Dead Island Epidemic Preview (PC)

I think that everyone can agree that Dead Island needed to spread its wings as a franchise, and make a move away from the setting and, to some extent, the gameplay which defined the first two games.

Dead Island Epidemic is a free to play PC-only MOBA – or a ZOMBA (Zombie Online Multiplayer Battle Arena), according to Deep Silver – which delivers exactly that, a big shift from the main two games, which should help to diversify and expand upon the series. For one thing, gone is the first person/third person view, in favour of the Online Battle Arena’s preferred isometric 3D view.

What’s quite a nice touch is that the graphics have been pushed in a new direction. The virus might have evolved and spread, in the canon of the universe, but the level I played and the screenshots released so far have that same tropical, sandy, holiday-resort vibe to them. What’s different is that there’s a more cartoon-like styling to the graphics, more akin to the phong shaded look of Team Fortress 2.

However, it doesn’t stick to the standard PvP formula of two teams butting heads down a set number of lanes on a map, which will be familiar to players of League of Legends; Epidemic is PvPvPvE, as they like to call it.

What that means is that there are three teams of four players scrabbling for the control points and resources on the maps. Coming out into the main battleground, your first capture point will be easy enough to capture, and you’ll have to wrest control of others from your enemies at the same time as defending.

In reality, it’s not the control points, but the supplies that they dish out, that you want, and it’s the case that you need to stick around near one and try to gather supplies during quieter moments. You can also down other human players and steal their supplies, before delivering them back to your home base, with the first team to a certain total the winners.

There is a central fourth control point too, which can give you an advantage, and over which people will battle, but the gameplay is all nicely mixed up by the endless hordes of zombies. These aren’t just to make an inconvenience of themselves, but affect the gameplay dynamics quite nicely, too.

So, while the regular zombies won’t cause anyone much trouble, when the super-bosses show up, like the Ram, you and your team have a choice. You can either buddy up with the competing teams and work together to defeat this big foe, or you can stab each-other in the back, right in the middle of the fight.

Of course, it could equally be the case that two teams are fighting each other tooth and nail, while you get to hang back and pick up the pieces when they’re done. It can get pretty dicey out there, so you’re helped out a lot by having both close quarter weapons and firearms at your disposal.

Before you hop into the arena, you can customise your character, picking from infected and human versions of the Heavy, Sniper and Brawler types with their associated special skills, and then kitting them out with weapons, trinkets and items, so you can get the character and style of play to suit you.

Honestly, Dead Island Epidemic isn’t going to pull the massed hordes of players away from League of Legends, and isn’t the sequel to the franchise’s main titles that people will want, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth a look. There’s enough in the gameplay formula which will make it feel fresh and different to LoL, and should be a good bit of fun. What it really needs is to come to consoles.

Sign ups for the alpha and beta stages of testing can be found on the Dead Island Epidemic website.