[SPOILER] Episode two missions needs serious polishing..

[avocado_mayhem]

.. especially the survival schools one.

Prior getting the  "survival school : clothing" mission, I already visited the forestry lookout, lead there by a note in the Camp Office explaining that some pelts are available there. I took the bear pelt with me and stored it in Jeremiah's house, figuring it would be of some help at one point. When I got the clothing mission, I could repair the bear coat right away, but I also NEEDED to go back to the lookout just to tick the box of the objective, then back to the cabin. Only then could I finish the mission.
This felt very weird and artificial. Granted the game is all about exploring, but this one just seems immersion breaking.

Either the game should store the visited place for further objectives, or the lookout should be locked and Jeremiah could give the key when the mission start.

I also encountered something quite similar for the hunting mission. I followed the marker until I met a deer just meters outside of the unnamed pond. I shot it, took its meat and brought it back to the cabin, just to realize that I had to go back again, walk 10 meters more until the game would consider that I actually discovered the pond, and back to the cabin again.

In that case, the kill shouldn't be linked to a precise location. Or when the mission triggers, deers should appear only under the mission marker. That would be artificial, but less strange than Jeremiah knowing god knows how where you have been precisely.

All of that contradicts the feeling of the open world. You can go wherever you want, but when the game asks, you have to do exactly what it wants in a very precise order, even if you did those things before.

[Renegade30]

Eh to me this is just minor glitches in the game. I wouldn't say it is 'serious'. I agree it needs fixing but I can understand how these two things could slip through QA

[Jens]

1 hour ago, Renegade30 said:

Eh to me this is just minor glitches in the game. I wouldn't say it is 'serious'. I agree it needs fixing but I can understand how these two things could slip through QA

Agreed, but I also agree with the OP, and similar stuff happened to me in Milton, wich made the game feel unpolished. Don't get me wrong, I love this game, but I think the story mode doesn't feel quite finished and needs polishing several aspects, from storytelling, journal information, and the problem pointed out by the OP.  The game gets confusing at times, while the survival aspect feels easy in general.

[avocado_mayhem]

Quote

Eh to me this is just minor glitches in the game. I wouldn't say it is 'serious'. I agree it needs fixing but I can understand how these two things could slip through QA

No, it's not a game breaker glitch but that's why I said "polishing".

Since this isn't sandbox anymore, the added value to the story mode is.. well, the story, through the quests. I don't really mind the fetch ones as long as they serve a purpose (which is the case) and are coherent and well integrated into the core gameplay, which is the problem here.

As an open world, you are encouraged to explore on your own as well as interacting with the NPCs. But when those two components work against each other resulting in a break of immersion in my case and Jens', or worse (Gray Mother quest might glitch if you explore the farm before she asks you to), then there is a problem that needs solving.

[mystifeid]

When you begin to feel that you can't go anywhere before being told by an npc to do it for fear of breaking the game, the experience starts to feel very linear. I had similar problems in my first playthrough and these resulted in abandoning the game and starting again.

In the second playthrough, while completing the hunting survival school, I shot two deer then decided to loot the cabin nearby before harvesting the carcasses. When I came outside again, the carcasses had disappeared.

Also, twice the game froze after shooting wolves at point blank range with the flare gun causing me to become very paranoid about using it.

And while trying to kill the bear after shooting it for the fifth time I could not find it at clearcut so I spent two days revisiting all the spots again. Still no bear. Ok, then I went round all the spots in one day and finally found the bear. Walking around Mystery Lake (or anywhere) for three days in thick fog is just mind numbing and made me want to finish the story as quickly as possible.

From what I remember of my last Interloper game, stunning rabbits with stones seems to be considerably easier than hitting them with an arrow. Way too easy.

I feel that using wolves as the only threat to survival is a real mistake. There should also have been threats posed by the weather and lack of food. Once you know the location of a wolf and maybe have endured an attack, it's possible to save scum and the second time go around the wolf. Not so easy to do that with weather and lack of food.