Anyone feeling a bit let down?

[Tbone555]

Everything said here shall be discussed in a friendly, level headed manner, or I shall make use of the report button. play nice, kids.

Okay. so let's get it out of the way. show of hands, who else feel a little let down about the first two episodes of wintermute?

Don't get me wrong. I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE this game. And I have nothing but love for the studio behind it. everything said here is in pure constructive criticism. I have no desire to insult or attack hinterland or the long dark.

But I felt like what was promised, for example, on the road map, just didn't make it in like we were all expecting. instead we got the same update we've been playing for months, with some half voiced 3d models who don't even move all that much that shovel us out bugged out fetch quests with no real decision making, and what few decisions we can make aren't very meaningful ones as we progress along a completely linear storyline.

I still feel like this game is unfinished. props to them for the voice acting and cutscenes and aurora, I was impressed with those. But everything else is really just... nothing new. when are we gonna get moose? a revolver? primitive firemaking? interactive NPC survivors that wander the world like us that we can trade with, be attacked by, or attack? How about some meaningful choices that change our game and have an effect on us as a player?

I get it. hinterland is still a small company. But hell, they're big enough that they have a full team and their own studio and have had way more than enough time to work on their game. And, as amazing as the game is, it is still very basic for their ambition. ambition is a good thing, don't get me wrong. But you don't make a promise that you can't keep. And they should have held off on Launch until the game was ready. it feels rushed.

But despite its flaws, I do love it and I am enjoying it. But for as long as I've been playing it And supporting hinterland with undying loyalty, roughly 3 years, it should be a lot more. it hasn't changed much at all since I first played it.

Just my two cents. What do you guys think?

[Mroz4k]

I for once, am not let down at all. Granted I haven't really make it that far into the story, I am taking it way too slow and kind of in a manner similar I would play a sandbox (I just arrived in Milton and already have pretty much everything cured I will need to make proper clothes, eventually).

The story mode has been pretty good so far, sure, a bug here and there, that happens. 

There might be a bit more items coming in, but then again I have to say that most of the things that make it into the game seem to be fleshed out pretty well to begin with.

Or maybe it is just that I have my expectations set very low with my previous experience with other games. Who knows...

[Tbone555]

2 minutes ago, Mroz4k said:

I for once, am not let down at all. Granted I haven't really make it that far into the story, I am taking it way too slow and kind of in a manner similar I would play a sandbox (I just arrived in Milton and already have pretty much everything cured I will need to make proper clothes, eventually).

The story mode has been pretty good so far, sure, a bug here and there, that happens. 

There might be a bit more items coming in, but then again I have to say that most of the things that make it into the game seem to be fleshed out pretty well to begin with.

Or maybe it is just that I have my expectations set very low with my previous experience with other games. Who knows...

Believe me, I didn't feel let down at all at first either. the first few hours were magical. I was like a bloodthirsty wolf in a scared human store. But it's just the more I thought about it, the more disappointed I got. especially after I encountered my first game breaking but and had to start all over again. upon looking it up, I discovered just how many bugs the game is riddled with. so many people are having so many problems. some couldn't even get to the first cutscene because of bugs. it's like they didn't even play test it. in alpha, that is acceptable. But not as a full fledged release.

[bush_amb]

I'm not let down, too. I really like how  the world we know from sandbox came to life - I like how the story introduces you to sandbox concepts (although they're not new to me and it restricts you with crafting etc). I also like the slow pace of the story - I have impression that first two episodes were designed to introduce sandbox mechanics to new players and slowly develop the world setting. Episode 2 is much more fun - some mystery and small surprises. In next episodes Hinterlands may ramp up the difficulty level. What I also like is those numerous small and bigger changes in ML (perhaps they got into last sandbox update, didn't play it then) and much richer details in interiors. 

[June]

I feel that the first 2 Episodes aim a lot for the new players, giving them a hand, for getting a feel for the real thing. Kind of like a tutorial. For an experienced player it was all about the story there, because we know how to cure, craft, live on low ressources, etc. But I was thrilled when I finally saw Will and Astrid speaking and moving, seeing the story unfold and I played for hours and hours, really slow to not miss out one bit (that cutscene at the start of Episode 2 - beyond incredible - can I watch this from the main menu again please Hinterland?).

