After TWD Season 2 went free on Xbox I fell right back into the Telltale trap! Games with player choice that carry over are my weakness, even if the greater affects those choices have on the story are… less than enormous.
Of the modern Telltale games, the “Clementine Will Remember That” era, my favourite is probably still TWD S1 for how fresh that kind of experience was, how much I connected with the characters, and how devastated some choices left me.
I recently wrapped up the most recent ep of TWD S3, and I am eager to jump into another Telltale adventure so I’m genuinely curious: what game is your favourite and why? I’ve played and enjoyed all of TWD and The Wolf Among Us.
I wasn’t really interested in it until I gave it a try. I liked Borderlands 2 fine but I really don’t play multiplayer games so that series hasn’t ever really been a thing for me.
The music is amazing, the voice acting is fantastic (Laura Bailey is my favourite voice actor) and it’s genuinely hilarious. I would love it if Telltale did more comedic games.
Worth telling that TftBorderlands in free this month on PS+.
My personal ranking is:
Tales from the Borderlands: Not a fan of the story told but the funny dialogues and situations make all the charm. Plus the small 4th wall breaking making fun of Telltale’s old mechanics is pleasant. Bonus point for the soundtrack.
The Walking Dead Season 1: Some pacing issues that make it sometimes hard to go back to but still a strong experience that other TT’s TWD will never top.
The Wold Among Us: Despite things letting to be desired, the atmosphere and settings are really
Sadly, I consider all the other Telltale (since TWDS1 minus Minecraft that I never played) either mediocre or bad (especially Game of Thrones & Batman).
For TWD S3, I’ll wait until EP5 to have a full opinion on the season but 4 episodes in and I absolutely don’t care for the story or the character (I can barely name half of the cast). Plus the writing is really weak (in a sense that the game contradicts itself several times or makes little sense on some points).
The Walking Dead Season 1 is still just an incredible story all the way through. I legitimately feel soured on many other Tt games because of the quality of the writing and dramatic arc in that game.
However, as far as humor and character timing goes, Tales from the Borderlands is definitely the second best Tt imo. Came out of (seemingly) nowhere and I found myself enjoying the hell out of it.
The formula definitely seems to be getting tired, and it’s wild that the new GotG game seems to have the exact same rigid facial animations that have existed since Telltale was doing Sam & Max games.
The stories of the games I have played have hooked me almost entirely on the choices carrying over aspect. The excellent relationship between Lee & Clem in TWD was just a huge bonus. Similarly TWAU had a great atmosphere and World to play in.
I’ll definitely look into picking up Tales on my next payday!
I liked The Wolf Among Us a lot but I’ve really not enjoyed much TTG output (Walking Dead s1 was ok) as I’d much rather be playing almost anything else in the genre (yes, even a David Cage extremely uneven nonsense game) and since Life is Strange came out, I’m probably going to stop following what TTG are doing unless the buzz says they’re moved away from their current path of competent adaptations.
I was thinking of making a Tales thread today because of the PSN deal! My game of the year for 2015, and my first exposure to Borderlands in general. I think people assume you have to have knowledge or interest in Borderlands to like it, but it’s actually really accessible to anyone, and that works to its benefit.
I also love how it’s actually important to the series, and not just a one-off; without getting into spoilers, I’m pretty excited to see how the events of that game effect BL3.
Tales From The Borderlands is the best. That is all I have to say here. It is so hard to get people to play it, because Borderlands itself is often a hard sell and it’s not as relentlessly dark as they’ve become famous for after TWD, but it’s just. the. best.
They took what Gearbox created and really owned it, made it a better thing than it was destined to be.
I was actually wondering if any of the Waypoint team had checked it out after hearing their recent conversation about Telltale stuff; I feel that if they did, the tone of the conversation would have been at least a bit different when it comes to the studio’s recent quality.
Tales from the Borderlands is their best by far, I feel. I gave zero shits about the Borderlands universe before that one but it actually made me kind of excited for a Borderlands 3.
I don’t see as much love for Wolf Among Us (nor ANY talk of a sequel by devs) around the internet. I’m not, like, an aggressive person, but I loved how that game really egged you on and gave you justifications to act out and dole justice as you feel appropriate, and I think the strength of the experience is in how the game never really makes a judgement about the kind of Bigby you play outside of the characters’ reactions to his behavior. There’re not really objectively negative consequences to being a dick.
I suppose that’s part of what makes all Telltale games, or at least the good ones, compelling. It’s very specific role play, and it’s at its best when all the feedback feels like it comes from character interaction and not pushback in design - if that makes sense.
For instance, I’m finally enjoying Walking Dead S3 (just finished ep 4) because even though I’m not getting the sense that my decisions are having anything more than a granular impact, in the dialogue moments I feel genuinely conflicted about each choice because it represents a sense of loyalty or belief in a person or Javi himself. Sometimes I feel the overwhelming loyalty to Clem, but after four episodes I want Javi to be able to recognize when she may not have her head on straight - sort of flipping the relationship she had with Lee, where she would sometimes make you feel like you were making weird or poor choices - and I want Javi’s relationship to his nephew and Kate to have some semblance of respect for each other. It’s a tense head space.
