My Feedback on Wintermute thus far

[MavByte]

Hi there. 
I know I'm late to the party for such a post, but i still wanted to give some Feedback:

Overall: I loved the Story of Wintermute thus far. I also used the opportunity of having the time capsule, so i played the Original Episode 1 & 2 as well, so i want to give my personal opinion to those as well. :)

(oh and just in Advance: English's not my native language. So if there are some false phrasings or so, my apologies!)

Episode 1 (Original & Redux):

I played both version and.. to be honest I'm not quite sure which version i like more. Some part of me tend to favour the original version over the Redux-one. I'd even go thus far to say: I'd like to mix the Original Episode 1 with the Redux one.
Especially the start after the crash, when you have to survive for several days in that gorge, and after that Blizzard the Tree fell over and gave you the opportunity to climb out of that hole.. I personally loved that experience a lot more, especially since the game directed you a bit more clearly through the mechanics via tutorial-popups. In the Redux-Version those hints were just at the side of the screen and you had to hit another button to read up those hints. I was new to TLD and didn't focus as much on things that were at the side of my screen as on those that were right in front of me. So as for the introduction to the mechanics for new players, the Original version was a definitive Plus for me. Same goes for the frozen Clothing that you were finding early on, like Mackenzie's Parker. The game effecively showed me what would happen, if clothings were frozen.
As for another point why i liked that idea of being stuck in that gorge for several days: When we arrive in Milton and hear all that stuff about a school burned, yelling, etc and a womans voice.. that is A LOT of stuff that happened. So a few days between the crash and our arrival in Milton would make sense for all that stuff to happen while Astrid would be in Milton, experiencing said stuff and escape through the bus/tunnel.
Another thing: the route to Milton. "To me personally" it felt a bit too convenient that we crashed right next to the town and the way to town was that short. Yes: the route over the northern street in the original was extremly dangerous back then, but the wolf mechanic was another at the time. So the same scenario of the original episode 1 with the newer mechanics.. would propably be less dangerous. But in the original there was a feel of desperation.. of hopelessness, when i walked that long street at night and was looking for food and shelter and there were always some wolves around. THAT was exciting to me. And i LOVED it!
Regarding the Grey Mother: I noticed that some parts of her story were cut from her dialogue on the Redux-Version. And i thought it to be a shame, since knowing that the farmers corpse was her husband, and that they fought because of their dead daughter Lilly.. it hit quite differently, knowing, that Will & Astrid were married as well and maybe fought about something.. maybe a dead child? We don't quite know for sure.. it felt like some sort of connection between those characters, between those storys.
On the other hand: Yes, I like the addition of the convict, i like the addition of Methusela in the Orca Gas Station, etc.. but I'm missing some more parts of the original Episode 1 in the Redux version. That's why I'd like to have a mix between those two versions.

Episode 2 (Original & Redux):

Again: I'd like to have a Mix-version between Original & Redux. I especially like the entire Update on the Bear-Story and the Spear. But I think we spent to little time with Jeremiah. He was like a second tutorial who told you about all those plants you can use and.. I like it, when Tutorials are build into dialogue. Kinda reminds a bit of Gothic, all kinds of hints, tipps etc. built into dialogue.
When I was playing Episode 2 Redux for the first time, I began to be worried, that I'd get too much equipment, that the rest of the game would be too easy, since i got all that cool equipment already, the rifle, LOTS of ammo.. and i thought to myseld: "What's gonna stop me now?" Luckily Ep.3&4 would ease those worries.
I actually like the entire idea of the bear, but i would've liked it even more, if his appearance wasn't just scripted, but the bear would roam across the regions at random and you'd be able to run into him at any moment. That would've kept me a bit more at my toes. Oh and before i forget it: MAN! Did I got a heartattack, when the bear suddenly appeared behind me and attacked me: I was thinking to myself: "What!? Did I do something wrong? Where did he came from!?" But I was kinda relieved, when the bear was dragging me away and i realized, that it was scripted.. I personally would've like it if we'd be able to travel back to Jeremiah by ourselved and pick up all our lost equipment on our way back. We could've a story-injury, kinda like after the crash in Original Episode 1, that we cannot treat and have to deal with till a certain point (arriving back at Jeremiah's place and resting there).
And this cliffhanger with Mathis... damn! He's one charismatic a**hole.. :D

Episode 3:
Some people love it, some people don't.. 
I kinda have mixed feelings about that one: 
First of all: I liked to experience what Astrid was going through in the meantime. That included, that I had to start from scratch again. As before mentioned: I was a bit scared at the end of episode 2, that I would be a bit "overpowered" with all that equipment that i already had. So changing character was one way to get rid of that feel of "being overpowered". 
What I did not like was: Pleasent Valley was A LOT(!) of walking.. A LOT.. without much or even anything happening between those tracks from A to B. Especially when it came to the part of rescueing those survivors and bringing 'em to Thomsons Crossing. Overall i like the IDEA of rescuing other people and take care of 'em, but i think there could've been done much more. All we had to take care of was, that they stay warm and hydrated.
When i first arrived at the crash site of Pleasent Valley and saw, that there was someone still living, i knew that we'd have to rescue 'em. I was already wondering why there was SO MUCH clothing around and I spent some time to look for the best ones that i don't need, repaired those... and I've been a bit disappointd, that I wasn't able to cover 'em in more clothings so that they'd stay warm or I'd be able to feed 'em to keep 'em from starvation.
So in terms of the rescue-mechanics.. it was a bit of a let-down. And this is no small part of that episode. It's actually a big chunk.. together with the before mentioned: WALKING.
So to me: Episode 3 has (in my opinion) a lot of unused potential.

Episode 4:
"Brutal deadly cold... How I've missed you.."
BOOM! I love that episode! So much variety! And as mentioned with Episode 2 & 3: Since Mackenzie had been captured, of course all his stuff from Ep1&2 would be gone! Get rid of that "overpowered"-feel! 
The prison, the ravines, the mine, the power plant.. I loved the variety in this area. But to me the episode felt a bit too linear. Episode 4 (to me) is "almost" perfect. One little thing that was "kinda" annoying, was, that i always had to remember to stash away my stuff before i get back to Mathis and his thugs. It's been a while since I played that episode the last time, but as far as I remember, there were way less side-quests than in the previous episodes.. and since it seemed so linear, maybe that's why Episode 4 felt so... short to me.
And got damn that cliffhanger! With the escape from the prison and not being able to get all our stuff we have another explanation on why we're gonna start Ep5 (again) from scratch. And I think this is GOOD, that we start every episode from scratch.
Though.. We'd have to start Ep5 with even 'less' than before, since Mathis and his thugs also strapped us from most of our clothings.. and we'd be wet.. maybe have hypothermia right from the getgo.. We propably have to take care of Jace? (If she survives.. at least I hope so.) Would be cool if we'd turn up the difficulty a bit on the last episode by collecting supplies for two now instead of just for us alone... and something within my soul doubts that this was the last we've seen of Mathis and his gang. But we'll see when Episode 5 arrives in 2024.

If i had to mention something on a personal note: Wintermute seems a bit too easy. I'd like to see another difficulty setting, with less supplies to find. Even on the highest difficulty i found so many supplies (clothings, food, ammo, tools) that i never had any problems surviving. I even went so far to do a "Bio-Adventure" so i only ate/drank stuff, that was from mother nature herself. And even then i didn't had too many problems. (Yes, even in Ep1, where we did not have a real weapon to kill stuff.)