My review on the 4th episode (spoilers)

[Andrey Grebenkov]

First of all, I want to say my great thanks to the developers of TLD. "Fure, then Silence" is a very good and dynamic episode. And as a player, I was pleased with the non-standard levels and puzzles in this game (for example prison escape). But I'd like to talk about some issues that I've listed: 

1) Similarity to the 3rd episode. 

This applies mostly to the beginning. The same plot: a player must get medicines for someone (man, in the second episode the first task was exactly like this), player listens to the instructions on the phone. Although the ending of each episode turned out to be quite original, I still hope that in the next part of the game the beginning will be different. 

2) Long cutscenes.

For example, I find these cutscenes unnecessary long:

When Franklin tells Mackenzie what happened in prison; All the conversations with Jace on the phone (especially in the beginning, when she tells her story). Convicts' story about crazy Mathis and escape from Montreal. IT'S QUITE EXHAUSTING TO LOOK AT THE WALL/PRISON BARS/PHONE CONSTANTLY And you know, I wouldn't pay attention to this if once in the second episode developers haven't made an interesting animation for Jeremy's story about the Old Bear. Guys, you yourself set the standards pretty high, so my expectations were high too.

3) Prisoners' clothing.

Well, Mackenzie and Jace don't have to worry about Mathis. He's going to die from hypothermia soon if he keeps walking like that (Like all the other convicts, you know) They need to dress like the guys from the Perseverance Mills. Wrap yourself in several layers of clothes, close the neck, the head, as my mother taught me. There are a lot of corpses wrapped up from head to feet, but Mathis and Co are running around in prison robes as if nothing is wrong. It's clear that they have recently escaped, but during the episode, it would be possible to dress up (there are dead guards and civilians lying around). Otherwise, it's hard to believe that Great Bear is a harsh place.

4) Hands optimization.

Continuing the topic of clothes. I don't understand why it was so hard to solve the problem with the hands. From year to year, I'm looking at Mackenzie's green jumper and get chill. Obviously, it is impossible to use absolutely nothing in mittens, starting from a lamp, ending with a gun, so bare brushes look pretty natural, but sleeves... Please, do something about it. This doesn't help to increase immersive gameplay, and it's just harder to believe in the reality of what's going on.

5) For the first time, playing this game, I don't quite understand this storyline:

Jace. I can't understand the motivation of this character. And to be honest, I don't really believe in this character, which is the first time in the Wintermute story mod, because all other characters were created perfectly. For example, in the 3rd episode: Father Thomas is driven by truly сhristian compassion, and Molly is driven by a proud and rebellious spirit. But what drives Jace? Is it empathy? Okay. 

But, objectively, how does she evaluate the situation with Donner, why is she trying so hard to prevent his release? I mean, how does she even know him and Mathis to understand the real importance of opposing them? She is a scientist, an astrophysicist. But suddenly it turns out that Jace knows the plan of the prison, she knows how to hack its locking system in the most difficult conditions of the "quiet apocalypse". She knows what kind of people are sitting behind the walls of the Black Rock and, moreover, she has enough balls to get involved in a confrontation with them. Isn't it too cool for a civilian scientist? Is she a civilian?.. So who is Jace? Is she a plot oversight or maybe she is far from just an ordinary researcher as she might seem at first glance?

6) More puzzles!

I understand that like to see some elaborate puzzles in this game. It is obvious that it's better not to place them in the main plot, so they won't kill the dynamics of the game. Instead, it would be cool to have a side quest with some conundrum!

7) Where is Methuselah?

This character is the cherry on the top of the whole thing, he makes the story more authentic and brings a new depth to it. Looking forward to Redux v2 for 3&4 episodes

 

Some smaller points:

1) Information about Jace appears in the menu too early. So at the very beginning of the game, I found out that she is an astrophysicist, what she was doing on the island, etc. Although, in our dialogue on the phone, nothing has led to this yet. It's a bit premature.

2) The yellow marks were not removed from the main tasks and the items that were received after familiarization. 

Finally, I want to say that I'm looking forward to the final episode of Wintermute. Thanks again for the work, Hinterland! Long live TLD!

 

Edited November 3, 2021 by Andrey Grebenkov

[piddy3825]

Damn....  That was some constructive criticism, indeed! 

First off, thanks for saying what probably a lot of us were thinking.  You've definitely raised some salient points in my opinion on some of the shortcomings involving the story line.  I didn't think about the missing presence of Methuselah for example,  until you brought it up and yeah, now that you mention it, where is he?  Why is he absent from the story so suddenly considering his prominence in the story line up until now.  I think Methuselah would have been the perfect medium in which to tell the story.  Will certainly would have had ample opportunities to run into him as he rushed about the countryside fulfilling all those main missions and side quests.  

I was little disappointed  in some of the aspects of the world environment.  For example, seems that each outdoor caves was laid out similarly.  This was most evident each time I was walking out, the entrance/exit was exactly the same.  Some goes for the recycled Brick Layer's Hut, complete copy of the Mountaineer's Hut on TWM right down to the same hole in the roof.  Considering all the little things I started nitpicking on after I started my second playthrough, I gotta say I got a little peeved.

I agree that Jace's story could've been handled a bit differently, but somehow I think her role or story will probably be more fully explained in Episode 5.  At least my hope is that it will be in some way.  As to her involvement as the secret saboteur, it might have made more sense in the story if it were to have been a guard or perhaps a prison administrator who managed to escape the culling after the inmates rioted.  It might have made more sense at the end of the story where instead of going over the railing with Jace at the power plant, she instead shows up and rescues Will from the icy water of the river.    They could have used Methuselahs predictions and musings to tell her story about how she is/was working at the observatory and had knowledge of the event.  Oh well, coulda woulda shoulda...

[SpitztheGreat]

The story in Episode 4 was really, really, uneven. Gameplay wise I think Hinterland did a pretty solid job with this episode, but the story was all over the place. The side missions were really well handled in my opinion, but the main quest just felt sloppy. The entire premise of being captured of by the inmates only to be set free and repeatedly & willingly recaptured was a real head scrather. I felt like I could feel the poor writers over at Hinterland trying their hardest to bring this story together and it just not coming easily. I really feel as though the concept of introducing the prison and antagonist came first, and the story was shoehorned around it. As the game progressed I felt like I could feel the seams in the efforts and better understood why this update took so long. If someone from Hinterland came here and told us that they went through three or four total rewrites I could believe it. Sometimes these things happen, so I don't want to insult anyone. Some stories just struggle to come together, and perhaps limitations in the engine, resources, whatever, made it difficult to execute a story like Hinterland would have liked. At the same time though, Mathis was really well written. I thought he was a great antagonist and was very well voice acted.

One tidbit that I couldn't help but consider regarding Donner. By the time you find the detonators, Donner has been locked in solitary for many days without outside access to the outside world. I'd estimate that he's been locked in there for at least three days maybe as many as six without contact with the outside world. That means he's not getting fresh food or water. He may have access in his cell to water, but without power who knows the condition of the pipes and if he's able to replenish the water. Without water you can only last about three days. Obviously you can go much longer without food. The point is that Donner would have been in rough shape by the time Mathis got to him, even without the explosion. I actually felt like the episode could have used the sense of urgency this detail would have provided. As it is, like with many open world games, leisurely exploration is allowed even though narratively the situation is urgent.