OK, so brief filler: Dying Light is an upcoming open-world-ish Zombie game being done by Techland (the creators of Dead Island) that essentially looks like everything Dead Island wanted to be but wasn't. Visceral combat, platforming, interactive environment, resource-managing apocalypse heaven. From the teasers (take them as you will), it looks like it took everything Dead Island did right, everything State of Decay did right, and everything Far Cry 3 did right, then boiled them all together. This is undoubtedly the most anticipated game of 2014 for me.
That said, here are a couple of no-brainer, numbskull options that nevertheless, may make-or-break the game for me. This is the difference between me buying it on PC and redboxing it for a couple of weeks on console.
A. Option for analog controls. This absolutely bought-and-sold Dead Island for me once I'd discovered it. Between the option for analog controls and how the game handles guns and ammunition in it's later stages, it was the difference between me picking the game back up and sinking another couple of playthroughs into it, and reselling it. For those that don't know, on a 360 controller (not sure how it works on PC/Playstation, I've only used it on 360), it essentially lets you control how your character handles a melee weapon, rather than mashing the trigger and waiting for the animation. You hold left trigger down to ready your weapon, and this switches your right stick from camera movement to combat (the left one is still dedicated to directional moving/strafing). You push the stick in the direction you want to bring the weapon up, and you bring it down in the opposite direction to swing the weapon. E.G. I hold left trigger, move the right stick to the upper-center position, and then immediately flush it down to the bottom-center position. This raises the weapon above your head and then brings it down in an overhead strike. Overall it's much more immersive and skill-based, rather than taking turns slapfighting the zombies.
Let me reiterate, this combat system made Dead Island worth buying. It is so difficult for me to tolerate mash-for-swing conventional melee combat because it's so goddamn dull, and this is an absolute must have. I cannot STAND regular first person melee combat, to the point that I ONLY use a ranged weapon in Bethesda games because it is. Just. Terrible. I am pointing this out because frankly, I think it may just be the best kept secret in the entire first-person genre of games.
B. Hardcore mode. Second half of the buy-condition, if you keep me locked to baby difficulty, that sucks and is boring. I seriously wish Dead Island and so many other games had this. Far Cry does, and it's spectacular. So do the Batman: Arkham games. Hard difficulties are no joke - the game never becomes easy with the difficulty on, because it actually relies on a skill-cap/base. And to be clear, I DON'T mean Bioshock's disappointing "We'll just give them less ammo" variant that I blew through in 10 lives. ACTUAL hardcore -
NO HUD/TIPS/INGAME ASSISTANCE.
ACTUAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (distinguished from artificially created resource management, a complicated difference that would be worth an entire thread and/or episode of Extra Credits to explain).
IMPROVED ENEMY THINKING, NOT JUST STRENGTH.
ZOMBIES ONLY DIE TO HEADSHOTS.
etc. etc.
So yeah. Please include these things, I really want Dead Island's sequel to be as successful and fun to play as the first game was. The actual sequel. Because as we all know, Riptide is going on that same "should not exist" shelf as Bioshock 2.
I wish there was someplace to get in contact with Techland more directly, because I'd edit this to read better and send it to them in a heartbeat. I mean, I absolutely understand why there ISN'T a way to do this, but nonetheless. Thanks for reading anyways!
That said, here are a couple of no-brainer, numbskull options that nevertheless, may make-or-break the game for me. This is the difference between me buying it on PC and redboxing it for a couple of weeks on console.
A. Option for analog controls. This absolutely bought-and-sold Dead Island for me once I'd discovered it. Between the option for analog controls and how the game handles guns and ammunition in it's later stages, it was the difference between me picking the game back up and sinking another couple of playthroughs into it, and reselling it. For those that don't know, on a 360 controller (not sure how it works on PC/Playstation, I've only used it on 360), it essentially lets you control how your character handles a melee weapon, rather than mashing the trigger and waiting for the animation. You hold left trigger down to ready your weapon, and this switches your right stick from camera movement to combat (the left one is still dedicated to directional moving/strafing). You push the stick in the direction you want to bring the weapon up, and you bring it down in the opposite direction to swing the weapon. E.G. I hold left trigger, move the right stick to the upper-center position, and then immediately flush it down to the bottom-center position. This raises the weapon above your head and then brings it down in an overhead strike. Overall it's much more immersive and skill-based, rather than taking turns slapfighting the zombies.
Let me reiterate, this combat system made Dead Island worth buying. It is so difficult for me to tolerate mash-for-swing conventional melee combat because it's so goddamn dull, and this is an absolute must have. I cannot STAND regular first person melee combat, to the point that I ONLY use a ranged weapon in Bethesda games because it is. Just. Terrible. I am pointing this out because frankly, I think it may just be the best kept secret in the entire first-person genre of games.
B. Hardcore mode. Second half of the buy-condition, if you keep me locked to baby difficulty, that sucks and is boring. I seriously wish Dead Island and so many other games had this. Far Cry does, and it's spectacular. So do the Batman: Arkham games. Hard difficulties are no joke - the game never becomes easy with the difficulty on, because it actually relies on a skill-cap/base. And to be clear, I DON'T mean Bioshock's disappointing "We'll just give them less ammo" variant that I blew through in 10 lives. ACTUAL hardcore -
NO HUD/TIPS/INGAME ASSISTANCE.
ACTUAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (distinguished from artificially created resource management, a complicated difference that would be worth an entire thread and/or episode of Extra Credits to explain).
IMPROVED ENEMY THINKING, NOT JUST STRENGTH.
ZOMBIES ONLY DIE TO HEADSHOTS.
etc. etc.
So yeah. Please include these things, I really want Dead Island's sequel to be as successful and fun to play as the first game was. The actual sequel. Because as we all know, Riptide is going on that same "should not exist" shelf as Bioshock 2.
I wish there was someplace to get in contact with Techland more directly, because I'd edit this to read better and send it to them in a heartbeat. I mean, I absolutely understand why there ISN'T a way to do this, but nonetheless. Thanks for reading anyways!
