According to Adam Olson, art director of Dead Island 2, the game will not be too long. In an interview with WCCFTech, the developer revealed how much of your time will be needed to complete the game. According to him, although he is not sure about the exact duration, it will be very close to 20 hours. That’s a reasonable amount of hours for a single-player experience, especially for games in the zombie/horror genre. However, some players may not see this as good news.
“I don’t know exactly, but I believe that the complete experience will be about 20 hours. This also includes some sidequests, but we also have the co-op mode, collectibles, and the possibility to replay the game with another character”.
According to Lydia Cockerham, narrative designer, the goal is to avoid the so-called “open-word trap” that plagues current games: boredom. She says that some games don’t care about the quality of the sidequests. They’re just adding more and more, regardless of the quality of the sidequests. The goal is to use quantity to make bigger worlds, but in the end, they’re not alive or addictive.
“It’s important for us to make a city that will resemble Los Angeles and will have some cool sidequests. A lot of open-world games are boring. They are just massive but offer basically nothing in terms of content. want Dead Island 2 to be alive and have content. Although its world already has lots of zombies in almost every place.
I have to agree with Cockerham in every word. Nowadays, open-world games had dominated the video game industry. However, some studios are just making sure their worlds are big, but that does not reflect in actual quality. We can cite the recent, Forspoken 2. The game has a massive world with multiple ways of traversing, but in the end, there is not much you can do. There are also some examples of good open-world games like The Witcher 3, Red Dead Redemption 2, and The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild. These examples have focused on content rather than making the world just bigger. Hopefully, Dead Island 2 is walking in this direction.
Dead Island 2 reminds 1980s horror classics
As per Stenton, the game is inspired by the comic aspects of 1980s horror movies. In another interview with GamesRadar, he makes sure that despite certain “bizarre comic” aspects, the game will still be very… bloody. The goal is to make the zombie killing, something disgusting and horrible. However, the studio does not want to make this a dark horror game. It’s more about having fun while killing, and decapitating, than being scared.
“It’s like a horror movie from the 80s. It is so disgusting that you laugh while you’re watching. This is the kind of response we want to see in those playing Dead Island 2. Definitely, we don’t want to make the game horrible and dark. For that, you need the right insight. I mean, we have a blog game, and you know, it’s literal. When you have a dark theme, you don’t want the fighting to follow the same dark atmosphere.”
The director, however, makes sure that the player is not just a joke of topless killing. According to him, you won’t be a killing machine in this bizarre world. The game will have some serious in-depth moments.
“Not all characters are crazy, smiley, and playful. There will be some tense and serious moments in the game. Also, there will be sincere moments and we will see that some characters have a good reason to be there fighting.”
With versions for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, the sequel is already done. The game’s debut is set for April 21. The pre-orders are already up in each platform’s respective store. Besides the open world, the game will try to differ in the way you learn new skills. check more details here.
Source: WCCFTech
