Dead Island 2 Announced, With Exclusive PS4 Beta

[BlameTheWizards]

Dead Island 2 Announced, With Exclusive PS4 Beta

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Dead Island 2 will hit PC, PS4 and Xbox One in Spring 2015, but with a few extra perks exclusive to PS4 owners.

Dead Island 2 has been announced for a spring 2015 release on PS4, Xbox One and PC. However, PS4 owners will have access to a unique character class, level and an exclusive 30-day beta. Details on the beta will be available in the coming months, Sony <a href=http://blog.us.playstation.com/2014/06/09/dead-island-2-coming-to-ps4-beta-revealed/#sf3236169>posted on its PlayStation Blog.

Developed by Yager, the sequel is set to take place in California, which has been put under quarantine by the U.S. military. According to a press release from publisher Deep Silver, the game will have multiplayer for up to eight people and classes including an "action-oriented berserker" and a "stealthy hunter."

Dead Island 2 will have the action and role-playing elements from previous games in the series, as well as a "never before seen" weapon crafting system.

[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/content/e3-2014]



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[AstaresPanda]

never did get around the playing dead island 1 still on my steam list, trailer is pretty cool either way even if zombies are getting abit over done now

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

Hopefully those are timed exclusives. I think that's one thing that I hate the most about the gaming scene, lately. Exclusive this, exclusive that. Don't get me wrong, I get it; they want their systems to sell more, I just think that exclusive content on a game that's otherwise going to be multi-platform is a lousy way to go about it. It's that same foul taste as when games would have different exclusive content based on where or how you pre-ordered the game.

 

[Callate]

Well, I'm rather glad they've associated it with a trailer which is probably more accurate to the tone of the gameplay.

The first DI's trailer was a work of art, no question- but it had so little to do with the game as to border on false advertising.

 

[Brian Tams]

Whatever happened to everyone getting the same game regardless of platform? I'm so sick of this "exclusive content for X console" shit. Its dumb. Either make the game a full exclusive, or give every version the exact same content.

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

Whatever happened to everyone getting the same game regardless of platform? I'm so sick of this "exclusive content for X console" shit. Its dumb. Either make the game a full exclusive, or give every version the exact same content.

I'm glad someone else has realised it's BS besides myself, seen people rag on MS for this till the end of time, now Sony's doing it I think it's time people realise how scummy and annoying it is when a highly praised company does the same.

besides if anything from memory this series was multiplatform anyway so really this is Sony+Depp Silver pissing others off.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Was...was that Jack Black? It sure sounded like him.

I heard the first two games did not live up to the hopes. But say what you will, they sure can make good trailers.

 

[Arawn]

The first DI's trailer was a work of art, no question- but it had so little to do with the game as to border on false advertising.

Someone said something similar to me in a chat room when I mentioned this trailer. It's been awhile so I went to watch the trailer for the first game. What exactly is the false advertising? Only thing I see is the difference in the movie quality vs the game's quality. But having little to do with the game? It showed zombies eating people; the game had zombies. I can only guess people were expecting something like Dead Rising, which this new game seems to point towards. In any case I did like the song they used for the video.

 

[Callate]

Someone said something similar to me in a chat room when I mentioned this trailer. It's been awhile so I went to watch the trailer for the first game. What exactly is the false advertising? Only thing I see is the difference in the movie quality vs the game's quality. But having little to do with the game? It showed zombies eating people; the game had zombies. I can only guess people were expecting something like Dead Rising, which this new game seems to point towards. In any case I did like the song they used for the video.

The short version is that Telltale's The Walking Dead is also a game about zombies, but you would never confuse it with Dead Island.

The longer version is that there are a number of themes touched upon in that trailer in under three minutes that are never touched upon in the game.

Consider that the trailer plays two different parts of a the same narrative- one occurring backwards in slow motion, the other at more or less normal speed and forward. There are a number of implications there- one is of a narrative deep enough to be worth examining from multiple angles.

Another is mistakes, consequences, split-second decisions, regret. We're witnessing a tragedy, simultaneously in aftermath and in progress, and even moments of prelude in the end. Could things have gone differently if the father had gotten to his daughter a little sooner? Or failed to rescue her at all? Or noticed that she had "turned"?

The characters we see in the trailer care about each other, and their relationships inform and impact their decisions. They establish their humanity and distinguish a difference between them and the monsters, even as those monsters destroy them. The zombies are like a force of nature, as indifferent to human suffering as a tidal wave or a hurricane.

