Like it or not, the durability of weapons in games remains. Whether you're in the camp that believes this helped make Breath of the Wild one of the standout games of the generation or not, you have to admit that this controversial system is permanent. Look at almost any game genre and you'll find it there - Yakuza, Dead Rising, Fire Emblem, Far Cry, State of Decay, Minecraft, Zelda, Silent Hill. The degradation of weapons is here to stay.
But that's not so bad, is it? Of course, this may seem unrealistic - why does a katana cease to be a sword after five or six hits? It's not made of glass (in theory). Using a weapon that functions perfectly at full power until it breaks so catastrophically that you can't use it at all is a bit unrealistic in my opinion; won't it become dull, jam, or lose some function?
But as a mechanic, I like it. Broken weapons force you as a player to adapt to the world you are in. Far Cry 2 would be a lot more boring if you could just walk around with a gun that never jammed, right? Breath of the Wild would lose its charm if you could just hold that single early game sword you loved so much.
Studio Dambuster, the (current) developer behind Dead Island 2 agrees. “Ranged weapons have ammo, melee weapons have degradation,” says Adam Duckett, the game's design director. We are generous with this; we want players to explore the full arsenal of weapons - that's why we have so many great mods, so many perks and so many other things in this game that we want players to use." It also helps that players can keep a variety of tools in their arsenal, so they'll never be without something to use."
Dead Island 2 allows you to equip eight weapons in your immediate weapon wheel, and then keep eight more in reserve - so that's 16 weapons that you can change at very short intervals, depending on the types of enemies you're facing. will have to face. You can encounter zombies that were firefighters when they were human, and if they attack you while you're wielding a fire ax (read: a fire ax that also spews fire, apparently), you'll have little to no effect on them.
"I think. [weapon durability] helps match our tone a little bit,” adds art director Adam Olson. “Because it's a game that goes on all the time, it's a game where everything is on top, but we want to be grounded in reality. Having one leg in reality - and having weapons that break - helps us push other parts of the game towards this supernatural mentality."
Duckett agrees; the fact that guns break in your hands after you've diced up 30 or 40 zombies is part of the reality of the Los Angeles you'll find yourself in as a result of quarantine. "There's nothing like breaking a katana, looking at the hilt in your hand, and then seeing the rest of the blade dig into a zombie's skull," he explains.
“You can easily turn off the HUD and see the weapon degrade in front of you at different stages. So players might look at their weapon and think, 'Hmm, that looks a little rough,' and realize they need to change it."
“That's what we really wanted to do with this game; we want you to be able to turn off the HUD and know everything that's going on,” Olson adds. “From our point of view, we want you to be able to determine the enemy's health level, the extent of their damage, the degree of degradation of your weapons, the duration of the battle... just by looking around. We want everything to be obvious to you, with or without a user interface."
Duckett goes on to say that this emphasis on realism - having everything on the screen in front of you, obvious and readable, without ubiquitous UI icons or HUDs - was a key part of the development; this is a philosophical pillar that Dead Island 2 adheres to at all times. “We want every hit to feel like it's hitting a zombie, so you can see it on the zombie and on your weapon. The degradation and longevity of weapons makes sense from that perspective.”
The way your weapons and zombies display damage has actually led to "about 50%" of the development staff playing the game entirely without a HUD - that's how effective Dambuster's visual cues and detail are.
“In the full game, players will be able to choose between a full HUD, a dynamic HUD, and a fully immersive HUD without a HUD, and many of our game design decisions were made around the fact that the world needed to be readable while doing so; if players don't see clothing or skin being torn, damaged, or torn, they should be able to tell that the weapon they're using isn't doing the damage they expect it to do. This connection to what's happening on screen should be obvious to people who want a more immersive experience."
From what I've played of Dead Island 2 so far, I can't complain - at all - about the way the weapons work. They're durable enough to last a couple of fights, then they start to weaken and break when you overuse them. Seeing your electrified bear claws protruding from a zombie's skull as he thrashes around on the floor in a foamy mess is satisfying, although it does make you think that maybe you should have upgraded to a more effective weapon to kill this guy who's clearly when -he was an electrician.
All of these cues and cues are visible to you - if you're paying attention - and Dambuster actually forces you to look at its richly detailed world, instead of just scanning icons and sadly switching weapons. I think it's a great way to keep you on your toes and drawn into this world, which has clearly been carefully crafted by a team of very talented graphics programmers and artists.
Dead Island 2 will hit the Epic Games Store, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S in February 2023.
