Editorials
Six Lessons ‘Dead Island’ Can Learn From ‘Far Cry 3’
With its emphasis on co-op and light RPG elements, Dead Island is one of the more interesting takes on the popular zombie genre we’ve seen from a big budget game in some time. I enjoyed the original quite a bit, despite its flaws. The story and characters may be alarmingly dull, but there’s nothing quite as satisfying as strapping a car battery to a machete so you can mow down a horde of zombies. I recently bought Far Cry 3 (finally), and I’ve realized that the entire time I’m playing it, all I can think about is how many things it does better than Dead Island. Comparing it to the post-apocalyptic zombie game might seem a bit odd at first, but the two games are actually very similar.
Each game violently tosses you into a hostile world where pretty much everything wants to kill you, and usually in horribly brutal ways — only yesterday I was mauled by a bear as I was stalking two pirates on a beach only to jump into the ocean and get eaten by a shark. Both games are about exploration, survival, and scavenging to survive, though Far Cry 3 puts more effort into the all of that. So while they’re different, they’re also really similar. The big difference is Far Cry 3 is far superior to Dead Island in many ways. To remedy this, I’ve chosen six things Far Cry 3 does really well, so Dead Island can take notes. Check them out after the break.
Now, because Dead Island: Riptide is already pretty deep into development at this point (it releases in April), some of these ideas might not be feasible this late into production. Riptide isn’t being described as a real “sequel,” it’s more like a Dead Island 1.5, so I’m pretty sure Deep Silver has a true sequel in the works, possibly from a different developer. If they do, I totally wouldn’t mind if they “borrow” some or all of this list to help make Dead Island 2 the best damn zombie game it can be.
Memorable Characters
Can you name any character from Dead Island that wasn’t Xian, Purna, Sam B, or Logan? Could you even name those?I couldn’t name them all (thanks, Google search!), but I can name several of the people I met during the many, many hours I spent playing Far Cry 3. Though let’s be honest here, when I say playing Far Cry 3, what I really mean is setting bears on fire and stabbing sharks in the face in Far Cry 3. More on that later.
Visually, they weren’t all that special, but the excellent voice work and mannerisms made them seem like real people. They look and act like real people, while in Dead Island it was often difficult to tell the living from the dead. Unfortunately, Dead Island Riptide isn’t starting fresh, as you can import your character(s) from the first game into the pseudo-sequel, but that doesn’t mean they can’t get the voices and animation right this time around.
Satisfying Stealth
Dead Island was in no way a stealth game, though it should’ve been. Look, if you’re going to make the guns as useless as they were in the original game, forcing you to get up close and personal, then why not give me the chance to sneak up on a zombie for an execution? Sure, you could do that in Dead Island, but it was difficult, and more often than not it ended with you desperately trying to hack (or bludgeon) your way out of a crowd of newly pissed of zombies.
There’s more to this idea, too. I want a bow, and I want to be able to sneak up on the undead for silent kills, but I also want to be able to distract them. Far Cry 3 has a nifty, and beautifully simple, feature that lets you press right on the D-pad to throw a rock. This will create a noise that temporarily distracts enemies in the area, great for clearing out a heavily guarded area or for getting an enemy to turn around so you can sneak up behind them and stab them in the face.
I just noticed how much time I spent face-stabbing in Far Cry 3… kind of scary, actually.
Equipment Upgrades
Yes, Dead Island already lets you create and customize the weapons in your zombie-slaying arsenal, but I’d like to see this taken one step further. I want to be able to use the items I scavenge from the environment (more on that later, too) to make the game more enjoyable. I want to feel stronger, and I don’t only want that sense of progression to come from my current level. I want to be able to craft bigger pouches, pockets, backpacks, etc. so I can hold more items, ammunition, and other precious resources (such as the incredibly stupid energy drink and granola bar health items). Please?
I Am Jason Brody
There are first person games, and there are first person games. Dead Island falls firmly into the first group, while Far Cry 3 is definitely a card carrying member of the second. While I play Far Cry 3, I feel like I’m in the world. Jason Brody may be a too entitled and moderately unlikable guy, but I felt like I was him. When I fell and hit the ground too hard, I felt it. When I got too close to fire and had to pat out the flames, I felt it. When I was shot and I had to dig the bullet out of my arm, I felt it. When I swam across a shallow river only to get attacked by an alligator, I felt it — and my roommates heard my screams. I case areas before I go in, observing them from afar, assessing the risks, and deciding on which approach I should take to complete my objective. I feel like I’m in the game.
In Dead Island, I haul ass from point A to point B, hoping I don’t run out of stamina (something they should remove from Riptide) before I reach my destination. If something tries to stop me I spam the right trigger until the bad thing falls down.
