The Walking Dead Game -vs- Heavy Rain

[dubesor]

Originally Posted by bubbledncr

To me the big biggest difference in HR was that you couldn't die.

Did you play the game? Because you definitely could die, several ways. You could die in the Warehouse, you could die by suicide (getting arrested 2x with no one helping) or by not finding Shaun and shooting yourself at home or at his grave. Or ofcourse you could do fine and live happily ever after.

None the less - your statement is false.

[bubbledncr]

Originally Posted by dubesor

Did you play the game? Because you definitely could die, several ways. You could die in the Warehouse, you could die by suicide (getting arrested 2x with no one helping) or by not finding Shaun and shooting yourself at home or at his grave. Or ofcourse you could do fine and live happily ever after.

None the less - your statement is false.

I did play the game - though I never died. I just either succeeded at things, just barely suceeded and felt bad, or the character just left the situation. Did those deaths lead to game overs? Or did the game continue on with that person dead?

Perhaps I should have said no game overs.

[dubesor]

when you die the story simply continues. obviously you get a "bad" ending. But that's what I wish for when I want any of my choices/actions to matter.

I am not a huge fan of "GAME OVER": "you didn't do what the developer wanted you to do. Now replay and do exactly as you are told to proceed."

[bubbledncr]

Originally Posted by dubesor

when you die the story simply continues. obviously you get a "bad" ending. But that's what I wish for when I want any of my choices/actions to matter.

I am not a huge fan of "GAME OVER": "you didn't do what the developer wanted you to do. Now replay and do exactly as you are told to proceed."

I agree. And deaths are expensive for us to make, as well.

But take, for instance, Lee fighting the babysitter zombie in episode 1. How does that end if the player never pushes a button?

In JP, we did "clumsy successes" if the player didn't hit the button so they wouldn't die every time, but my understanding is people didn't like that at all.

[dubesor]

Originally Posted by bubbledncr

But take, for instance, Lee fighting the babysitter zombie in episode 1. How does that end if the player never pushes a button?

If you have read my OP-post you would have noticed my understanding about how this game can not be AS considering. Due to the fact that it's not just 1 game but several episodes (even seasons). Further more I have also mentioned a typical example of how this issue could have been handled instead (the Season 2 start Katjaa issue for example). I understand we cant have 20 different results. Due to money issues we have to limit the impact of the players to a low amount, say 3. But currently it is 0 impact = 1 result

There are some situations where the procedure I mentioned could make our choices have impact. Katjaa is only 1 example. Another would be for example Brie (or Bree or whatever she is spelled). Say, we take her with us to Crawford, she dies the normal way as it is now. But now, if we leave 3+ people at our camp (any of Kenny, Ben, Christa, Omid) the Vernon group had lower chances at taking our boat (he mentioned 2 are extremely sick that need constant care so he has basically no more force).

Now if we refused to take her with us to Crawford she would go back. That way she would have survived. And later Vernon had 1 more Person to take our boat. All of this makes sense.

And all of this is just examples. I never mentioned to make the exact same strong impact as heavy rain (read OP). I said just "SOME" more impact on the result other than everything leading to exactly and only 1 outcome. That makes me feel my decisions are useless. Sure, the different dialog mentioning my choices here and there are cool, but I would love if if you guys would go just a little twist more into impactfull choices like Heavy Rain, of course not as much as it most likely would be too expensive to develop.

[kongdong]

it is very hard to ask for..... behind heavy rain was a developer with very much money... sony. behind walking dead game is company with very small money telltale. while the games are extremely similiar other than the universe it is in of course which are entirely different but everything else is extremely similiar in terms of gameplay, characters and choices.

but... you have to imagine telltale is very low money productions. so they limit choices that everything makes one result. i know we all want many result but then the game isnt 30 dollar but 60 dollar.. think about it.

[bazenji]

There are game overs in Heavy Rain. They just disguise them heavily.

[JabbaDaHuttX7]

Originally Posted by bubbledncr

I agree. And deaths are expensive for us to make, as well.

But take, for instance, Lee fighting the babysitter zombie in episode 1. How does that end if the player never pushes a button?

In JP, we did "clumsy successes" if the player didn't hit the button so they wouldn't die every time, but my understanding is people didn't like that at all.

Lee doesn't slip on the blood smear again.

I don't know, it could be something minor. It doesn't always have to not result in a game over screen. I watched a video of Heavy Rain when one of the characters was forced to cut off his own finger. He could choose to let the time run out and not do it, or try to find the most effective, least painful way of doing it. In most cases the result was the same -- the character ended up without a finger, but the scene varied significantly based on the methods the player used.

I kinda liked the fighting scenes with Molly and Kenny because you could progress the game even if you lost them, and in Kenny's case at least, it would've been brought up again.

