Late to the party, and victim to all the hype, I finally finished TWD today. Not bad, but the way the whole gaming press got weak in the knees for this title is baffling to me.

*Choices don't matter that much.

*Actual gameplay mechanics are incredibly weak

*Every version of the game has technical shortcomings

*Xbox version is straight up broken on 4gb machines, and nobody really seemed to care all that much in the mainstream press.

It's a solid character driven story with excellent voice acting that does some interesting things with tension. It has pacing problems, lack of gameplay mechanics, technical problems and oversells the impact of your choices.

The Walking Dead is my favorite American visual novel.

The Walking Dead is my 2012 goty.

No it's not. You just didn't like it as much as others.

Ehhhhh I don't know man - the stuff I'm pointing out isn't all that subjective. You have to be fair here - it got away with a LOT in terms of technical issues, and the way it oversells player choice is a little shady.

It's GOOD. Not great.

*Edit* In the spirit of the arguments this thread has gotten into, the proper thing to say here was "subjective".

I liked that it spiked so much buzz and talk around the web; like people talk about the episodes of a TV show only that it continued for months.

Ugh. This again.

If you don't replay it or listen to people talk about the story a lot, it does an excellent job of giving you the illusion that most of the story is affected by. It does this better than any game I've ever played. Also, it's probably the best video game story I've experienced. The dialogue and voice acting made everything in other games pitiful. I'll agree that the gameplay sucks, but that isn't why I loved this game. I didn't have any technical problems on PC either.

ah cram it.

I felt the way choices didn't matter to be total bullshit and it really made me have to ignore some things to keep myself into the story.

I totally agree with your points and, of course, as you say it is still definitely a good game.

Opinion is subjective. How can something be overrated/underrated?

The Walking Dead was under-rated. It's better than reviews say it is.

Yep, I flipped it around on you.

@sdharrison: I don't care if the choices don't actually matter, it felt like they mattered and that it was my story in a way I haven't seen in a game and that was fantastic. I never had any issue with the gameplay, including the shooting sections. I was blessed with having no technical issues when I played (PC) and when it comes to picking my personal goty, I really don't care what hindrances other people experienced. I'm rating the time I spent with the game, not the world's. GOTY.

@sdharrison said:

*Choices don't matter that much.

In retrospect, sure, but looking back on anything can leave a bad taste in your mouth. As long as the game made it seem like your choices mattered as you were going through it the first time, the game succeeded. For me, it did just that very well.

*Actual gameplay mechanics are incredibly weak

It was a point and click Adventure game. What was weak about it? If you're talking about the gun segments, okay, sure.

*Every version of the game has technical shortcomings

Mine didn't. Sorry you got the short end of the stick.

*Xbox version is straight up broken on 4gb machines, and nobody really seemed to care all that much in the mainstream press.

Are you sure that problem isn't on your end?

Nope, that's Journey.

Ah, I also came in here to mention Journey, but only that it was a more important and successful game than The Walking Dead, which is still a great game.

It was a great game to me, your opinion holds no water. DEAL WITH IT.

Solve this with a dance off. DANCE OFF!

It's a cool story but really nothing else

@LikeaSsur said:

@sdharrison said:

*Choices don't matter that much.

In retrospect, sure, but looking back on anything can leave a bad taste in your mouth. As long as the game made it seem like your choices mattered as you were going through it the first time, the game succeeded. For me, it did just that very well.

*Actual gameplay mechanics are incredibly weak

It was a point and click Adventure game. What was weak about it? If you're talking about the gun segments, okay, sure.

*Every version of the game has technical shortcomings

Mine didn't. Sorry you got the short end of the stick.

*Xbox version is straight up broken on 4gb machines, and nobody really seemed to care all that much in the mainstream press.

Are you sure that problem isn't on your end?

Yeah the 4gb problem is recognized, and the official response was to have people prove ownership of that 360 model and the CD version, then get a free download code to download each episode from XBL. They won't fit on the 4gb model, so people needed to either use a USB stick and cycle them in or purchase a retail harddrive which solved the issue. Refunds were not offered by Telltale or from retailers. It was bad and it's real.

