Weapon durability is a contentious mechanic amongst RPG fans, with some feeling that item degradation is an annoying and superfluous method of forcing players to constantly discard their weapons. Others, meanwhile, appreciate the immersion of having to maintain their gear and relish the idea of amassing an arsenal of death-dealing implements. Dead Island 2, as it turns out, will follow the latter school of thought, and prospective zombie survivors will need to spare a thought for the various weapons they use to deal final death to the unliving.
In an interview with VG247, Adam Duckett, design director at Dambuster Studio, elaborates on the matter: "Ranged weapons have ammo, so melee weapons have degradation. We’re generous with it; we want players to explore the full arsenal of weapons – so we have so many great mods, and so many perks, and so many other things in this game that we want players to cycle through."
Duckett explains that players will be able to equip eight weapons on their weapon wheel, and an additional eight can be kept in reserve, allowing you to cycle through this arsenal at a moment's notice. Weapons can be modified to do elemental damage, allowing you to use the right tool for the job at hand, depending on the enemy you face.
Additionally, weapon degradation is shown onscreen, allowing players to turn off the HUD, and still know when a weapon is about to break. Duckett notes that “there’s nothing better than cracking a katana, looking at the hilt in your hand, and then seeing the rest of the blade embedded in a zombie’s skull.”
How do you feel about weapon durability mechanics, do you think they add to the immersion or needless busy work? Fall apart in the comments section below.
[source vg247.com]
Comments 21
It was done perfectly in Dying Light and did make the game more entertaining.
I quite like having to search for new weapons.
I love that weapons have degradation so I'm happy that they're sticking with it.
Aslong as they aren't like they are in BoTW then I don't mind
In my opinion it's a cheap way to justify a shallow and simplified level. Of exploration and loot. In makes it essentially one dimensional focused onky on weapon replacement and possibly crafting.
I feel like it devalues weapons and exploration as a whole and takes away the possibility of a meaningful progression system. I felt like it really took away from dying light. It really made every bit of exploration a chore involving a small few materials to use in crafting or upgrades for throw away gear or pickup throw away gear itself.
Playing a game for dozens and dozens of hours with literally thousands of things to open and search, yet what you find amounts to a small handful of crafting components you see over and over again, is the antithesis to immersion and feels just as lazy as copy and pasted and/or procedurally generated environmental assets.
I'm another that believes weapon degradation is a poor mechnic forcing players into boring search/craft routines instead of offering genuinely interesting gameplay. Its inclusion lessens the appeal of this title to me, but I hope the rest of the game isnt overly tainted by this poor mechanic, which makes zero sense in any context. An axe might get bluntter after lots of use, but will always be useable irl.
There are lots of things in rpgs that might be 'real', but are not fun to play, such as the need to eat drink toilet, sleep, etc I would add to list the need to consistently replenish weapons. Its not even real and its not fun.
It takes skill to develop a decent weapons upgrade path that incentivises the player to collect and experiment with upgrades.
Look, as long as it's not as quickly as weapons in Breath of the Wild
I think durability is done well in Fire Emblem, and is a great mechanic there. I've found it annoying in every other game I've played with it.
Isn't there any mechanics to repair these weapons? I know I can remember that dying light did
i feel like there should be degradation of damage like an axe getting not very sharp afer some time. This does not destroy the weapon but makes it useless until you can sharpen it again at a workshop.
Then some weapons could break if used too much like wooden objects or thin blades. it should be 2 different degradations
assuming the weapon is perfectly fine and then breaks all of a sudden like in BoTW is a bit inaccurate
I generally like weapon degradation, but it can either be a fun addition or a headache. If the degradation mechanic is similar to what Dying Light has, I'd be pretty happy about it.
@Anke Each to their own but it put me off long play sessions of Dying Light.
It has some comedic value to the ridiculousness of the plot.
@Titntin one of the good things about pc is you can use a trainer to not only essentially enable a typical “cheat” options (God mode, infinite ammo, etc) but can also modify or entirely disable game mechanics like weapon degradation, limited inventory space in RPG’s and things like perpetual timers like in racing games and the first dead rising. Trainers work well for souls games too!
@Mauzuri Its not really a big issue if done right i just dont like it when stuff breaks the whole time and especially really fast.
One of the dead islands games was impossible to find ammo. It was horrible to play that character.
Weapon degrading in DI and Rip Tide are not bad as weapons have unlimited repairs. Rip Tide is best with purchasable repair material and ammo crafting for shotguns and rifles that are effective unlike the near useless shotguns and rifles in DI along with no ammo crafting.
So hopefully DI 2 is like Rip Tide. Maybe also an easy, and solo, duplication trick like DI and Rip Tide have.
@Dishonored29 Thanks for pointing that out, I dont normally turn to the pc first, but I guess some of these games would definately be better with those training options!
I will never understand this design.
All weapon degradation does is tell you to save up the good weapons and not use them until a rainy day which usually never comes and spend the game with the crap weapons.
If you are generous with them, why have it at all? It's a design with no good sides. It's lose/lose and yet developers keep trying to push it.
I don't think i ever heard anyone say "you know that weapon degradation system on that game? It was rad!".
Boggles the mind.
Could never get into this series especially since it launched while I was still playing the excellent left4dead2 so this game was sorely lacking and boring AF only reason I can see it selling well enough for this sequel was because left4dead series was never on Playstation.
Always liked the idea of weapon degradation or your guns jamming. Made it more realistic. Though it always tends to happen to me when im mid fight and the gun jams or breaks!
@Nem @Luminous117 @Titntin @KundaliniRising333 I seriously dislike weapon durablity/degradation, they should just always work imo.
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