See the difference?
Scavenge To Survive
Scavenging is something that’s admittedly a little difficult to make interesting. I mean, you’re really just looking through bags, boxes, corpses, and various other containers in search of items your character needs to survive. It’s the adventure game equivalent to grinding — though there’s totally that too in Dead Island — but that doesn’t mean it can’t be satisfying. Sifting through the contents of countless briefcases isn’t fun, nor is it particularly satisfying. However, swimming through shark infested waters to that broken down ship that you just know has treasure in it, exploring ancient temples, or climbing a mountain so you can check that shack near its peak is all exponentially more satisfying.
In Far Cry 3, scavenging is moderately enjoyable. You’re still looking through containers, but the game made getting to many of those containers fun. I’d like to see more of that in the next Dead Island.
A Sense of Exploration
Now, Far Cry 3 doesn’t have the most memorable of game worlds. It’s a big, gorgeous island with few recognizable landmarks. Essentially, it looks like real life. Dead Island suffers from the same issue, in that its world isn’t all that interesting. It’s beautiful, and the contrast between a zombie apocalypse and a tropical island resort was fun to look at, but exploring it wasn’t very enjoyable. For an open world game to succeed, its world has to be interesting and unique and fun to explore. Far Cry 3 did this by making its world unpredictable. Bandit hide-outs, temple ruins, sharks, bears, tigers, big fucking birds that you really should not underestimate, you never know what’s going to happen, so you always have to be prepared. Dead Island is trying to remedy this by adding a dynamic weather system into the mix (I totally requested this last summer) that can cause flash floods. I love this idea and I can’t wait to see it in action.
Far Cry 3 also made getting around its world easy. If you’re lazy (like me, sometimes) you can fast travel, or you can drive one of the many vehicles you find scattered about the world, or you can go by foot and hope one of the aforementioned monsters doesn’t eat you along the way, or you can grab a boat or jetski and jump waterfalls, or you can paraglide above it all in relative safety, I only hope you’re good at landing (I always messed that part up). The point is, you have options, and each is fun in a different way. Riptide has added a boat, though I guess we’ll have to wait and see how that turns out.
While we’re taking pages out of other game’s books, let’s look at The Walking Dead. In Telltale’s episodic series, which I’ve recently discovered actually causes me physical pain if I go a day without talking about it, I cared about the people I interacted with, I cared about the person I controlled, and I cared about the story. I can’t say the same for Dead Island, and I wish the game had made me feel even a fraction of the emotions I felt while watching its incredible trailer.
Have a question? Feel free to ever-so-gently toss Adam an email, or follow him on Twitter and Bloody Disgusting.
On July 13th, 2026, the world lost one of its brightest stars.
Beloved New Zealand actor Sam Neill passed away from pneumonia after a long battle with stage 3 lymphoma. The multifaceted movie star will be remembered by mainstream audiences for his iconic role as Dr. Alan Grant in Steven Spielberg’s 1993 masterpiece Jurassic Park, as well as powerful turns in A Cry in the Dark (1988), The Piano (1993), and Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016), and prestige TV series The Tudors and Peaky Blinders. But horror fans know him as one of the genre’s most surprising Scream Kings.
Through a handful of memorable starring roles, Neill spent the 80s and 90s bringing life to a wide variety of characters and finding humanity in the most unusual leading roles, regardless of how heroic or villainous.
The Final Conflict (1981)
After a decade on the stage and screen in New Zealand and Australia, Neill made his international debut as Damien Thorn in Graham Baker’s The Final Conflict, the third installment of The Omen franchise. Now a 36-year-old businessman, Damien is fully aware of his devilish parentage and hell-bent on world domination. But rather than a hooved and horned monstrosity, Neill’s Antichrist is a suave businessman who leads his followers in an expensive suit and seeks to bring about the apocalypse through deceptive altruism rather than grand proclamation.
Despite his austere demeanor, the man’s true evil knows no bounds. When a prophecy foretells the second coming of Christ, known in the film as “the Nazarene,” Damien commands his followers to commit widespread infanticide, murdering all baby boys born on a specific date. He seduces a high-profile reporter while transforming her teenage son into a bloodthirsty disciple, then uses the child as a human shield. This tricky role allows Neill to demonstrate his trademark versatility, easily charming the outside world while dropping his suave mask of normalcy behind closed doors. Though certain aspects of The Final Conflict are admittedly dated, Neill’s performance feels eerily prescient. He’s mastered the heinous portrayal of a politician willing to sell his soul for power that will ultimately bring about the end of the world.
