Dead Island Preview

New Zealand PC World is the latest to offer a preview for Deep Silver and Techland’s zombie-themed open-world hack’n’slash Dead Island, and they seem to come away pleased with the title. Here’s a sampling:

If you’re curious as to what weapons you can put together on the workbenches, I’m afraid I can’t tell you much. I collected a blueprint, which told me how to put together a weapon, but I didn’t have the items to do so. Weirdly, when I had to repair or upgrade my existing weapons, I had to use the cash I’d collected out of the bags (and off of the bodies) of the many dead. There was no human interaction and no discernable reason for me to need cash for this, except for the need to make it harder to upgrade.

One of the things I did like about the weaponry, however, was that it was all contextual. You’d find a paddle in an aquatic sports store, for example, and a hammer in a garage. There are no guns lying around for you to fight with at least in the beginning of the game so you have to make do with whatever you can find, wherever you can find it. The weapons also deteriorate quickly, and take a little more finesse to use than in other hack n’ slash games. You have to really keep your eye on the crosshair in the middle of the screen, because flailing wildly with a stick or a paddle just won’t work.

Despite the fact that the enemy AI are supposed to be zombies with rotting brains, they could be rather clever and speedy at times. They seemed to try and flank you, and would also leap toward you when you got too close. Since I was using blunt objects, I had to get up close a lot. This is where I discovered that the game isn’t that easy if they grab you and you can’t shake them, or if there are several undead after you at the same time, there’s a good chance you could die. Depending on how hard you like a game to be, that could be a plus or a minus.