July 31st, 2009
At first I didn’t like the concept. It seamed to me like somebody is trying to sell the same game many times. But this was just my unwillingness to accept different concept then I was used to.
Look at for example, The Longest Journey. I enjoyed the first game released in 1999. Second game, Dreamfall, was released seven years later. Of course, I forgot everything about the plot of the first game when Dreamfall was released. And this was completely different game. Point and click disappeared and instead we got badly designed fights and somewhat dumbed down interface. Finally, it ended in a cliffhanger without any information about new releases. Currently, production hasn’t yet begun.
Compared to that, episodic gaming as Telltale Games is doing seams like the right way for adventure games. When they announced Tales of Monkey Island I was still skeptic but I tried the demo and I was pleased with the gameplay. I bought a season which includes 5 episodes. I got the first part immediately for download while others will be available monthly.
Why is such a deal so good for me? First, full length adventures requires significant time investment from a player. To finish a 30-hour game can take a few weeks if you have a life. Also, it’s hard to follow the story stretched for so long. Monthly distribution means that I got to play 7-hour episode (at least I got so much from the first episode) once per month. Story is easier to follow because every episode has it’s own plot. Still, main plot builds across the episodes to connect the whole season.
Similar fate like The Longest Journey I’ve mentioned before, almost got one of my favorite series: Gabriel Knight. All three games provided great stories but second and third game had serious technological problems. Although they turned out pretty good in the end, they would have profited from episodic releases if their content could have been produced at slower pace using the same engine for several episodes or seasons instead of always being on technological edge.
So, more quality episodic gaming please.