Dead Island Goes Gold With New Co-Op Vignette

[Earnest Cavalli]

Dead Island Goes Gold With New Co-Op Vignette


To celebrate the completion of Dead Island, developer Techland has launched a new trailer focusing on the game's co-operative elements.

Let's get one thing out of the way: Zombies have been done to (un)death. I can find a dozen similarities between this trailer and Left 4 Dead, Dead Rising, or even Romero's flicks dating back a half-century. When it comes to shambling hordes, there's just no new angles to explore.

That said, I get a really gleeful, visceral sense of fun from what Techland has done here. According to the blog entry that announced Dead Island's new gold status and the existence of this trailer, the game's co-operative multiplayer elements are an integral part of the experience. To wit:

Only teamwork can get the four different protagonists of Dead Island through the seemingly insurmountable odds and dangers that await them on the zombie infested tropical island of Banoi. Their different skillsets complement each other and give them the ability to oppose the hordes of zombies that await them around every corner of the former holiday paradise.

Dead Island offers a seamless co-op experience for up to four players with easy drop-in/drop-out mechanics throughout the whole game.


Playing coy, the entry then teases players with the hint of unrevealed multiplayer options. "When playing with friends its all about fighting together and watching each others' back or..." it reads.

Annoyingly ominous ellipses aside, I'm excited by this. Not necessarily because I have a borderline pathological love for zombies (I do), or because I think my friends might enjoy decapitating corpses (they would), but because the guy in that trailer looks like an alternate universe Wyclef Jean where the Fugees were seafaring pirates instead of a beloved hip hop group.

Barring any acts of reggae-tinged piracy, Dead Island will be appearing on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC platforms on September 6.

Source: Dead Island Blog [http://deadisland.deepsilver.com/blog.php]

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[Baresark]

The more I see of this game, the more it interests me. I have to say, I am glad they show the Euro version of the trailers, seeing as how they can't do the hanging zombie (a famous image from Night of the Living Dead) logo because American politicians are too fuckin' stupid to not think it's a black guy.

PS. I'm an American, I just don't care for my countrymen in respect to stuff like this.

PPS. Still not crazy about the ridiculous weapons such as the electric machete and all that.

PPPS. This is also a test to see if that "stupid American" comment will get me warned.

 

[FogHornG36]

hummm everything seems... cliche'

how about we have a group of people that actually know each other and are friends, they can make jokes help contrast the mood between extreme horror, and if one of them gets attacked you have a reason to help them, oh wait, i think i just want to characters to be the guys from shaun of the dead.

 

[maddog015]

I might be in for this game. But it does look samey to L4D. If you could have a choice of more characters as well (not just the stock 4), that would be an interesting twist.

 

[squid5580]

Guess that explains why half the ahievements are for co op

 

[DangNabbit]

I don't want to judge it before I play it, but this really isn't looking anything like that first trailer.

I think the response to that showed that there is a MASSIVE audience out there for a more heartfelt and emotionally gripping game, this looks like it's too campy to really visit those places. Having said that, here's hoping they prove me wrong and make this an amazing game.

 

[TheAceTheOne]

A trailer featuring the transformation of a young girl into a zombie, played in a nonlinear sequence, was commented upon by Ben Parfitt of MCV. Parfitt praised the trailer itself, but criticized the online reaction to it, writing "It's a video that uses an image of a dead girl and images of her dying to create an emotional bond with a product." Wired exclaimed, "It may be the best video game trailer I?ve ever seen; gorgeous, well-edited and emotionally engaging." However Wired urged caution, stating that Techland did not make the trailer and that "everyone is hyped up about a short film, not the game itself."

(source = Wikipedia and Wired)

The first trailer wasn't made by the people behind the game. Comparing the latest trailers to what is more or less a short film set within the Dead Island universe seems kind of a bad way to judge the game. While the first trailer was wonderful, the gameplay trailers look fairly well done too. I'm considering preordering this, based on my love for zombies... Plus, the gameplay looks interesting to me.

That being said, if I do preorder it, I'll have it reviewed within the week and we'll see how it holds up... But until then, the trailers have me intrigued.

 

[twaddle]

the more i see of this game the more i am disapointed. the only thing that intrigues me is the use of the stamina system in the game. I thought this was going to be a deep artistic drama involving zombie apocalypse but it the more i see the more i realize it the same old zombie game with the same old stereotypes

 

[ultimateownage]

I love how they started making the characters and the first idea they had was 'I know, let's make a punk rocker and the blackest person ever'.

