So, Escape Dead Island is a but of a curiosity in the franchise. Developed by Fatshark, the Swedish development team that’s best known for Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 and most acclaimed for War of the Roses and War of the Vikings, EDI is a third-person action/adventure that takes place between the events of Dead Island and Dead Island 2. You take on the role of Cliff Calo, a photojournalist who is sent to investigate reports of… well, stuff that happened in the first Dead Island.
Keep in mind, this is all stuff that was explained to me by a representative for the game. I tell you this because the demo I played on the PAX show floor was a trippy, narrative-light affair that had me waking up in an ocean of blood.
Yes, Escape Dead Island plays games with your head a little bit. After initially waking up on a concrete iceberg in the middle of an ocean of blood (as opposed to a Blood Ocean*) and having to navigate your way towards land, you find yourself suddenly surrounded by the tropical landscape that made the first Dead Island so visually memorable.
It’s designed to make you ask questions about the mental stability of the main character. Is he losing his mind? Is something causing him to hallucinate? Which reality is the real reality? These are questions that, while not explained in the demo, are explained in the narrative of the actual game and provide a real sense of purpose and urgency to your exploits in the game.
Something else about Escape Dead Island that sets it apart from the other games in the series is its visual style. Dead Island and the upcoming Dead Island 2 are, by and large, fairly realistic in their portrayal of the world you’re exploring. Escape Dead Island has gone a different route with a more stylized, almost cel-shaded art style that really works to highlight just how utopian this tropical island is was. It was explained to me during the demo that the decision was made to go in this style because it helped EDI to stand on its own and separate itself from the other games in the series. Screenshots don’t do it justice; in motion, the game looks amazing outside of some technical flaws (feet shuffling under the ground on inclines, etc.) that will no doubt be remedied before its release date.
The game feels a little more linear, as well. You’re very much guided from point A to point B, and while there are different routes you can take to get to some objectives you’re still being more or less rigidly steered in a particular direction. This isn’t a bad thing, especially in a game that’s focusing on narrative. One of my big problems with Dead Island, which I also have with Grand Theft Auto and Skyrim, is that when you open up the entire world to somebody it can be very difficult to keep them on track. This isn’t bad, of course, but when you’re trying to drive home a game’s narrative it can be beneficial to keep them on a somewhat more narrow path. Luckily you won’t find yourself too famished from boredom, as there is a whole heaping helping of combat for you to gorge yourself on.
Cliff Calo is a generally unremarkable man. By that I mean he isn’t some super soldier, or a raider of tombs gallavanting around the globe picking fights with otherworldly forces. He isn’t even Frank West, another video game photojournalist who fights zombies. Cliff Calo is, simply, a man with a camera and a bowie knife who occasionally comes across ammunition for his pistol and sometimes just needs to know when to run away. But Cliff Calo is also sneaky, and there are few things more satisfying than sneaking up behind a zombie and planting a knife through its skull. You aren’t wholly reliant on stealth, though – if you save up the sparse ammo in the world, or find something to use as a weapon (like a katana, perhaps), you can still hold your own. But don’t expect it to be easy.
The undead in Escape Dead Island also play a little differently than before, with meters that represent when they sense you may be close by, and when you’re in their line of sight. This gives you the opportunity to run away from a fight you can’t win, or to run around and lure them away from an objective so you can slip on by and snag it.
They’re zombies, after all. They only move so fast.
There are also boss fights in the game, spread out across the campaign. The one I experienced in the demo had me facing off against a monstrosity that reminded me, ever-so-slightly, of the Crimson Head zombies in the Resident Evil remake. It was faster, deadlier than anything else I had faced, and it required me to learn how to handle its attacks. Once I figured it out, it was a cakewalk – very reminiscent of boss fights of old, where once you learn the enemy patterns you can spend all day poking them to death.
I’m going to be honest with y’all – I didn’t care about Escape Dead Island going in to PAX. I just happened to play it because it was there. But I’m glad I did – it’s fun, and offers something new to fans of the Dead Island franchise. Plus, if you’re somebody who doesn’t yet own a PlayStation 4 or Xbox One, be pleased to know that games with great potential are still in the pipeline for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
And PC, of course. Because PC.
Escape Dead Island is slated for a November 18th, 2014 release in North America, with Australia and Europe receiving the game on November 20th, 2014 and November 21st, 2014.
*If you get that reference, well done.