Dead Island - features an apparent open world roaming, divided by relatively large areas, and played from a first-person perspective. Most of the gameplay is built around combat and completingquests. "Dead Island" is an action role-playing game and uses experience-based gameplay and character customization. The player
earns XP by completing tasks and killing enemies. Upon
leveling up, the player gains health and stamina, and can invest one skill point into a skill tree.
Combat is carried out through the use of melee weapons and firearms that you get from mods. Melee weapons are emphasized to the point that firearms are not available for the first quarter of
the game, and consist of blunt and bladed weapons. Melee weapons can
also be thrown at targets at any point in the game; this can be
considered a reason as to why firearms are generally limited. Weapons
are randomly generated and positioned in predetermined
locations
as well as found on some enemies; they have unique stats which are
generally based on the player's current level. Each weapon can be
upgraded four times to increase its stats, and most weapons can be
"modded" - customized based on a blueprint to add
special features, such as nails or electrified
blades, and poison.
There is also a stamina bar, meaning that after a set amount of
physical action, such as running, jumping, or swinging a weapon, the
character needs to stop to regain his or her stamina before continuing
to attack. The game features "
special class" zombies, which are more powerful than the standard zombie.Players need to use flashlights in dark areas and during night-time sections, adding suspense.Zombies in the game have different abilities, such as the Infected being "The
Return of the Living Dead " style running zombies, and Walkers being Romero style zombies. There is also the Thug, an above
average height
zombie with enhanced strength, the Suicider, a self-aware zombie who
pleads with the player to kill it, and then explodes to damage
surrounding enemies, and a Ram, a large zombie wearing a straightjacket
who charges at the player. The
final
zombie types are the Butcher, who is a zombie with its hands chewed
off; using the sharpened bones as knives, and the Floater, a bloated
zombie who spews flammable acid-like vomit onto the player similar to
the Boomer in "Left 4 Dead".
