastrial and error (using the booklet as hints of course).
    Seriously, that's a cheap puzzle.
    I first thought of that, and of somehow making a club out of the Snooker cue.
  • edited August 2009
    I only had some minor glitches with a few objects but not with the characters. There were some sound issues like that the same person was speaking and laughing at the same time or that the volume of certain people strangely got decreased for some comments. The german translation had some minor issues.

    I found it to be the weakest of all the W&G episodes so far. My ranking would be The Last Resort, Muzzled, Fright of the Bumblebees and then The Bogey Man. I found the story not interesting, some of the situations and puzzles kind of strange, it just didn't feel interesting, round and well designed, dunno this wasn't my cup of tea.

    I did enjoy the sand riddle. How much more fun would it have been if they would have done a trip to the pyramides instead and experience some adventures on the trip and there.
  • edited August 2009
    Pale Man wrote: »
    He notices the driver because it's a totally different type of club, and he notices it so that you know that that's not the club you need him to use at any point. I solved all the puzzles in the game and found them to actually be pretty simple and obvious overall.

    I also had no problems with the golf club puzzle. In fact I solved it in one go - not with multiple trial and error like the other guys above. There was no trial and error.
    I simply folllowed the pictures from Ms Flitt's leaflet like the Gold clue tells you to. I had already tested which club was left and right at the beginning when first arriving at the club and before I found the rest of the clues. Once you know that, you can steer the ball to any panel you want (or get Duncan to do it for you! - I was quite happy when I realised instantaneously I could manipulate him by switching the club I wanted for the next panel).

    It all just flowed logically and I felt quite satisfied at the end when the key popped out. Actually, I also felt that with the other keys too.
  • edited August 2009
    I also had no problems with the golf club puzzle. In fact I solved it in one go - not with multiple trial and error like the other guys above. There was no trial and error.
    I simply folllowed the pictures from Ms Flitt's leaflet like the Gold clue tells you to. I had already tested which club was left and right at the beginning when first arriving at the club and before I found the rest of the clues. Once you know that, you can steer the ball to any panel you want (or get Duncan to do it for you! - I was quite happy when I realised instantaneously I could manipulate him by switching the club I wanted for the next panel).

    It all just flowed logically and I felt quite satisfied at the end when the key popped out. Actually, I also felt that with the other keys too.

    Yeah, I thought the clues were laid down pretty well for that whole section.
  • edited August 2009
    Just finished the episode, and for sure it is my favorite in the series.

    The story as a whole is well written, with a host of surprising developments that I did not see coming. However, I wished it did not end with a cop-out in which
    Duncan simply gives up golf in order to grab the girl. Given that the whole Prickety Thicket business is an age-old feud between the Flitts and the McBiscuits, I'd rather see a throughout reconciliation between the families, with Prudence Flitt's anti-golf bigotry neutralised.

    The puzzles are simply the best-designed in the series, perhaps even the best in any games by Telltale. They are very deep, requiring multiple steps for their solution, and there are just the right number of red-herrings along the way. People coming from the "Golden Age of Adventure Games" will find them stimulating challenges. However, young fans of W&G, many of whom haven't been baptized by Sierra or LucasArt games, will likely find them too difficult.

    The yellings during the "Boss Puzzle" is annoying, especially as the puzzle takes some time to work out.
  • edited August 2009
    yes, first time I notice facial cracks on characters.
Sign in to comment in this discussion.