Also, you can throw weapons from a dis- tance or use a firearm. You can drown zom- bies or kick in their heads, set them on fire, blow them up... Get creative!
SR: One of my favourites is to stop an ad- vancing beast by throwing a big fire-axe into his chest. While it is staggering from the im- pact, kick it so it will get knocked over. Then while it drops, I pull out the axe to decapitate the sucker when it hits the ground.
Zombie Smash: Sam B. curb stomps a flesh- eater, (below) rotters approach, and (inset) Xian Mei, resort clerk-cum-survivalist.
of Banoi, and of course while fighting. The different character classes work best with certain weapons. Also, there are skills that reduce the amount of stamina you lose while swinging a weapon. So keeping a firm eye on your stamina, using the correct weapons and skilling up accordingly is key while you are fighting zombies, otherwise you will be left defenseless while in the middle of a zom- bie attack, and that’s no fun.
SR: The basic gameplay was taken from shooter mechanics and then translated to close combat. You will aim but instead of am- munition you will have durability on your weapon and the reload mechanism equiva- lent is the stamina bar. Whenever it is empty you will “reload” it. As in a shooter, it might be smart to reload before the next fight.
And what’s the function of the ever-chang- ing weather? VK: It sets the mood for the story pro- gression. When you start the game you are at the beach, everything is still sunny and you can still see what kind of beautiful place Banoi once was. After a while, you get into the jungle and the city. You can see the de- struction the attacks have already caused and, with the upcoming storm, this feeling of chaos is further emphasized. Also, of course, it is because of this ap- proaching storm that you are un- able to leave Banoi.
SR: When the weather be- comes worse you will use
RM20
your flashlight more often. As soon as the rain starts, the view distance goes down and brings all the dangers much closer to you, without you noticing.
What kinds of zombies will we encounter in Dead Island? HO: I can tell you what’s been revealed so far. There are the slow walkers, who are conventional Dawn of the Dead-type zombies. There are undead that run and are much faster and harder to deal with, called the Infected. Suiciders are huge, disgusting rotting corpses covered with boils and filled with pressure that causes them to explode. The Ram was a psycho before he became a zombie, so he’s mas- sive and all trussed up in a straitjacket and very hard to kill. Those are just a few.
SR: Some of the ideas we had while creating the game: what happens if a guy is turned to a zombie while drowning? What effect would it have if he was already insane before the zombification?
So then, how do we kill ’em? VK: Killing zombies is a messy business. First of all, the zombies have different hit zones, so depending on where you hit and with what, you will be able to cut off a leg, break an arm or smash in a skull.
AUDIO-DROME
It sounds like melee combat defines the game... VK:When you start the game you are noth- ing but a simple visitor on Banoi. You pick up whatever you can find to defend your- self, as you didn’t bring any weapons on your holiday. That is why the game realisti- cally focuses on melee, as this is what it would come down to in this kind of situa- tion. By searching the island, looting suit- cases, boxes, cars and other things, you will find new weapons, items, cash and some- times even blueprints for customized weapons. Now equipped with these things, you can find workbenches in safe places that give you the possibility of upgrading, modifying and repairing your weapons. A weapon that is not upgraded, but heavily used, will soon be useless. To give you an example, if you find a rusty machete, you may use it and find it handy. But when you arrive at a workbench with a blueprint, the according items and cash, you will be able to upgrade the weapon and also modify it. So a rusty machete now becomes a shiny electric machete that does some nasty electrical damage on top.
CINEMACABRE
How about the in-game vehicles; can they also be used for carnage? SR: As we want to be realistic to a certain degree, the vehicles were designed as a reg- ular transportation device. Moving heavy ob- jects, for example, is much easier with a pick-up truck. A lot of players enjoy mowing down hordes by driving through them. But it is also possible to get past barricades if the vehicle is big enough.
FEATU
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