Dead Island Preview

By Oli Welsh Published 17 March, 2011

Trailer trash?

It's not what you think.

When Dead Island came out of nowhere (and by nowhere, I mean an apathetically received announcement three years ago) with that trailer, we got so carried away with excitement, surprise, suspicion or outrage that we forgot to ask what the game behind the advert was.

Reeling from the emotive body blow dealt by its backwards exposition of a young girl's death during a zombie outbreak on a holiday island, we jumped to conclusions. But no, Dead Island isn't some unspooled experiment in game narrative, as if David Cage had got drunk watching Memento and Night of the Living Dead and muddled them up.

Nor is it, as publisher Deep Silver and Polish developer Techland are keen to point out, a tense, furtive, orchestrated action-horror in the Resident Evil or Dead Space mould. Nor is it a shooter melodrama (despite Techland's solid work in this area with the Call of Juarez Westerns) or a low-rent Left 4 Dead on its summer break, although we're getting warmer.

It's an open-world action RPG with a first-person camera. It has character classes, levelling and skills, quests and side quests and improvised weapon crafting. It's awash with bright sunshine and brutal, close-quarters crowd melee combat. It's Fallout meets Borderlands and Dead Rising on the island from Lost, with four-player online co-op. It's not high art or low exploitation – but it has a crude novelty and looks fun.

The trailer set the scene: a sudden and unexplained zombie apocalypse which had its epicentre at a luxury resort hotel on the beautiful island of Banoi. The characters in the trailer didn't survive, but four hotel guests do, and you'll choose one to play at the start of your adventure.

Each will pursue a skill tree as you gain experience and level up, developing into a distinct combat class. The four characters are not that well defined yet: a sturdy 'tank', an assassin type, a "jack of all trades" and a "leader character". But at the start of the game, whichever you choose, you're an ordinary person, not a combat specialist. You possess no firearms and have little strength or ability, able only to lash out with kicks and whatever implements come to hand.

The infamous Dead Island trailer. Exploitative, insensitive shlock or advert as art?

For the purposes of this demo (seen at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco early this month), we're Sam B, the tank. He's a one-hit-wonder rock star, touring the world singing his "only good song" and getting drunk in hotel bars. Rescued from the undead by a lifeguard, he passes out. We come to in a beach hut full of panicked survivors, staring his imminent execution by their hand in the face. But it's OK, he's not infected. In fact, mysteriously, he's immune.

The lifeguard's outside and needs help so we grab the only weapon available – a dinghy paddle – and lunge out into a blast of hot sunshine and white sand, and a mob of reanimated corpses. We desperately fend them off with blows from our rapidly splintering oar. (Dead Island's weapons decay, and will need to be repaired at the workbenches across the island, or replaced.)

The visuals are a blunt weapon, too, but a powerful one. Made in the latest version of Techland's impressive in-house Chrome engine, they're lurid, detailed and high-contrast, ramming home Dead Island's simple but effective culture-clash motif: zombies on holiday, palm trees and blood stains, rotting flesh under floral shirts. The game uses a tight, slightly zoomed-in first-person view which makes the action seem intense and claustrophobic, even on an open stretch of sand.

Lifeguard rescued, a mysterious voice on the radio tells us that the shack is unsafe and instructs us to clear a route to a more defensible location – a lifeguard observation tower. Hacking through undead, we graduate to a sledgehammer and then a fire axe.

There are sharp and blunt melee weapons which need to be used with consideration for the type of zombie attacking, and its hit zones. Break the legs of one of the faster-moving cadavers, for example; sever the arm of an armed assailant; or throw whatever you have to take out an exploding "suicide zombie" at range.

Dead Island has a level of realism to its weaponry, although it's a cartoon kind of realism. You might pick up a dead cop's pistol or shotgun and crack off a few shots with his remaining ammo, if you're lucky, but you won't find RPGs or machine guns lying around this vacation spot.

Instead, you'll gather crafting materials – carrying an almost limitless amount, although there will be an inventory limit for weapons – like wires, belts, boxes and batteries, and use them to modify what you find at the workbenches according to discovered blueprints. You might fashion an electrified machete to add shock damage to your carvery, or tape explosives to throwing knives, creating makeshift sticky bombs.

