STACK #222 April 2023

GAMING FEATURE

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Dead Island 2 has moved the location to real world California, which isn’t exactly an island… “As far as our Los Angeles being an island, I think it’s more inspiring than merely being isolated by geography,” Worrall explains. “Our L.A. is in strict military quarantine – both physically and digitally. The player is forced to ask questions like, ‘How was this quarantine was planned so quickly?’, ‘What is the rest of the U.S.A. doing?’, ‘Has the whole world fallen, or have we been sacrificed for the greater good?’, ‘Is help coming?’, ‘Is there a world out there worth escaping to?’” Worrall believes that there are some significant advantages in setting fiction inside reality. “I learned a long time ago that basing fiction in reality helps to make an immediate connection to the player,” he says. “It’s the contrast with the day-to-day, relatable, that sets the horrific fantasy in glorious, technicolour relief. Los Angeles is an amazing melting pot of

It’s been 12 years since we took on the zombie scourge in Dead Island . Now, they’ve regrouped in Los Angeles for another violent, mayhem-fuelled outing.We caught up with the game’s creative director, JamesWorrall at Dambuster Studios, to chat all things Dead Island 2 . Words Amy Flower T hat’s quite a while between drinks, however Worrall is confident that the world is keen to get their zombie on again.

everything that makes us human – for better or worse. One of the pillars of Dead Island is this notion of ‘paradise gone to hell’. Our paradise is seen through the Hollywood lens – the rich and famous, the massive wealth and matching egos, the amazing creativity and self-expression. All of this provides an amazingly deep seam to mine for character and competing moral frameworks.”

“Absolutely! We had an amazing reaction when we announced at Gamescom last year, both from the community online and from all the devs and journalists that were present,” he tells us. We’d been sitting on Dead Island 2 for a few years and, when we finally surfaced, it was a huge morale boost to see the love out there.” So, what’s the story? Worrall gives us his version… “After a failed attempt to escape Los Angeles, a city locked down in quarantine, you find yourself bitten, but immune. As you strive to find a way out of L.A. it becomes clear that there’s far more about this zombie plague than meets the eye – it’s evolving, and so are you. You stand between human and zombie, forever connected to the thing you must defeat, and thrown into the role of a hero amidst a threat to humanity that has its roots deep in the past.” There was a lot out there in the world of pop culture for the team to draw on for their tale. “We wanted to make our story a classic monster movie inspired by pulp horror sci-fi classics of the ’80s and ’90s,” claims Worrall. “It’s about the protagonist’s relationship with the monster (the zombie plague), how our understanding of that monster evolves, and

what it means for us as swaggering, zombie slaying heroes.” They’ve really gone all-in on story, too, aiming for as much detail as possible to reward the adventurous player. “We’ve built the story and the game world on many different levels – wherever you look, every line of dialogue, every logo, every cutscene has layers of detail that reward the attentive. We’ve built a big story, with zombies at the heart, and the player has a front row seat.” While the original was set on a fictional island,

APRIL 2023

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