E3 2011: Dead Island Preview

Dead Island is the new survival-zombie-slasher from Deep Silver games, due out this fall. I was impressed by the scope of the island you’re playing on: it’s simply massive. The gameplay works less like Left 4 Dead as most previously thought, and more like open-world games like Fallout.

The beginning of my five minute demo with the game began with my character waking up in a beachside hut, narrowly surviving after being rescued by one of the leaders of the tribe. After being summoned outside to return the favor, you’re told that you have to trek the zombie-infested beaches alone to reach a radio station on the other side. I was given only a boat ore to defend myself, bludgeoning every zombie I came across on my journey. Soon after I found a machete and a hammer, and several of my colleagues had been able to “upgrade” these items during their experience with the game. The game also sports a neat skill tree that you can upgrade your character with after you’ve killed enough undead.

The action seems very fluid, and is way gorier than Left 4 Dead. Blood splatters everywhere, limbs will go flying, and I had even sliced a head off completely with my machete. The weapons you use in Dead Island won’t last forever, though, each weapon you find has what’s almost a health bar, and the weapon will eventually dull or break after cracking enough skulls. You’ll be able to repair your items periodically, but you should always keep a look out for more items to punish the dead with, cause you’ll get surrounded pretty quick. In the demo I was surrounded by regular zombies and chased by zombies that had been set on fire. Though I didn’t encounter any of the brute-like zombies from the gameplay video released last week, I can only imagine the kind of damage these things could do to you in numbers.

Look for Dead Island this fall in all its 4-player co-op zombie mutilating glory.

-ivan.