Your other tools will be skills, and we're shown two of the tank's: a "skullcrusher" finishing move (stamp viciously on the head of a downed foe) and Fury, a rage mode with a long cooldown for desperate situations. Trigger Fury, and the screen takes on a monochrome wash with enemies highlighted in splashes of red while you enter an invulnerable critical-hit frenzy, chaining attacks thoughtlessly.

In normal combat, however, you need to manage your stamina; run out and you won't be able to run, kick or swing at all. Health and stamina increase as you level up, but there are no other stats, and no equipment beyond weaponry. Dead Island is a very light RPG, but it definitely is an RPG.

And like any good action RPG, it features online co-op for four players. These can be in any combination of class, and it's drop-in, drop-out, with friends able to join each others' games at will, presumably at your own risk of plot spoilers. There'll be a matchmaking system for finding other players at your level, location, or stage in the storyline, too.

That story won't differ significantly across the characters, but will encompass "hundreds" of quests and optional side-quests across a diverse island. Judging by a teaser trailer we're shown, you'll strike out from the beach to explore the hotel, city streets choked with abandoned cars, an aeroplane crash site – possibly the jet we see screaming in over our heads towards the end of the demo – and thick jungle.

You'll encounter other survivors who will trade something for your assistance (your immunity to the undead plague automatically confers the status of a valued mercenary on you). There are factions with different interests. Help one guy fix a car, and you'll be able to use it to get around the island, giving your friends a ride if playing in co-op.

Does this violent, sprawling survivalist adventure sound like the game Dead Island's trailer painted in your head? Possibly not, but I don't think those three minutes of film necessarily misrepresented it, either.

Setting the ethical brouhaha about the trailer's shocking imagery aside, there's another reason it stirred the games world up. Here was an original concept, simply and powerfully conveyed, in the form of a game from a smaller publisher and developer. Here was a game that came without the baggage of expectation, franchising, pigeonholing or strung-out hype.

The most exciting thing about Dead Island was that it was an unknown quantity, and so was free to just be itself. And the most heartening thing about this demo – not startlingly innovative, but mustering a personality and theme all its own, despite those overworked zombies – is that it seems to be doing just that.

Picture of Oli.

About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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Comments (57) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Goodfella #1 1 year ago

    Sounds like a very promising alternative to the excellent Left 4 Dead. It will be PC version for me though if the L4D games are anything to go by.

    I like the stamina aspect, a bit like Demon's Souls in that respect.

  • carlosdfn #2 1 year ago

    Wow, wasn't expecting a rpg at all. Sounds interesting.

  • Max_Powers #3 1 year ago

    7/10

  • BEXANT #4 1 year ago

    Could be interesting. That's all I've got to say about that at the moment.

  • PixelPirate #5 1 year ago

    bit thin on details for me on the gameplay, but nevertheless it does sound very intriguing and at the very least, like it isn't a generic game hiding behind a controversial trailer.

    want to know more.

  • SClaw #6 1 year ago

    Glowing preview. But the review... 6/10 and EG will call it unoriginal.

  • Scopeh #7 1 year ago

    Will it be on Steam is all i want to know?

  • StolenGlory #8 1 year ago

    A zombie-survival RPG huh?

    Yeah. I'll have some of that.

  • Raptaur #9 1 year ago

    Still to make my mind up about this need more info.

    The trailer I was caught up in couldn't wait to play, and then it started to come about that it wasn’t going to be like that trailer... Disappointed.

    Still the preview has sparked a little interest again now I'm over the disappointment. Will wait and see what they come up with now I have slightly less lofty expectations.

  • Eraysor #10 1 year ago

    I just hope it does adequately represent the survival component; I liked the "hardcore" mode in New Vegas but here it has even more potential.

  • PlugMonkey #11 1 year ago

    Intriguing.

    I am intrigued.

    Although, I would also love to play a zombie game at some point where I wasn't conveniently immune. The main terror point of zombies in horror fiction is the fact that while they aren't exactly the most physically threatening foes, it only takes the tiniest scratch or bite and you're toast. So you can fight then fairly safely individually, but if you get outnumbered or let your guard down, you're in serious trouble.

    It's not that I don't like hacking hundreds of zombies to death, just that I would also like something that evokes more of the atmosphere of the Romero zombie films.

    Also:

    "staring his imminent execution by their hand in the face."

    Wat?

  • CaptainQuint #12 1 year ago

    Amazing how quickly an unheard of (to me) game till today can rise near to the top of my most wanted list.