[CarScar]

Heavy Rain is, for the most part, a joke.

The game has stupid sequences (e.g. the chase scene [ermahgerd chickens!], anything with those random future glasses, Ethan's trials, Shelby going into the clock store), really unnecessary shit (oh no Shelby has asthma, oh wait where did that go... oh no Ethan passes out, oh wait where did that go... oh no Madison has insomnia, oh wait where did that go...), really bad voice acting (I get it, they're French. It's just annoying and I can't take anything anyone says seriously).

It doesn't help that the only character I cared about was Shelby, every other character was pitiful, dumb, and boring. The overall plot was neat, I suppose. Meh though. The only thing Heavy Rain has over Walking Dead is how your choices effect the game. I'm fine with how Walking Dead made it though, the choices didn't effect the game, they effected me personally. Which is 100% better.

Walking Dead is way better IMO.

[o0HeaDShoT0o]

When I first finished Episode 1, I also started comparing The Walking Dead Game with Heavy Rain. In fact, these are the characters that I think that can be compared with the most.

Lee -- Ethan
Carley -- Madison
Doug -- Norman
Campman -- Scott

[Saracenar]

I loved Heavy Rain and I have played it many times.

Some of the things I think HR did better than TWD were:
-The action. The fighting scenes were a lot more involving because of the more advanced controls at the players' disposal. Whereas in TWD, there are only two input methods (moving the cursor and clicking, or rapidly tapping a key). I'm not saying TWD's action was bad, far from it, but HR's was better. (Fighting Mad Jack anyone? Fighting the killer with Jayden?)

-The consequences. Yeah, it had multiple endings. Characters could die, and the story would continue on. But they could only die at very specific points in the narrative. Outside of those points they had plot armour. But even with this, they managed to have a variety of different endings. (Who survived? Was Shaun saved? Was the killer caught? What relationships were formed? Did Jayden give up or give in to his drug addiction? And so on...)

In TWD, the 'consequences' meant something different. And personally I had no problem with the way it was done. Instead of having specific characters live or die almost arbitrarily, our relationship with those characters changed. The way we felt about those characters, and the story in general, is what results from our choices.

What the Walking Dead did better than Heavy Rain was engage our emotion. Heavy Rain was great, and I think it did a fine job of that too, but TWD did it better.

I'd put this down to the episodic nature and the voice acting. I had no problem with the voice acting in HR (Nahman Jayden - loved it!), but man, did the Walking Dead get some great voice actors. I'd say the only voice actor I didn't like was Duck's. He just sounded like he was doing a quiet shout into the microphone a lot of the time (prior to episode 3. In episode 3 he was good).

Heavy Rain and The Walking Dead are two of my most favourite games. They are both great in the same area and in different areas, for different reasons.

Originally Posted by CarScar

Heavy Rain is, for the most part, a joke.

The game has stupid sequences (e.g. the chase scene [ermahgerd chickens!], anything with those random future glasses, Ethan's trials, Shelby going into the clock store), really unnecessary shit (oh no Shelby has asthma, oh wait where did that go... oh no Ethan passes out, oh wait where did that go... oh no Madison has insomnia, oh wait where did that go...), really bad voice acting (I get it, they're French. It's just annoying and I can't take anything anyone says seriously).

He was chasing him through a market. There were chickens there. Really not that crazy. What's wrong with the ARI glasses? They added a cool element to Jayden's character. The trials were the most important part! Ethan had to prove himself to the killer. A clock store - what's so stupid about that?

I had no problem with the voice acting. But it's a matter of taste I guess.

[dee23]

Originally Posted by rachellouise85

But you can't change who is kidnapped, or who the murderer is, you still end up in the same place?etc. There are times when "you are in control", yet there are things, that you, as the character, do not actually do; yet it still happens (n the same time frame you are meant to be controlling them). I didn't really like the characters, so I didn't want to play it again... What are the possible 17 endings? Do they include FBI guy being alive/dead, being with the woman or not etc?

You don't end up at the same place because it is possible for the protagonist to fail and input the wrong coordinates on the sat nav and go to the wrong location, resulting in his son drowning and if that wasn't bad enough it is also possible for the oragami killer to get off scott free. If you don't save Lauren Winters from the car when she is drowning she can't come back at the end of the game and kill the oragami killer.

[dee23]

Originally Posted by Dildor

Heavy Rain has so, SOOOO many different outcomes, TWD barely stacks up to it that way.

In terms of characters and interacting with them? TWD put real emotion behind these pixelated characters that made me love them all, which Heavy Rain just didn't have for me.

I actually felt for Ethan and wanted to help him get his redemption. He was a broken man when he lost his oldest son. He lost his wife, probably lost his job and lost the desire to even shave. He was becoming estranged with his other son who was becoming depressed and he was trying to rebuild that relationship.

