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Writer Deep Silver revealed Lifeless Island 2 in 2014 and Los Angeles was its main setting (with a tease within the sport’s emblem that San Francisco could be in it as properly). Followers had been excited in regards to the sequel for a number of causes – that authentic reveal trailer was nice – however the query on many minds was this: Why is Lifeless Island 2 set someplace that’s not an island?
I traveled to Nottingham, England to go to Dambuster Studios, and this was one of many first questions I requested. Unsurprisingly, contemplating that is the crew that is been creating this sport since 2018, lead narrative designer Khan had an in-depth reply.
Merely put, Los Angeles has turn out to be an island, metaphorically talking.
Lifeless Island 2 begins within the remaining days of the evacuation of LA after the zombie outbreak has swept by means of town. She says some facets of this evacuation have been surprisingly environment friendly, so the complete metropolis has been cordoned off unexpectedly properly. The ultimate determination from authorities is that LA should stay quarantined in order that the an infection can run its course and, hopefully, die off. On account of this quarantine, no person can go in, and no person can depart. As if solely surrounded by water with no entry to boats or different methods to flee, folks (and zombies) inside LA can not escape town. Whereas not geographically an island, authorities have minimize LA off from the remainder of the world.
That’s the lore clarification for why Los Angeles is the setting for a sport sequence about being caught on an island with zombies. There’s additionally the sensible motive sitting someplace between the traces: Los Angeles is an iconic location, straightforward to market, and options extra selection than a resort island like Lifeless Island’s Banoi. I wouldn’t be shocked if Los Angeles is the setting just because designing a zombie sport within the metropolis is nice enjoyable. It definitely appears to be the case if my conversations with Dambuster are any indication.
“Going from Banoi on a resort island to Los Angeles… the reply is… it’s tremendous various,” design director Adam Duckett tells me. “There’s tons of alternatives and potential, each when it comes to environments, but additionally when it comes to characters, the personnel, and the zombies themselves that we will put into the sport. There’s that vibrancy, the sundrenched places, the seashores, the unique mansions of Bel-Air, and past. It’s an incredible setting for us to have that fight expertise.”
Artistic director James Worrall echoed Duckett’s sentiment, citing that LA is a superb alternative for giant characters when it comes to location and precise folks.
“Los Angeles has fairly an eccentric or expressive type of tradition and id, and that id is acknowledged all world wide,” he says. “Whether or not you’ve been to LA or not, we’ve all seen it by means of the lens of Hollywood, and we thought that form of Hollywood lens could be a good way to entertain when you’re operating round punching zombies.”
All through my conversations with the crew at Dambuster, builders referred to the sport’s setting as “postcard” LA. The open-hub design of Los Angeles will take gamers to the enduring places you’d probably see on a postcard in a California airport: Bel-Air, Hollywood, the Santa Monica Pier, Venice Seaside, and extra. Given the sport’s tackle pulp action-horror, every of those postcard places has been caricatured to a level, which is smart – the places have to match the over-the-top gore of the zombies and the larger-than-life characters that selected to stay round in Hell-A.
“You’ve received these two or three layers,” Worrall continues. “We’ve received this fantasy model of LA that everyone’s seen – the Hollywood lens. We’ve received stamped on high of that, the tragic stays of the evacuation try that failed… after which on high of that, we’ve received your form of basic zomb-pocalypse. However we’ve been very cautious to boost the vibe and the colour of the place. [Art director Adam Olsson] and his crew have carried out an incredible job in… glamorizing this place. We’re not a model of Fallujah or one thing like that or a warfare zone. It’s nonetheless a fantastical, simply navigable, and relatable house.”
Olsson says on the visible facet of issues, he and his crew have labored to construct up the virtually mythological being that LA has turn out to be as a metropolis, which additional brings out Lifeless Island 2’s pulpy ambiance. Worrall stated Dambuster’s inspirations for the Lifeless Island 2 vibe in LA return to 80s, 90s, and 00s horror, particularly within the extra schlocky realm, like Robocop, Nightmare on Elm Road, and the Alien and Predator franchises.
“I’ve actually, actually nostalgic recollections of going to observe a film within the afternoon, and also you’d be immersed on this world, and the credit would roll, and also you’d come out into this sunshine, and there was this actual sense that you just simply left an actual place behind,” Worrall remarks once I ask him what he needs gamers to really feel when Lifeless Island 2’s credit roll. “And there’s somewhat sense of loss, however somewhat sense of, ‘Properly, I can’t anticipate the subsequent.’”
As for Olsson, he needs gamers to really feel dazzled by all the colours and the way the whole lot in Lifeless Island 2 comes collectively.
“I need them to say like, ‘Why doesn’t extra stuff do that?’” he says. “Zombies are incredible. Actually, what we wish to do right here is simply deliver again the enjoyable with zombies as a result of… we’ve had so many video games for 10 or 20 years the place it’s been widespread, however so lots of them are simply that darkish mirror held as much as present the deepest depth of man. And I simply type of need folks to return out and assume, ‘That was enjoyable. Zombies are enjoyable once more.’”
Worrall, Olsson, Duckett, and the crew at Dambuster consider Los Angeles is simply the place to do this.
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