Five Fun Facts: Dead Island Edition!
First blog of 2023! We took some time to rest and relax for the holiday season, but now we're back in action and ready to dive into another Five Fun Facts - this time all about Dead Island!
April 28th is right around the corner with the much-anticipated sequel coming our way, and to celebrate our first Pinfinity+ Gaming drop of the year is featuring none other than Dead Island! So we figured what better time to dig into some lore/story, factoids, etc, for Dead Island - let's jump in!
Did you know the original Dead Island location is a real place?
Set on the remote paradise of Banoi Island, the original Dead Island's location was a beautiful and lush island before the mysterious outbreak of a deadly virus takes over. It's a gorgeous resort-type location filled with gorgeous vistas, rain forests, and more - but did you know the island of Banoi is rea? Located off the coast of Papua New Guinea north of Australia! In real life, the island has some really incredible resorts, including the Royal Palms Resort - and fortunately for you, you won't have to deal with a zombie virus if you plan a trip there!
Dead Island 2 connection to the original?
As we've already mentioned, the first Dead Island was set, appropriately, on an island in the fiction Banoi Archipelago - and while the new game is set in a version of Los Angeles (called "Hell A" in the game), it's yet to be determined exactly how the games connect to each other (other than it's the same zombie virus, obviously...). Also, we're intrigued if they plan to incorporate any actual islands in a new Dead Island game, how it connects to the original, if this is more of a reboot, etc. We're excited that there's so much mystery and stuff to discover about the game, but we're still very intrigued to see how this long-awaited game connects to the original, if at all.
In-depth RPG elements with building your character (Zombie skills?!)
It's already been announced that there will be six playable characters that find themselves in the horrible circumstances arising in "Hell A". Each of the six players have their own backgrounds and personalities, and via your standard action-RPG approach, will have different skills and abilities along with the various weapons you'll find around Los Angeles. But to stack on top of different playstyles around ranged damage, heavy-hitting melees, etc, it sounds like your characters aren't exactly immune to the zombie virus - and you might actually gain new skills based on being infected in some way by the virus? We have no idea how exactly this will play out, but holy moley how exciting will that be to run around with some sweet weapon skills and abilities, PLUS some epic zombie power?! Sign us up!
Speaking of skills, abilities, weapons... Let's talk combat!
This isn't the hack & slash adventure that Dead Island ended up being - it sounds like there's a much greater focus on strategic and thoughtful combat. Between effective growth of the RPG elements of your character, the build path, zombie skills, etc, there's also more tools to use, more ways to interact with the environments, and even more ways to dispatch your foes, including targetable body parts that allow you to be precise with how you slow down, and eventually vanquish, your shambling foes!
Locations, locations, locations!
Obviously one of the much-anticipated features for Dead Island 2 is its expansive and interactable open world. The first Dead Island had a gorgeous island to explore and battle the walking dead on, and the sequel looks to follow in those footsteps. Not only are there iconic locations to explore, like Venice Beach or Beverly Hills, but each area will have its own distinct features - one of the biggest examples of this has been detailed in some interviews and gameplay trailers, and that's the varying style and type of zombies based on location. If you run into a zombie on the Santa Monica pier, chances are they're going to be clad in a two piece bikini ready to take a bite out of you!
