Item Crafting Brings Dead Island Close to Role-Playing Genre

Dead Island is a game about fighting off zombies on an isolated island using improvised weaponry. However, despite the focus on action, the developers at Techland and publishers at Deep Silver are saying that a number of elements bring the game closer to the role-playing space.

Doug McLeod, one of the producers working on Dead Island at Deep Silver, has told Destructoid that, “I think people are really going to enjoy crafting all the goofy types of weapons, like deodorant bombs. You’ve got to see that one to believe it. It’s impressive.”

The executive also talked about how the game will attract even those who are not normally interested in survival and action titles.

He said, “I’m not the biggest zombie buff. But when I started to play it more and get more involved with my character, it shares a lot with other RPGs.”

It seems that even the color coding used will be close to that seen in role-playing and in MMO titles, with normal items appearing green to players, the next set taking on the blue color and the more legendary ones being colored in orange to clearly signify their importance.

To make the Dead Island survivor experience more engaging, the developers are also introducing the ability to sell and to trade items with other survivors when playing cooperatively and with all the non-playing character, depending on their own needs, when playing single player.

Dead Island allows gamers to choose from a cast of four characters to tackle the zombie assault, each with its own abilities and upgrade potential, another hallmark of the role-playing genre.

Dead Island will be launched on the PlayStation 3 from Sony, the Xbox 360 from Microsoft and the PC (with an option for streaming via OnLive) and gamers in North America will get it on September 9 with the rest of the world having to wait for three days to play it.