  • bad09 #13 1 year ago

    An Zombie first person RPG with Condemned style battering things with blunt instruments? Yeah baby!

    The trailer started the interest and the style of game has my excitement off the radar. I shouldn't get excited yet but it's hard not to as this sounds like my perfect game!

  • RedPanda #14 1 year ago

    Post deleted at 14:31:59 28-01-2012

  • smithdown #15 1 year ago

    Actually sounds nothing like I thought it would. Which is a good thing.
    New IPs FTW.
    EDIT: @darkmorgado below - how the hell has this been on your radar for years? Are you some psychic gamer? Are you sitting there typing out your comnments WITH YOUR MIND?!?
    Fair play if you are. :-)
    Edited by smithdown at 17/03/11 @ 14:53

  • darkmorgado #16 1 year ago

    This has been on my radar for years now. Graphics look gorgeous too.

  • Roamer #17 1 year ago

    You lost me at first-person view, but got me back at RPG.

  • DavoTheDiv #18 1 year ago

    Would love a Fallout - Zombie Apocalypse type game based on the excellent 'Walking dead' TV series.

  • Zerobob #19 1 year ago

    Watched the trailer for this at the weekend. Instantly loved the song by Giles Lamb, but the trailer was completely pretentious and I've reached the point where I couldn't care less about something based on *yawn* zombies.

  • Vlad27145 #20 1 year ago

    @smithdown

    As stated in the article, the game was announced over 3 years ago ;)

  • uknortherner2000 #21 1 year ago

    @Scopeh: "Will it be on Steam is all i want to know?"

    It's been on their Coming Soon list for a while now.

  • Azhrarn #22 1 year ago

    Open world, action, RPG elements, zombies, survival. This sounds like my game. If this game is done well, Ill be the first to buy.

  • evild_edd #23 1 year ago

    Usually cautious of open-world games, but the fact that it's 4 player co-op would really help that. The preview sounds promising, but it'll depend on how well they convey the sense of impact with the melee fighting that'll make or break the game, as that sounds like the key focus.

    L4D did a great job of showing that zombies + co-op = win. There's enough room for another player in this market, if they can create something that is genuinely different (which this sounds to be).

    Not quite in my 'want' list, but definitely keeping an eye on this one...

  • Desheep #24 1 year ago

    I wan 2 b a maeg

  • leaveitout #25 1 year ago

    The trailer reminds me of the Gaspar Noé film Irréversible.

  • PearOfAnguish #26 1 year ago

    First person open world RPG? Sign me up.

  • riz23 #27 1 year ago

    I kept getting this confused with Dead Nation which wasn't very good. This is obviously something entirely different. Hope it pans out well.

  • metalangel #28 1 year ago

    It sounds great, a bit like an Undead Nightmare pack for Boiling Point (remember that?)

    I say Boiling Point as this will probably be just as buggy. Still, flying jaguars, hey ho...

  • darkmorgado #29 1 year ago

    Why will it be as buggy as Boiling Point? It's not made by the same studio.

  • seabassuk #30 1 year ago

    This is on my most wanted list of 2011 :D

  • schnide #31 1 year ago

    So it's Fallout 3 crossed with Left 4 Dead? Pulling off how awesome that should be is going to be one hard feat, but either way, I like the concept.

  • kangarootoo #32 1 year ago

    "as if David Cage had got drunk watching Memento and Night of the Living Dead and muddled them up"

    In fact David Cage got drunk whilst watching The Matrix and Murder She Wrote, and the rest is history.

  • asphaltcowboy #33 1 year ago

    "And like any good action RPG, it features online co-op for four players."

    Eh?

    Also: is it properly open-world or not?
    Edited by asphaltcowboy at 17/03/11 @ 16:37

  • Retro_ #34 1 year ago

    pre ordered this for £27 the other day with a nice 15% off voucher.

  • darkmorgado #35 1 year ago

    I hope there's a hardcore mode where your character has to eat and sleep.

  • orangpelupa #36 1 year ago

    " The game uses a tight, slightly zoomed-in first-person view which makes the action seem intense and claustrophobic, even on an open stretch of sand."

    i hope there will be a FOV option or atleast editable .ini or console command for setting the FoV.
    i always feel dizzy and want to puke with FPS with low FoV.....

    even BFBC2 standar FoV make me dizzy. Then manually change it to 75 cure my dizzy.

  • whoyouknow #37 1 year ago

    No thank you.

