We are just past the mid way point, so let's get some discussion going. Not so much about basic plot points and decisions, but rather about systems, mechanics, and over arching narrative.
I really like this game so far, though I do think the first episode is the strongest still, and by a lot.
More than everything, from a game play/systems perspective, I really love how much I at least feel like my choices matter. Everything seems meaningful, every conversation option, every move in every action scene. It's probarly just smoke and mirrors, but it still feels great. Most impotently there are no dumb fail stats. I still love the Walking Dead, but having to do anything twice, really sucks in games like these. I'm especially impressed by the action stuff. I think it's because people can't die. You know that you might actually die in every fight, but also that the story wouldn't end if you did, but just cut to black. Where as I know the walking dead can't go on with out Clem, so if she was to fall of a bridge, the game would have to let me try again, and my decision wouldn't matter.
Unforgettably I also feel like my game play choices are getting fewer and fewer. I feel like the game is heading in direction of a visual novel, and not the adventure game it started as. I really loved the Toad questioning puzzle in the first episode. It was everything LA Noire should have been. You found clues and used them in dialog, and it felt meaningful. But the last two episodes have had nothing like that. Ep3 had you poke around and looking for stuff in a room. But there was no depth, it was just about clicking on everything . I doubt the next two Ep's will be puzzle heavy. But I hope, I'm wrong.
From a story perspective I really love the slow development of Bigby. Walking Dead was so much about the relationship between Clem and Lee, but Lee never changed that much, only the people around him really did. He was much more of an avatar than Bigby feels like. I feel like Bigby is changing, I feel like the stuff that goes on really have an impact on him. But it's not a change in character that is controlled by the story, but by dialog decisions i take. I started out being the big bad guy, but as I play on, my Bigby is getting a lot more uncertain and a little more willing to take orders, as he get's more and more confused. And I can't really think of any game, where I have had this relationship with a character. He feels alive, yet very much in my control.
My biggest problem with the story so far is the world, and more specifically all the magic . I was very skeptical at fist, but the first episode left me presently surprised. I'm not into crime fiction, or comics, or fairy tales, but still I was super engaged. But the plot is starting to lean more and more on magic and fairy tale bullshit. The first Ep seemed like a murder mystery. But I can barley tell what's going on now. I don't mind a very guided plot, I don't mind plot holes, I don't even mind not really being able to follow the story. But I don't feel like that was how the season set out, it seemed much more like a classic whodunnit, and now it's just glitter and witches.
OK that went on for way too long, and I'm super sorry about all the bad spelling and what not. But I'm interested in hearing what you guys think about the game so far.
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