Are Telltale Games Still Special?

Telltale has gained a reputation as a premiere story teller in video games. While mainly using other licensed properties, such as The Walking Dead, Fables, and Game of Thrones, Telltale has told mature, complex, and engaging stories that always capture my attention. I feel invested and engaged in the characters that I play throughout each game, making each choice, from picking my friends or saving a life, extremely stressful and important. However, with Telltale making so many games recently, have they lost their special charm?

2012’s The Walking Dead was a major surprise. It managed to tell a heartfelt and extremely emotional story of a man trying to not only survive, but raise a child in the zombie apocalypse. Your actions not only affected yourself, but the life of Clementine. I cared more for her then Lee, the player’s protagonist, so when Lee finally died in the games final moments, I was more concerned that I had set Clementine up to survive in a world that wanted nothing more then to destroy her. It’s no wonder that The Walking Dead was a frontrunner, if not outright winner, of numerous Game of the Year awards.

It was a re-invigoration of the adventure-point-and-click genre, a genre that had remained stagnant for many years. It also brilliant worked on player agency and choice. While it certainly wasn’t completely new having branching stories based on player choice (see Mass Effect), the choices presented were different. Unlike Mass Effect and other choice-based series, the choices presented in The Walking Dead were never simply good or evil. Each decision walked in the shades of grey in-between. Do you rob a family in order to feed yourself? Do you let one of your group die because he constantly endangers to rest? It was never easy and it all felt important.

The relationship between Lee and Clementine was central to The Walking Dead

That’s not to say the game. Most notable of these were with the game’s engine. Frame rate and skipping were not only uncommon, they were expected. I never saw anyone play a Telltale Game without some obvious glitch occurring. It was just, unfortunately, part of the experience. Controls were also clunky. Even the story wasn’t immune. While there was never any bad writing per se, trying to fill out a 5 episode arc sometimes even felt too long. Certainly Walking Dead’s Season 1 Episode 2 was good, but was it really necessary to visit a cannibal family’s farm? What did it add beside building the protagonist’s relationship with Clementine. There is something to be said for narrative streamlining. Take the time for emotional moments but don’t drag things out too long. IT worked well in a bite sized chuck when the game originally came out, but going back to replay the series all at once, it feels like a major sidetrack in the story.

Was the side trip to St. John's Dairy Farm really necessary?

This brings me around to my original purpose. Since the release of Walking Dead Season 1, Telltale has shown no signs of slowing down. They have released The Walking Dead Season 1, The Walking Dead Season 2, Fable’s Wolf Among Us, Tales from the Borderlands, a Game of Thrones game, and currently has plans for a Marvel game, another season of The Walking Dead, as well as, oddly enough, a Minecraft game. This isn’t even mentioning Telltales announcement of their first original IP. Telltale keeps going with no signs of slowing down. This isn’t to say that the games aren’t good. In fact, many are excellent. I love the writing of Borderlands and Game of Thrones. I adored, absolutely adored The Wolf Among Us. I instantly get excited with each new Telltale announcement.

Yet while each game is good, are they still special? There was something unique about the original season of The Walking Dead. There was a reason that it won game of the year and yet none of it’s predecessors (actual or spiritual) have received such acclaim. It’s because they haven’t given us anything new. Each game plays exactly like the last. While the story and settings may change, I know exactly what to expect as a gamer.

Tales of the Borderlands is extremely well-written, but does it add anything new?

 Let’s lot at other series. What makes each game in a big series great is that each one feels special. Halo 1 is drastically different from Halo 2. Halo 2 is even more different from Halo 3. Same goes for Uncharted 1, 2 and 3. I get excited for each new Halo release because I know there will be something new. It will still be my lovely Halo, but the sense of discovery and exploration is imperative to my enjoyment. Even the annual Call of Duty and Assassin’s Creed try to add something new each year. If they don’t gamers are quick to shout back their displeasure (see Modern Warfare 2 and 3 as well as Assassin’s Creed Black Flag to Unity). So why do we allow accept it with Telltale?

Certainly, their writing has gotten worse. If anything, each story is more engaging then the last. But I’m never surprised. And I love being pleasantly surprised. Give me a new gameplay feature. Tell the story in a different way (which, to be fair, Telltale’s use of multiple protagonists in their most recent Borderlands and Game of Thrones games has at least added a spice of innovation) or give me different content.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ll be the first in line to buy a new Telltale Game each and every time. But I want that same sense of joy and wonder I got the first time I encountered a zombie with Lee back in 2012. I know that Telltale is talented enough to give me that.