  • metalangel #38 1 year ago

    @darkmorgado: it sounds awfully ambitious, from a fairly small Eastern European dev, and it's been in dev hell for a long time. I could be wrong, but it doesn't bode well.

  • Lebowski #39 1 year ago

    "Went to Dead Island last year with my wife. The staff just lazily shuffled about, and on the second day we discovered a floater in the pool. To make matters worse, my wife, Maureen, was bitten by something over there and hasn't been quite right since. Disappointing."

    - Brian, TripAdvisor

  • Wyrm #40 1 year ago

    Please, please, please be a realistic Dead Rising.

  • lordofthedunce #41 1 year ago

    I think zombies is about all this has going for it.

  • GooseUK #42 1 year ago

    sound like a first person dead rising, but minus the comedy...

    Not really feeling this game anymore

  • Ergates_Antius #43 1 year ago

    "Please, please, please be a realistic Dead Rising."

    A realistic zombie game? Er....

  • coomber #44 1 year ago

    You lost me at first-person view, but got me back at RPG.

    Lost me at first-person as well. And I don't see much evidence of RPG from the description. But the screenshots clearly show a third-person view and it sounds great so I'll look forward to reading more on this.

  • Torkin #45 1 year ago

    It's an open-world action RPG with a first-person camera. It has character classes, levelling and skills, quests and side quests and improvised weapon crafting.

    Ok, now you caught my attention.

  • InternetRed #46 1 year ago

    I would have thought it would have other "stats". Strength (increased by hitting stuff, the more you do over a period of time, the stronger you get), Intuition (for building weapons and items, increase by building them, but is capped depending on the character... the rockstar 'tank' is less intuitive, spending most of his life frazzled on drugs) and Reflexes (how fast you react, longer time on the 'break out of a zombie hold' quick time event, initial running speed etc).

    You could even have "luck", when attacked by zombies and you're not immune, it's a factor if the zombie manages to chow down before you wriggle away. You could have a lucky character, a gambler etc, that is immune only because of the fact that he manages to escape from the situations before being bitten.

    The thing is, I loved Dead Rising.... for... a bit. I hated the fact that zombies respawned, I hated the fact that you had a time limit, and that people needed rescuing. Why does my character have to do that, why isn't there others? I'd love a game that embraces Max Brooks' books, set after the main infection has been contained, and you're part of a clean up crew... or just someone who wants to ensure their village is safe.

  • ShiroBen #47 1 year ago

    Oh.

    Oh.

    Oh. I'm really disappointed. I thought ... oh. Well then. I'll just go ahead and stop being excited for this one, then.

  • HugePS3Fan #48 1 year ago

    Sounds a little cartoonier than I had hoped after seeing the trailer.

  • mukki #49 1 year ago

    Please let this be good and not suck on consoles (especially the ps3)... Trailer was great but ya how will the game compare?

  • guernican #50 1 year ago

    The stamina management trope was one of the things that made Demons Souls work so well... interesting to see how these guys deal with it.

    Colour me interested.

  • O11Y #51 1 year ago

    The guy who made that trailer should be given a raise. Pure class

  • Drifty #52 1 year ago

    That is a stunning trailer - very emotive, very powerful.

    I hope the game lives up to the promise.

    R

  • skuzzbag #53 1 year ago

    So is this a single player game with on-line 4 player co-op? Or primarily a 4 player co-op game but could be played single?

    The write up makes it sound like a drop-in out co-op game but then the mechanics described (levelling up and building weapons) make it sound like it'd work better as single player.

    Co-op games generally work better when there is a level playing field between the players somewhat with regard to strength of weapons, if a main part of the game is building new weapons then you'll be taking your offline char online. I'm interested to see how they'll get the two different game styles to work together.

    Hopefully they'll pull it off.

  • Quint2020 #54 1 year ago

    I hope this is awesome and I hope it sells a shit load, Techland deserve some credit if only for their genuinely impressive in-house engine.

  • Tyronne #55 1 year ago

    Not so much fallout as fallover by the sound of it, sounds interesting and worth a look by the sound of it.

  • himmelsturmerIX #56 1 year ago

    soooooo... zombie is cool again?

  • Iora #57 1 year ago

    Podcast talking to the director of that trailer here:
    [link url=http://calmdowntom.com/the-podcasts/
    ]http://calmdowntom.com/the-podcasts/
    [/link]

    good listen but bloody long.