Dead Island combines first-person action with a heavy focus on melee combat, character development and customisation of a vast array of weapons. All of these gameplay features are presented in a dark story inspired by classic zombie movies with a gritty and engrossing campaign that can be played with up to four players in co-op mode.

Set in an open world tropical island, hordes of different festering zombies await players around every corner while they embark on a variety of thrilling missions through the holiday resort. With firearms and ammunition being scarce the player must rely on utilising found items as weapons for self-defense and fight off zombie hordes in intense melee combat. A diverse range of items can be collected and will later serve to transform the player’s ordinary makeshift weapons into serious instruments of destruction.

A couple flying to the vacation of their dreams is torn apart by a violent plane crash. Take on a harrowing quest to find your lost wife. Enter into the dark world of a devastated tropical paradise now plunged into chaos. It’s a place where the word "dead" has an entirely new meaning. Face the nightmare and fight for survival. Explore the secrets hidden in the darkest regions of the island and fight your way through. Survival is your main goal!

Terror. Violence. Madness. Bedlam. A holiday paradise gone mad. A tropical island turns into total chaos after a mysterious zombie outbreak. Cut off from the rest of the world, the player’s only chance to survive is to fight to the death and find a way to escape from the island.

In addition to satisfying even the most bloodthirsty action fan’s fantasy, Dead Island also features role-playing elements which allow the player to develop one of the game’s unique character classes according to their preferences, all the while learning new skills and fresh tactics during their journey through the perilous environments of the island. What’s more, anytime during a game up to four players can seamlessly join together and experience the intense combat and immersive story with cooperative gameplay.

With the all-new Chrome Engine 5 powering Dead Island, the game will use the latest installment of Techland’s acclaimed proprietary game engine, allowing the player to experience the tropical island paradise in graphical splendor with diverse environments like lush forests and detailed city environments.

Deep Silver has received a massive amount of interest in the film adaptation rights to the Dead Island IP. Contrary to rumors that have been circulating, neither the film rights nor any other licenses have yet been sold by Deep Silver, which is the sole IP holder of the Dead Island brand.

While no decision has been made yet regarding Dead Island's movie rights, Deep Silver is currently looking through a vast amount of inquiries.  Key for the decision is a focus on the quality of the resulting motion picture: “We are looking for quality above all else for a movie based on Dead Island. We want to do it the right way as film realizations of games (or vice versa) usually fail to deliver what the fans were looking for. We will not go down this route with Dead Island. Deep Silver profoundly believes in the quality and value of its Dead Island IP,” says Klemens Kundratitz, CEO of Deep Silver's parent company Koch Media. “We would therefore be honored to work with someone who already has a proven track record with blockbuster movies.”

• Ultra-realistic combat
  • Intense and amazingly realistic hand-to-hand combat based on dynamic character moves and camera angles
  • Realistic physical reactions of opponents to hits
  • Exceptionally faithful and detailed damage model, showing damaged skin, muscles and even bones
  • Innovative system of targeting and hitting the opponents gives you precise control and a realistic combat feel
• Advanced Artificial Life System
  • AL system allows you to take advantage of instinctive behaviors of groups and individual opponents
  • Living, breathing and dynamically changing ecosystem faced with the destructive influence of a spreading epidemic
  • Realistic and spontaneous NPC behavior
  • Through your actions, actively influence NPC reactions
• Non-linear gameplay
  • Explore a vast, open world of a tropical island, on foot or in vehicles
  • Freedom of choosing your allies and completing tasks that bring you closer to the finale
  • Player decisions influence the way in which the game progresses, making it a multi-threaded story
• Fully Interactive Environments
  • The ability to use all elements of the environment as weapons
  • A liquid, gas and electricity physics simulation system, which allows you to create your own unique ways of eliminating enemies