Producer Says Dead Island is More Borderlands than Heavy Rain

[gibboss28]

Wait a minute, what people were expecting it to be like Heavy Rain, based on a single video, that shows very little about the actual game?

 

[Marik2]

Fuck you Deep Silver/Techland.

You release a trailer that tugs the strings of people's hearts everywhere. It looked like it would take the zombie concept further into the story of a survivor, how people really would react in an emergency situation. It doesn't have to be Heavy Rain, why the hell would it? It draws some parallels, sure, but then again you're the ones who made it.

You are all disgusting. You used the death of a little girl to promote your game through both emotional appeal and shocking appeal. You paint your game as a somber tale, that it would go into the situations of a zombie emergency that, if done right, could be very interesting. You don't just make a trailer like that and immediately go "Oh! Yeah, dude, we're totally going to make it, like, Borderlands and shit, dude!".

Screw you, Deep Silver/Techland, for screwing with us and manipulating the public.

Geoff Keighley was right. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv-SQc6LA2E&feature=player_embedded#at=174]

[sup]I know we haven't seen gameplay of it, but if the game was nothing like the trailer then they shouldn't have made it so.[/sup]

I agree with you, I thought it was gonna be a zombie game with emotional meaning to it.

 

[StarkillerisDead]

Well, it was fun while it lasted. A zombie game exploring the human tragedy of a zombie apocalypse in a heart-wrenching way apparently only makes sense in my little world.

Instead, co-op! Lots of guns! Repetititive enemies and bosses! No story!
Seriously Techland you guys had me, but now I guess I'll go get something else.

 

[Zayren]

Soooo...

The entire purpose of the trailer was to make controversy? Just like I said?

Score one for me.

Aaaand you lost me. I was looking foward to some character and heart in a zombie game, not a bunch of stat menus and hours of grinding.

Wow, that sounds exactly like Borderlands to me!

 

[StarkillerisDead]

Woah woah woah, hold your horses there. I think what they meant is that many people likened it to a mostly cinematic experience rather than a gameplay heavy game, like Heavy Rain.

That doesn't mean it won't be emotional, or tug at your heart strings, or be a sombre tale. It just isn't going to do that by making 90% of the game a movie. By the looks of it, you're playing a family man trying to protect his family, and it doesn't have the quirkiness that Dead Rising does.

I dunno man, they did compare it to Borderlands.

 

[Baresark]

Holy crap, did people actually compare it to Heavy Rain?!? That would have been the most boring zombie game EVAR!!!! Borderlands was fun if not a bit short lived.

snip

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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!

I'd have to agree, a game that creates an experience that is maybe, I don't know, akin to Left 4 Dead but focusing on the more emotional aspect of your fellow human beings being turned into shambling monsters that only want to eat you...THAT is the zombie game I want to play.

I think you have been watching too much Extra Credits =P

For real though, I don't think you could make that into a fun game, it's plenty hard to make it into a good book, or a good movie. I would imagine, though the game will be completely different in nature, you should check out the Walking Dead game coming from Tell Tale studios. I have my doubts about it because of the style of game they normally make, but since the comic is so impactful, and they managed to really carry that over into the show, that will be your ticket.

 

[Grimh]

Wait, that was a game trailer?

I thought it was a short movie!

 

[beefpelican]

Color me highly disappointed, but not surprised. Bungie and Microsoft have mastered the art of "trailer that's better than the game", at least in tone/story. In particular, Halo: ODST's commercial says so much without any dialog at all (at least, comprehensible dialog), and yet the game's writing and story is just meh.

It's just another studio that teased everyone with providing an emotional impact on the player they've never experienced before in an interactive medium, and then... WHOOPS! That's not how our game plays at all! You just tear shit up and have fun as a bad ass! Isn't that great?

No, it's not great. I'm sick of it, in fact.

All the Gears of War trailers too. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy me some bad ass up tearing of shit. It's just that I'd like to see a game the trailer for Dead Island or Gears of War or ODST advertises at least once. Maybe if all of the trailer writers got together and wrote the game, instead of just the trailer, then it would be worthwhile.

 

[felixader]

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?

Yeah too bad. Sigh.

Was really hoping for something special.

 

[Flauros]

"In fact, FUCK Heavy Rain. Heavy Rain can go jump in a puddle of DOG SHIT.

In closing, no its not like Heavy Rain"

 

[Astalano]

Please don't tell me this is going to be another artistically irrelevant zombie game.

 

[Corven]

I sooo called this back in that thread about this game getting a movie deal.

I'll laugh if the game turns out to not be in any way deep or compelling as that trailer makes it out to be.

and here I am laughing and laughing.

 

[jokulhaups]

People saw that trailer and compared this game to Heavy Rain? I mean I suppose there is a child and parents and the potential death of said child, which while important in Heavy Rain is far from being the most dominating part of the game.

Otherwise, the trailer does look interesting.

 

[Jumplion]

Said this at the time. Got shot down for it. "How can you know?"

Simple. As Dr. House would say, "People lie."

While I know we haven't seen any gameplay footage of it, and thus we can't really decide what the tone is for the game, I take back my opposition to your stance. I'm cautiously pessimistic about this game now.

