THE DEAD TIMES
DEAD ARE COMING...
The Rise, Fall, Rise, Fall and eventual Re-animation of Dead Island 2
It's 2014. June, E3 (at the time, the premiere gaming event) in Los Angeles. Dead Island is about 2 and a half years old. The curtains roll-back, a trailer comes on screen and Dead Island 2 - the sequel to the Zombie game that reinvigorated Zombie video games and the one fans had been eagerly awaiting since the somewhat underwhelming semi-sequel, Dead Island: Riptide, released just a year before - had been announced. The crowd, understandably, went wild.
The First Rise
While the first game had been developed by Techland, who had now parted ways with franchise-owner's Deep Silver to work on the Dying Light franchise for Warner Brothers Interactive (another legendary Zombie franchise), the sequel was being developed by Yager (developers of the well-received, yet criminally overlooked, Spec Ops: The Line). The game had been in development since 2012 and was on track to meet its scheduled Q2 2015 release window.
The game was set in California, including known landmarks such as the infamous Hollywood sign (which the developers had to pay for the right to use). There were new characters, new weapons (each with several modifications) and new types of Zombies - it bared no resemblance to the original Dead Island and a very humorous, tongue-in-cheek style prevailed. It was also described by Yager as 'the world's smallest MMO [(Massively Multiplayer Online)] game', supporting eight-player co-operative games and a similar gameplay style to most large-scale online games; drop players in a world full of enemies, crazed characters and missions and let them have fun doing, pretty much whatever they want in that world.
Then disaster struck...
The First Fall
Just a few short weeks from release, events took a bizarre turn, as publisher Deep Silver decided to remove Yager from development duties entirely, putting a plug in any further work and stopping release. According to the managing director of Yager, "Yager's and Deep Silver's respective visions of the project fell out of alignment" though I find it difficult to understand how this issue only came about a few weeks before the intended release of the game - surely the publishers would have at least checked on how the game was shaping up at some point in its three-year development. Whatever the reason was, the game was without a developer and, as far as anyone could tell, cancelled - it was extremely likely that the three years of hard work put in by Yager (which did actually produce something playable, as early builds were later leaked online) would all be for nothing.
The Second Rise
In March 2016, UK-based studio, Sumo Digital (developers of Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed among other things) announced that they had taken over development of the wayward Dead Island 2. All prior work had been scrapped and a new focus was taken, though quite what that new focus was, remained a mystery. It's at this point where I enter the sordid story - that's right, the humble owner of The Dead Times, you weren't expecting that little curve ball, were you? Yes, you see, I, by profession am a Quality Assurance (QA) tester or, in other words, a Games Tester (believe me though, it's not nearly as fun as the 'get paid to play games all day' dream sounds). Anyway, I was unemployed at the time and as Sumo Digital were advertising for a tester to work on Dead Island 2, I leapt at the opportunity. I went for the interview, after a prior phone interview, down at their Sheffield-based studio and, mostly due to my *ahem* legendary knowledge and love of Zombies, was offered the job (it's true, they did seem hugely impressed with my work on The Dead Times!). Sadly though, the job was a short-term, fixed contact role and the salary was not very generous, so I ended up turning it down. Still, I did learn through the interview (off the record of course) that the direction for the new version of the game would be more realistic, something akin to the harsh and grubby world seen in Dying Light (the Zombie game from original Dead Island developers which had received huge critical acclaim). On an interesting side note, about two days after the closing of the job I applied for, it reopened, and I was contacted again to see if I was interested. Everything was the same but now Sumo Digital were only accepting applications from candidates within driving distance of their office (which they knew I wasn't). This practice is very likely illegal or, at the very least, frowned upon - it was the first indication, to me, that things were still a chaotic mess.
The Second Fall
In the years that followed, 2017 and 2018, Deep Silver confirmed that development of the game was on-going, though none of this development was ever shown. By this point, mostly everyone, myself included, had given up on the game, losing all hope that the game would ever see the light of day. And then, in August 2019, the inevitable happened; an announcement that once again the development of the game had changed hands, now going to the British game company, Dambuster Studios (the fairly unproven game developers who had only worked on the majorly panned Homefront: The Revolution).
Re-animation
Nothing more was heard from the ill-fated game and it seemed to have vanished yet again, but then, in late 2022, the impossible happened; the game was not just revealed, it was nearly complete, with a release date of February 3rd 2023, a full 9 years after it was first announced. So that was that, the game that everyone assumed was dead, stubbornly clung to life and people would finally get a chance to play it.
The totally changed game now takes place in a fictional Los Angeles overrun with the wandering undead (a place lovingly referred to as HelL.A.). It is a world full of glitz, glamour, humour, slick-talking heroes, the excessive over-abundance that region of America is known for and, of course, Zombies to punch. The action is very physical with extreme amounts of blood and gore thanks to an innovative FLESH system allowing realistic damage to any part of a Zombie. There are tons of weapons such as daggers, machetes and regular, old fashioned boomsticks. Each can be modified in elaborate, Zombie-killing ways; add a charged battery to some razor claws to give each hit a shocking snap or stick some nails to baseball bat and it's time to rip flesh with every swing. Everything is bright and welcoming - aside from the multiple types of Zombies trying to rip your face off.
But then...
The game was delayed. It was not moved to yet another studio or completely started over, it was only pushed back by a few short weeks, into April. Maybe it was a joke, maybe it wasn't but the game was still coming out at least.
But then...
The game was "undelayed" - yes, actually pulled forward by a week. Release was now set for April 21st. The game had also officially gone 'Gold' which means development had stopped, it was over, the game was in its finished form and no more delays, cancellations or studio-moves could possibly happen. Probably.
The rotten (and slightly ironic) conclusion
The rotten conclusion is that this game, having been through a development hell encompassing three different developers and spanning over eight years, will finally be released in April this year. Good or bad, it is a monumental moment in gaming history, especially for Zombie game fanatics; the re-animation of the game that simply would not die. What I do find extremely amusing is how this all started - Deep Silver parting ways with Yager because, what is most widely assumed, the game was too humorous, being more akin to a light-hearted Dead Rising than a 'dark and gritty' Dying Light. We have ended up with Deep Silver publishing a game from Dambuster Studios which is perhaps even more comical in nature (heavily leaning towards the absurd, Las Vegas-themed setting of Dead Rising 2) with gameplay that is extremely similar to Dying Light. While there are differences there, I'm not actually sure what has really changed - it just seems to be a different take on the same idea.
The mythical Zombie game sequel is on a direct course to an entertainment system near you and nothing, what-so-ever, can stop it... probably
DESCRIPTION:
Dead Island 2 - the game that, by rights, should not exist - is only about a month away from release. This article explores its sordid and chaotic 9-year development journey, starting in California, going on through Hell and ending up in Los Angeles, a place known as HelL.A. no less.
CATEGORY:
Random
WRITTEN BY:
DATE UPLOADED:
12/03/2023