But when I reached ML in EP 2 I got bored pretty quickly and switched to Interloper Sandbox...maybe because I know the place so well... can´t get myself to continue somehow. Maybe because I went all the way to Jeremia´s Lodge and back only to realise I forgot something......bored by the thought of doing that wolf infested trip again.

Like other people said, there´s missing A: the difficulty in keeping you warm & fed (hands down way too easy) and therefore B: the feeling of being in real danger. The characters are cool and well written but remain static, so you don´t really care for them. Allthough Will is an exception here. Cool guy ^^ Meeting Astrid would be different I guess...

I could go on forever. It´s not  a letdown for me, because I love the small details, especially the sound, the music, the art style and the unforgiveness of survival, which never gets old. It´s fits so well together. In this regard, TLD is a true masterpiece for me. I agree, though, that there´s is much more potential to max out story-wise. 

[Pablo the Argentinian]

1 hour ago, Mroz4k said:

Or maybe it is just that I have my expectations set very low with my previous experience with other games. Who knows...

seems most people have a problem wit that. i fell quite good about the game.sure bugs arent easy to accept  thinking in a "finished"game but its normal seeing that there are many diferent systems to test it  and basically not a single pc works the same as other one or other systems it self(consoles).as for the story is presented one way and no matter which others games people played or enjoyed those are OTHERS GAMES so other way to tell the story.maybe people is so used to the open world experience in other games that let you delay the "main quest" till you want to do it,that cant follow a scripted one whitout being anoyed

39 minutes ago, June said:

I feel that the first 2 Episodes aim a lot for the new players, giving them a hand, for getting a feel for the real thing. Kind of like a tutorial

indeed and i think is a good way to start for newcomers that maybe could get a wrong taste of dificulty so abruptly (i read several people complaining about "permadeath" in survival)

50 minutes ago, June said:

I was thrilled when I finally saw Will and Astrid speaking and moving, seeing the story unfold and I played for hours and hours, really slow to not miss out one bit (that cutscene at the start of Episode 2 - beyond incredible - can I watch this from the main menu again please Hinterland?).

 that some good ex that people should valorate more (much complaining and not apreciation about finally knowing who are those peole and what are trying to do in this survival world)

[Mystery guy]

I personally felt that as a story it was solid, not that out standing or innovative, just good. In terms of game play, I hated the beginning of the first episode, I actually thought that all of episode one was a big tutorial jut to start the game( not kidding took me a while to figure it out) .the second episode was more of a let down as it hardly focused on story and seemed to be more of ugly filler. Especially Jeremiah's survival school, dear lord I hated it. The bear challenge was incredibly hard considering how easy everything else was. The ending was great not going to lie. Episode one was definitely more story driven and had more interesting things to see, something new while episode two had our character running around for almost no reason. 

Suggestion: try to make the next episode more story driven instead of tedious tasks that annoy more than entertain.

[Volatile]

@Mystery guy While I do agree the fetch quests galore was boring, that bit in the Broken Railroad with the first ever aurora was pretty neat. It scared me quite a bit, as I wasn't expecting it. Not to mention getting there (and back) did feel like a perilous long journey. 

[Survive757]

yes and no. I feel the writing is a bit weak and I dislike the repetition of helping gray mother only to finally get our answer and move on to the next zone which is then followed by Jeremiah aka gray mother 2.0 and we now have to do the very same stuff we did for her in a all too familiar style.

That being said I'm still enjoying story mode, I appreciate the added artwork I love the music and I love the cinematics, especially episode 2's cinematic, the music is amazing to it and that nice little touch of the snow coming off the long dark title at the end? beautifully done.

[alone sniper]

Hi @Tbone555 !!
Thanks for creating this topic !
Well, I guess the game is good. but it could be better. But since lots of player was  complaining about delay on story mood, Hinterland couldn't delay it anymore. 
So, I think the game is as good as it could be.
And It will probably be better at future 

[LucidFugue]

I'm not let down. I had good fun chasing down the objectives and finally drinking in the story that has been teased for so long. Story mode was always Raphael and the team's vision. It was their goal, and Raphael seemed especially cautious about releasing too soon. 

