Dead Island Previews
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RPGamer tries to reassure RPG players that "there is some real meat to the RPG mechanics" in the title:
The island of Banoi is divided into various zones, each with its own quest hubs and leveled enemies. If you feel brave enough to venture into a zone that is a much higher level than your own, you can expect to die a lot. However, if you manage to survive, you can walk away with a lot of cash, XP, and high-leveled weapons. Since the island of Banoi is fairly large, you can find cars to help you traverse long distances or alternatively, fast travel to and from safe havens. The mini map makes navigating the world fairly easy, and it clearly marks the locations of quest givers, loot containers, and a line directing you to your next quest objective. As you explore the island, you will come across various safe havens and small pockets of survivors. Whenever you accept quests from them you are rewarded with weapons, items, XP, and money. Even when exploring zombie-filled zones, you never know when you will run across a survivor. These survivors may provide you with additional side quests or the ability to buy and sell some items. A good tip that I received for spotting survivors is to be on the lookout for a cluster of zombies trying to force their way into a building rather than trying to eat you.
Weapon maintenance and modifications are the other core RPG mechanics in the game. Before we set off on our mission, we were introduced to the work bench. In various safe houses across the island, you can use work benches to repair, upgrade, and modify various weapons you pick up. Repairing items is very important because weapons will degrade over time through use. Weapons have four different stats that are affected by the repair and upgrade process, such as damage and durability. Weapons will also change in appearance as they are upgraded. For example, a rusty knife will transform into a bright shiny blade with a visibly sharp edge the more you upgrade it.
And Neoseeker also touches upon the game's role-playing mechanics:
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Dead Island may be its heavy use of RPG mechanics. Each character falls into a specific class, like your archetypal rogue or tank. During the demo, playing as these four different class-types didn't seem to hinder anyone's performance in combat, though the differences might be made more apparent in the full game. Everyone does have an exclusive Rage attack as well, and once activated, you'll see the world in black and white and receive some kind of combat boost. For the character who specializes in knife-throwing, he'll be able to throw more quickly and perform instant kills; it varies depending on who you're playing as, obviously.
Dead Island also implements talent trees, which unlock a variety of active and passive abilities for your character. Not all skills are necessarily combat-related either, as you'll notice RPG staples such as lockpicking thrown into the mix. Your character's background and personality can influence the type of skills he or she is predispositioned to.
Customization extends to weapons as well, though we didn't see the process during the hands-on demo. We did, however, see some of these customized weapons in action, like exploding knives (and we mean big explosions) and electrical machetes. Weapons can be found or bought and differ widely in quality, which determines how effective that item is. Obviously the higher quality the weapon, the more expensive it'll be from a vendor. Firearms, as Techland previously mentioned, are harder to come by than melee weapons like knives or pipes, and ammo is incredibly rare, thus adding a layer of realism to the game. Honestly, who expects a tropical island to double as a guns and ammunition emporium?
