Dead Island

"The anatomy class has begun..."

Developer: Deep Silver
Publisher: Techland
Release Date: TBA
Platform(s): PC, PS3, X360
Genre: Horror Action Adventure



 

Dead Island was originally announced in 2007 with little noise. Techland, the developer responsible for the Call of Juarez series, promised a survival game with open world settings, where players should use whatever they can as a weapon to survive a horde of zombies. But since the developer dedicated themselves to other projects, Techland said very little about the title and a cancellation was virtually taken for granted.

 

In February 2011, however, Techland released a trailer that caught everyone by surprise. The video not only served to compensate for all the years the game was absent, but also even its name in the minds of practically everyone who watched it. With high doses of emotion and a story in which anyone can relate to, Dead Island becomes one of the most anticipated games of the current year.




 

However, the trailer shows very little. The only things you can see are the beautiful graphics, with characters much like real people, and a plot that involves zombies on an island. You play as the lone survivor of a plane crash and wake up on the fictitious island of Bano, Papua New Guinea. Your wife is missing and it's up to you to figure out where she is, and if she’s still alive. In this hopeful search, however, the protagonist will begin a struggle for survival and attempt find some answers on how the infestation happened and spread.

 

Implementing undead in video games is almost guaranteed for success in modern times, but it seems like people cannot maintain interest for the title for too long if not done right. Opting for a simplicity not seen in recent times and a concept that is unique in a sense that has never been properly employed, Techland is aiming to try something new in Dead Island. It blends the fast and dynamic gameplay from first-person shooters to concepts already used in other games, such as Resident Evil and Dead Rising 2, Dead Island pits players on a zombie-infested island, with its inhabitants hungry for meat. According to the developer, the main focus of the game is to emphasize realism in the gameplay. This way, you can forget the typical, well-trained military soldiers you’ve regularly portrayed in games such as Call of Duty and Killzone, and prepare to make do with what you have against the undead. 

 

Although the main gameplay thematic seems to be on survival horror, Dead Island is, above all, a fast paced first-person shooter game, in which the action is heavy and apparent. You will be able to use everything around you, which will tie in to puzzle solving or to hopefully get past numerous zombies unscathed. A barrel of fuel, for example, can be thrown into a group of undead and hit it by gunfire, causing it to explode and wiping them all out.

Techland also promises a skill tree system that will allow you to choose which skill areas you want to improve. While some may prefer to focus on more ammunition to take advantage of your environment’s scarcity for them, others are free to follow a more violent path, using heavy weapons to crush zombies instead. Even with few details available, this feature promises to be one of the main highlights of Dead Island.
 

 

One of the aspects that will promise to turn heads in Dead Island is the kinds of deformation and damage done to zombies, all done in real time. Each attack will have a different reaction towards the creatures, and you can definitely notice the damage from each blow. According to Techland, the monsters will have several layers of tissue, meat, muscles and react realistically to the blows dealt by players. This will result in a total carnage, with limbs being ripped off and zombies walking around with their internal organs exposed. However, the undead will not be so fragile, and to finish them off, you must hit them on specific parts, maximizing the damage and killing them for good.

 

Dead Island's concept is promising, but risky. After all, some have tried to do it, but none has gone so far with this much competence. But with Techland's experience in this particular genre, as well as armed with promising features that have been previously disclosed, Dead Island promises to prove that the concepts can be well spent. The game still doesn’t have release date or a window scheduled, though it is expected that the game will arrive later this year for the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.



Marco Cecilio, NoobFeed