Does your choices really matter?

[Archie]

I hated all of Telltale's games because of this, it didn't matter what choice you would make, the end results would always be the same. The most you could do in those games was delay the inevitable for some time.

Qauntic Dreams games were a little better in this regard (Indigo Prophecy, Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls), but were still mostly letdowns.

Life is Strange had a pretty interesting thing going on with it's unique rewind time mechanic, but all of that went to ♥♥♥♥ once the ending boiled down to a binary-choice ending were all of your previous choices mostly did not matter. Such a wasted opportunity.

The Dark Pictures Anthology are the only games that got it right, even if i still had some petpeeves with them (i.e. Mike being un-killable in Until Dawn except for the very end).

Still haven't played The Quarry and Detroit: Become Human.

So, what about The Casting of Frank Stone? Does your choices matter, like the rest of Supermassive Games, or not???

[ADreamOfSpring]

it's kind of like House of Ashes where you'll always end up in the same place but the choices you make are more relevant to who lives or dies rather than the ending.

[Archie]

Originally posted by ADreamOfSpring:

it's kind of like House of Ashes where you'll always end up in the same place but the choices you make are more relevant to who lives or dies rather than the ending.

Thank you for your reply. Seems like it's also similar to Until Dawn as well, which was my biggest petpeeve with the game (you literally couldn't kill off Mike until the very end, so the story would always end on the same place no matter what).

But putting that aside, i still enjoyed it immensely because nonetheless, you could choose who lived and who died, and that's what really matters for me in those games. So, if Frank Stone is anything similar, i think i'll be buying the game (on a discount though, since apparenly it's a 5 hour game in total?). That and i'm also a massive DBD fan with over 1k hours lol.

[Bastard]

I really enjoyed this game, but ending variety is very mediocre tbh and if you aren't a big fan of DBD the ending may seem straight up weak. I think the best thing about it is the director's cut feature which will hopefully be in all future games,

[Archie]

Originally posted by Bastard:

I really enjoyed this game, but ending variety is very mediocre tbh and if you aren't a big fan of DBD the ending may seem straight up weak. I think the best thing about it is the director's cut feature which will hopefully be in all future games,

They always ♥♥♥♥ up the ending with these games. I think it's a syptom of developers wanting to tell the story in it's entirety, so they never allow you to end the story prematurely by killing everyone right off the bat (i.e. Until Dawn)

But i've already made my peace about this, i don't think there ever will be a game were you can truly alter the story in whatever way you want to. As long as you get to choose who live and who dies, i think i'll be mostly satisfied.

[Bastard]

Originally posted by Artemis:

Originally posted by Bastard:

I really enjoyed this game, but ending variety is very mediocre tbh and if you aren't a big fan of DBD the ending may seem straight up weak. I think the best thing about it is the director's cut feature which will hopefully be in all future games,

They always ♥♥♥♥ up the ending with these games. I think it's a syptom of developers wanting to tell the story in it's entirety, so they never allow you to end the story prematurely by killing everyone right off the bat (i.e. Until Dawn)

But i've already made my peace about this, i don't think there ever will be a game were you can truly alter the story in whatever way you want to. As long as you get to choose who live and who dies, i think i'll be mostly satisfied.

Yeah, it's a balance that I'm going to guess is hard to achieve on top of comfortable game play. On one hand you have "tell a cohesive, well written story" and on the other side "let me be able to alter the story and it have an impact". Both of these things are good but at a point make the other one less and less possible without making a game that becomes so big it is stupid expensive to make and also infeasible for players to ever enjoy all the content inside the game without it becoming a chore. Fun debate for people who like thinking/talking about game design philosophy.

I think at this point, like you said, I would rather them focus on character quality and general enjoyable "vibe" for the games than on solving that kinda impossible. I'll be peachy at the status quo if it means I can throw my money at future games that are more like The Quarry and less like Little Hope.

[Archie]

Originally posted by Bastard:

Originally posted by Artemis:

They always ♥♥♥♥ up the ending with these games. I think it's a syptom of developers wanting to tell the story in it's entirety, so they never allow you to end the story prematurely by killing everyone right off the bat (i.e. Until Dawn)

But i've already made my peace about this, i don't think there ever will be a game were you can truly alter the story in whatever way you want to. As long as you get to choose who live and who dies, i think i'll be mostly satisfied.

Yeah, it's a balance that I'm going to guess is hard to achieve on top of comfortable game play. On one hand you have "tell a cohesive, well written story" and on the other side "let me be able to alter the story and it have an impact". Both of these things are good but at a point make the other one less and less possible without making a game that becomes so big it is stupid expensive to make and also infeasible for players to ever enjoy all the content inside the game without it becoming a chore. Fun debate for people who like thinking/talking about game design philosophy.

I think at this point, like you said, I would rather them focus on character quality and general enjoyable "vibe" for the games than on solving that kinda impossible. I'll be peachy at the status quo if it means I can throw my money at future games that are more like The Quarry and less like Little Hope.

Sure, as long as it isn't an illusion like Telltale Games. "Oh, you chose to save this NPC? Now watch them die in this next cutscene."

I'm fine with devs wanting to tell a story, so long our choices still have some impact. And choosing to save or kill characters i feel is the best way to make your choices seem like they matter.

[Bastard]

Originally posted by Artemis:

Originally posted by Bastard:

Yeah, it's a balance that I'm going to guess is hard to achieve on top of comfortable game play. On one hand you have "tell a cohesive, well written story" and on the other side "let me be able to alter the story and it have an impact". Both of these things are good but at a point make the other one less and less possible without making a game that becomes so big it is stupid expensive to make and also infeasible for players to ever enjoy all the content inside the game without it becoming a chore. Fun debate for people who like thinking/talking about game design philosophy.

I think at this point, like you said, I would rather them focus on character quality and general enjoyable "vibe" for the games than on solving that kinda impossible. I'll be peachy at the status quo if it means I can throw my money at future games that are more like The Quarry and less like Little Hope.

Sure, asl ong as it isn't an illusion like Telltale Games. "Oh, you chose to save this NPC? Now watch them die in this next cutscene."

I'm fine with devs wanting to tell a story, so long our choices still have some impact. And choosing to save or kill characters i feel is the best way to make your choices seem like they matter (

Totally. There are few things as hack and weak as games that make the player choose a character to save and then instead "shockingly" kill off that character (Starfield thought that made the plot emotional and gripping, but it was just dull and meant the character I least hated died). Supermassive has figured out the semi-agency of picking life or death, and I hope the next thing they master is "add a 2x speed button for replaying cut scenes" for future games.