The bugs are unfortunate. That's not how they would have wanted launch to go. But they've turned around quickly to resolve them. That's unplanned stuff.

But taking the perspective that this is what Hinterland has been so keen to keep secret, to nurture and build, so it can be released into the wild... The main plot surrounding Will and Astrid seems to have a sense of urgency that doesn't match the game's flow. The world building and side quests reward exploration and taking your time. But the main plot has this urgency about it that the game doesn't respect.  I'm just sort of wondering why a team that built such a fully realised simulation that encourages focusing on day to day survival did so to tell this specific story. 

[FatherFrost]

I'm slightly dissapointed in Ep 1&2. Wrighting is weak. Can't judge about whole story by two episodes but these two are mediocre. Main quest of Grey Mother is dull - there is no any drama, twist  or intrigue. Jeremiah's quests are boring as hell - quests like "collect x items" have to be optional side quests. And Hinterland ruined core gameplay of this game - SURVIVING.  Ridiculous amount of loot and lack of difficulty levels. I hear constant "this was done for newcomers". How many of these "newcomers" by the way? I've seen Steam sales stats - looks like major Steam sales of TLD are in the past. Everyone who was interested in this game already bought it. I guess we are talking about ps4 newcomers. But what about us? One million of gamers who played this game and waited story mode for years?

[abacusjax]

I agree with lots that's already been said: there should be difficulty levels, urgency of story vs gameplay pacing is illogical, some weak dialogue - seriously, why does Will have to have a tantrum before the last big quest for both NPCs? 

There are good things, too. I enjoyed the new maps. Love the history and story of the island that we get to see. I'm moderately interested in the Astrid mystery, definitely intrigued by the aurora.

But. My main issue is the moral choices. How are you going to frame taking abandoned food from an abandoned gas station as objectively wrong, but then reward trust building with someone's secret stash of medical supplies that I can raid? How are you going to tell me taking a handful of ammo is egregious but then give me an achievement for raiding all the forest talker caches?

"How far will you go to survive?" is an interesting question, but it hasn't been presented in an interesting way in this game, and for me, that's the biggest let down. 

[SnowWalker]

I'm not let down. I just thought there would be more interaction with npc's than there seems to be. For instance, the trailer had something going on at a cabin with some people attacking some other person. This could be from another episode yet to come though so my thoughts on that are still a bit premature maybe. I don't like the 'old Fallout' style-choices without voices, but then again it does let you get through questions and answers probably quicker, as quick as you can read that is. It's just so immersion breaking is all. Also we talked last night about how there doesn't seem to be many consequences for fetch quests not being done in a timely manner, for instance, some of the life-saving quests could have seen an npc dying if not helped quick enough. Overall, I'm still having fun playing and the story is unfolding as to how and why Astrid and Will ended up on this God forsaken island in the first place. What happens to them, and what's happened to the world? We are slowly but surely getting answers to all of that.

[ColdZero]

Yes I am a bit let down, mainly because the game seems not to follow common sense, for example. Not being able to climb over small objects or up a small group of rocks, not being able to fashion weapons like maybe a sharpened stick to help defend against predators also having no real say in how the game goes. You have to collect the wood and you have to collect food and you have to collect the pearl necklace for Grey mother. You have no real meaningful dialogue with the npc's either. It's basically l move down this corridor and turn right then move down it and turn left 

It's described as a survival simulation but it's really a linear storyline where the only choices the character has is tactical and hownhe goes down that corridor instead of which corridor do you want to take ,will you agree to help mother or will you take your chances and find out the information yourself  

 

 

[cullam]

24 minutes ago, ColdZero said:

It's described as a survival simulation but it's really a linear storyline where the only choices the character has is tactical and hownhe goes down that corridor instead of which corridor do you want to take ,will you agree to help mother or will you take your chances and find out the information yourself  

Keep in mind, the survival simulation is more-so survival mode. 