There were some touching moments like when Ethan was playing with his son in the park, when he helped him do his home work and when he tucked him in for bed and gave him his cough syrup when he was getting a cold.

Overal I found the experience of heavy rain more rewarding than the walking dead game, for one my choices carried over from chapter to chapter. I wasn't left with WTF moments at the end like why am I in jail, why am I poisoned or why is my son dead. Everything I chose to do had fitting consequences. In the walking dead game as much as I liked it there were times when the game said I did things I didn't do. It said I made Clem eat human meat when I didn't and said I helped kill Larry. Those are big decision choices for the game to get wrong and can leave you feeling really shitty when you did everything to make the right choice for you in your play through.

[dee23]

Originally Posted by CarScar

Heavy Rain is, for the most part, a joke.

The game has stupid sequences (e.g. the chase scene [ermahgerd chickens!], anything with those random future glasses, Ethan's trials, Shelby going into the clock store), really unnecessary shit (oh no Shelby has asthma, oh wait where did that go... oh no Ethan passes out, oh wait where did that go... oh no Madison has insomnia, oh wait where did that go...), really bad voice acting (I get it, they're French. It's just annoying and I can't take anything anyone says seriously).

It doesn't help that the only character I cared about was Shelby, every other character was pitiful, dumb, and boring. The overall plot was neat, I suppose. Meh though. The only thing Heavy Rain has over Walking Dead is how your choices effect the game. I'm fine with how Walking Dead made it though, the choices didn't effect the game, they effected me personally. Which is 100% better.

Walking Dead is way better IMO.

Obviously everyone won't like Heavy Rain, I get that but you say that the walking dead choices effected you personally which is better than multiple endings. I don't see the difference. Heavy Rain has some tough choices that would effect most people on a personal level like the decision to kill the guy in the apartment as one of the trials. Had I of done that I would of felt pretty shitty about it afterwards, knowing that I had turned a good man into a criminal. When Jayden is trying to talk down the crazy man, again I would have felt terrible shooting him and finding out he was carrying a crucifix instead of a gun.

When I played heavy rain I felt much more pressure when making choices, my heart was in my mouth at times and I was shitting my self, worrying for the protagonist. I remember struggling over choices like should I swallow the poison or not. I remember feeling like shit when I couldn't go through with a tial and I backed out. The game made me feel like I didn't love my son enough, like I was selfish. But that was just realistic because cutting off your finger or drinking poison would be a hard thing for any of us to do. I remember the game resisting my attempts to cut off Ethan's finger. It was a hard mini game to complete which was a clever mechanic because it represented how hard it would be for him to will himself to do it.

I find it surprising that you found heavy rain a joke but you had no problem with the concept of a guy travelling all the way from Macon to Savannah in a ZA and risking his life to get revenge on Lee for choosing to save Carly over Doug who he didn't even know, or for taking her to a dairy farm which Lee/the player didn't actually have a choice over. Do people even have the luxury or time for things like revenge in the ZA?(and before anyone refers to Michonne she was already in Woodbury when she got her revenge) I use these examples because that was what I was persicuted for by the kidnapper at the hotel. He said I was putting Clem at risk, but wait a minute the only choice I made that he disagreed with was saving Carly over Doug. Then there is the fact that sometimes your choices don't carry over at all. In one of my play throughs the game said I made Clem eat meat and I helped kill Larry. Two serious, big choices in the game that were both wrong. I say this to say that both games have there share of problems but I found the kidnapper's motivation far more laughable than anything I saw in Heavy Rain.

The guy is in a car, doesn't know Lee is going to Savannah until Clementine confirms it on the train ride, yet he gets there first. So we are expected to believe he was getting out of his car along the
Interstate Highway or roads and mannually moving the cars in front of him by himself with roaming zombies around him all so he can punish Lee for things that he did to other people if Lee didn't steal from him e.g leaving Doug to get pulled threw a window into the night, leaving a helpless woman stranded etc. Suspension of disbelief can only go so far.

When I played Heavy Rain I thought the game was epic. But we can't all like the same stuff can we.

[Mornai]

I loved Heavy Rain, but i enjoyed the Walking Dead even better. I don't care about the choices part so i won't comment on that, but regarding the emotional aspects...

There's just so much more at stake in the Walking Dead than in Heavy Rain. With Heavy Rain, you're pretty much dealing with one threat, one single killer. Even if you don't catch this guy, the rest of the world will live on. The characters are willingly putting themselves in danger to rescue the child(not disrespecting that, of course) and can back down from it anytime if they so choose.

