Has anyone played this yet? Killer trailer has me curious.

I went to Humble Bundle today to check out what the weekly sales were, and this game happened to be in the list. I watched the trailer, and I have to say... I'm fucking intrigued as hell about this game.

I was curious if anyone else had already played it, or maybe if @brad and all of his story-loving madness would take a crack at it on a Quick Look at all. I want to know if it's worth those the full price (or even the $2.00 discount) at. Tale of Tales has never necessarily been a developer that I've found games I liked from. This just seems...interesting.

Also, that trailer is seriously excellent.

It's probably a cool mood experience thing, if I had to guess based on literally every other game Tale of Tales has put out. I'm guessing the split will be about 95% themes and story and stuff, 5% any interactivity to actually involve the player in any way.

It seems like the type of game where, week of release (or week directly after), Patrick's Worth Reading column will include a link to an article discussing said game written by Leigh Alexander, or somebody at Grantland or something.

There was some discussion when Alex posted the trailer about a week or two ago, and I'll repeat my statement from that thread:

"I've played a bunch of Tale of Tales' games and while I have always found them interesting from an artistic standpoint, I have yet to find one I thought was fun to play or contained much depth.

Still, I might check this one out at some point, since it has some interesting subject matter."

I know that Tale of Tales' games are different but I have yet to have much fun with one, and as a result I never plan on spending full-price on buying one. Right now the reviews on Steam are "Mixed", and I am not surprised.

I can say that I haven't necessarily had FUN with a Tale of Tales game, but I also don't go into those games to have FUN. I go into them for a unique narrative experience, and this definitely seems like that might be exactly what I'd be getting here.

But regardless, it is still a Tale of Tales game, so I'll probably wait until it's on sale again. Maybe I'll go check out some reviews.

@jakob187 said:

Sounds like you just answered your own question!

I don't really go to these games for "fun" either, but I have found a couple to be not "less than fun", but actually "boring"... but your mileage may vary.

Very prudent - I'll be doing the same thing. It's most likely worth checking out once it hits a [insert your tolerance here] discount.

This the sequel to velvet sundown?

@bisonhero: seems kinda cynical dude

@sagesebas said:

I stand by the 95/5 mood/gameplay split, and that it's very much going to be an art game that will result in a select few writers expounding its merits, while most gaming sites will barely cover it and I'd be surprised if it generates much forum chatter. I'm hardly the only one to point this out.

It's not cynicism, it's just being realistic about what appears to be an art-house take on a genre that is already very loosely related to actual gaming. For industry folk like the above mentioned Patrick or Alexander, people who get exposed to a very wide gamut of gaming as part of their everyday job, this sort of stuff is an interesting break from the norm that they happily explore despite any and all shortcomings. For the typical person that buys a game every once in a while after reading reviews and doing some research this will be an oddity that they'll either skip entirely or wait for a serious discount. This is why the press rave about games like Gone Home, because in that line of work it's easy to lose perception of value in favor of originality.

Looks pretty awesome. I'm kinda skeptical about the very melodramatic dialogue, especially near the end with "where I can pretend... none of this is happening." Seems a little cheesy and Soap opera-ish.

@bisonhero: @sagesebas: I look at Tale of Tales games the same way I look at experimental theatre/film: interesting, and sometimes downright striking; but not something I'd be able to digest in large doses, would want to experience all the time, nor spend much money to experience. (And, this is hardly a minority opinion - there's a reason the market gets a half-dozen FPS's and a half-dozen climb-this-tower action games every year and not a dozen Gone Home's, Papers Please's, et al. These games are niche, and that's OK!)

I actually find Tale of Tales' shortest games (or me playing only a short time of them) to be their best because their mechanics and interactivity can get tedious/boring (In my opinion: The Graveyard literally has one interaction but successfully conveys emotion, Fatale was very tedious and I did not like my time with it at all; The Path went on a bit to long but did tell interesting stories for each protagonist and had a great presentation, Bientot L'ete was ethereal and striking but purposely designed to be pretty barren).

Tale of Tales tries a lot of weird and sometimes kinda wonderful things, but as games I sometimes find the experience itself a little lacking. However, it's worth trying their games to see those little bits that speak to you - and those moments tend to be different and specific to each person which is part of the magic.

@humanity said:

Yeah, I have nothing against this type of game, but it feels like something the modern art community came up with that is more of an interactive art piece that happens to almost resemble a video game. People play video games for all kinds of reasons, but the sorts of games that Tale of Tales puts out are almost strictly for "mood gamers" or game critics who are burnt out on mainstream games and want something as divergent as possible. If you're largely a "story/narrative gamer" or a "gameplay/mechanics gamer", I'd be very surprised if there is a lot in Sunset for you, given that due to the small dev size the interactivity will be on a lower scale than something like Gone Home, and if their past work is any indication then story/narrative/character details will be very light (or only implied).

Maybe I'll be wrong and this will be the game where Tale of Tales finally breaks from tradition. Who knows.

They're not the same type of game, but if I only play one game in the next year or two where the whole thing unfolds inside of one apartment (apparently), I'd much rather play Twelve Minutes.

@bisonhero: I guess it seemed cynical cause it seemed like you seemed down on it

@sagesebas: I tried not to! I did say "It's probably a cool mood experience thing", which is about the best I can do because their past games have not really been my cup of tea. "It's probably a cool mood experience thing" is also the best compliment I can muster for Dear Esther, which did not pull me in or move me whatsoever.

Given that it is a well-known fact that I happen to be a fan of General Hospital (that IS well-known in these forums by now, right?), I have absolutely NO problems with "soap opera-ish" and "cheesy." Hell, I used to watch Passions in between Days of Our Lives and General Hospital just to kill the time!

@jakob187 said:

You have the craziest lifestyle.

*continues watching dozens of hours of Giant Bomb each month*

LOL. Yeah, my tastes are so goddamn weird sometimes that even I don't understand them. I literally had a friend sit down with me, show me a bunch of bands that he liked to see if I'd like them, turned out I hated them all, then showed him some stuff I liked...and he kept trying to find me stuff close to that, only to find that he couldn't peg my tastes at all.