I’m in a bit of a pickle. I feel like I’m missing out on some of the best stories in gaming right now, but I just can’t bring myself to pay for a game that I don’t think that I’ll want to come back to. There has been a big increase in the amount of episodic game series and linear, story-rich, interactive adventures coming out for PC and for consoles, and I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. Games like The Walking Dead, Tales From the Borderlands, and Game of Thrones require that you dish out $5 for a couple hours of gameplay, or alternatively around $25 for a season pass . Obviously there are plenty of you who think that these games are well worth the price, otherwise studios like Telltale Games wouldn’t be able to do what they do. My only issue, and maybe this is something you can help me to understand, is I can’t imagine spending money to fill my library with games that I’ll only want to play through once.
I’ve dipped my toe into the water, but it still seems a little too cold to jump in. Telltale Games offered the first episode of Tales From the Borderlands for free, and I jumped at the opportunity to see what all the fuss is about. Did I enjoy myself? Yes, absolutely I did. Telltale knows what it’s doing: the narrative was lucid and entertaining, the quick time events were involved and felt consequential, and the characters were believable and had good chemistry. I was interested, I tensed up, I laughed; a good time was had by all. But then it was over, and pretty quickly. Would I have felt duped after dropping $5 for the experience? No, I don’t think so, but I’m not really sure that I want to spend $25 for the remaining episodes, especially if I was asked to spend that money for a season pass early on, and had to wait for months at a time to play through the whole story.
I did pay to play through Dear Esther . If you’re unfamiliar with the game, it’s basically the spiritual predecessor to Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture ; some people don’t call it a game at all. It’s a walking simulator. Sounds dull as hell, right? I spent three hours walking through a beautifully rendered island while a vague narrative unfolded bit by bit as the narrator dictated letters he had written to his wife. It’s a gorgeous game, and the story is heart-wrenching and thought-provoking. If you go to some gaming forums and look it up, you’ll find some seriously deep debates on the meaning behind the letters and the game’s ending. I’m glad I experienced that story, but the bottom line is that I spent ten bucks on something that I’ll likely soon remove from my Steam library because I have no reason to go back to it. At least with Tales From the Borderlands and other Telltale Games there’s a possibility that making different decisions might affect the story on a subsequent playthrough.
I’m not sure why, but it seems strange to me to pay for a game that I’ll only want to experience once. I told myself that I would wait for these games to go on sale, but when Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture got discounted on the PSN store, I still couldn’t bring myself to buy it. I demand replay value from my games. Still, I can’t help but feel somewhat isolated when everyone is talking about Life is Strange and The Walking Dead . Right now I’m planning on getting my story fix when I play through SOMA for Halloween, but where do you stand on paying for these movie-length gaming experiences? Do any of you regret buying into a season pass? Should I go buy Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture right now? I don’t think it’s worth it, but I’m willing to be persuaded.