Possession (1981)
Though Andrzej Żuławski’s Possession is often remembered for Isabelle Adjani’s stunning depiction of a woman on the edge, Neill delivers an equally unhinged performance as Mark, a spy returning home from a lengthy assignment in divided Berlin. Upon discovering that his wife Anna (Adjani) wants a divorce, Mark desperately tries to hold his family together even at the expense of her sanity. Filmed the same year as The Final Conflict, Neill dives headfirst into this visceral role, managing to evoke sympathy for the distraught father who becomes ever more desperate to regain control. Inspired by his own divorce, Żuławski resists blaming either party for the separation, instead showing the chaos and heartache that comes in the wake of a family’s dissolution.
Once considered to replace Roger Moore as the next James Bond, Neill has fun with the international spy persona as Żuławski’s plot grows increasingly bizarre. But the skilled actor never lets us forget that Mark is a flawed human being struggling to keep his life from falling apart. A second character emerges in the film’s mesmerizing climax, allowing Neill to lean into full villainy with a glassy-eyed stare that chills to the bone. Now a cult classic, Adjani and Neill bounce off each other’s seething rage, creating one of the most effective cinematic duets in the history of horror.
Jurassic Park (1993)
When Steven Spielberg’s creature feature first hit theaters, Neill was by no means a household name and hardly a traditional leading man. Without the swashbuckling swagger of Harrison Ford, the mega-watt smile of Tom Cruise, or the chiselled jaw of Brad Pitt — all famous action stars of the era — Neill felt like an unconventional choice for this massive role. But he perfectly captures the essence of Grant, an aloof academic who prefers dig sites to fancy fundraisers and social events. Despite an aversion to children, the dinosaur expert finds himself tasked with saving the theme park’s youngest survivors who gradually break down his emotional walls. Grant’s transformation into a courageous caretaker is a landmark deconstruction of traditional gender norms wrapped in the guise of a rugged outdoorsman.
Neill proves to be the perfect action star, effortlessly navigating Spielberg’s stunning set pieces without losing the character’s relatable hook. But perhaps the film’s most touching moment is Neill’s childlike wonder at seeing a dinosaur for the first time. Stunned to speechlessness, he channels the audience’s wondrous joy when Grant first spies a real, live Brachiosaurus. But he seamlessly weaves this infectious awe into serious concerns about the creature’s existence, amplifying the story’s prophetic messaging. Jeff Goldblum may utter the film’s iconic warning, but the duality of Grant’s performance perfectly illustrates the scientific imperative, reminding us that just because we can doesn’t mean we should.
Neill would go on to lead Joe Johnston’s 2001 sequel Jurassic Park III, in which Grant is again tasked with saving a child. In 2022, he would appear in Colin Trevorrow’s legacy sequel Jurassic World Dominion, which merges the franchise’s two distinct eras while bringing the carnage onto mainland shores. Despite turning in strong performances, neither film is able to top the magic of Spielberg’s original or Neill’s captivating performance as the stoic leading man. But his nuanced depiction of Alan Grant inspired a generation of would-be paleontologists and quiet kids who could now see themselves as courageous academics capable of surprising strength.
In the Mouth of Madness (1994)
After catapulting to worldwide fame, Neill returned to horror proper to lead John Carpenter’s mind-bending In the Mouth of Madness. We first meet John Trent (Neill) as he’s dragged, kicking and screaming, into a padded cell. An unknown stretch of time later, he recounts an unbelievable story while covered in protective crosses scrawled into his skin — and the cell’s walls — with black crayon. A private investigator, Trent has been tasked with locating Sutter Cane (Jürgen Prochnow), a world-famous yet elusive genre author whose work has been driving his ravenous readers to disturbing acts of random violence.
A love letter to fans of horror fiction, we delight in watching Trent explore literary easter eggs that lead him down jarring rabbit holes. A late-night road trip takes Trent and Linda Styles (Julie Carmen), an editor for Cane’s publishing house, to a tiny New England hamlet teeming with darkness. While investigating an ominous cathedral on the outskirts of town, Trent realizes that he’s somehow been transported into the author’s interdimensional story and become its unwitting protagonist.
Neill serves as a skeptical everyman and the audience’s conduit through this bizarre tale of literary monsters that find a way to burst through the page. An often overlooked Carpenter film, In the Mouth of Madness spirals into insanity, but Neill keeps us grounded throughout each outlandish twist. A shocking conclusion leaves us gaping at our screens and contemplating our own relationship with horror fiction. After all, does free will truly exist? Or, like Trent, are we merely pawns in someone else’s monstrous creation?
Event Horizon (1997)
One of the scariest movies ever set in space, