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You are here: HomeForum Home → Gaming → Hint Requests & Technical Problems → Thread

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brothers, a tale of two sons game controls

Total Posts: 415

Joined 2007-12-29

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I am having a heck of a time with the controls for this game. I just started and finally got the old man up to the house. (whew, that took forever) and I would like to save the game here as I have been at it for a couple of hours already just to reach this point. I don’t see a save game button. I sure don’t want to do all this over. It took me 30 minutes just to get the old man up the last ramp as they turned the crank SO SLOW. What am I missing on how to save? Thanks.

     
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Total Posts: 523

Joined 2010-02-08

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Hi mbday630,

Controls

Are you playing the game with keyboard controls? I am guessing you might be, since you mentioned the cranks turned slowly.

Brothers has an atypical control scheme and it works best on a gamepad controller. That’s why the Steam store page says “Notice: Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons requires a controller to play.”

While playing it on keyboard is technically possible, the game doesn’t really have what I would call official keyboard support. The creator is trying to discourage keyboard-only gamers from buying it because the game will be potentially quite frustrating to play that way. Not only are directional keys not as good for free movement as the analog sticks of a gamepad, but also many modern keyboards only allow a limited number of simultaneous key presses, which will cause problems for Brothers since you need to control the two brothers simultaneously.

I recommend you read this thread, which talks about the simultaneous key press issue:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/225080/discussions/0/630800445467086632/?insideModal=1

Why the cranks turn slowly

Also in the above thread, the posts by Eric Mathias, Fobby, and conkytonkin may help explain why the cranks turn slowly for you.

Basically, here’s what seems to be the problem: If you were playing with a gamepad, you would make a crank turn faster by rotating the analog stick. On keyboard, you apparently have to mimic this rotating motion by cycling through the direction keys (I would guess that WDSAWDSAWDSA is clockwise and WASDWASDWASD is counter-clockwise for big brother). And you have to be holding down the action button (spacebar for big brother) while you do this. If your keyboard limits key presses, it also may not register your commands correctly if you cycle between the WASD keys too fast. So now you can imagine why using a controller is easier, at least for certain actions in Brothers.

More tips

If you want to continue with keyboard, here’s a couple more tips that might help make it a bit more pleasant experience:

1) You might try remapping the keys to a comfortable configuration for you. For example, if I were using keyboard, I would probably move the younger brother’s controls to 8,4,5,6 on the number pad, with 0 for action.

2) You could try getting a friend over to play the game with you. This is one of the only potential perks to playing on keyboard: It is difficult for two people to hold the same controller, but two people can type on the same keyboard. So you could control one brother while your friend controls the other brother. However, you’ll need to bear in mind the limitation on simultaneous key presses that I mentioned above. Also, Brothers is really designed to be played by just one player, so two players might negatively impact the intended experience, but it’s just a thought if you’re struggling with the controls.

I played Brothers with a gamepad, so bear in mind that I haven’t tested any of this keyboard stuff, I am just guessing based on what I read.

Consider a gamepad

You might want to consider buying a wired Xbox 360 controller and hooking it up to your PC. If you’re thinking, “But I would never use that controller for any other games,” then that’s fair enough . . . but I guess the honest truth is that if you’re not interested in owning a gamepad, that could be a sign that Brothers may not be the kind of game you’d particularly enjoy in the first place. It’s a game that requires some dexterity, so you’ll have to decide how you feel about that.

If you are patient and comfortable with the imperfect keyboard controls, you might enjoy the game anyway. If so, great! I noticed there are some people here at AG who played it on keyboard, and maybe they can share tips.

But if you find the keyboard controls too frustrating, just know that you either need to use a gamepad as recommended or maybe Brothers just isn’t the right game for you in the first place, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Everyone has different tastes in games.

Saving

As for how to save, like most modern games on consoles, the game saves automatically when you reach certain “checkpoints.” There isn’t any way to save manually, but the game should save often enough on its own that hopefully you won’t need to repeat substantial parts of the game.

     

Total Posts: 415

Joined 2007-12-29

PM

Thanks Caliburn.  argh, so I guess I have to plan on a few hours of game play at a time. I hate it when games don’t save when I want them to!  But, I will try to get through this. I have heard such great things about it and usually I am fairly patient, so, I will muddle around for a while more. I don’t want to buy a gamepad as I got the game for 1.49 and I know I would never use the gamepad again….  I will try that trick the next time to get the old man up the ramp again.  When I watched the youtube walkthrough on how to get them up, they just turned the crank so fast and I knew that I was doing something wrong. again, thank you.

     
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Total Posts: 523

Joined 2010-02-08

PM

You’re quite welcome. Smile When you return to Brothers, if you select “Continue” instead of “New Game,” you shouldn’t have to repeat the part with the slow-turning crank. The game saves automatically when you get down the hill and to the elevator platform, and then saves again when you get to the healer’s house. So if you got to the house and saw the cutscene with the healer (the old man with the white hair), hitting “Continue” should resume your game after that.

Out of curiosity, I booted up my copy of Brothers with my gamepad unplugged so I could test the keyboard controls. Cycling between W,A,S,D (and Up,Left,Down,Right for younger brother) to mimic the rotating of a gamepad’s analog stick didn’t seem to work for me, and the crank still turned very slowly as if I was just holding the action buttons and nothing else. I tried two different keyboards and the trick didn’t work on either one. Maybe Eric Mathias’ advice in the previously mentioned thread was wrong. The trick is still worth a try, and hopefully it will work for you, but don’t be too surprised if it doesn’t work. I wouldn’t recommend starting a New Game to try this, though, because then you will lose your saved progress. Just wait until you encounter another crank and try it then.

I guess the good news is that I don’t remember very many cranks in the game. In this thread, someone claims there are only two crank elevators, so if you are willing to patiently endure the slow turning, maybe that won’t be a frequent problem. Good luck!

     

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