Heavy Rain inspired gameplay

[Woodsyblue]

The Game Informer article said that the gameplay in Jurassic Park is going to be inspired by Heavy Rain.



Applying the Jurassic Park license to the storytelling systems Telltale has created in past games makes sense to a degree, but in our conversations with the team they kept coming back to Quantic Dreams’ Heavy Rain. “While our story is more linear than Heavy Rain, actions the player takes are reflected in the way the story is told,” Boyle says. “The choices the players make result in changes to the details of the story. Players will know we are paying attention to the decisions they make.”

Telltale is also heavily inspired by Heavy Rain’s gameplay mechanics. The team is still figuring out how actions are presented to the player, but Boyle says Telltale is approaching the task with “more focus on cinematic presentation of your interactions.” Expect plenty of investigating and looking around in the slower-paced gameplay sections, but when the tension escalates to life and death scrambling, the gameplay shifts from selecting destinations to immediate response.

(If you haven't read the article yet you can find it here.)

I don't own a ps3 so I've never played Heavy Rain but if they had released it on PC or 360 I'd would have picked it up in a heartbeat. (For the record I don't actually own a 360, my friend's brother works for Microsoft and they gave him one when he finished his internship and I just sort of inherited it because I have the nicest TV and game playing area of all my friends.) From what I've seen in the videos is that it looks heavy on the quick time events. Also, I hear that decisions in the game are final, like if a character dies, even a main character, they stay dead.

So what do people think of this change in direction from the more traditional adventure game formula Telltale usually employs? I for one like the idea, partly because I never got to play Heavy Rain and would like to get a taste of what the gameplay was like. I also think it would work better for a franchise like Jurassic Park were the element of danger can't be ignored.

[Sisyphus]

Telltale is also heavily inspired by Heavy Rain’s gameplay mechanics. The team is still figuring out how actions are presented to the player, but Boyle says Telltale is approaching the task with “more focus on cinematic presentation of your interactions.” Expect plenty of investigating and looking around in the slower-paced gameplay sections, but when the tension escalates to life and death scrambling, the gameplay shifts from selecting destinations to immediate response.

I basically read this to mean that the action sequences will be Heavy Rain-esque QTE's. Not sure what if any other elements they may utilize.

[Woodsyblue]

Well they also say:

“The choices the players make result in changes to the details of the story. Players will know we are paying attention to the decisions they make.”

So even if they are minor there will at least be some changes in the game depending on the choices you make, hopefully. I'd be surprised if a chaise you made in an earlier episode affected things in a later episode though but maybe Telltale will surprise us

[Hyper-Trance]

They have said it will follow Heavy Rain as an approach. Well i played the demo yesterday and i have to say a few things on this.

1) Although pretty good, The system of doing your own actions seems a tad pointless when it has to happen anyway for the game/moment/story to carry on. However the time limited actions was fantastic as it had consequences for what you did.

2) Please do not follow the same camera system and movement Heavy Rain uses, I found it to be very innoying not being able to face where you wished to look. (Also read that many others feel this way) The simple camera many games use(right and left stick movement) seem it would of been better.

3) And back to the freeform thing, Heavy Rain was the perfect example for this thread.
Example being that although it looked a big world it felt, and was very much on rails, although it was good, and following a story needs to be like that, Heavy Rain didn't really give us anything to do, Hard to explain but for example there is a road, looks like you would be able to walk it but no, you HAVE to turn left, walk about 10 steps, go down that ally, etc etc.

Do you get what i mean? Like its very very much on rails.
Many of you now will be thinking "Well der... thats what a Linear based game is" And yes i know this. BUT...

Call of Duty(example) is a Linear based game and yet it still very much allows you to move way of track to get the best results like taking cover the long way round or something. Not sooo on rails as Heavy Rain.

Wow long post, Basically what im saying is please don't follow Heavy Rain to much please. lol

(copied from another thread)

[Irishmile]

eventually I will buy Heavy rain.... I have just played the demo... regular and PS3 MOVE version.

The reason I am in no hurry is my hatred of QTE

[waroftheworlds01]

I think Heavy Rain is amazing. Sure, the controls can be considered dated. We're talking a mix of Residents Evils camera with QTE added in. But the story is awesome and they way you can play the game more than once and get not just different endings but different scenarios leading up to the end is also awesome.

[Sadonicus]

I also think they just mean QTEs like in Heavy Rain being used in the game. They said it wont be nearly as open ended and non linear like Heavy rain, just details of the story or environment would change

I hopefully will be able to play Heavy Rain soon because I really want to check out this new way of gameplay used only for better storytelling in games. And because I also hate QTEs like hell, considered them always as cheap pseudo-gameplay. I wanna see if they really work when used more varied and often and if it really feels immersive and like playing the game.

Concerning Jurassic park, I'm worried. I always wanted to hide from raptors and being chased from a T-Rex, I wanna do that in full control and not just watching it and pressing some buttons meanwhile. I really hope the action sequences wont consist ONLY in QTEs!

[coolsome]

Does this mean we will see origami dinosaurs!!

[Hyper-Trance]

Its a very good game. Wouldn't suit a JP world though to follow it to heavy.

[WARP10CK]

I still don't get this at all are we talking about quicktime events here ?

I mean press x rapidly to spray shaving cream all over the angry t-rex who's child you just kidnapped.

[Irishmile]

QTE are where you have to press the correct button at the right time to advance the action or story.

For Heavy rain they had a QTE for everything even opening doors... but they seem a little more forgiving than lets say Shenmue or God of War.

[Crispy Onion]

I just hope that Telltale doesn't try to reuse those rotating dialogue-options from Heavy Rain.
It looks so ridiculous.

