Game Preview: Dead Island
The fall is almost upon us and late August/early September marks the beginning of one of the biggest gaming release seasons of recent memory. What has been particularly interesting are surprising titles that have garnered big buzz since E3. One in particular that has excited gamers as of late is developer Deep Silver's zombie apocalypse game Dead Island.
The gaming landscape has seen a number of different zombie games that have seen various levels of success. Resident Evil, Dead Rising, and Left 4 Dead have all taken their stand in delivering the survival horror experience and each franchise has their niche. Dead Island looks to become the first FPS-RPG of the genre with some truely frightening visuals, intense melee focused gameplay, weapon crafting, and seamless co-op multiplayer. As the information and trailers have flown about, the game seems to be a zombified version of Borderlands with a taste of Fallout 3 RPG stylings.
You are placed on the island of Banoi as one of 4 distinct characters on vacation who are attempting to survive and escape the island. Xian Mei is an intelligent hotel resort receptionist. Sam B. is a one hit wonder hip hop star. Logan is an ex NFL player. Lastly, Purna is an ex-police officer turned bodyguard. Apparently, each character has their own specialization (in terms of which weapon type they favor) as well as a 'rage' attack that allows them to perform some kind of special maneuver that boosts the character's abilities or gives them unlimited ammo for a short duration. They also have physical and mental skill trees that can be customized or upgraded as the characters go up in experience levels.
A part of the reason for the comparisons to Borderlands and Fallout are the loot based weapon drops and work bench weapon creation. As the characters battle various types of zombies (different speeds, strengths, attack types, etc.) they will occaisionally drop money, items, and weapons. These weapons are of different qualities and bringing them to work benches and other characters who have 'shops' allow you to upgrade and repair these weapons. When blueprints are found, you can even create new weapons such as an electrified machete or explosive knives. You'll occaisionally find firearms about the island but ammunition for them is quite sparse. The attempt to make this a more 'realistic' survival horror game is quite apparent so far.
Adding to the atmosphere are the gory graphics. The various trailers shown detail how attacking different parts of the zombies with different types of weapons have various effects and damage modifiers. For example, take out a zombie's legs with a ranged weapon or otherwise and watch it slow to a crawl as it continues to chase you. As you can imagine, head shots are quite effect and bloody. Without a doubt, Deep Silver has poured a lot of their attention into the appearance of this gore fest in order to make it the quintessential omage to zombie movies.
Another anticipated feature of the game is the co-op experience. The game is set up so that friends can jump in and out of your game with their own progressed character at any time. There is no separate horde or deathmatch mode. Instead, the story mode is intended to be a load screen minimized experience that allows you to explore the entire island as you uncover the story's secrets. With this in mind, the game was also crafted to encourage team work so that the replayability of the game can be experienced solo with all of the different characters or with friends. With a reported 25-30 hours of gameplay, there is a lot that's been shown that excites a great many zombie hunters.
Here's to hoping that when it drops on Sept. 6th for the PS3, Xbox360, and PC that it is a memorable one. In the meantime, check out the trailer to see a bit of the game in action.
Video Game critic and guru, music afficionado, and published poet, BJ is a fan of all things artistic. Believing that art in its various forms is an important part of the path to enlightenment, he seeks to share his perspective on life and art with any Heeder with a open mind.