I played it on PC and experienced fairly regular hitching on a machine that runs current gen titles just fine.

The point and click adventuring wasn't a problem. The problem was an overal lack of any real mechanics. Most of the mechanical things you do are merely to get from one dialog to the other. Which is fine, but relevant to my argument. Again, I liked the game. It just has too many caveats, issues, and missing pieces to deserve the collective praise the gaming press heaped on.

Hush you big baby.

It was my Dark Knight Rises of 2012, so much Hype really not that good in any way.

I was going to come in here and warn you that you can't win this argument. There's almost a cult level dedication to this game.

Looks you might have just discovered this for yourself though...

Yeah, it's interesting. Maybe it's because of how much people care about the characters in the game? I admit I really had a few moments tug at my heartstrings.

@MariachiMacabre said:

Ugh. This again.

Yeah.

We get it. Wasn't to your tastes.

It wasn't overrated.

@MegaMetaTurtle said:

I was going to come in here and warn you that you can't win this argument. There's almost a cult level dedication to this game. Looks you might have just discovered this for yourself though...

Or people just, you know, like it.

BOOM!

Hey thanks for your opinion.

@MegaMetaTurtle said:

@ArtisanBreads Its not just that. People can like whatever they want to. It's that any time someone posts that they didn't like the game for whatever reason they just get mobbed. Surely if people are allowed to like something someone else doesn't, then people are allowed to dislike something someone else does?

The game isn't overrated. It's not to his tastes. Surely people are allowed to like something someone else doesn't... yet his thread goes against that in its tone and attitude.

The thing that bothers people is that kind of attitude and people who say it's a "non-game".

No one says the game doesn't have its deficiencies. But it does its strengths better than 99% of games.

@Rainbowkisses said:

Opinion is subjective. How can something be overrated/underrated?

If this was clear to everybody there wouldn't be over 1000 comments on the DmC review. You're totally right though.

@sdharrison: Your problem sounds pretty sucky, but I still don't think this detracts from the game itself.

Also, why did you play it if you knew it was just an adventure game? What were you expecting from a game in that genre, let alone a Telltale game?

Eh, I didn't really like it either but I can see why other people like it. I just didn't like any of the characters (and I know this sounds weird cause everybody seems to love the characters) so I just couldn't give a shit about anything. And normally I loooooooove a good story but this one just didn't grab me. Still, I like Telltale so I'm glad this is popular, even though I stopped after Episode 2 and never looked back

Notice I'm not saying Telltale did a shitty job, or throwing them under the bus.

What I'm saying is, the gaming press overpraised the game. Heavily. By the time I got around to buying and playing it, I was expecting an emotionally riveting journey shaped in part by my choices. Mechanically, the biggest point of praise seemed to come from those choices being made under duress, thus creating more tension than most dialog wheel fare we see. I thought the end result had elements that fulfilled that promise, and elements that did not. Some episodes had pacing issues. The game had enough technical issues to warrant discussion. The choice mechanic was a clever mirage.

I've read a defense in this thread twice now that if you didn't NOTICE the mechanics were a lie, then it shouldn't matter because it worked. Sure, that's fine. But that isn't game of the year. That's slight of hand of the year.

To me, this is a very clear cut example of overpraise.

@sdharrison:Its because it was a fantastic story telling experience and thats pretty rare in games so it received positive attention for doing something unique.

This thread is overrated

Your opinion is wrong mother fucker. My opinions are right and I say this game is awesome.

@sdharrison said:

Late to the party, and victim to all the hype, I finally finished TWD today. Not bad, but the way the whole gaming press got weak in the knees for this title is baffling to me.

*Choices don't matter that much.

*Actual gameplay mechanics are incredibly weak

*Every version of the game has technical shortcomings

*Xbox version is straight up broken on 4gb machines, and nobody really seemed to care all that much in the mainstream press.

It's a solid character driven story with excellent voice acting that does some interesting things with tension. It has pacing problems, lack of gameplay mechanics, technical problems and oversells the impact of your choices.

