Do you agree with these videos about telltale currently?
I can personally see the quality dipping over the years and none of the recent games match with TWAU, TWD or TFTB.
Hope they are aware of this and look to improve in the future, particularly for TWAU S2 and GOT S2. I think telltale could look at games from competitors like The Council and life is strange for possible ideas to improve certain mechanics of their games.
They developed this episodic story formula but its sad to see the studio declining and others surpassing them.
Sign in to comment in this discussion.
Comments
I can't say I do. Especially since the first video clearly doesn't know what it's talking about as they seem to think GOT S2 is being released this year and they referred to Batman as evidence of Telltale's drop in quality. The biggest problem in my eyes seems to be that people are unhappy about the direction the Walking Dead has gone in and foolishly think it's the only series that matters. Despite how much I love ANF I know it had a lot of issues but what really frustrates me is that people are ignoring how good some of Telltale's recent games are.
It really seems like people don't want to give any telltale games that aren't TWD a chance, both seasons of batman were good fun, though I must admit GoTG was pretty mediocre.
Eh, kinda, main problem is a lot of these people obviously dont really understand Telltale at all, like the guy saying GOT S2 is still happening. My main issue is they focus too much on the game engine rather than the story. Yes we all want a better engine, and for Telltale to add more gameplay elements, but the main issue everyone is having with Telltale is the story not being good. From ANF up to Batman S2, all the games Telltale made were just... really boring and unoriginal and overall forgettable or just disappointing. Bad stories plus lack of trying anything new lead to a real quality decrease. I do agree with Telltale was working on too many games, but I found them focusing way to much on the game engine than the real issue being the stories and choices.
It's kind of hard to say, really. As far as I'm concerned, many of their games nowadays are actually much better than their older games (including TWD S1) while others are worse. Batman S1 and S2 were fantastic and my overall favourite Telltale games, GOTG and ANF on the other hand sucked hard and Michonne was really mediocre. So I'd say that it really depends on the franchise and the internal teams working on each individual game.
The main thing in recent years has been a question of them keeping quality with more quantity, and I think TT's new CEO has recognized this and is trying to ensure that each project is more polished and they also take more innovative steps. I think the decision to make the final episode of S2 of Batman entirely different depending on your relationship with John was a great one, and I get the impression plans to do more innovative things with S4 of WD, S2 of WAU and beyond.
I will also say that TT has to manage expectations from a number of fans who like specific stuff and resent anything else being worked on, especially if it is something like Minecraft Story Mode where you have a game designed for a younger audience and say 'it's not a grown up non-casual game so I hate it', or Guardians where people take issue with something petty like graphics or 'It's not Borderlands' (despite the fact Guardians has some of the better character relationships and choice/consequence than many previous games). So there is a level of fans not liking certain stuff they work and not giving them a chance.
Can't say that I do. Aside from ANF, I think all of TellTale's games have been very good.
I very much agree with the first video, especially on the point that Telltale has been completely stagnant when it comes to innovation ever since they first released The Walking Dead: Season 1. You can put some of their most recent games next to that title and find little to no difference when it comes to the formula. Aside from shorter play times and more cut scene driven games, you can't really say Telltale has introduced anything of remarkable to spice their games up a little bit. This is actually a huge problem. "Once you've played a Telltale game, you've played them all". Of course, this is not saying that the games are absolutely equal, the narratives are different, but regarding gameplay... we've had 6 years of the same old thing and the question is, what makes it worth paying for these games over simply watching them on YouTube? Some Telltale games which have, at best, half a million copies across all platforms, get millions of views on YouTube let's plays. It's no secret that game upon game they released with this very same formula came with diminishing returns in sales figures. Costumers were being lost after each passing title, that much was clear. Telltale overfed the market with this good old formula to a point where a Telltale game releasing stopped being big news. Or really any news at all... They do need to innovate and step up their game. The latest TWD news do seem hopeful on that regard at least.
I don't know how you can argue that the Telltale Tool was not a very good engine, so I don't have much to say about that. I was fortunate enough to only experience a few corrupted saves here and there, a couple random crashes in ANF and a sometimes laggy, sometimes not Game Of Thrones. But, whether we experienced them or not, we all heard the reports of broken games which would sometimes not even open on consoles due to black screens (Not to mention a Batman game which was somewhat reliant on its action sequences struggling to keep itself above 20FPS on high end machines...). I hope the company gets itself versed on Unity as soon as they can manage!
The video didn't really go over story, it's a much less objective and therefore harder to talk about subject, I guess.
Surely one small inconsistency in one of the video's many points and a remark on how Batman Season 1 is evidence to the Telltale's Tool drop in quality does not deem all that was said on the whole 15 minute video as ignorant.
Simply put: I don't
Well you cannot argue that the engine has hurt them. I would say that the first video may be a little guilty of bad journalism as this issue was brought up by the verge and he did not mention that. Also he did not take time to give the new management a say or even a real mention as a major problem with Telltale was the old guard who micromanaged everything. I do think he was honest in his hope they turn things around, a sentiment I am sure we all have.
I for one cannot wait until they put a stake in the telltale tool's heart. They do need to push out with more exciting game play and QTE. And of course remember that their fans want stories with depth and characters that are well written and memorable.
Nope. Not at all. They obviously haven't touched anything recent and refuse to see the improvement.
Nope. Allot of these people aren't acknowledging how The Wolf Among Us, Tales from the Borderlands, Batman and Guardians of the Galaxy were quality games, adding new features, longer episodes and more brsnching choices. They don't give praise to how the latest games have improved immensely.
They kind of overexaggerated some of their points and the first video had a few significant inaccuracies. I also notice that these videos either only focus on The Walking Dead's dip in quality and very rare bugs or focus on what happens in the background, these videos rarely seem to connect the two and look at each game separately rather than judge the games based on their perspective of the company itself.
Telltale definitely deserves criticisms but praise is definitely deserved for this company, even their worst games are loved by many.
People just love to focus on the negative.
I really hope The Final Season shuts down all this negative and unknowledgeable journalism, because while Telltale did dip in quality for a while, Batman S2 proved they still have some fight left in them. The future of Telltale’s company and their image to the gaming community is riding on TFS. With all the recent and positive changes to the company, I really do believe Telltale can come out on top.