Tone and Atmosphere

Every fan remembers the initial Dead Island 1 cinematic trailer, and though it didn’t quite hit the same emotional highs, the game was still pretty serious. With Dead Island 2, Dambuster Studios is taking more of a light-hearted, satirical feel to the tone. Narrative designer Lydia Cockerham told WCCF Tech said the Los Angeles setting resulted in wanting this “whole pulpy, irreverent tone that is a love letter to B-movies from the ’80s and all these kinds of things that we all have in our psyches.”

The team felt this worked well with the setting and characters instead of the “dark and serious direction” several games picked. It also feeds into the game’s streamlined nature, where you’re focused solely on killing zombies.

Linear vs Open World

Banoi Island in the first game is considered an open world – aside from some areas gated by story progress, you could explore freely. Dead Island 2, on the other hand, is decidedly not an open-world title. Los Angeles, or HELL-A, is divided into multiple districts that open up as you progress the story with different side quests, collectibles and so on in each level.

However, it’s a lot more linear, based on various previews, and you’re mostly killing zombies en route from point A to B with a few things to distract you. You can revisit previous districts, but the entire world isn’t stitched together into this freely explorable space with no loading screens.

Slayers vs Survivors

Dead Island 1 introduced us to four survivors – Logan, Purna, Sam B and Xian Mei – with different stories, abilities and personalities. Dead Island 2 has six – Jacob, Ryan, Carla, Bruno, Dani and Amy – and dubs them Slayers, learning more into the pulpy tone. They also have unique play styles – like Logan, Dani is good with throwing weapons – but instead of having unique skill trees, each Slayer has a customizable Skill Deck with different cards.

Also, for those concerned about characters “quipping” too much back and forth, creative director James Worrall told The Loadout, “Generally speaking, our characters try not to quip at everything.” Each has an idiom or phrase, but the team has “stayed well away from this notion that heroes should suddenly go into this comic exchange that goes back and forth and back and forth.” Citing Thor: Love and Thunder’s exchanges, Worrall said, “We made a conscious decision to stay away from that kind of stuff. And hopefully, we’ve achieved just the right balance.” Time, of course, will tell.

FLESH System

Probably the coolest (or most gruesome) difference between the two games is the FLESH System in Dead Island 2. It’s a procedural gore system which allows for much more realistic damage. You could knock their jaw off, split through their face, etc. Depending on the weapon, you may slash through flesh and bone or crush limbs outright. Zombies will even burn and melt procedurally, the latter causing their limbs to fall off. It’s a huge step up in detail and sheer overkill.

Combat Changes

The modding system for weapons in Dead Island 2 looks to be more advanced, with different options depending on the materials gathered. They still have durability and rarity tiers like the first game, but their damage type now plays a bigger role in combat thanks to the FLESH System.

For example, katanas are better for cutting off limbs and more precise damage, while sledgehammers are good for wide-arcing swings that can hit multiple enemies at once and deal blunt damage. The overall similarity between both games’ combat is still pretty strong, especially since dodging is still available, but Dead Island 2 feels more refined and hard-hitting.

FURY vs Rage Mode

On the surface, Dead Island 2’s FURY seems the same as Rage Mode from Dead Island 1. It’s a gauge that must be filled with kills and once activated, allows for using powerful attacks for a limited time to kill enemies. The difference is that FURY involves ripping zombies apart with your bare hands due to the infected within each Slayer.

Rage Mode, on the other hand, sees each survivor having unique abilities – Xian Mei’s Bloodrage sees her swinging a sword more powerful, while Purna uses a revolver with infinite bullets. Each can be upgraded thanks to the Fury skill tree. It’s unknown if Dead Island 2 allows for the same, though that might be what the Numen category in the Skill Deck is for.

Skills and Skill Deck

Completing quests and killing zombies in the original game grants XP, and there are three skill trees to invest in – Fury, Combat and Survival. Each survivor had distinct skills in each tree, reinforcing their playstyles. Dead Island 2 upends this with Innate Skills, with each Slayer having two at the outset, and the Skill Deck. You can slot skills in as Cards across four categories: Abilities, Survivor, Slayer and Numen. It provides a lot more flexibility in how you want to build a character, based on how they play, and you can swap out skills in the middle of battle.

Apex Zombies vs Special Infected

In addition to regular zombies, Dead Island had Special Infected with unique abilities. For example, the Thug was more muscular and tougher than the Walkers, and Floaters are bloated and shoot acidic projectiles at players. Dead Island 2 also has Special Infected but calls them Apex Zombies instead. The Butcher, which moves faster and has sharpened its forearm bones to attack with, has crossed over intact. Others have been changed in some ways – the Thug with the Crusher, who is much larger; the Floater with the Slobber; and the Siren with the Screamer (which also appeared in Dead Island: Riptide). Of course, how distinct they feel from the first game’s Special Infected remains to be seen.

Co-op Player Count

While the first game has four-player co-op with its four survivors, Dead Island 2’s co-op is for up to three players. Interestingly, back when it was announced under YAGER, the sequel was to have eight-player co-op (according to an interview with VG247), but that didn’t carry over. As such, given the expanded skills and Skill Deck and more linear environments, it makes sense to scale the number of players back for the sake of performance and carnage.