4GB Xbox? Not trying to sound elitist... but upgrade that shit dog. The reason the mainstream press doesn't care (and by that you most likely actually mean the enthusiast press) is because they probably don't own or use a 4GB Xbox.

While I did enjoy my time with it I agree with you. If writing in videogames wasnt so damn awful it wouldnt have been such a big deal. It sucked to play through some of the action parts too.

Can we move on to the next terrible never ending debate please?

This one got old months ago.

I don't get it, why start a thread like this? When you know almost everybody loved this game, so a lot of people are going to either tell you "you're wrong" or "well, that's your opinion". This thread seems pretty pointless if you really want people to agree with you, you should explain in the OP with more detail why it's such a terrible game. The whole it's got a bug thing that only hit a very small percentage of players it is not the best argument.

Mass Effect 3 ending was bad

@Coafi said:

I don't get it, why start a thread like this? When you know almost everybody loved this game, so a lot of people are going to either tell you "you're wrong" or "well, that's your opinion". This thread seems pretty pointless if you really want people to agree with you, you should explain in the OP with more detail why it's such a terrible game. The whole it's got a bug thing that only hit a very small percentage of players it is not the best argument.

Exactly. There is no point to this.

And beyond that, the game's fans acknowledge all the weaknesses. Yet it was my second favorite game last year for its writing, character interactions, and plot.

@Coafi said:

I don't get it, why start a thread like this? When you know almost everybody loved this game, so a lot of people are going to either tell you "you're wrong" or "well, that's your opinion". This thread seems pretty pointless if you really want people to agree with you, you should explain in the OP with more detail why it's such a terrible game. The whole it's got a bug thing that only hit a very small percentage of players it is not the best argument.

Well first of all, it doesn't seem like you bothered to read my OP. And if you did, you invented an entirely different post in your head to respond to.

I said I enjoyed the game, but its choice system, mechanics and unpolished release were very real issues that contributed to an experience that was GOOD, not great. The gaming press billed it as unquestionably GREAT. So, I said it was overrated. I don't really see how that is so unfair

@ArtisanBreads said:

@Coafi said:

I don't get it, why start a thread like this? When you know almost everybody loved this game, so a lot of people are going to either tell you "you're wrong" or "well, that's your opinion". This thread seems pretty pointless if you really want people to agree with you, you should explain in the OP with more detail why it's such a terrible game. The whole it's got a bug thing that only hit a very small percentage of players it is not the best argument.

Exactly. There is no point to this.

And beyond that, the game's fans acknowledge all the weaknesses. Yet it was my second favorite game last year for its writing, character interactions, and plot.

I played a game, formulated some thoughts on it, and posted it to my gaming community message board of choice to bounce those ideas off other people. You don't have to participate if you don't want to. Sorry.

The Walking Dead is, indeed, the most overrated 2012 out there.

@StarvingGamer said:

@sdharrison If a majority of the gaming press's experience with TWD mirrors a majority of the gaming public's experience with TWD, then how is it overrated? Or do you honestly believe that everyone is just lying and pretending that they enjoyed the game far more than they did?

That isn't my business. I'm just expressing how I genuinely felt about the experience of the game in relation to everything I've heard/read about it from the media. I don't have an ulterior motive other than discussing it

Some people like adventure games. Some people don't. You can't really judge a game based on standards put in place by genres it doesn't belong to. If you compare the shooting in episodes 3 and 4 to something like Call of Duty, of course it sucks. If you compare the puzzles to something like Braid, you're not going to get a lot out of them. But if you compare it to what the classic LucasArts adventures, King's Quest series, and Infocom text adventures did with using the medium of games to immerse the player in a world or story, TWD did some pretty mind-blowing stuff with the plot and actually improved on the game mechanics of adventure games in general.

My opinions on the game are very similar to the OP's. I realized that none of the choices I was making really mattered about halfway into Episode 3 and that sort of lessened the amount of tension that the decision-making process was supposed to generate, which kind of damaged the story overall for me. I agree with the "good, but not great game" sentiment.