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Thimbleweed Park [split topic]

Started by Steven, April 17, 2017, 10:40:37 PM

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Steven

Thimbleweed Park has finally been released.

Launch Trailer

Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick's retro 80s Adventure Game, looks like a lot of fun

Bazooka

Why KOTOR 3(yes Bioware develop it) has not been made is probably the biggest mystery in computer game history.

Mister Six

Quote from: Steven on April 17, 2017, 10:40:37 PM
Thimbleweed Park has finally been released.

Launch Trailer

Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick's retro 80s Adventure Game, looks like a lot of fun

Note appearances from Maniac Mansion and Zak McKracken characters in the background when Ransome goes on stage...
Spoiler alert
Dr Fred and Edna to the left, and possibly Dave and his girlfriend, I can't remember her name; and at the back on the right, ZakMcKracken, the lass in the 贫困sweater (Annie?)and one of the alien mindbenders.
[close]

Dolly Clackett

Quote from: Mister Six on April 18, 2017, 03:57:50 PM
Note appearances from Maniac Mansion and Zak McKracken characters in the background when Ransome goes on stage...
Spoiler alert
Dr Fred and Edna to the left, and possibly Dave and his girlfriend, I can't remember her name; and at the back on the right, ZakMcKracken, the lass in the 贫困sweater (Annie?)and one of the alien mindbenders.
[close]

Yep and there's plenty of similar call backs throughout.
Spoiler alert
Dave and Sandy run the local burger bar, and Edna's put her number up in the men's toilet if anyone needs er, medical assistance. Also the kitchen and hallway of the mansion is very familiar
[close]
.

I enjoyed it for the most part
Spoiler alert
but felt massively underwhelmed by the ending, which felt like a cop out. I'd rather they just did a straight murder mystery rather than 'It's all a game!'. However from having a quick look around I appear to be in a minority on that one.
[close]

popcorn

Right, just finished this. Spoiler tags don't work on the new forum apparently so WATCH OUT!! An assortment of random thoughts, gotta put em somewhere:

Adventure games never had any design discipline. As much as I loved them, there was no sense, no logic, barely any proper pacing. In fact, in retrospect, I reckon game design wasn't really invented in the west until Half-Life, when Valve realised the power of playtesting and iteration. (I think Nintendo had it figured out earlier than that.) Thimbleweed Park is exactly like that, and having read some forum posts and podcasts from Ron Gilbert and the team, I'm convinced that none of them really knew what the fuck they were doing, then or now. It's just a giant sack of random crap.

OK, it's a murder mystery. But it undermines its own premise even before the game begins, with the trailer tagline "A dead body is the least of your problems". That doesn't pique my interest, it kills it. The cop characters actually say, repeatedly, something like "I need to solve this murder so I can focus on my secret agenda." It's like, don't fucking tell me that. I'm trying to solve a murder here. You're not intriguing me, you're undermining me. If you want to get weird, get weird, but do it later, gradually, not immediately.

The cop thing doesn't work. It's not like Monkey Island, where Guybrush is this "mighty pirate" who no one's scared of. What do you mean, I have to trade something for your bloodstained wallet? I'm a cop. You're under a-fucking-rest. Look at my badge. Why can't I show him my badge? Why won't you search the dumpster for the murder weapon? What do you mean, it's gross? There's been a murder for God's sake. Where's the forensics team, anyway?

There are so many characters. For a start, the cops are the same character, to the point of having 99% identical dialogue, so why have two of them in the first place? The other characters seem to be in different games entirely. There's a filler ghost, who has completely different rules from everyone else, a geek girl, and Krusty the Clown. (Since when has *beeping* instead of swearing been funny again, by the way? When was it ever funny?) It's totally incoherent, and implementing all those different playable characters must have hoovered up a massive chunk of development. To what end?

I kept thinking I wanted them to play it straight, at least initially. Let me be an FBI cop and make it actually about solving a murder. I mean, still have it be funny, let it have a personality, but take it seriously. By the end nothing makes sense. Where did the sheriff go and why were all three of them Ned Flanders? Who was murdered, why, and by who? "Those things are metaphors," says Ron in some podcast. Like fuck they are. You're not David Lynch, mate, you're just confused, you're making it all up.

So by the end of it I was proper sick of it all, but then actually I loved the ending, I loved the fourth wall shit. It was such a massive change I found it refreshing and eerie. I wish the whole game had been something else entirely, but I at least liked the eerie wireframe world.