The turning point is the little girl dying and becoming a zombie- the linchpin upon which the whole narrative swerves from heroism to tragedy.

...That's the trailer.

Then there's Dead Island, the game. Which is a passable c-movie-like first-person shooter/brawler, granted.

But the narrative is, well, c-movie fodder- completely linear and utterly forgettable. There are no characters the player engages with long enough to care significantly about; the vast majority of humans are nothing more than quest-dispensing robots with only enough dialogue to fulfill that function. Even the player characters, in as little as we see of them in cut-scenes, are thoroughly unlikable when they're not complete ciphers.

There are no significant decisions, and no consequences. The death of the PCs themselves sets the player back maybe five minutes, and no non-player characters die permanently unless it's pre-scripted for them to do so, in which case it's inevitable.

No one transforms into a zombie (well, unless you count one boss fight); the PC's inability to do so is the rather feeble impetus on which all the other humans send you out to perform fetch-quests.

There is almost nothing in the game touching on heroism, love, self-sacrifice, regret. It's touched on very briefly in a side character who only turns up more than halfway through the game, and that same character is killed off almost as an afterthought, leaving the player thoroughly unmoved.

It may be ridiculous to expect Dead Island, a game where one straps car batteries to machetes to electrify an unending tide of thoroughly expendable undead, to provide anything moving, meaningful, or thought-provoking. But that was the sort of world the trailer seemed to imply.

 

[Monsterfurby]

Hopefully those are timed exclusives. I think that's one thing that I hate the most about the gaming scene, lately. Exclusive this, exclusive that. Don't get me wrong, I get it; they want their systems to sell more, I just think that exclusive content on a game that's otherwise going to be multi-platform is a lousy way to go about it. It's that same foul taste as when games would have different exclusive content based on where or how you pre-ordered the game.

To be honest, I think the change from mostly exclusive-only libraries to nearly only cross-platform releases has massively hurt gaming as a whole. Back when Sony and Nintendo systems had completely distinct libraries from each other and PC, there was a reason to own a console... Now, there's virtually none.

 

[lawrencein]

Wait, this is being developed by Yager, as in the guys who developed Spec Ops: The Line? That's pretty cool.

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

Wait, this is being developed by Yager, as in the guys who developed Spec Ops: The Line? That's pretty cool.

Good eye. Hopefully they bring some of the same storytelling prowess to the table that made an otherwise forgettable FPS into something that basically everyone had to talk about.

 

[Quazimofo]

Oh jack black, you would stop to steal a man's shoes mid-apocalypse wouldn't you you wonderful bastard? Glad to see him get more voice acting jobs. He's not a particularly good writer, but he's got good delivery and approaching robin-willaims levels of energy, a trait too few have.

You know, since it's in California does this mean there are going to be celebrity cameos? I mean, a lot of them live in/around hollywood right? If there's a zombified chuck norris who does nothing but roundhouse kicks then I'll be thoroughly entertained for about a week on the novelty alone.

 

[Darks63]

Whatever happened to everyone getting the same game regardless of platform? I'm so sick of this "exclusive content for X console" shit. Its dumb. Either make the game a full exclusive, or give every version the exact same content.

I'm glad someone else has realised it's BS besides myself, seen people rag on MS for this till the end of time, now Sony's doing it I think it's time people realise how scummy and annoying it is when a highly praised company does the same.

besides if anything from memory this series was multiplatform anyway so really this is Sony+Depp Silver pissing others off.

I agree that console exclusive dlc sucks, but in this case if DI2 Is as crap as the first one its no loss really.

 

[Mad World]

I am so sick of exclusive crap. Also, didn't Dead Island 1 not fair too well? Anyway, they lose my respect with the exclusive stuff.

 

[Killclaw Kilrathi]

Also, California is the worst place for a zombie apocalypse to happen. 50% of the American military and navy is there and the state has more military bases, armories, etc than every other state out there. Unlike a random tourist island, California actually has a military presence. A strange choice of locale, isn't it? Its like being mugged in the lobby of a Police Station.

And lets not even how Dead Island is out of place if it isn't on an island anymore. Can't they call it Dead State?

They missed a golden opportunity with this. The previous game was set in the PNG region and the island was being blockaded by the Australian Defense Force. So what "mainland" country could you put the sequel where the "Dead Island" name would still be vaguely relevant? And where there's an ample tourist scene with all the beaches, surfer dudes and palm trees they want? Are you telling me none of the designers thought of that?