Wintermute... My experience....

[Nyarlathotep]

I have not finished, but have sunk a decent chunk of time into Wintermute and can honestly say, that personally, so far TLD is ALL about the sandbox mode for me.

The storyline is really difficult to associate with, Grey Mother's mannerisms are just utterly impossible for me to believe in, and this completely destroyed much of the experience for me.

Her bitter demeanor was a chore to listen to, and the quests she asked of me gave me the impression she was better suited for a Bethdesa char, but she lacked the depth. Its an uphill slug to find any compassion for a char that treats you in this fashion, then asks you to risk your life to help her a number of times. I imagine a char who finds themselves in such circumstances, (blind as a bat, and incredibly reliant upon the kindness of a stranger) would be playing a very different role in coaxing someone into helping them out.

(might I add here, that the movie 'The Survivalist' shows a pristine example of a tight range of possibility for human mannerisms forged by extreme circumstances, and whist its merely a single facet, and possibly not the best example verbatim, its a terrific example for the depth of pallette for chars who are depending on the kindness of a stranger)

I'm forced to pander to this bitter old womans' needs when I have only just met her, I'm forced to feel compassion for another 'survivor' who in one breath talks about us 'mainlanders' as being something to mistrust, and in the other breath suggests that I should go raid the town for supplies for her.

She drops her rifle to the floor trusting me implictly, yet even after all this time, I would still grab that rifle and leave the dismal old house in the blink of an eye... if I could...

Instead, throughout those extreme blizzards, when the wind outside howls like a thousand devils who threaten to rip the shutters off their hinges, I'm forced to just sit and stare at it in the flickering light of the fire whilst she eats all my food...

The storyline entails its only been 5 days, but so far, everything I have passed in the world leads me to believe that things have been in a pretty bad shape for quite some time... the boarded up houses, some look like they have been hit by bombs, rancid food all over the place etc...

Grey Mother tells me that people 'left the town' for some strange reasons which largely contradict the crazy amount of food left laying about and the amount of quality shelter available. These types of resources are FAR too easy to happen upon, and looking around the floor at her house at the ridiculous amount of stuff I have collected, just makes me feel as if the level designers have been FAR too generous in their distribution of goodies.

Its all a bit weird, and it feels like the story is missing a vision that encompasses the entire experience as one.

Grey Mother's fire never goes out, and aside from the 'collect things for someone I am forced to care about' missions, lack of this feature just destroyed the whole 'get firewood' thing for me. Many of my most memorable TLD moments (esp early game) were the life and death situations that firewood collection thrust me into The choices it forced upon me in often the most horrible of circumstances really gave me the impression that I was making my own (sometimes stupid) choices, but they were MY choices, and this really made me feel like I had carved a piece out of the experience to make my own part of the story.

The 'Grey Mother experience' removed the open ended feeling and instead, leads the breadcrumb trail right into an uncomfortably tight chicane of limited choices in a far too comfortable environment.

I'm really sorry Hinterland, I know this storyline is your baby, and I thoroughly appreciate the work you have put into every single char of code you typed in to make this game... I really hate to 'paint out' this aspect of the game because I WANT to love the storyline, I really do, but so far, I'm just finding it really hard to...

As I alighted to earlier, the sandbox mode rocks, and without the half baked interactions, its solitary experience is a much more fulfilling one for me, I honestly hope that you somehow dedicate a decent slab of time in future in homage to that, and I eagerly await to see what you guys come up with in the coming chapters.

[Carbon]

  Some nice commentary and quite well-written. I can see that you put some time and thought into your review...a good read is always much appreciated.

 I'm with you until the mid-point of your post. In fact, a lot of what you're saying echoes my sentiments to a large degree.

 However, we also need to remember that the story is just unfolding and there is much left to know. As others have pointed out in my own commentary threads, we are only able to see fragments at this point, so perhaps things will clear up in subsequent episodes. That the town is in such a state makes sense within the context of the backstory that Grey Mother divulges, so while I was of the same mind, I am no longer. It makes sense that the anomaly was just the rotten cherry on an otherwise lengthy downward spiral for the area (world?). I see I'm not the only one who was losing patience with Grey Mother! My comments about getting the information I need through coercion were somewhat hyperbolic; Will comes across as a good guy who indeed seems unlikely to do as I claimed he might, which is fine. Not many characters displaying much morality or ethics in games these days, so I should be more welcoming when it arrives. A bit frustrating? Sure, but not altogether bad.

 Anyhow, as others have wisely said to me, it's only just begun and things will likely get better as we learn more. Thanks again for the write-up.

[Nyarlathotep]

Yep, I fully understand its just the beginning, and I should really highlight the judgement I reserve, especially noted in my last paragraph. These guys have done really well so far, and I have no reason to completely lose my faith in their abilities to deliver.

As it stands though, I'm more than happy with the game as it stands in sandbox mode, its been money VERY well spent !

[WanderingPalm]

I, too, fully agree with the sentiment of the OP. grey Mother absolutely refused to give any useful information, but just kept promising that she'd tell you more if you could just do this one thing for her. The info she DID give you about Astrid sounded more like she was telling about her own past-- to the point my friend and I were fairly convinced that the Aurora created a time distortion and that she actually IS Astrid from the future-- and never actually explains any of it. "She was in trouble." ....yes? And? Oh, that's all you'll say about her. I'm still pretty convinced Grey Mother was only ever talking about herself.

She says the town was abandoned, but then says that "others" told her about Astrid. She says she's been alone for a long time, but has apparently survived just fine without help all this time. She tells you she can tell you where Astrid went....but never does. And if everything has been abandoned, where exactly did that prison bus full of prisoners come from?

Ultimately, I was actually more confused that Will never pressed her for actual answers. He just did what she asked, heard her sob story, and left. Like he's very ambivalent about finding Astrid. I'm struggling to understand either of these characters. Perhaps Episode 2 will make more of a connection for me...

[MindFog2287]

It's so tough to be critical of a game that so many of us have enjoyed so fully, but I have to agree with most of this.

I'm OK though with the fire, at least, even if I don't understand how she made it for so long without me. The fire was a welcome "breathing point" after I stumbled into Grey Mother's house bleeding, almost frozen, and with almost no food. I play Sandbox on Pilgrim because I'm an older gamer who doesn't have much time to play and I do it just for the meditation and solitude, so my skills certainly aren't up to where many of yours are at. I've usually been able to stay away from wolves. Not in story mode I guess. 

My main issue is with the writing. Again, it pains me to be critical, but the dialog is just so on the nose and heavy handed. You have to build these moments. You can't invoke a feeling without working hard for it. Economy of language is vital as well. Every piece of dialog here should have been gone over again and again to determine what the goal of the interaction was, and then how to progress the story while preserving some mystery and letting us figure things out for ourselves. Some things didn't even need to be mentioned. We'd have figured them out anyway. 

The beauty of the sandbox was its mystery and discovery. The team would have been well advised to have maintained the same objectives when it came to the dialog. Again, I know it's easy for me to say from here, sitting behind my keyboard, but it's nothing that can't be fixed for the next episode. I know they can take our comments to heart, and kill it next time, just like they did with the sandbox. 

[Nyarlathotep]

On 8/27/2017 at 1:34 PM, MindFog2287 said:

You have to build these moments. You can't invoke a feeling without working hard for it.

This comment sums it up perfectly.