I think the biggest thing I'd like to see here is option of difficulty modes for story. Story mode gives us actual objectives, and things to do, while we survive in the wild... except that if you've played a lot of this game, then surviving in the wild on voyager difficulty is trivially easy. We can quickly ignore cold and hunger, as there's tonnes of food, and the temperature never drops very low. For a new player, fair enough. But I'd really like to be able to at least play story mode on Stalker difficulty. 

[stapeliad]

Here are my thoughts, I still haven't gotten to the end of Ep2 but I killed the bear so am almost there.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE The Log Dark and I always will.

But story mode really does seem to be mostly fetch-quests given by surly people who want me to do stuff for them and - I have no investment in them at all story-wise. I don't actually care about Jeremiah, I don't care about Grey Mother, and neither does Will to be honest, he wants to be done with them as fast as possible.

The integrated tutorial aspect is good but too drawn-out.  For experienced players it is tiring and the story just doesn't progress. It's all getting stuff for characters who just want stuff from me.

And whoever said that Jeremiah sucks at hunting bears is right.

Additionally, I think it is unrealistic that Jeremiah wouldn't want to kill that bear himself. He is VERY invested in killing it. Unless he gave up and just wants Will to do it because he truly does suck at bear hunting.

[stapeliad]

Just adding..... I think the story is too focused on tutorial aspects and 2 episodes are built around it.  There should be a short tutorial at the beginning (skippable) to introduce the player and take it out of the storytelling altogether. I guess it is too late for that. 

Will is a pilot in that region, he WOULD know a thing or two about the environment, it isn't a stretch at all. He is already an outdoorsy guy.  

So I guess I'm wishing the story was the actual story and not a story built around tutorial-fetching, and there was a Learn the Basics bit at the very start.

There is no connection between Will and the region. Why should he care about Milton, or even Mystery Lake for that matter? Because he isn't invested in it I'm not invested in it, which is a shame because there is a good story there somewhere.  I'm just too busy gathering stuff to know what it is.....

[Krubble]

Not let down, as I truly enjoyed the story, but a bit disappointed that the game ended after episode 1. Now we have to wait until fall to get episode 2 according to Hinterland.

[lupineways]

On 8/8/2017 at 6:41 AM, abacusjax said:

"How far will you go to survive?" is an interesting question, but it hasn't been presented in an interesting way in this game, and for me, that's the biggest let down. 

I definitely agree with this one.  I definitely don't feel like this question is being effectively explored with the story mode so far. Heck, food is so abundant there isn't really even a need to hunt. 

All in all it is still a decent experience and the beginning part of the story in Episode 1 really intrigued me. I just got to the "Survival School" part in Episode 2. I get how tutorials like this is good for new players to learn the ropes but it is a bit of a let down for those of us who are well seasoned with the games mechanics. I hope the later episodes pose more of a real survival challenge. At first, when doing the trek to Milton, I actually thought I may be in for some interesting challenges (mostly due to not having a bed roll, and traveling too far at night - I believe they added a bedroll to the initial cave after I played that part)  but that quickly changed once I got the opportunity to start looting the town. It is hard to look at this from the perspective of new players but for the old players there probably isn't much challenge in story mode so far.

[Patrick Carlson]

7 minutes ago, Krubble said:

Not let down, as I truly enjoyed the story, but a bit disappointed that the game ended after episode 1. Now we have to wait until fall to get episode 2 according to Hinterland.

How do you mean, @Krubble? Episode 2 launched with the game!

[Krubble]

The game ended for me after Episode 1, got credits and then main menu. I asked Hinterland when Episode 2 will be released and they said "this fall".

[stapeliad]

Ep 2 is there, just go to the main menu and resume.

I hope you like bears......

[Patrick Carlson]

1 minute ago, Krubble said:

The game ended for me after Episode 1, got credits and then main menu. I asked Hinterland when Episode 2 will be released and they said "this fall".

Hmm. Not sure why you would have been left with that information. Just go in your Wintermute story menu, hit Resume and you should be able to select Ep. 2. Let us know how it goes for you!

[Krubble]

Ok, I will try that. Thanks!