Dead Island 2 is currently in development by Spec Ops: The Line studio Yager Development, it was confirmed today at Sony's E3 press conference. The trailer above doesn't show anything in the way of actual in-game footage, but it does set the scene for the forthcoming co-op zombie basher, which is due Spring 2015.
I became lost in the sprawling city of Dunwall a total of 14 times after receiving the teleporting Blink ability. The culprit wasn’t entangling level design or oblique objectives. It was curiosity – a hunger for the unknown rivalling Corvo Attano’s desire for revenge in its intensity.
From the moment salty ferryman Samuel Beechworth deposited me on the silty, moonlit shoreline of Dunwall’s outskirts, I sensed it: the compelling need to uncover the beating pulse of this once-mighty industrial city.
While Spec Ops: The Line might not have been one of the year's best games, it was definitely one of the most interesting - a shooter with a very different perspective on war, and a development team ballsy enough to see it right through to the end. It also inspired Brendan Keogh to try his hand at a sadly-rare bit of long-form game criticism - Killing is Harmless: A Critical Reading of Spec Ops: The Line.
Spec Ops: The Line had been lost in the sands until the appearance of last month's trailers. Here's another one, featuring more punching, occasional shooting and narration from a suspicious sort in a dark room with a microphone. Where do these madmen keep coming from?
The Gears of War influence is obvious. Beyond the unusual setting, it'll be interesting to see if Spec Ops does anything new with the familiar cover-to-cover scrambling of the modern third person shooter. The treacherous dunes of an unstable desert city make Spec Ops stand out from the throng, but the early trailers are heavy with the tang of testosterone. We'll have to wait and see if Spec Ops' characters do anything to stretch the angry-bro-in-big-armour template. It's due out next Spring.
Spec Ops: The Line has been AWOL for a while. When we first saw it, it was masquerading as a military man shoot featuring gruff soldiers doing war at each other in the bombed out ruins of Dubai. The Line has re-emerged, with a trailer and two montages showing some fire fights. The gruff men remain, and Dubai is still the setting, but there's a gruesome undertone to the ruins that wasn't there before. I'm pretty sure the giant evil flaming tower is also new. See footage of the game in action below.
