Dead Island Studio Announces Dark Fantasy Hack-and-Slasher

[Timothy Chang]

Dead Island Studio Announces Dark Fantasy Hack-and-Slasher

An internal Dead Island weapon mod has spawned into a hellish new project.


Techland's zombie-reconstruction simulator, Dead Island, is popular with some of Dead Island Riptide [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/9295-Schuylers-Five-Favorites-of-2011][/I], but Techland has also announced a new first-person hack and slash game that's going to be set in a dark fantasy setting. (Yes, there'll probably be a few zombies in this one, too.)

"Project Hell" was unveiled a few days ago in an official blog, and is currently being driven by a small team within the Techland team. The project originated from a simple internal weapon mod that combined ice magic spells with two-handed swords, and it was enough to inspire a few developers to band together and create a prototype, which has since grown into an independent project.

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"Our main goal is to make a game we can all enjoy playing so don't expect unicorns and fairies - we prefer breaking through hordes of undead minions only to slaughter their devilish and loathsome masters in a bloody boss-fight," reads the initial blog post. "To achieve that we'll use our experience already gained in game development and enhanced technology from Dead Island.

"We believe that we can make something really unique and thrilling and share it with you. Keep your fingers crossed."

Dead Island's melee combat system was definitely one of the game's strong suits, and a more polished version of this in a dark fantasy world sounds very promising indeed.

Source: Sharpen Your Axes! [http://sharpenyouraxes.com/]

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[felbot]

i love it when mods become games, makes me wish more games would offer Dev kits.

looking forward to it.

 

[Bashful Reaper]

Looks like it may take some cues from Dark souls... The genre is hardly thin on the ground, but it could be good. The concept art pic looks not so hot though, trying to do too much with one character. Doesn't need the armour if you are going to stitch heads on the hands and give it the zombie head. Kind of like the guys from Dragon age with bits glued on.

 

[Something Amyss]

Will it be a lackluster FPP game?

 

[Kungfu_Teddybear]

Colour me interested. I'll keep an eye on this.

 

[Gordon Freemonty]

The concept looks like a fantasy undead judge dredd with heads as hands!

 

[TheAmazingHobo]

Hey, more power to them.
Even if it´s Dark Souls/Amnesia "inspired", I don´t mind people ripping of an art style I actually LIKE.

The concept looks like a fantasy undead judge dredd with heads as hands!

Slight correction on your spelling: it´s actually spelled "fucking metal!!!".
I often get it wrong as well.

Also, is that a Screenwipe Avatar ?

 

[TheTygre]

Ugh, here we go again. Another grimdark trip through the dirt-brown section of fantasy. Hard men will have to make hard decisions in the face of unstoppable rape-orcs and cannibal demons of Bad McSkullDoom, lord of all naughtiness and hardcorez. I don't want to even think about how many 'ghouls' or whatever fantastic acronym they concoct for zombies I'll have to slog through, pretending they evoke any kind of emotion more out of a courtesy.

...

Oh who am I kidding?

WANT NOW.

The concept looks like a fantasy undead judge dredd with heads as hands!

Fucking I know, right?! That alone is worth the price of admission.

 

[latenightapplepie]

Snip

I'm not so sure. Yeah, Dead Island's first person melee combat didn't really work somehow. It felt off. But Skyrim's I can handle. Also, Condemned: Criminal Origins worked well enough. I think a block ability is important. Dead Island didn't have one, did it?

 

[Doclector]

Looks very dark souls, which is good. I loved the style and atmosphere of dark souls, but the difficulty of it kinda locked me out after a while. Hopefully it'll also be scary, as being a badass knight is all the more entertaining when up against something that makes you soil your greaves.

 

[Hero in a half shell]

The concept looks like a fantasy undead judge dredd with heads as hands!

But head hands are all the fashion right now!

I'm just happy someone's remembered fantasy doesn't mean "a human, an elf, and a dwarf walk into a mead hall..."

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

Wasn't really thrilled with Dead Island, but that does look really awesome and has peaked my interest.

I will be keeping an eye on this.

 

[Gordon Freemonty]

Also, is that a Screenwipe Avatar ?

Yes, It is Barry Shitpeas from Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe.

 

[latenightapplepie]

Close combat is as much about how your body is positioned, and where your feet are placed, as it is about hitting stuff with swords. And that is something you cannot do in first-person.

Yeah, I think you're right. Skyrim had the role-playing and exploration to distract from its combat issues. Similarly, Condemned was a suspenseful, immersive horror game, so again, the combat didn't have to be perfect. Hmmm.