Vincent Kummer: You are always going to get compared to other games, right? I just wanted to make sure that people understood from the very beginning what they should expect when they get their hands on the game. If you play Dead Island and you compare it to this game or that game, I’ll happily talk about it because it’s not a problem to be compared to these other products.
But if you pick up a game and you expect something like Resident Evil and it’s not going to be that sort of experience, then you’re going to be disappointed with it. This is why I always want to tell the people ‘if you have this game in your sights, then please be aware of what it actually is.’
When it comes to Resident Evil and Dead Space, they are really focused on the horror aspect - and it’s true that we have horror in our game. We have situations where everything is dark and you have your flashlight, trying to make your way out of corridors too. But you are also going to be slaying down a lot of zombies - cutting off limbs, breaking arms and stuff like that. Be aware that this is going to be gritty, dark, gory and really action-focused.
SPOnG: Is it difficult to try and communicate a game like Dead Island, when the games industry seems to be inundated with zombie games at the moment? I mean, even Call of Duty has them.
Vincent Kummer: It is on the one hand a challenge, but then again zombies are out there for a reason. People love zombies and it’s one of the most popular evil beings out there. A human gone completely wrong, losing all moral standards, just going for the primal instincts, killing the living… that’s very interesting to most people.
It’s only been a couple of years since zombies have been a focal interest in gaming. I think there’s enough space for all of the different zombie games - every single one focuses on something different. At the core it’s all about fending off against zombies, but then you have Left 4 Dead and it’s more about the co-operation and even playing as a zombie. Dead Rising is about the weapon customisation. For us it’s the island, the survival and the whole emotional background.
SPOnG: You have four different characters in the game, you mentioned earlier four different character classes. Could you briefly explain the different types?
Vincent Kummer: We showed the Tank class today. There’s going to be four classes in total - the other three are Assassin, a Jack-of-all-Trades and Leader. The characters that represent those classes haven’t been revealed yet, but we’re going to do that soon enough.
SPOnG: How will character selection play out in co-op? Will each player assume the role of each different class?
Vincent Kummer: Actually, no. You’re going to be able to pick your character at the beginning of the game, and if you want to join another player who’s using the same character then you can both be the same class. If we had it any other way it’s just going to be a pain in the ass.
Finding a game that is missing an Assassin for example, would be too tedious. It’s not the most realistic thing to put in, even though we’re aiming for a realistic background. But for the sake of gameplay and fun, it’s going to be possible to two have two Assassins or two Tanks in the game.
SPOnG: Did you learn anything from other first person shooters on the market? For instance, you seem to have bucked the trend in terms of inventory - games like Halo give you two guns to play with, and Dead Island allows you to carry a lot more weapons.
It might be that you’ll be able to carry five weapons, or perhaps seven weapons. Because of the decaying, it’s not just going to be two otherwise you’re going to run out of weapons all of the time.
We’re looking at the other games, and we’re checking out what is useful. There’s a lot of ideas out there - we’re adapting those accordingly, or putting our own stuff out there and trying to make that as unique as possible. Maybe someone else is going to pick up on one of our ideas in the future.
SPOnG: Thank you very much for your time.
Vincent Kummer: Thank you very much!