Every preview on IGN about Dead Island mentions the teaser trailer. It blew us away with how much emotion it conveyed, setting our expectations impossibly high for this zombie survival title. Yet despite not coming across as all that serious when various editors have seen it, one thing's agreed upon: Dead Island's still fun. There's a simple pleasure in bashing zombies with a club or machete and, unsurprisingly, it's better in four player cooperative mode.
Teaming up with other members of the enthusiast press at this year's E3 press conference, I waded out into the thick of a zombie infestation. Within moments the dead staggered up to us, and we met them with brutal slashes and crushing blows to the head. Most of them went down without a fight, but a few we had to mercilessly beat on the ground until we were sure they were dead. And by that I mean they were in pieces.
Teaming up with other members of the enthusiast press at this year's E3 press conference, I waded out into the thick of a zombie infestation. Within moments the dead staggered up to us, and we met them with brutal slashes and crushing blows to the head. Most of them went down without a fight, but a few we had to mercilessly beat on the ground until we were sure they were dead. And by that I mean they were in pieces.
Since Dead Island is a quest driven game, it's up to the team to decide if they want to try and complete tasks together or just do their own thing. Obviously it's easier to do quests together, but the goal is to give players freedom to play together or just largely ignore one another. Even cooperative play has moments of competition, as bloodlust makes players compete for kills and, more importantly, the loot that zombies drop.
Our team set out on a quest to set up posters of a missing relative for a native of the island. Once we stocked up on weapons, we left the survivor stronghold and set out. For the sake of the demo we were already leveled up, but I was told that players will gain experience from killing, using it to progress their character down a number of skill trees that might help them specialize in things like melee combat.
On top of a leveling and character customization system, the RPG elements get deeper with Dead Island's crafting system. Players will find "loot" (read: useful junk) in the environment and on the recently deceased. Using components like wires, deodorant and lighters players can give their weapons extra abilities. For instance you can make weapons like knives that electrify enemies, or clubs that are on fire. It's definitely silly as far as the world is concerned, but it incentivizes combing the environment, and makes the loot grind more enjoyable.
While my knee-jerk reaction to Dead Island's four-player cooperative is to compare it to Valve's Left4Dead franchise, the comparison borders on apples to oranges. Left4Dead is a fast paced shooter with some melee combat, focused on making it from point A to point B. Dead Island may have zombies, but it's much more melee centric, and tosses in quests and other RPG elements that set it apart. And hey, there are worse games than Left4Dead or developers like Valve to have your work compared to, after all.
Our team set out on a quest to set up posters of a missing relative for a native of the island. Once we stocked up on weapons, we left the survivor stronghold and set out. For the sake of the demo we were already leveled up, but I was told that players will gain experience from killing, using it to progress their character down a number of skill trees that might help them specialize in things like melee combat.
On top of a leveling and character customization system, the RPG elements get deeper with Dead Island's crafting system. Players will find "loot" (read: useful junk) in the environment and on the recently deceased. Using components like wires, deodorant and lighters players can give their weapons extra abilities. For instance you can make weapons like knives that electrify enemies, or clubs that are on fire. It's definitely silly as far as the world is concerned, but it incentivizes combing the environment, and makes the loot grind more enjoyable.
While my knee-jerk reaction to Dead Island's four-player cooperative is to compare it to Valve's Left4Dead franchise, the comparison borders on apples to oranges. Left4Dead is a fast paced shooter with some melee combat, focused on making it from point A to point B. Dead Island may have zombies, but it's much more melee centric, and tosses in quests and other RPG elements that set it apart. And hey, there are worse games than Left4Dead or developers like Valve to have your work compared to, after all.
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