For all the people claiming it's a disappointment: This is why you do not use CGI trailers as good examples of game quality. How can a zombie apocalypse game be heartfelt and realistic? Take it for what it is; a L4D-esque zombie game but with much more visceral physics and more RPG elements. Don't keep looking at the FIRST TEASER and saying that it's nothing like that.

 

[airrazor7]

So basically dead island is L4D without a more cohesive story, character skills(buffs) and it guest stars Sheva Alomar (kidding, but one of the voices did sound like the actress Karen Dyer who did the voice work for Sheva).

I'm pretty sure there is more to the game than that but regardless, I am very sold on this and cannot wait for its release.

 

[Rawne1980]

Dead island is a free roaming "sandbox" style game.

They have already said guns will be very rare, melee is more common and the zombies will eat your face if you're not careful.

As long as it's difficult and plays well i'm in.

 

[Quijiboh]

All interest I had in this game has completely waned.

"What the fuck?" "Oh shit!" "You in the game?"

Seriously? SERIOUSLY? They're calling that tripe dialogue?

 

[fundayz]

This game is nothing like the first dramatic trailer showed. It's just more of the same. I guess it's selling point is that it's L4D and Dead Rising in one game. Yawn.

Sorry but what did you expect? If you hyped yourself up from one trailer that clearly had nothing to do with the gameplay then you only have yourself to blame.

 

[Lt. Vinciti]

I lost all hope when they did the second video w/ the annoying rap guy

Also:
Far Cry 2
Condemned 2
Left 4 Dead

^---mix together well and bake call it Dead Island

 

[Jumplion]

I love how they started making the characters and the first idea they had was 'I know, let's make a punk rocker and the blackest person ever'.

For all the people claiming it's a disappointment: This is why you do not use CGI trailers as good examples of game quality. How can a zombie apocalypse game be heartfelt and realistic? Take it for what it is; a L4D-esque zombie game but with much more visceral physics and more RPG elements. Don't keep looking at the FIRST TEASER and saying that it's nothing like that.

A CGI trailer may not be an indication of the actual gameplay, but it damn well shows what the studio is aiming to do, at least most of the time. Some people compare it to the original Gears of War trailer, but at least that trailer showed you guns, explosions, and monsters. The Dead Island trailer showed a little girl getting eaten alive and then killing her parents. If a developer puts that out, and then backtracks going "Oh no no no, it's not like that, it's a fun, happy, crazy kind of game!" then I don't blame people for feeling toyed with.

To pull a bait-n-switch that severe, toying with the audience's emotions to get them initially interested in the game only to provide them with something completely different (and quite frankly, from what I've seen, pretty blase except for the setting) actually turns me off the game to the point where I don't think I want to support Deep Silver/Techland at all.

I don't think it would actually be that hard to make a darker, more heartfelt take on a zombie apocalypse. Make it about survival, about trying to get out of the hellhole. Avoiding conflict, trying to get every and any resource you can, just knowing that spending too long in the apartment could cause you spending more resources getting out than you would getting in. Fight other survivors for resources, maybe they can't trust anyone, or try to rally them up even if the rations will go thin (thereby causing more chaos). In an apocalypse of any kind, it's survival of the fittest, and in the end the worst enemies are humans. Instead, this game is about popping caps in heads, slashing up whatever is in your way, leveling up so you can continue fighting some more, and generally just go nuts.

Let me be clear, that is perfectly fine. If you want a fun zombie game, and Dead Island interests you, I say go for it. I just feel that it's downright rotten to fool everyone into getting interested in your product by toying with their emotions ad severely as they did. I would say "Fuck off, Deepsilver/Techland" but really, I just have silent disappointment for them.

 

[JehuBot]

Man , they should drop the dramatic piano soundtrack already , it just doesn't work anymore , now that we found out that it's just another generic zombie game.

 

[ultimateownage]

snip

When I saw the trailer, I thought they were trying to emphasise the juxtaposition between before and after the infection on the island with all the flashbacks. From what I can tell, that's exactly what they're trying to do. Maybe people just read into it wrong.

 

[Jumplion]

snip

When I saw the trailer, I thought they were trying to emphasise the juxtaposition between before and after the infection on the island with all the flashbacks. From what I can tell, that's exactly what they're trying to do. Maybe people just read into it wrong.

If it is a juxtaposition, the game trailers certainly don't look it, to me anyway.