[Steve2911]

Heavy Rain was one of the best games of 2010, and the fact that the idea behind it might be seen in other works (outside of Farenheit) is exciting.

I don't think they mean that the entire game will be based on QTEs, or that there'll be a million branching story lines. I think it mostly means that there'll be multiple endings based off of what seem like small choices that quickly develop and snowball.

I can't wait to see what they come up with.

[CaptainN]

I have heavy rain for the PS3 and played it out twice. I dont find it exciting at all. it's actually pretty boring. and due to you having to concentrate on the buttons shown on screen you have no time to enjoy the visual action descently.

I enjoyed farenheit and heavyrain had a fun story. but gameplay wise I would have liked a different approach that made me feel more involved.

[doodo!]

I always said that Heavy Rain had a adventure gaming genre heart/ core...

[doodo!]

Heavy Rain takes too much bull for being a button smashing game...

It's far more than people give it credit for. Yes it follows a story but it has multiple paths. There's room for human error, of course, so it's not perfect, it's still some what linear, but we do have limitations as humans and especially what we code.

The story was fantastic, and the game has several endings, but not as many as the 20 or something endings my favorite classic adventure game Blade Runner has.

I don't see the big deal with hitting defined buttons on a screen, you're contiously hitting defined buttons off screen on your controller to do whatever you're trying to do. Heavy Rain just has them on screen, it's still valid game play, it's just on screen so that they can try to make the game more functional, clear...

They don't spend hours telling you how to use the joysticks to move around...

The engine Heavy Rain uses could improve, hard to read dialogs and the inventory could be improved.

But over all the game is well done and I think a deeply misunderstood method of game play that has a future and in time with some evolution will become one of the best ways to have a computer (Xbox computer, PC computer, etc etc) gaming experience.

[Banned User]

I'm not sure how I feel about this. While I liked Heavy Rain the first time I played it. Trying to play it the second time it comes off as a boring mediocre title with a decent story and premise. The only thing that made the first experience enjoyable was the belief that what you did mattered to the story. Which it only did in really really minor ways.
I’ve never been a big fan of QTE any way. I somehow end up feeling like those experimental monkeys sitting in a lab being taught to push colored buttons in sequences.

What I want to see is true gameplay changes for your actions. Alternate solutions to puzzles and ramifications for mistakes. For instance the ability to play multiple characters who can die. In which case you have different paths through the game with the characters that remain alive.

Also it would be neat if you can switch between the characters. Like in Day of the Tentacle. That way the different characters are needed to help each other. For instance one needs to get to a panel and turn off a electric fence for another character to advance or escape a Dinosaur.

[Ribs]

Originally Posted by doodo!

Heavy Rain takes too much bull for being a button smashing game...

It's far more than people give it credit for. Yes it follows a story but it has multiple paths. There's room for human error, of course, so it's not perfect, it's still some what linear, but we do have limitations as humans and especially what we code.

The story was fantastic, and the game has several endings, but not as many as the 20 or something endings my favorite classic adventure game Blade Runner has.

I don't see the big deal with hitting defined buttons on a screen, you're contiously hitting defined buttons off screen on your controller to do whatever you're trying to do. Heavy Rain just has them on screen, it's still valid game play, it's just on screen so that they can try to make the game more functional, clear...

They don't spend hours telling you how to use the joysticks to move around...

The engine Heavy Rain uses could improve, hard to read dialogs and the inventory could be improved.

But over all the game is well done and I think a deeply misunderstood method of game play that has a future and in time with some evolution will become one of the best ways to have a computer (Xbox computer, PC computer, etc etc) gaming experience.

22 Different Endings > 20 Endings.

Althought 95% of them are depressing as hell and result in the character dead or killing themselves.

[doodo!]

Originally Posted by Banned User

What I want to see is true gameplay changes for your actions. Alternate solutions to puzzles and ramifications for mistakes. For instance the ability to play multiple characters who can die. In which case you have different paths through the game with the characters that remain alive. .

Did you play Heavy Rain even? Characters can die. Maybe you should play on a hard skill level... And the endings do change, their aren't alternate solutions as far as I know but you can play the game over and over again trying to get different endings. Their are choices though, every trial you can make choices and you can make choices between characters and their relationships for multiple endings.

Seriously what's so different about Heavy Rain and any other game? Any game you play is telling you to hit buttoms based on what is happening on screeen. Their both just as direct, Heavy Rain just needs to note it's buttons because they aren't conventional and they have to make it functional for a remote control...we aren't monkeys but we are related.

Originally Posted by Banned User

Also it would be neat if you can switch between the characters. Like in Day of the Tentacle. That way the different characters are needed to help each other. For instance one needs to get to a panel and turn off a electric fence for another character to advance or escape a Dinosaur.

There's always the human element in everything we do, we aren't computers. That would be extremely hard to program if not impossible. But hey, if they can pull it off then that's great. I personally like the real time feeling Heavy Rain has it makes it feel more realistic. But in a indirect and direct sense all the characters in Heavy Rain are connected to each other and yes in fact what you do with one of the characters can and will effect the other.

Originally Posted by Ribs

22 Different Endings > 20 Endings.

Althought 95% of them are depressing as hell and result in the character dead or killing themselves.

For Blade Runner, I take it. Yes, that game is so awesome! I've only played one ending.

[Ribs]

Originally Posted by doodo!

For Blade Runner, I take it. Yes, that game is so awesome! I've only played one ending.

No, Heavy Rain has 22, but that's 4 of them per ending.

The other thing is People can't die until 5/6 of the way through the game in Heavy Rain, the only one significant is Norman during the construction fight, as the rest are during the ending or the chapter before the ending.