In the Closed Beta for Dead Island: Epidemic, there truly is trouble in paradise… of the living dead variety. An offshoot of Dead Island and Dead Island: Riptide, this multiplayer online battle arena entry in the zombie series follows a group of survivors in the tropics who are infected with the zombie virus, but are still able to think and act for themselves.
They are led by John Sinamoi, a survivor of the outbreak on the island of Banoi who sought refuge on a nearby island called Amaia. He didn’t find peace upon arrival, just more zombies. But he also found some infected friends who won’t try to eat his guts in the middle of the night.
The gameplay in the Closed Beta of Dead Island: Epidemic is a total blast any way you slice it. Through a third-person view, you can play the bulky Berg, the resourceful Amber, or the wonderful Wanta. Three main game modes are playable: the prologue to the main campaign, the horde mode, and the scavenger mode.
The prologue introduces the blood-drenched beaches of Amaia and its shambling dead residents. The horde mode allows you to play on a team with three other online players as you secure supply locations against a tide of the undead. Scavenger gameplay ups the stakes even more, as you and your three team members fight off not only hundreds of zombies, but eight other online opponents as well. A couple of other subsidiary modes exist, such as Heroic Horde Mode, wherein the zombies are bigger and more mutated, as well as Scout Mode, in which you scout the best locations to pick up supplies and make a stand against the flesh eaters.
The levels available within the Closed Beta are a bloody good time. Though it does include some strategy—such as what special attacks to level up as you gain points—the gameplay primarily focuses on bashing zombies in the head and side-stepping the green acid sprayed at you by the gargantuan living dead. The creatures thrown into the mix, such as the aforementioned projectile vomiting zombies and their spider-like friends with long, exploring tongues, are reminiscent of the baddies in Left 4 Dead and enhance the game’s freshness and difficulty. Also adding fun to this beach party are the special magic attacks you can use to kill or disorient zombies, such as Wanta’s curse attack, which causes enemies to walk around confusedly for several seconds, leaving them at the mercy of your staff or Berg’s pump-action shotgun.
Clogging your computer screen with enough zombies to fill the mall in Dawn of the Dead, Dead Island: Epidemic sure knows how to get a gamer’s blood pumping. The game’s emphasis on surviving the old-fashioned way—by kicking, punching, and running your way through the living dead—makes for a fun, keyboard tapping experience. But it’s the magic attacks, the mutated characters, and the tropical setting that really make these levels memorable. I cannot wait to see what carnage and characters lie just beyond the surf and sand of the Closed Beta of Dead Island: Epidemic.
Raised on a steady diet of R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps books and Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Derek has been fascinated with fear since he first saw ForeverWare being used on an episode of Eerie, Indiana.
When he’s not writing about horror as the Senior News Reporter for Daily Dead, Derek can be found daydreaming about the Santa Carla Boardwalk from The Lost Boys or reading Stephen King and Brian Keene novels.
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