Does it need more complexity?
Once upon a time, adventure titles were among the hardest challenges in the gaming universe. “Pixel-hunting” is a phrase many old school gamers are all too familiar with, searching for the exact right spot on the screen to trigger a required event. Some titles, like the King’s Quest series, were extremely unforgiving, with scant save systems and sequences where instant death was at every corner. Oh, and let’s not forget the trial-and-error filled “combination” mechanics.
Telltale’s recent efforts are basically the antithesis of that formula. These days you can boot up one of their releases and as long as you can perform basic QTE prompts, you’ll progress with the story. Heck, you can even fail a lot of prompts and still be alright, or at the very least, restart at a checkpoint a few seconds back.
With the release of the second episode of Tales from the Borderlands I started thinking — are you guys still ok with this?
Personally, I’m fine with Telltale’s design philosophy for one simple reason — it still works, even if Game of Thrones is showing us that it’s becoming a bit more stale. While I could stand to use more puzzles like the second episode of The Wolf Among Us, you really know what you’re getting with a Telltale game in terms of a simple interactive story.
But is it enough for most of you? Are you starting to grow tired of the lack of impact with most of your choices and the simplistic design? Old school adventure games still have a special place in my heart (especially King’s Quest VI), and I’d love to see more of them, but there’s definitely still a place for interactive stories that don’t make you think all that often.
