That Dead Island trailer: Bitmob staff reactions

Yesterday's Dead Island trailer caused a ruckus on the Internet and in our email boxes. The resulting conversation about open-world games, ripping off Michel Gondry, and how zombies are the new Nazis (still) was kind of interesting, so we're saving it for posterity…in post form.

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Rus McLaughlin: Brett [Bates] and I are gob-smacked by this. A bit gory, but more than that, not for people with delicate sensibilities. This one's emotionally brutal.

Chas Guidry: I thought it was one of the best non-gameplay trailers I've ever seen, but as soon as it ended on that sentimental note, all I could think was "zombies again…." I can't really think of any games that handle loved ones becoming zombies well, nor can I imagine how a game would make the player actually feel that dilemma. In most games, I would feel no remorse for killing the recently zombified child of the protagonist, but watching this trailer makes me hope Dead Island can change that.

Rob Savillo: On a gameplay note: The combat sounds interesting with degrading melee weapons (found objects), a lack of firearms/ammo, and a RPG-lite traits/skills system. I just worry that developer Techland will chicken out on a truly open design to objectives and instead opt for a scripted, linear experience.

Omar Yusuf: I smile whenever any director uses that slow-mo rewind technique. It's sort of gimmicky, but it always gets to me. 

Having said that, I'm curious to see how Dead Island's gameplay will translate the concept established by the trailer. Zombie RTS? Yes, please.

Andrew Hiscock: I am trying so hard not to say it, but guys, I have to: It's a trailer. It's zombies. Fin.

James DeRosa: I wasn't impressed by this for two reasons:

1) Zombies

2) It was a retread of a music video that the director had clearly seen. The much crazier music-video version of the concept sticks in my mind. It was directed by Michel Gondry (whose work is hit or miss) when he worked with Cibo Matto (always reliable).

Instead of backing-up/forwarding-up to the same point, the two characters on a split screen back-up/ forward-up to that same point at the middle of the narrative, and from there, they change sides. The person who was backing-up, forwards-up and vice versa. (Also, more impressive because it uses one camera and single shot, not alternating computer-generated animations.)

Anyway, blah! I'm tired of zombies. I like them as mindless enemies, but eh, I dunno. Too many.

Rob Savillo: Watch out, James, your film snobbery is showing! (Heh, I kid, I kid.)

I felt the direction of this video works well for the concepts presumably driving the game. The loss of control and introduction of chaos sit at the forefront of the Dead Island trailer's narrative (evident in how the father brings the infection into his safe area through the empathy he certainly feels for his daughter). You have a conflict between the family's emotional connections and the subsequently forced and abrupt situation of dealing with those emotions and the savage dead coming for them. And that's all tied together as the final sequence is a series of happy family shots before the outbreak.

I don't think adopting a similar narrative technique (which I really liked) used in the Cibo Matto video would elicit the same feelings. The Dead Island trailer video is trying to do something else. And, you have to admit, it's much better than the rah-rah, gun-ho crap we're usually subjected to.

On the topic of zombies, Chuck Klosterman makes an interesting case in The New York Times about why they resonate so well with today's culture.

James DeRosa: Oh no! My snobbery is showing!

Zombies are cool. I like them as much as the next guy. I'm just getting a little tired of them. They are starting to feel like a lazy way to make an antagonist for a game. They are like Nazi soldiers that you can put into any time period.

I like zombies, and I want zombie games. I just don't want so many zombie games.

Rob Savillo: I agree with that when they're tacked onto games like Call of Duty and Red Dead Redemption: In those cases, zombies are an excuse for a fodder enemy. Dead Island, though, is instead expressing the zombie motif in ways that speak directly to what embodies the mythology (for lack of a better term). Concepts like scarcity, survival, and possibly confronting former family members make this work better for me.

I'm really hoping Techland presents us with an unguided mission allocation system that just dumps players in an independently evolving island littered with the dead (who would be independent agents in the game with their own internal objectives/goals), and players just have to figure out things on their own. I worry we'll get a Rockstar-inspired design, i.e., the game tells players exactly where to go and what to do in every situation.

Rus McLaughlin: James thinks the film industry should've shut down after Citizen Kane, Seven Samurai, and 9 1/2 were made. :P

I think you'd still have to give players some kind of goals to achieve beyond mere survival, however oblique (find food, maybe there's a boat at a dock somewhere). That'd be a VERY interesting design challenge, though, giving just enough guidance without any hand-holding against a constantly evolving threat…definitely a game I'd like to see. But stick a bunch of players in an environment with little to no direction or structure and what you get is PlayStation Home.

Rob Savillo: Not necessarily — see any roguelike (or specifically, this one).

It's not impossible to create a mesh of interconnected systems and let basic needs (e.g., survival, hunger, escape) drive exploration, discovery, and eventual victory. You could even meet an open mission design halfway and let players stumble upon scripted events on their own rather than the popular approach of, "Hey player, I think there's something over here at this glowing red spot on your minimap. Why don't you check that out?"

And that's when open-world games get hindered by fetch quests and a linear narrative structure.

Dan "Shoe" Hsu: Although that trailer is absolutely incredible, reading the press release doesn't give me much hope. It kind of sounds like it'll end up being a four-player Dead Rising:

Deep Silver announced today that it will publish Dead Island™, the upcoming gruesome zombie slasher by renowned developer Techland. Dead Island combines first-person action with a heavy focus on melee combat, character development and customization of a vast array of weapons. All of these gameplay features are presented in a dark story inspired by classic zombie movies with a gritty and engrossing campaign that can be played with up to four players in co-op mode.

Set in an open world tropical island, hordes of different festering zombies await players around every corner while they embark on a variety of thrilling missions through the holiday resort. With firearms and ammunition being scarce the player must rely on utilizing found items as weapons for self-defense and fight off zombie hordes in intense melee combat. A diverse range of items can be collected and will later serve to transform the player’s ordinary makeshift weapons into serious instruments of destruction.

A four-player Dead Rising would be a lot of fun, mind you, but it's also…predictable. From this video, I was hoping for a game that really explores the human side of a zombie apocalypse — the despair, the lost hope, the loss of loved ones — sort of like what The Walking Dead has done for the genre. Looking at that release, I'm not sure this game will explore all that.

Rob Savillo: Yeah, I echo Dan's observation, and "embark on a variety of thrilling missions through the holiday resort" reads to me as a series of scripted, linear stages. Yawn.

Brett Bates: As long is it doesn't force you to go to the bathroom to save, I'll be happy.

Rich McGrath: "…the upcoming gruesome zombie slasher by renowned developer Techland."

Was Nail'd a hit?

Mike Minotti: Whatever. I still hate zombies.

Demian Linn: Says the guy who did a zombie storyline in The Warcraft Hero.

Rich McGrath: Mike, what if National Treasure 3 had Zombies?