Hey, remember Dead Island?! No? That's okay, since the last time we saw some real info on this project was back in 2009. Developer Techland and publisher Deep Silver have been quietly working on their zombie title for the past few years now and Destructoid was among the select few who got an early look at the updated game.
Imagine Borderlands set on the Just Cause 2 island with the Left 4 Dead style of zombies, featuring a quest system similar to Fallout 3 and the weapons system of Dead Rising 2. Blend all of that together, and you get Dead Island; or, as Deep Silver likes to refer to it, a "first-person zombie slasher action RPG."
Dead Island (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Steam, PC [Previewed])
Developer: Techland
Publisher: Deep Silver
To be released: Late 2011
The first thing that needs to be stated about Dead Island is that it is just visually gorgeous. The Chrome Engine shows off the huge tropical island paradise called Banoi Island in such vivid detail, and every inch of the island -- from little villages to a large city -- can be explored. While the game isn't linear, there are some sections that need to be opened up within the main storyline in order to get to other parts of the island.
As for the story, you play as one of four playable characters who recently checked into the Royal Palms Resort hotel. While on this vacation, the player wakes up after a night of heavy partying to discover that some kind of zombie outbreak has been unleashed on the island. From here, I was shown the first mission, which serves as a sort of tutorial to the player.
Your character has found himself holed up in a beach hut surrounded by zombies with other survivors fearing for their lives. One of the survivors begs you to go assist a lone person fending off the horde outside. The player then picks up a pipe and goes out to bash in some heads.
Aside from the fact that the main four characters are immune to the zombie infection for some reason, they're all just normal people. So swinging the pipe will come off sloppy and wild at the start of the game. As you progress, though, your character will learn how to handle weapons better. Part of that comes from the skill tree system where you'll be able to learn new skills and upgrade abilities, such as learning the dash attack. The skill tree system wasn't shown off during this preview, but we'll have more info on how it works soon.
While there are guns, the main focus of Dead Island's combat mechanics are the melee weapons. You'll be getting your hands on pipes, machetes, shovels, bats -- even a freaking tree branch can be used as a weapon. The weapons do degrade over time and will eventually bust, so you'll have to find another weapon, or you can get it repaired at various locations on the island. Additionally, you can't simply go around swinging constantly at enemies. After a few swings, your character will be out of stamina and must catch their breath before attacking again.
Of all the features Deep Silver showed off, they seemed the most excited about how we'll be able to kill zombies. The main thing they want people to take away from Dead Island is all the gory ways you'll be able to kill the walking dead. You can chop a zombie's legs and arms off and just watch him as he flops around trying to gnaw at your ankles.
As for the zombies themselves, you'll have the standard slow zombies and the annoying running class. On top of that, there will be the special class zombies which will remind you a lot of the special infected from Left 4 Dead.
Similar to the zombies, the four playable characters each have a different play style, too. The cool thing with all of this is that friends will be easily able to jump in or out for four-player (online only) co-op fun times. Don't worry, you'll have the option of being whatever character you want so it's totally possible, for example, for four assassin characters to work together in co-op.
While there's still a lot of work going on with Dead Island, we can expect the experience to similar to Fallout thanks to all of the sidequests you can take on. Techland really wants players to get absorbed into the story and if the trailer is any indication, we're in for a treat.
What I got to see was a really early alpha build of Dead Island. While it was pretty and the way you can chop zombies up was cool, I still need to see a lot more. More importantly, I want to get real hands on with the game and see first-hand how satisfying it'll be slicing up zombies. The entire concept sounds great and it's really refreshing to see a different type of zombie game out there. I know many of you are sick of the zombie genre, but I think there's room for one more when it comes to Dead Island.
Contest:
11:00 AM on 02.17.2011
| 
Those are HUGE expectations you're setting. I hope it's good!
Say whaaaaaaat ... Sounds amazing.
I hope it's awesome.. I expect it's ok. Prove me wrong! Oh please please do!
Also props for not being afraid to step on society taboo, and not doing so simply for shock value.
But this game gives me hope, it looks a lot more realistic (not a bad thing, at all), cause, let's face it, in a really life scenario, you wouldn't be able to find a gun on the street and start the killing spree, you'll use anything around you to get rid of zombies, so that's a pretty cool point.
I'm excited, the trailer makes me cry, I really want to see more of this game, and hopefully gets it's release by the end of the year.
Oh God...Can't hold it...NERDGASM!...Excuse me, I need to change my pants...
Sounds like Dead Rising and Left 4 Dead had a child. Not a bad thing, though I am kidn of burnt out on zombies. Defintitely going to keep this on my radar, but it's not sold me yet.
It was an amazing trailer, though. Extremely well done.
Been following the game for years now. Very happy to see it is still alive.
this is literally too awesome to be true
NO FUCKIN WAAAY!
I can't believe this game is still alive. I've been checking on it for the last few(?) years, and the dead mainpage website made it seem sooo sooo doomed.
This is awesome.
Way to kill my buzz, you dickholes.
setting the bar a little high, aren't we?
On a serious note, the trailer had me very excited, but I want to wait and hear more before I make any judgements. Tons of games have amazing premises, very few live up to them.
All the games listed (Borderlands, Dead Rising, Fallout, Left 4 Dead) had pretty all over the place narratives where I didn't give a crap about the characters or their situations. Left 4 Dead's comic series kind of switched that around, but when playing the actual game, there's a lot to be desired in those areas.
I'm sure the game'll be fun, but dammit, that trailer hit home so hard for me that it's set such a high standard for what I expect the game to be!
This sounds like the game I would make myself, if I could make games.
You start off instantly identifying with the little girl, as no one likes to see dead children. We then get flashes of her running from danger, further cementing our sympathies. Then she's through the window, in reverse, clinging to a man who is fighting zombies. You immediately think he's protecting her, and she's holding on for dear life. That image only lasts for fractions of a second, however, as at this point we know she's a zombie. But it doesn't end there! The trailer continues backward until we see her a little girl, and the whole family on a happy vacation, AGAIN identifying us with the girl, and generating sympathy.
It's brilliant. In fact, it's so subtle and well done, I'm going to call it the best trailer I've ever seen.
I couldn't give a damn about the game, though.
Either way, you set the bar pretty high. I'm going to keep a level head and wait and see. But I have to admit, I am very excited to see that this game is still going strong.
Zombies are popular right now, but it this is doing something different, I can go with that. Late 2011 is going to be cool, with Gears 3, Dark Souls and this on the cards.
Hopefully Aus will have an R18 rating by release so we won't have ab