Super Nerd Sundays Presents: My Arrival in Dead Island!

Full disclosure: I only got my hands on Dead Island a few days ago, and while it’s been taking up the majority of my time I haven’t actually gotten very far in it. I haven’t tried out multiplayer at all, I’m less than a third through the game if the progress counter is to be believed, and I’ve only played with one character. I’m willing to bet all of these factors will change my experience dramatically.

But so far, so good. Dead Island is an interesting beast: it opens up quietly, with a handful of highlighted bits of text guiding you out of your hotel room and into the world at large. It hits a strange, sepulchral note at its opening that reverberates through most of the first chapter: large stretches of the beaches of Banoi aren’t filled with zombies or corpses, they’re just white sand and leafy green plants. It’d be a beautiful place to take the family if it wasn’t for all the zombies.

Of course, it doesn’t last. As you explore you’ll stumble open the ruins of homes, little asides and scenes that illustrate life on Banoi before the dead began to walk. But even within those there’s a sense of calm that pervades some of the remote bungalos, that makes you stroll along the beach instead of sprint. Dead Island is willing to take its time with you, to give you a lot of pretty or visually dense things to look at and translate, and that’s good. Because when the action begins it is so intense, so furious, that a game like this without Dead Island’s pacing might be unplayable.

See the core of Dead Island is first person melee combat. I’ve got a soft spot for first person melee combat done well: games like Thief, Morrowwind, Oblivion – all classics that relied heavily on first person melee combat and built systems to match, systems that made the entire affair feel chaotic, but manageable. Melee combat even featured prominently into Far Cry 2, which until Dead Island came along had won my award for most satisfying machete simulation in a video game three years running. Melee combat done well is memorable, fun and makes a game a joy to play, a unique and immersive experience different from other firs t person games.

But the majority of first person games just don’t do it right. Most of them simply treat melee combat as a zero range weapon, your ultimate backup in the event that you run out of ammunition. Not that there’s anything wrong with that: games like Unreal Tournament, Quake and Counter-Strike aren’t about melee brawls, they’re about intense corridor battles with lots of gunplay, give and take, and enough ammo to make sure it won’t be a problem. But games like Dark Messiah of Might and Magic having shitty melee combat systems, that can be a problem. And after playing Dead Island, it’s hard not to look at Dark Messiah and shake my head at it sadly: clumsy, repetitive combat, a limited number of choices which, inevitably, all play more or less the same and a total lack of spontaneity all combine to make that game one blah adventure.

But Dead Island hits the balance just right. It’s like an object lesson in how to do first person melee combat. Each weapon has a different feel, and even the upgraded weapons play a little bit differently than their vanilla counterparts. I’ll wade into combat with a baseball bat, knocking infected down in an enclosed space to keep them off me, but once I wrap that bat in rags and set it on fire, I’ve got to watch myself: beware flaming zombies. They will set you on fire. And that baseball bat feels very, very different from a crowbar, which feels different than an oar which feels different than a tonfa. There’s an almost overwhelming number of weapons to choose from, and each one of them is satisfying to use and has a balance of strengths and weaknesses that make it well suited to a particular set of situations.

And the combat itself is spot on – it’s immersive, confusing, sometimes oppressively so, and challenging in the best way possible. You’ll grasp the basics of it immediately: grab something mean looking and swing it at a zombie. But the complexities of timing your hits, choosing when to finish off a downed opponent, fitting weapons to situations, aren’t quite so easy to get. I’m still fucking up my timing whenever I try to get a good machete hit off on a charging infected, and I’ve lost my life more than a few times while trying to put a zombie down for good while a horde rushes toward me.

But with this challenge comes reward: there’s nothing quite like taking down a trio of zombie as they bear down on you. The viscera, the rush of success and the knowledge that you’re alive, that you survived an attack which could very well have killed you all shape into a mini dramatic arc that hits all the right notes and takes just the right amount of time with its momentary conflict. It’s so well cast and well balanced that developing a style that works, learning the ropes and putting those elements together really do put you in the shoes of a battered survivalist weaving their way through the horde with battered weapon in hand.

And the learning curve never stops: I recently began the second act of the game, and I’ve never seen a more profoundly subtle shift to the manner in which a game played before. Each combat that I dive into is mechanically identical to the ones that have come before, but a handful of new zombie types, some new dangers native to Moresby (the city where the second act is set) and new behavioral patterns that the zombies follow all combine to make combat feel new. It’s wonderful, and I can’t wait to see how it continues to develop as I move through Dead Island’s beautifully ruined settings.

You might’ve noticed that I haven’t discussed shooting in the game yet: that’s because there isn’t actually very much of it. While Dead Island certainly has guns, ammo is scarce and they’re not as effective as you’d think. Most zombies take multiple hits to drop, and when a mob of zombies is rushing at you you won’t really have time to aim. Better to run, choose where to fight and make your stand.

Running, by the way, is a crucial mechanic in Dead Island. Whether its charging through some shambling mobs that aren’t really in your way or fleeing from a fight turning against you, you’re going to want to sprint carefully. And it’s clear that the developers wanted players to see running as an option exclusive from combat: both actions draw from a mutual pool of stamina which depletes fast when the going gets rough.

The end result is a visceral, satisfying game about resource management, a game with quiet spaces spanning large sections of time, framing frenetic action with legitimate tension. Dead Island earns its scares, makes every enemy the enemy that could kill you and every challenge a challenge you can and should be able to surpass, if only just barely. It establishes a place both foreign and familiar for players using deft character development, tight visual shorthand and surprisingly apt writing. While it won’t be winning any prizes for dialogue Dead Island does grasp that less is more, and its characters speak carefully, naturally, and rarely. I’ve yet to feel like I’m being chatterboxed at, a welcome vacation from games where guards constantly shout at me to emerge or wherein my taciturn marine comrades spin hastily crafted dialogue to each scenario around me as we kill whatevertheenemyis.

That’s not to say that Dead Island doesn’t have its problems. Sometimes the game will get hard. Really, really hard without warning. Some people, like me, really enjoy this. Some other people might find it frustrating – Dead Island isn’t much of a power fantasy. It’s very willing to stack the odds against you, and it’s not going to do you any favors to help you beat them. And technical issues, as one would expect, abound with a PC game like this. Clipping, seat selection in vehicles and hit detection all seem a bit off at times, and shadows seem to respond strangely regardless of what I do.

But these are minor issues and overall design choices that could potentially alienate players, not systemic problems with the game as an artifact. As a game Dead Island seems to be spot on. It hits every note it goes for and it does so incredibly well. I’ll be writing a wrap up on it as soon as I finish it, but part of me is reluctant to even think of it ending. It’s been a long time since I’ve had as much fun as I am fighting the hordes of undead on the shores of Banoi.