14 DAY TRIAL // Dead Island, a game developed by Techland and published by Deep Silver on Steam, along with all the available DLC, has now been launched on the Linux platform as well.
Dead Island is a zombie survival FPS that was released for the Windows platform back in 2011. Before that, the game had been in development for several years and it was put on hold or pronounced dead quite a few times. The imagination of the developers and the technical possibilities seven or eight years ago were not quite in sync. Only after all kinds of zombie-themed games started to show up did the Techland devs decide that it was a good time to release their title as well.
Few gamers still remember what kinds of cool technologies were added in the game. Specifically for Dead Island, the devs made a muscle system, with layers that could be damaged separately by the player. That added an entirely different depth to the gameplay and it's still very interesting today.
Never too late for zombies
You might think that a game that was launched back in 2011 is not really relevant for Linux players, but you would be wrong. In fact, Dead Island is still one of the best games of its kind and one of the few that offer a truly complete co-op experience. This title can be played by a single person and up to four by four, in the same location and following the same story. Few games have this kind of cooperation integrated so well. Also, it has zombies, so that pretty much trumps any other kinds of features.
"Terror. Violence. Madness. Bedlam. A holiday paradise gone mad. A tropical island turns into total chaos after a mysterious zombie outbreak. Cut off from the rest of the world, the player's only chance to survive is to fight to the death and find a way to escape from the island."
"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," reads the Steam synopsis.
The developers have also made all the DLCs released until now Linux-compatible, so players can buy the Dead Island: Game of the Year Edition, which includes Dead Island Bloodbath Arena DLC, Dead Island: Ryder White DLC, Dead Island Ripper Mod.
An interesting point to make is that the Linux system requirements are insanely high, compared with the Windows ones, which could indicate the fact that it's being run through a compatibility layer, like Wine for example. Users will need an Intel i7 processor at 3.5 GHz, 8 GB RAM, and at least an Nvidia GTX 660 (2048MB) video card. The system requirements for Windows are just a fraction of that.
If you can manage the system requirements, then all you have to do is to go forth and destroy some zombies for the rest of us.