With the Walking Dead, no one has that luxury. Everyone everywhere you go can die anywhere at anytime. No one has a choice to just walk away, everyone is forced to fight for their lives and struggle to survive every single day. They don't just lose their children, they lose their entire family and their friends, sometimes even being forced to kill those loved ones that they failed to protect. They suffer tragedy every waking moment of their lives. You can't sit back and relax, you can't play at the park with your family or friends, you're never in a fully safe environment. You'll instead spend all of your time wondering who's going to die next. And that made me care for the characters and their struggles more than Heavy Rain.

Imagine a scene where a father of two watches as his first born son rips the intestines out of his second son, then they both rise and kill his wife, and then him. That would be devastating...

[dee23]

Originally Posted by Mornai

I loved Heavy Rain, but i enjoyed the Walking Dead even better. I don't care about the choices part so i won't comment on that, but regarding the emotional aspects...

There's just so much more at stake in the Walking Dead than in Heavy Rain. With Heavy Rain, you're pretty much dealing with one threat, one single killer. Even if you don't catch this guy, the rest of the world will live on. The characters are willingly putting themselves in danger to rescue the child(not disrespecting that, of course) and can back down from it anytime if they so choose.

With the Walking Dead, no one has that luxury. Everyone everywhere you go can die anywhere at anytime. No one has a choice to just walk away, everyone is forced to fight for their lives and struggle to survive every single day. They don't just lose their children, they lose their entire family and their friends, sometimes even being forced to kill those loved ones that they failed to protect. They suffer tragedy every waking moment of their lives. You can't sit back and relax, you can't play at the park with your family or friends, you're never in a fully safe environment. You'll instead spend all of your time wondering who's going to die next. And that made me care for the characters and their struggles more than Heavy Rain.

Imagine a scene where a father of two watches as his first born son rips the intestines out of his second son, then they both rise and kill his wife, and then him. That would be devastating...

I love the walking dead universe, love the comics, love the show, for most part I enjoyed the game, in fact I still play it even though it is hit and miss as to whether or not my choices will successfully carry over from one episode to the next. Overall I had a better experience playing Heavy Rain though. Even though I had a good ending I thought about the game for a long time after playing it, where as the walking dead was memorable for me for all the wrong reasons. I remember feeling more anger when the game ended than sadness.

[ZeroShoot]

The big difference to me was, that I wasn't too much involved into Ethan Mars' story, I barely knew Shawn (the kid) and didn't really worry much about him, but what drew me in were the crazy tasks the killer gave us, and the great presentation. And of course the great fact, that there were no game-over deaths, if a character died, he was death - deal with it.

In the walking dead the characters were awesome, and every death felt hard on me, even Larry's, even the Stranger's, though I hated him. Why? Because they felt so real, due to the top notch voice acting, and great writing, great job TellTale! Only the limited impact my decisions had were one little thing I didn't like, but I understand why it had to be that way, nonetheless, to me The Walking Dead is the "better" game, depends on people's preferences though.

[jakomocha]

Here is a pretty good video comparing the two and explaining what TWD did right that Heavy Rain failed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6gC2MHXIH0 [spoilers for both games of course]! Personally I haven't played Heayv Rain but I have watched a whole playthrough of it and I think the game has a very interesting story it just fails at making you care a lot about the people in it. Needless to say, the game was still good. TWD however is much much better.

[Zeruis]

Heavy Rain is among my favorite games, and I liked it a bit better than TWD.

I don't care for the different endings that HR had, I just liked the multiple quick timed action scenes in it. It had you press different buttons while turning the analog stick in a unique way, as opposed to WD's quick time events, which had you continuously tap a button, and then press another random button after.

As for characters, I cared for HR's lineup the same I did for TWD.

WD was definitely the better adventure game between the two, as it had you take different options to explore the environment: (Look at axe, take axe, etc.) In HR, you could only perform one function with the objects in the environment. But I'm more of an action game fan than an adventure game one.

Both games had a dark narrative and story tone, as well as depressing endings (If you screw up in HR). The bad endings in HR still give me the chills every time I see them.

[Riadon]

Originally Posted by Zeruis

Heavy Rain is among my favorite games, and I liked it a bit better than TWD.

I don't care for the different endings that HR had, I just liked the multiple quick timed action scenes in it. It had you press different buttons while turning the analog stick in a unique way, as opposed to WD's quick time events, which had you continuously tap a button, and then press another random button after.

As for characters, I cared for HR's lineup the same I did for TWD.

WD was definitely the better adventure game between the two, as it had you take different options to explore the environment: (Look at axe, take axe, etc.) In HR, you could only perform one function with the objects in the environment. But I'm more of an action game fan than an adventure game one.

Both games had a dark narrative and story tone, as well as depressing endings (If you screw up in HR). The bad endings in HR still give me the chills every time I see them.

We must not have played the same game.