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Writer Deep Silver revealed Useless Island 2 in 2014 and Los Angeles was its main setting (with a tease within the sport’s brand that San Francisco is perhaps in it as effectively). Followers had been excited in regards to the sequel for a number of causes – that unique reveal trailer was nice – however the query on many minds was this: Why is Useless 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 group that is been creating this sport since 2018, lead narrative designer Khan had an in-depth reply.
Merely put, Los Angeles has develop into an island, metaphorically talking.
Useless Island 2 begins within the remaining days of the evacuation of LA after the zombie outbreak has swept via town. She says some facets of this evacuation have been surprisingly environment friendly, so the whole metropolis has been cordoned off unexpectedly effectively. The ultimate resolution 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 one can go in, and no one 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 reduce 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, simple to market, and options extra selection than a resort island like Useless 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 actually 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 numerous,” 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 are able to put into the sport. There’s that vibrancy, the sundrenched places, the seashores, the unique mansions of Bel-Air, and past. It’s a fantastic setting for us to have that fight expertise.”
Artistic director James Worrall echoed Duckett’s sentiment, citing that LA is a superb alternative for large characters when it comes to location and precise folks.
“Los Angeles has fairly an eccentric or expressive sort of tradition and identification, and that identification is acknowledged all all over the world,” he says. “Whether or not you’ve been to LA or not, we’ve all seen it via the lens of Hollywood, and we thought that type of Hollywood lens can be a good way to entertain whilst you’re working round punching zombies.”
All through my conversations with the group 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 doubtless 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 prime of that, the tragic stays of the evacuation try that failed… after which on prime of that, we’ve received your type of basic zomb-pocalypse. However we’ve been very cautious to lift the vibe and the colour of the place. [Art director Adam Olsson] and his group have executed a fantastic job in… glamorizing this place. We’re not taking a look at a model of Fallujah or one thing like that or a struggle zone. It’s nonetheless a fantastical, simply navigable, and relatable area.”
Olsson says on the visible facet of issues, he and his group have labored to construct up the virtually mythological being that LA has develop into as a metropolis, which additional brings out Useless Island 2’s pulpy ambiance. Worrall stated Dambuster’s inspirations for the Useless Island 2 vibe in LA return to 80s, 90s, and 00s horror, particularly within the extra schlocky realm, like Robocop, Nightmare on Elm Avenue, and the Alien and Predator franchises.
“I’ve actually, actually nostalgic reminiscences of going to look at 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 Useless Island 2’s credit roll. “And there’s just a little sense of loss, however just a little sense of, ‘Effectively, I can’t look ahead to the following.’”
As for Olsson, he needs gamers to really feel dazzled by all the colours and the way every part in Useless Island 2 comes collectively.
“I would like them to say like, ‘Why doesn’t extra stuff do that?’” he says. “Zombies are unbelievable. Actually, what we need to do right here is simply convey 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 standard, however so lots of them are simply that darkish mirror held as much as present the deepest depth of man. And I simply sort of need folks to return out and suppose, ‘That was enjoyable. Zombies are enjoyable once more.’”
Worrall, Olsson, Duckett, and the group at Dambuster imagine Los Angeles is simply the place to try this.
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