spoilers Final Tale

[hozz1235]

I guess my overall opinion is, "meh".  Seemed shorter than the rest.  Plot seems shallow.  Yes, more background is given, which is nice.  

Spoiler

Perhaps it's just me, but you have the foreman (hired killer) tracking down Rudiger.  Rudiger is attempting to flee the area so he first goes to the weather station, then down to the cabin, then up to the basement, climb up the mountain, then all the way back to bunker Omega?  Why go back to Omega?

If you believe I'm being overly critical or missing some key story pieces, please enlighten me.

Edited June 27 by hozz1235

[Kayosiv]

I think the real issue is why do I, or my character in-game, care about any of this?

Some guys did some stuff and died a long time ago. Cool. Does this affect me in any way? No? Hmmmm.

It is absolutely wonderful to have things to do and mysteries to solve. At the end though, I don't feel like I learned anything meaningful.

[hozz1235]

11 minutes ago, Kayosiv said:

I think the real issue is why do I, or my character in-game, care about any of this?

Some guys did some stuff and died a long time ago. Cool. Does this affect me in any way? No? Hmmmm.

It is absolutely wonderful to have things to do and mysteries to solve. At the end though, I don't feel like I learned anything meaningful.

Spoiler

Got some tactical gear though.

 

[Serenity]

I like the overall gameplay of the tales. Except the going back to Forsaken Airfield (possibly twice if you do the tales strictly in order). Gives me something to do and some of the loot is very nice.

The story is meh though. There are some interesting things here and there, but we never learn what the purpose of the machine was. There is just too much mystery and no payoff in the story.

[PilgrimReaper]

11 hours ago, Serenity said:

The story is meh though. There are some interesting things here and there, but we never learn what the purpose of the machine was. There is just too much mystery and no payoff in the story.

My impression as well. This isn't a story with some "intentional plot holes" / mystery elements, it's what feels like the sketch of an outline.

I think I read somewhere that all this would somehow tie back to Wintermute? Would be nice if so, if whatever we learned in Ep 5 did bring context to what we encountered in the tales.

[Veskaida]

Quote

I think I read somewhere that all this would somehow tie back to Wintermute?

I think I remember the opposite from one of Raph's Youtube videos on the official Hinterlands channel, that TFTFT's story would be independent of Wintermute's, and would be it's own self-contained story.

 

I'm a big fan of TLD and think it's one of the best survival games of the past decade. TLD's setting in particular stands out, as does it's slow-burning gameplay, and environmental storytelling. Personally I don't mind the story for TFTFT (or Wintermute)'s story in general; my favorites are Wintermute episode 3 and Tales episode Part 2; I quite like most of the banter in Ep3, and basically all the Tales2 Rutiger/Security Chief bits. I think there's a lot of interesting contextual worldbuilding too in Zone of Contamination, like the various paper notes scattered about, which one can infer information/events (like that e.g. the Helicopter message didn't make it out). I quite like all of the maps in TFTFT, they're all unique visually and mechanically, though my favorite map is probably Airfield.

If there's one thing I'm not a fan of about the story of TLD thus far, it's the over-abundance of "mystery box"-style of storytelling. I love mysteries, detective novels, the "Lost" TV show, etc. but I think there should be more of a balance in most kinds of media between expanding/opening new mysteries and closing/developing existing ones.

But here's a list of extant mysteries in Wintermute and TFTFT from my understanding, unless I"m missing something.

Spoiler Alert for Wintermute and Tales From The Far Territory

Spoiler

• What is "Wintermute"/who is Atwood what they're doing on Great Bear

• What caused the aurora

• Why wildlife goes berserk during the aurora (maybe answered by TFTFT)

• What happened to Will/Astrids child

• Why Will/Astrid broke up

• Why Astrid quit Seraphim

• Why there's a disease in Perseverance Mills

• Why Astrid has a connection to Great Bear Island/Perseverance Mills/the disease

• What's in Astrid's case

• Who Jeremiah is/why he's on Great Bear

• What the signal repeaters on Great Bear are for (maybe answered by TFTFT)

• What Rutiger's mission/goals were/why he was so willing to sacrifice teammembers for this goal

• Why Foreman was out to kill Rutiger, who "The Company" is/their goals/why they wanted Rutiger dead.

 

 

Edited June 28 by Veskaida

[ManicManiac]

[[[sentence voluntarily removed, at the request of a poster who found it objectionable]]]
The way I see it, the Tales have been a means of expanding on the environmental storytelling and world building that we'd found on Great Bear Island over the years.

I think that those who like digging for lore will know what I mean.  

Edited June 28 by ManicManiac

[PilgrimReaper]

2 hours ago, ManicManiac said:

I think several folks may be missing the point (so-to-speak).
The way I see it, the Tales have been a means of expanding on the environmental storytelling and world building that we'd found on Great Bear Island over the years.

I think that those who like digging for lore will know what I mean.  

Care to elaborate, for the rest of us? 😉 

[ManicManiac]

1 hour ago, PilgrimReaper said:

Care to elaborate, for the rest of us? 😉 

There are several places where there have been lore/environmental storytelling lightly sprinkled that can be read as clues as to events that occurred.  Such as a body, where it's positioned, what's around it... we have the opportunity to try and intuit little stories around how we think things ended up how they did.  And that's just most noticeable examples.  Sometimes we may find things like "point of disagreement" and the scene staged and even just the name given can suggest the echos of what happened there.

Other bits like Buffer Memories, some notes left behind, journal pages, etc... also are there to flesh out some of the history of Great Bear Island and a little bit of some of the folks who lived there.  Another example are little things like the notes referring to the Great Collapse.  Again, not really directly relevant to Wintermute...but rather just provides more context for what life had been like for folks on Great Bear Island in the past.

So... to my mind, the Tales have been a wonderful extension that sort of storytelling.  Instead of just one spot with little bits of lore, we have trails to follow, and some new things to find.  Perhaps not all directly related to Wintermute, and perhaps not a fully fleshed out story (with a three-act structure, elaborate plot, or deep character development), but I believe they were meant to be.  It just seems to me (as I mentioned), the Tales have been a means of expanding on the environmental storytelling and world building that we'd found on Great Bear Island over the years.

Edited June 28 by ManicManiac

[RossBondReturns]

Actually I believe the events of Tales do do something to us....and I'm not just talking metaphorically and with cool gear.

In buried echoes we find the machine...and we examine it...and it powers up and knocks out out.

What does it do to US? There's plenty of possibilities there.

[Gentle_Ben]

Love it! Love it heaps!
Love it even more thanks to the new mechanics! Mad respect and gratitude to HL. 
 

I have just noticed how passionate this community is. Wow intense! What resonates for me is that TLD is an anchor-point in the lives of many folks, who in a painful world of trauma and chaos immerse in this beautiful game world for refuge. My supportive encouragement to everyone at HL Studios sounds like this -

 

“Hold compassionate space for the loud and hurting part of this community, you didn’t cause their pain, yet they trust you with it. It’s a brave and privileged journey you are all on, developing this game, and it is serving so many people. Thank you for this evolving masterpiece, don’t give up on your vision!

Yours faithfully,

One of the many quiet ones, surviving the quite apocalypse.”

 

u/snowly_does_it