Hoooo there. They haven't said exactly which Borderlands elements they're going to use...
...
It's not like using Borderlands elements suddenly makes it a near-slapstick loot-whoring game. It better not...

However, it does sound rather odd, I'll give you that.

I agree that I may have jumped some guns, but that doesn't make me any more favorable to this game. I don't call for games to be serious, do whatever you want with the game, but all this interview tells me is that Deep Silver/Techland produced the trailer for notoriety, and that just sickens me. I would love to be proven wrong, I absolutely encourage it, but if it's the opposite of what it showed then I doubt I'll be getting this game.

Also, it's more likely than you think. [http://ps3.ign.com/articles/115/1153519p1.html] That's what started those alarm bells for me.

Woah woah woah, hold your horses there. I think what they meant is that many people likened it to a mostly cinematic experience rather than a gameplay heavy game, like Heavy Rain.

That doesn't mean it won't be emotional, or tug at your heart strings, or be a sombre tale. It just isn't going to do that by making 90% of the game a movie. By the looks of it, you're playing a family man trying to protect his family, and it doesn't have the quirkiness that Dead Rising does.

I find it funny that I got two "Whoa whoa, dude!"'s

Anyway, that's not what I got from the interview. He went on to say "Heavy Rain is practically a movie!" obviously referencing it's QTE style of gameplay, so it doesn't look like he even knows why people were (supposedly) comparing the game to this (hint; the trailer showed a dark, moody, sombre story. Heavy Rain, whether successful or not, presented a dark, moody, sombre story).

And it's been confirmed that you will play one of a few different characters, or classes if you will. 4 player co-op, open world, RPG elements for upgrading stuff (Wikipedia). The IGN article I think details it better.

I agree with you, I thought it was gonna be a zombie game with emotional meaning to it.

Just to clarify, I don't mind crazy, whacky games with zombies in them, that's just great. What pisses me off the most is that these guys pump out a depressing, somber trailer that gets everybody worked up over this game. Now, from what I'm getting in this, it's like they're taking that all back and going "Yo, dudes, it'll be fun and whacky like Borderlands, don't worry! It's not like the shitty movi- I mean, game that Heavy Rain was!" I'm pretty sure that's a Red Herring, but whatever. That's just disgusting how they used the buzz from the trailer, with a child getting killed, to promote their game.

I would absolutely love to be proven wrong on all of these grievances, I truly would.

Nobody was comparing this game to Heavy Rain, and if they were it was because it was going for the same type of story! Of course nobody wants Heavy Rain+Zombies, that'd be stupid, but if it's a Heavy Rain-esque story (as in dark, mature, sombre, whatever) with zombies in it that could totally break some new ground in the tired out genre. I have no idea if they're going to do that, but this news doesn't make me any more optimistic than I am now.

 

[Jumplion]

Finally, when did people start assuming that TV spots reflected the games tone and feel accurately? Gears of War did this exact same shit, to great effect, back in 2006, with what I consider to be the coolest video game commercial ever:

Spoiler

You make an interesting point, but I think there are some key differences with this. The biggest one, I think, is that the Dead Island trailer showed a little girl getting killed and then killing her parents, all shown in vivid detail, the horror on the parent's faces, and the blood splashing absolutely everywhere. With this one, you see the destruction, but you don't see anyone getting maimed or slaughtered, just a guy running from a threat, and you can still tell that it's pretty action-y with the gunfire n' all. That was still a good commercial, at the time at least.

 

[moosek]

Why would anyone get the impression that Dead Island would be serious and dramatic? If they had an add that resembled the final two minutes of a TV hit drama series, and released a product that resembled a shitty Dead Rising rip-off, that'd be bait and switch.

 

[RevRaptor]

Am I the only one that thinks the people judging this game by this one trailer are retards?
The trailer shows no game play whatsoever. I don't see any problem with this game being similar to borderlands. What they are trying to make is a game with strong single player and multilayer modes that tie in with each other borderlands style (I think, details are still fuzzy). I for one am going to do the common sense thing and wait for more details before I form an opinion on this game.

 

[darkmushroomm]

So let me get this straight people compared Dead Island to Heavy Rain because it's emotional?

 

[Jumplion]

Am I the only one that thinks the people judging this game by this one trailer are retards?
The trailer shows no game play whatsoever. I don't see any problem with this game being similar to borderlands. What they are trying to make is a game with strong single player and multilayer modes that tie in with each other borderlands style (I think, details are still fuzzy). I for one am going to do the common sense thing and wait for more details before I form an opinion on this game.

A trailer may not show gameplay, but it does give the idea of what the company is trying to do with the game they have. You don't make a wacky, over the top trailer for a dark, sombre movie, and you don't make a depressing and shocking trailer (they killed a kid in it) for an over-the-top game. Especially when that over-the-top game is most likely going to be yet another zombie game with standard blood and guts.

 

[Plurralbles]

dont 'make cool, artsy trailers then if you aren't going to make a cool, artsy game.

Starcraft II was guilty of this but it SC is so popular that people weren't confused at all.