With Dead Islands release just months away so far the details about the game have been relatively scarce until now. Recently a video has surfaced online showing eleven minutes of gameplay and not just a straight segment either the video itself jumps around showing us everything from communication, to fighting and even how to get around on the island. Also as an added bonus it’s narrated by Vincent Kummer, brand manager at Deep Silver.
In the beginning we see what appears to be your main safe haven and base of operations in the form of a lifeguard station close to the beach. The player explores the area talking to some of the characters and its here that we first see how the missions are communicated. You have a bloodied slip of paper with your objectives listed as well as what the pay out in EXP will be.
The transport system is also briefly shown and explained with the options to either travel on foot and put up with whatever comes your way, the fast travel option necessary in all games of this size or you can copy the method in the video and leave some bikini clad stranger to fend for herself while you “borrow” her ride. The driving seems very basic but until we play it we can’t be sure, unless of course further details are released, it would appear though that the game is very first person orientated which makes it rather satisfying when you plough through a few undead and have to break to get that sticky torso from off the side of the bonnet.
The EXP system is the first of many similarities this game appears to hold with other big, open world games such as Fallout and Borderlands. Later on you’ll also notice that the EXP system is very similar to Borderlands especially in the way that the total appears on screen as well as the rolling damage figures each time you land a blow on whatever unfortunate zombie walks into your path.
The undead themselves are exactly what you would be expecting as with other zombie games before it you have you bog standard as well as those with special abilities such as the aptly named Ram who is pretty much a Tank from Left 4 Dead in both appearance and ability. Not counting the Hawaiian style shorts the majority of the walking dead holiday makers prefer in this outing.
As the narrator states at one point the idea was to still retain the islands state and appearance of a holiday resort and in between doing your best to either outrun or smash the face off your latest opponents you will stop and think how nice this place actually is. From the serene beaches to the palm trees swaying softly in the light breeze the island truly is a place of beauty if only it weren’t for the undead horde.
As far as the weaponry goes it seems as though the developers have really stuck to their guns by keeping guns out the way. But this is still a survival game and how many gun toting locals do you tend to find kicking about at a holiday resort? Instead baseball bats and knives appear to be the staple as well as the fire axe that must be somewhere. Modifying weapons is also an option as we see a regular baseball bat in a state of disrepair sorted out in no time becoming a bad ass nail bat any self-respecting zombie hunter surely wouldn’t be without. On top of your nail bat don’t forget that strapping C4 to knife is also a very good idea.
One of my favourite features that not a lot of games seem to use makes an appearance as well in the form of an achievement and challenge tracker which pops up on the side of the screen as particular milestones are reached. This will also come in handy throughout missions so long as the assignment is some kind of cumulative total.
So in conclusion as far as ten minutes goes there is a lot to be learned from this handy little snippet and if it’s anything to go by then Dead Island is surely going to gain popularity fairly quickly up to its release date on August 1st 2011.