Dead Island Previews and Footage

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Written by WorstUsernameEver on August 11th, 2011

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The weapons have a durability rating as well as damage, and as you use them, the weapon weakens and deteriorates. You can repair or upgrade your gear, but there's certainly an advantage to using a wide assortment of what you find. The weapon degradation adds a sense of tension and encourages experimentation and inventory management, as does the weapon upgrade system as a whole.

The overall leveling system works like an MMO or similar RPGs, a variety of NPCs give you quests for rewards and experience. Once you hit the group of survivors near the beach and get your first round of quests, the game begins in earnest. As with most games of this sort, you have the option of following the quest lines and riding the story that the developer has designed or going off the rails and wandering around the landscape. Dead Island, from what I've seen in this timed demo provided by Deep Silver, has quite a bit of wandering available, though; being surrounded by zombies makes it a bit harder to linger.

While discussing the game with a few friends, a point came up that I hadn't considered not many games or movies focus on the undead in a tropical paradise. Usually the setting is dark and gloomy which adds to the overall atmosphere of horror, but Dead Island can't lean on that concept to set tone. Instead, the game has to work that sense of fear into you in other fashions. It's almost difficult to be afraid in such a warm and vibrant environment; it's like trying to imagine Serious Sam bringing a feeling of absolute dread. Somehow, though, it works.

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