I've been playing Tiny Tina's Wonderland for the last couple of nights and it's a really enjoyable co-op game, which is great because me and Aimee have been wanting to play something good together.
After finishing Lost, I suggested we spend an hour or so doing some gaming after Kaleb goes to sleep. Rather than spending an hour watching stuff, I'd rather do something like that and she agreed.
Going Into This
I went into this game with the vague memory of having fun playing it as a group of four when they had a free-play weekend. One thing I didn't recall was the sheer amount of talking in this game.
Is it just this one, or modern gaming in general, this seems to be a growing trend in a few things I'm seeing lately. It's like characters just talk, and talk, and talk some more, but they aren't actually saying anything.
Well... they are saying something, well, lots of things, but of the bulk of their dialogue I'd say 10% is chuckle-worthy, while the other 90% just has us rolling our eyes and saying, "Get on with it!"
Less Is More
Controlled and concise dialogue is the key to believable writing. You don't spout off 3 paragraphs of rambling musings, and random "banter" to be funny.
Maybe they're trying to ensure that every character's "character" is able to shine, and the only way they're able to do that is by going on, and on, and on endlessly.
To me, it feels as though there is no editor, and the writer(s) are allowed to just do whatever the hell they want.
I was thinking maybe it's the Borderlands style, but thinking back to Borderlands 1, I don't remember this random non-sensical writing style. I recall dialogue being wacky, or whatever, but it wasn't just mindless babble.
Borderlands 3 suffered from the same issue as this game, and I've played a few games over the years where the characters just don't know when to shut the hell up.
One character being a babbling nut, yeah, okay, each person has a voice, and that's a good thing. But, every single character is like that? Come on.
I literally zone out multiple times per quest because I just can't handle it. I just want to shoot some stuff and get some loot, stop talking and just let me get on with it.
If dialogue is punchy, and to the point while also being interesting with many unique voices, I'll hang on to every word, but this sort of writing just screams amateur or class clown.
Also, I feel that it's rigged, because the game itself is funny in a mad fantasy/ random kind of way, and it seems like trying to criticize the writing style would be met with shoulder shrugs and the response, "It's just a crazy game, why are you thinking too much about it?" or, "that's the style we're going for, get over it."
Any response like that to criticism is a piss poor excuse for being incompetent and lazy, IMO.
It reminds me of Mass Effect. Now to preface, I'm a huge ME fan, I love them all, and even powered through Andromada and ignored most of its issues. But, ME 1 is such a slog to get through, even for a fan who revisited it after many years. Getting to ME 2, there is a major shift where the dialogue became punchy and to the point, which completely boosted my entire experience with the game and literally made me fall in love with the franchise all over again.
There are tidbits of funny dialogue, and the odd chuckle or moments of amused bewilderment by some of the things said, but the majority of the time I find myself zoning out and waiting for the next quest marker to appear so I can carry on with the game. I don't want to stand around for 5 minutes while some writer who thinks they're funny waterboards me with incessant drivel.
Other than that, the gameplay and gunplay are good, I love the setting and it has been fun getting back into a good co-op game.