Playtime

In terms of playtime, the base version of Dead Island could be completed in about 18 to 19 hours if you stuck to the story. It would take about 50 hours on average to complete everything, as per HowLongToBeat. By comparison, Dead Island 2 is “around 20 hours,” according to art director Adam Olsson when speaking to WCCF Tech. While this factors in some side quests, it doesn’t account for all of them or playing as different characters, pursuing collectibles, co-op and so on. Though both games are different in structure, the sequel still promises a fairly meaty experience without an open world.

Mindblowing Knife – Dead Island

Developer Techland’s Dead Island is a game that was showered with praise by both fans and critics upon its launch back in 2011 and for good reason, with one of them being its great offerings of tools that players can use to smack zombies in the face. Slashing zombies with Mindblowing Knife will cause their heads to explode thanks to its 100% critical hit chance, making it one of the best weapons to crowd control zombies or better yet, kill them in one fell swoop.

Dead Space

The sequels may have leaned further into the “action” but Visceral Games’ first title in the Dead Space series will always remain its most significant. In one fell swoop, it combined excellent shooting mechanics, a strong narrative and stellar Metroidvania level design with abject terror. It’s not easy to compete with Silent Hill or Resident Evil when creating an atmosphere of dread but Dead Space pulled it off while delivering its own unique hooks like limb targeting, stasis and so on.

Left 4 Dead 2

While Left 4 Dead blazed a trail for co-op shooter titles – especially those with AI directors and hordes of enemies punctuated by special units – Left 4 Dead 2 offered that and more. More weapons, more variety in objective play and arguably tighter map design meshed well with the responsive shooting, expanded melee weapons and new Special Infected. Furthermore, with all the mods available – from character models like Lollipop Chainsaw’s Juliet to maps like the Battle of Helm’s Deep from Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers – there’s near endless replay value here.

Deep Silver are doing another Humble Bundle – the Deep Silver Bundle 2 – and it’s a pretty damn good one, with some of the best games in Deep Silver’s lineup being put on offer for peanuts. Pay $1 or more, and you get Sacred 3 Gold, Risen, Risen 2: Dark Waters Gold Edition, Saints Row 2, Dead Island: Game of the Year Edition, and a coupon for 10% off one month of Humble Monthly for new subscribers

Beat the  average price – which is under $4 as of right now – and in addition to all of that, you also receive Dead Island Riptide Complete Edition, Killer is Dead – Nightmare Edition, Saints Row: The Third – The Full Package, and a coupon for 75% off Dead Island Definitive Collection in the Humble Store. Finally, pay $13 or more, and in addition to everything else listed here, you also get Saints Row 4 and Risen 3 Titan Lords.

That’s a whole lot of relatively good games for a frankly great asking price, so go on and get the damn thing. Might as well just pay $13 and take away the complete haul.

Deep Silver look set to launch a new, current generation collection of re-releases of Dead Island and Dead Island Riptide as Dead Island Definitive Collection on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, according to North American retailer Best Buy. The collection will also include a brand new standalone 16-bit game called Dead Island: Retro Revenge.

Both games were released on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC last generation. While Riptide met with a lot of criticism, the original Dead Island was generally well received. These re-releases will probably keep the Dead Island brand alive, even as Deep Silver work through the development issues that Dead Island 2 seems to have run into.

As for what Dead Island Retro Revenge is, who knows? Let’s hope it comes to PC too, which will not be getting the Definitive Collection. Maybe a cheap Steam re-release?

Will you be getting the Definitive Collection? Let us know in the comments below.

Comments made by a producer from Techland earlier this week got misconstrued so that people began to think that they might actually be looking into developing the sequel to the game that put them on the map in the first place.

However, today, Tymon Smektala, who worked as a producer on the original Dead Island, has issued a statement regarding those comments that he made.

“After reading through some of the VideoGamer coverage of Dying Light: The Following produced after an interview at Gamescom, I’d like to again clarify that all of the statements I made about Dead Island 2 were my personal opinions only and in no way represent the views of the studio,” said Smektala.

“I am a huge fan of the original Dead Island as a gamer and would love the franchise to thrive, but any decisions regarding possible Techland’s involvement in its franchise are not mine to make, and are never as easy as just “asking”. At the moment I’m focusing on Dying Light: The Following hoping to deliver a great expansion to all the fans of the game.”

Currently, Techland is working on an expansion pack for Dying Light. Dead Island remains firmly with Deep Silver.

Look, I mean, I’m not necessarily one to complain about remasters and re-releases. While I can’t say I personally approve of them, I don’t mind them as a quick and dirty cash buffer, as well as a relatively easy way to expose a previously released game to a potentially broader audience, But with that said, we are now officially at a point in this generation where it actually seems like we have more re-releases of games coming up, than we have actual new games.

