›

Are post-apocalyptic video games ripping each other off now?

Robert MorganRobert Morgan
edited February 2013 in The Walking Dead
I just saw a preview for THE LAST OF US, a game that seems to follow the same basic outline as THE WALKING DEAD, right down to the male protector guarding over a younger female sidekick/companion. Seriously, it could almost be a sequel to the Telltale WALKING DEAD, starring a teenage Clementine:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W01L70IGBgE

The developers are refusing to call it a "zombie game", but the fact is, if your game features infectious monsters who seek to eat/contaminate you, then for all intents and purposes, it's a zombie game. You can try to pretend otherwise by introducing a little variety to your monsters (i.e. "these aren't zombies, they're fungus creatures!"), but it still adds up to the same basic scenario.

I wonder if there's something to be said about the imagination of the video game industry when they appear to be stealing from the same story template. The innovation seems to lie more in the gameplay than the originality.

Comments

  • VainamoinenVainamoinen Moderator
    edited February 2013
    The last of us has been in development for quite a while now. Not a chance for a Telltale rip off in this case. :o

    The template however, as you said yourself, is the zombie genre. The limitations lie within the genre - which is why I don't really dig zombie stories as a rule...
  • Toitle_JohnToitle_John
    edited February 2013
    The Last Of Us actually looks like a pretty cool game, I admit that it does seem like TWD but apparently as Vainamoinen said, it's been in development for a while. Might actually save and buy it when it comes out.
  • gimmeseason2gimmeseason2
    edited February 2013
    According to the Metacritic site:
    One challenge ahead for Naughty Dog could be the need to differentiate its product from Telltale's recent (and very similar on paper) Walking Dead game, released to great acclaim last year; early previews, however, suggest that the visuals alone are enough to set The Last of Us apart.
    ^That
    And as mentioned above, they have been working on that game for a while so I doubt that they would have time to copy from other games just before its debut trailer.
  • DreadMagusDreadMagus
    edited February 2013
    Wow, this thread again. lol

    Oh wow, I made a joke - or maybe it's just irony.... lulz....

    FYI, OP, The Last of Us was announced way before we even had the first episode of TWD.

    On the more open ended topic at hand, there's only so many kinds of story to go around in this kind of genre. It is, first and foremost, about survival after all.
  • Robert MorganRobert Morgan
    edited February 2013
    DreadMagus wrote: »
    Wow, this thread again. lol

    Oh wow, I made a joke - or maybe it's just irony.... lulz....

    FYI, OP, The Last of Us was announced way before we even had the first episode of TWD.

    Well, excuse me, Mr. "Get Your Facts Straight"...:rolleyes:
  • DreadMagusDreadMagus
    edited February 2013
    It's ok, it happens.
  • ToastyToasty
    edited February 2013
    I've seen posts like this before. Let's get this straight. The Walking Dead came out in April of 2012. The Last of Us was announced during the Spike Video Game Awards of 2011. This was a couple of months before Telltale even announced having the Walking Dead game in development.

    The thing is, all of these zombie games have a set template pretty much.

    - Zombies trying to eat you
    - Survive
    - Help others or let them die
    - Kill zombies

    There can't be much done with that, so a lot of the games seem alike, but if you actually play them, the stories are different.
  • RiadonRiadon
    edited February 2013
    Yes, and all FPS games rip from Call of Duty.

    /sarcasm
  • Robert MorganRobert Morgan
    edited February 2013
    DreadMagus wrote: »
    It's ok, it happens.

    Nah, forget it. I'm sorry I got snappy. Next time I'll just make sure.
  • DreadMagusDreadMagus
    edited February 2013
    Well, it probably didn't help I posted what I posted.... I'll blame it on my random asshole moments.

    I apologize as well. I should know better.
  • anonymau5anonymau5
    edited February 2013
    And then The Last of Us turns out to actually be a text based adventure game. In space.
  • Epic KiwiEpic Kiwi
    edited February 2013
    You're all wrong, The Last of Us and The Walking Dead are both ripping off Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, a post-apocolyptic game where you're a guy traveling through ruined cities while protecting a younger female companion from the things that killed all the humans. :)
  • anonymau5anonymau5
    edited February 2013
    Epic Kiwi wrote: »
    You're all wrong, The Last of Us and The Walking Dead are both ripping off Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, a post-apocolyptic game where you're a guy traveling through ruined cities while protecting a younger female companion from the things that killed all the humans. :)

    And that's ripping off of the ancient Chinese story: Journey to the west!
  • Corcline27Corcline27
    edited February 2013
    And they ripped off manifest destiny!
  • VainamoinenVainamoinen Moderator
    edited February 2013
    But they all ripped off the C64 version of the Walking Dead! :D


    walking_dead_c64_by_nickbounty-d5i3maz.jpg


    walking_dead_c64_by_nickbounty-d5i3n3o.jpg
  • Epic KiwiEpic Kiwi
    edited February 2013
    anonymau5 wrote: »
    And that's ripping off of the ancient Chinese story: Journey to the west!
    You heard it here, folks: Telltale's The Walking Dead game indirectly rips off classic Chinese literature! Don't be fooled by the hype and lies!


    The Walking Dead more like The Wukong Dead *ba-dum TSSH*
This discussion has been closed.