GAME TRAILER REVIEW: Dead Island

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GAME TRAILER REVIEW: Dead Island

POSTED: Tuesday, March 1, 2011, 5:00 PM

Filed Under: Critical Mass | Video Games

Somewhere around the time of Resident Evil (1996), video games were taking a turn for the cinematic. People weren't simply looking for exlopding alien brains anymore, they wanted the artistic and narrative aesthetics of RPG's with the kinetic intensity of first-person shooters.

The unfolding era of cinematic video games was a natural result of technological advances and a steady gaming market. Eventually, advertising these blockbusters started taking on Hollywood feel as well. Trailers began to emerge which mimicked the flavor of epic the motion picture industry's coming attractions. The first one that I particularly noticed was the relatively recent Gears of War. The contrast between the music (Gary Jules' "Mad World," which you know better from the Donnie Darko soundtrack) and the action (monsters and dystopian bullet-spraying) created a particularly engaging affect for the neurons.

games.softpedia.com

Dead Island (developed by Techland and to be distributed by Deep Silver) has been lagging in a wake of its own hype since the trailer debuted at the E3 expo in 2007 to an almost problematic amount of hysteria 3 million YouTube views, no depiction of game play, no scheduled release date, and mixed critical reactions saying everything from "the trailer is too extreme" to "it's the single greatest trailer ever made."

It's going to be a zombie survival horror, offering both open-world "sandbox" and "on-track" gameplay. First-person melee with RPG elements, Dead Island will offer up to four-player, co-operative play. Set on an island resort in Papua, New Guinea, you will have one of four characters to chose from: Xian Mei (a staff member at the hotel), Logan (a surfer), Sam B (a former rapper) and Purna (?).

Part of the game play buzz which, again, is barely a footnote under the trailer buzz is that you won't have an unrealistically ample cache of heavy weaponry. You will have to customize "homemade" weapons, and these weapons will degrade over time. And you will be kept on your toes, required to make boyscout-esque use of your environment.

Originally slated for 2008 and then delayed (which may have been for the best so Deep Silver didn't deliver the most monumental disappointment in gaming history), Techland has had plenty of time to beef up Dead Island to be the best it could possibly be.

In the meantime, check out the trailer and lemme know what you think. Also, what are your favorite video game trailers thus far? Discuss ...

Posted by Ryan Carey @ 5:00 PM Permalink | Post a comment

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