The newest addition to this arsenal of re-releases? Dead Island. Apparently, Techland’s four player zombie action loot game will be getting a ‘Definitive Edition,’ which has been spotted by South African site Loot.co.za, which has displayed a product page for the game, The page doesn’t have any more details, but this isn’t necessarily unlikely- publisher Deep Silver has already dipped its toes into the re-release pool with the saints Row 4 release for the PS4 and Xbox One, and with Dead Island 2 currently languishing in development hell, this may be the easiest out for the publisher to keep the brand alive.

I just find this distasteful at this point.

The game is currently set to be published by the industry renowned, Deep Silver. Deep Silver are the owners of the Dead Island series so this is unlikely to change; they are perhaps best known for their Saints Row series and Metro ( Redux) series of games.

Escape Dead Island is being developed primarily for 7th generation consoles with no plans for an 8th generation build of the game having been announced. It is currently slated for launch on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360. The game will launch on November 18th in North America, November 20th in Australia and November 21st in Europe.

• 1. Development
• 2. Gameplay
• 3. Story
• 2. Characters

Development

Escape Dead Island is being developed as a spin off from the main series canon of Dead Island, limited though it may be. Deep Silver have stressed that the game isn’t set within the main canon and therefore shouldn’t be taken into account when considering its place in the overall series, it’s stand-alone.

Despite being a spin off from the series and having no connection to the main plot of any main line Dead Island games, Escape Dead Island is the first entry into the series that isn’t considered a main series game.

Deep Silver announced, on August 27th, that anyone that pre-orders the game on either PC, PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 will be able to receive special access to a beta build of Dead Island 2, which is set to be the third official game. Dead Island 2 is exclusive to PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4, meaning that players wanting to access the Beta will need an 8th generation console.

Unlike the previous Dead Island games that have been nearly single mindedly focused on first person combat against hordes of the undead in a once tropical paradise, Escape Dead Island is set to be much more story driven. The player will apparently discover the source of the initial viral outbreak that so ravaged the once tropical, heaven-like island of Banoi.

The game isn’t being rendered in a similar style to that of the previous or upcoming Dead Island games in the series. Escape Dead Island is being brought to life with bright and interesting comic book styled visuals.

Gameplay

Escape Dead Island is going to be unlike the previous Dead Island games in the series in more than a few ways, with the visual style alone being distinctly different. But one of the most prominent changes to the fundamentals of gameplay is the absence of player specific powers and abilities. This puts a much greater emphasis on survival as an individual.

Another tweak to the gameplay that puts an interesting spin on the game as a whole is the sound detection AI that will make enemies react to the amount of noise that the player makes, making the choice between stealth and combat an important one.

If players find themselves in a particularly sticky situation, there may well be an opportunity to turn the environment to your advantage. Deep Silver and Fatshark have made mention to this particular feature, but what exactly it means is dow n to speculation at the minute.

A feature of the game that has went largely unexplained (likely due to possible spoilers) is that as you explore the world around you, stranger and stranger things begin to happen. The world becomes distorted and strange. There will be events in the game that will be open to multiple interpretations. This may well be one of the reasons that this game doesn’t take place in the main series established canon. Players may also be tasked with the collection of clues and hints to help unfold the near apocalyptic tale.

Story

Escape Dead Island is pitched as a survival mystery, but this is merely a facade to cover the usual zombie slaying madness that permeates all of the Dead Island games. The story follows Cliff Calo, a man that’s intent on documenting the strange happenings and rumoured events of what happened on Banoi, the infamous Island that’s off the coast of Papua New Guinea.

Cliff arrives at the Island of Narapela which is part of the much larger Banoi archipelago. Once there, he starts to being beset by deja vu while trying to figure out what is going on, what feels familiar and why it feels familiar.

Characters

Thus far, we’ve been officially introduced to one character that will, for certain, be making an appearance in the game. His name is Cliff Calo and he is travelling towards the Banoi archipelago in an attempt to investigate and document the strange goings on in that region. Though we don’t yet know why, Cliff is besieged by deja vu. Though screenshots have shown some characters that are a bit familiar.

Note: This wiki will be updated once we have more information about the game.

Techland gave us the original Dead Island, and while the game may have been rough around the edges, it was still a pretty great co-op action zombie game that escalated into becoming a full fledged franchise. However, the first true, proper numbered sequel to the game was announced earlier this year, and as it turned out, Techland weren’t the ones who are working on it. Instead, Yager, the studio behind the acclaimed Spec Ops: The Line, will be bringing it to us. Techland, meanwhile, is working away on Dying Light, which is another co-op zombie action game that they’ll be bringing to us alongside Warner Bros.

Speaking to Eurogamer, they recently explained why they aren’t working on Dead Island 2.

“Right from the start, the IP was Deep Silver’s,” Techland game designer Maciej Binkowski said. Deep Silver is the publisher of the games; their other big properties include Saint’s Row and Homefront.

“At that point we weren’t really in a position to negotiate,” he said, “so that was the best deal we could get. It’s like playing poker: you have to make a decision with the information you have now. If you play the game thinking that something might happen, you’re going to lose the game. At that point, that was the best decision we could do.”

That makes sense, and it is sort of sad that something that Techland so obviously believed in and invested a lot of time and effort in was ultimately taken away from them, but well, that’s how things go sometimes. And at least with Techland’s level of creativity, they are always just one step away from creating another big hit.