Producer Says Dead Island is More Borderlands than Heavy Rain

[Logan Westbrook]

Producer Says Dead Island is More Borderlands than Heavy Rain

People are apparently getting the wrong idea about Dead Island, thanks in no small part to the game's trailer.

The evocative trailer for Techland's upcoming Dead Island trailer garnered plenty of attention when it appeared online [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/107826-Dead-Island-The-Best-Zombie-Game-Trailer-Ever ] last month, but the game's producer, Sebastian Reichert , said that any comparisons to emotional and cinematic games like Heavy Rain are a little off the mark.

Reichert said that the team was actually a little dismayed that people were comparing the game to Heavy Rain, as although they thought it was a fantastic experience, it was about as far from what Dead Island was like as you could get. Reichert said that he was hesitant to even call Heavy Rain a game at all, as it played out more like a movie. He even joked that he had seen DVD menus more complex than Heavy Rain's gameplay. The game that Dead Island was more like, he said, was Gearbox's Borderlands, in that it used similar methods as the sci-fi shooter to keep you playing .

The Dead Island trailer - which featured sad piano music, camera trickery and the death of a little girl - did a very good job of eliciting emotion from those who saw it, and it's not surprising that people would make comparisons between Dead Island and more emotional games. It seems, however, that this may be proving counter-productive for Techland and publisher Deep Silver, as people might be expecting a very different game to the one they're going to deliver.

Source: CVG [http://www.computerandvideogames.com/294860/news/dead-island-nothing-like-heavy-rain-says-producer/?cid=OTC-RSS&attr=CVG-News-RSS]


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[V8 Ninja]

While I'm tempted to just stare at the screen and say "What." about a thousand times to the connection of Dead Island to Borderlands, I'm overjoyed by the fact that it's not like Heavy Rain.

 

[WrongSprite]

Meh, I'm getting tired of hearing about the game, give us some damn gameplay videos Mr. producer.

 

[DremoraValkynaz]

As long as I can dismember zombies, I couldn't care if the game was like hello kitty island adventure

 

[GeorgW]

I just don't get why they did such an artistic trailer and then not follow through. I'd have rather played the trailer game in stead of the real game, even if the real one does seem really fun. There's just something about an artistic zombie game that sounds really interesting.

 

[Mr Thin]

Well I didn't think it was going to be like Heavy Rain, but Borderlands? Seriously?

I was expecting a delicious combination of Stranded 2 & Dead Rising (1 or 2).

I'm a little let down, but I still love the trailer.

 

[Hugga_Bear]

Bit weirded out about it being similar to Borderlands, not sure how that's gonna work (hoping they don't mean innumerate weapons with weird stats too...wouldn't really fit...)
Still, glad it's not Heavy Rain esque. I liked that game but I don't think a straight out zombie game would work with it's style.

 

[New Troll]

Not into zombies so much, but this game had me intrigued. But now not so much. Borderlands bored the hell out of me.

I was expecting a delicious combination of Stranded 2 & Dead Rising (1 or 2).

Yeah this is what I was expecting also. Oh well, would have been nice.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

What's that?

Is that the sound of someone backing off from the point of the trailer, or is it the droves of people who would have bought it sighing in disappointment?

Oh dear....what a shame. Perhaps the idea of exploitative marketing should have been explained?

 

[mooncalf]

I just don't get why they did such an artistic trailer and then not follow through. I'd have rather played the trailer game in stead of the real game, even if the real one does seem really fun.

C'mon, played forward instead of backward along with a little pulse-pounding funk rock that trailer would have fit in right next door to Left For Dead's if not Dead Rising. I'm not saying it didn't contain the work of artists, but tonally it could be taken either way, couldn't it?

 

[Adzma]

People thought Heavy Rain? Damn, I instantly thought Left4Dead.

 

[SamElliot'sMustache]

While not being like Heavy Rain is definitely a plus, the Borderlands comparison doesn't exactly inspire much confidence (both games were pretty hollow experiences). In any case, I had a feeling that the trailer, amazing as it was, was selling a game that Techland wasn't going to deliver.

 

[GeorgW]

I just don't get why they did such an artistic trailer and then not follow through. I'd have rather played the trailer game in stead of the real game, even if the real one does seem really fun.

C'mon, played forward instead of backward along with a little pulse-pounding funk rock that trailer would have fit in right next door to Left For Dead's if not Dead Rising. I'm not saying it didn't contain the work of artists, but tonally it could be taken either way, couldn't it?

Of course if you change it around it isn't the same. The music set the whole tone and the backwards thing was impactful. I really liked the music. But it's just the idea of an emotional zombie game, the mélange is delicious!

 

[Trogdor1138]

A DVD Menu more complicated than Heavy Rains gameplay? Show me this DVD menu, it sounds amazing.

To all the people who played through Heavy Rain and complained about the gameplay, have you ever played a Point and click adventure?

Anyways, this was a cinematic trailer so I have no idea why people thought of such things, but if it's like Borderlands that's a plus.

 

[michael87cn]

This is why CGI intros/trailers to games should be done away with in exchange for actual gameplay.

They're neat little 60-90 second movies, but they don't accurately relay (to the gamer/customer/player) what the game is.

Here's an example of a company that gets it right with their trailers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYZpR51XgW0

*Skip to 1:25 to bypass the commercial part of it.

 

[uppitycracker]

From what I've read about hands on experience with the game, it's apparently been compared to a mix of several different games, Heavy Rain never being one of them. Cannot wait for this game to come out!

 

[Yossarian1507]

Ugh. I'm sick of those 'it's more like a movie than a game' comments about Heavy Rain. I understand the internet, but come ON Mr. Reichert! As a game designer yourself, you should know that making a game and making a movie are two different things, and guys at Quantic Dream made hell of a hard job to make this game happen. So what it went for the movie-like looks? You move your character around with a controller. You make your character perform actions and speak with a controller. You're even given a freedom of choice, not many other games can give you (that would be Alpha Protocol, The Witcher, the old Blade Runner adventure game, and... That about wraps it up, despite Dragon Age's II latest efforts). As far as I know - that's the way of the GAME (you just lost it, btw), not a movie. Thank you.

About the news itself - it's not really much of a news to me. Techland as a Polish developer gave a few peeks on Dead Island for polish gaming magazines about a a year before it making any fuss on the internet, so I knew from the start that it's just another zombie game (although neatly looking).

 

[Suskie]

I love how the fact that Heavy Rain was entirely story-centric means it's now the poster boy of video game storytelling, as if there weren't countless games out there with better, more imaginative stories.

I'm sick of hearing about Dead Island, honestly. Yes, the trailer was excellent, but it also didn't tell us anything about the game. Now there's endless talk over a game we know nothing about.

 

[michael87cn]

I love how the fact that Heavy Rain was entirely story-centric means it's now the poster boy of video game storytelling, as if there weren't countless games out there with better, more imaginative stories.

I'm sick of hearing about Dead Island, honestly. Yes, the trailer was excellent, but it also didn't tell us anything about the game. Now there's endless talk over a game we know nothing about.

Not exactly true. We know there will be zombies, and now we know it will be a multiplayer roleplaying game somehow.