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I just finished! What a game. Now I'm clicking around looking for a completed a Telltale game that I haven't played yet, knowing full well it has almost no chance of living up to LiS. I think this is the best story game I've ever played. Accordion Man posted:You get a really disjointed and contracted ending that brings zero closure. I don't see how it was disjointed. It was certainly shorter than the other ending, but there was closure. You see Max and Chloe promise to never leave each other and drive out of Arcadia Bay together. I would consider that closure. As for comparisons to the Mass Effect ending, I didn't play Mass Effect, but like every other actual adult with some connection to gaming fandom, I found the response to ME3 to be completely embarrassing. So anything that makes those people unhappy is a plus and to the ultimate good of the mankind and the universe.
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Oct 20, 2015 22:54
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goferchan posted:I haven't played any of this and I'm kinda ducking in quick to dodge spoilers but for the people who have played the game in its entirety would you recommend it, now that it's all concluded? I'm not a huge fan in general of the genre (I'm assuming it's comparable to a Telltale game) but I have really enjoyed a few games in that wheelhouse like The Walking Dead S1 and Until Dawn just because the characters/writing/stylistic choices resonated with me. Would y'all put this up with the best games in that style? Why or why not? The Walking Dead S1 got me into these types of games, so based on that I would tend to say go for it. On the other had, you say that you don't like many games in this genre. So I don't know. In general, the production values of this game are much better than the Telltale Games and the story is as good. The game really leans into its inspirations and draws heavily from Twin Peaks, David Lynch in general, Stephen King in general, and probably a bit of Catcher in the Rye. There are few bugs, but nothing to jarring. I think it's a really great game and would recommend it with zero reservations to anyone who said they actually like the genre. I will say that there are lots of characters in this game that are easy to fall in love with. The characterizations are really well done.
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Oct 20, 2015 23:38
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Vargs posted:I haven't touched the final episode yet (which seems to be getting positive reception), but Tales from the Borderlands is surprisingly fantastic. I actually just started that. It's pretty good so far, although definitely a huge change of pace from the teenage drama fest I'd just finished.
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Oct 21, 2015 04:33
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Buzkashi posted:My best friend and I are basically under the impression that the only people who are sacrificing Arcadia Bay are doing it out of irony or spite, because I think only a complete monster would honestly be like "Yes Chloe I'm totally okay with your mom dying horribly in a diner explosion so I can have you all to myself forever." You and your friend are pretty simple, huh?
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Oct 24, 2015 16:45
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Larry Parrish posted:It's not a GOTY or even the best game I've played recently, but it's definitely the best indie game. I enjoyed the story, the art, and the rewind mechanic, but to be honest it's not very meaty. However I have played 17 hours of it so far for $20 (i think i actually bought it on like 20% off too) so that's at least par the course in terms of value. Basically I don't know whats with this forum and building up games to be this insane 80 hour epic in their head and then they are enraged that it didn't live up to their impossible standards after the fact. I think it's very clearly the most important game of the year in this genre at least (which happens to be my favorite right now). Even if I didn't love the game, I would be thrilled that an entry by someone other than Telltale has made such an impact. Telltale didn't really come into their own until The Walking Dead S1, which had the good fortune of being their strongest game to date on the back of a very hot licensed IP. Dontnod did with original IP but with SQUAREENIX. If anything I'm kind of sad that this isn't an overall direction for their company. I hope this is another step towards building the genre to the point where we can get some solid titles delivering on a monthly basis. Instead I end up waiting until the whole thing is out to buy it, because I can't play these things an episode at a time.
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Oct 25, 2015 01:29
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BobTheJanitor posted:Almost all of this tends to get handwaved away as 'red herrings', although I'd argue that a red herring is something that the plot intentionally brings up and then later resolves as an innocuous side detail. Character X is acting suspicious, and it turns out they were actually planning a surprise party is a red herring (a terrible cliched one, but still). Character X is acting suspicious, and then the story ends without ever touching on it again isn't a red herring, it's just an unresolved, dropped plot thread. And this game has enough dangling plot threads to knit a blanket out of. But that's just the game being Lynchian. It's true to its influences. Perhaps you don't care for those influences, and I get that, especially when it really leaned hard into the Lynch stuff in the final episodes when the previous ones went a lot lighter, but it was always there bubbling under the surface. Plus I think that ambiguity creates intriguing ways to consider the endings. You could argue that Max should save Chloe because letting her die wouldn't change anything. There's every reason to believe that a rich and powerful family funding a "Vortex Club" that is throwing an end of the world party the very night this tornado appears is probably the root cause. Especially coupled with the creepy emails between Nathan and his father. Then there's the fact that alt-Chloe word still had all of the strange phenomena, which could imply that Max isn't the root cause. I think it's likely that letting Chloe die doesn't resolve anything.
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Oct 28, 2015 18:23
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King of Solomon posted:I actually disagree. Given how the ending goes if you sacrifice Chloe, it becomes apparent that Max's use of her powers is the source of the phenomenon. If you look at it from that perspective, then the odd phenomenon happened in the alternate world because Max saved William, not because it was going to happen regardless. You stop the storm by going back to the first change Max made using her powers and undoing it. Following that choice, because Max (presumably) didn't use her powers at all, the unusual phenomenon - including the storm - do not occur. Yes, but in the ending where you save Chloe there is no evidence that allowing her to die would have stopped the storm. I get that its natural to treat both endings as part of the same coherent universe, but I don't think it's necessary and it's certainly not as interesting. Although they certainly break the potential ambiguity by naming the choices as they did.
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Oct 28, 2015 18:45
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I think it's perfectly fine say that it's bad or lazy writing, but only in the same way that people call happy ever after romance novels bad or lazy writing. They are adhering to the tropes of their genre, and in this genre symbolism is specifically allowed to break the laws of reality and doesn't necessarily have to follow a coherent set of in-world rules. If the only purpose of the vortex is to force a specific choice on the player then it can do that. If time travel is a plot device it can exist without explanation. Basically being interesting, thematic, atmospheric, or symbolic is enough justification for anything. This sort of thing has a literary history including everything from Kurt Vonnegut to Tom Robbins and in television from things like Twin Peaks, Lost, and Carnivale, and in films like Jacob's Ladder and Lost Highway. It doesn't mean there can't be explanations but if you think those are what the works are about then you're bound to find the work disappointing.
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Oct 28, 2015 21:43
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LoseHound posted:I didn't want an explanation. I wanted purpose. I wasn't expecting the characters to turn to the camera and babble all over the place (christ mr. jefferson's dialogue). But I did want there to feel like the plot had something driving it other than teens learning life lessons. This was most of the story, and I assumed what most people expected it was by the end of episode 4. I don't think Max's last name was a coincidence by any means (although I may have if the other references weren't layered on so thick).
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Oct 29, 2015 05:32
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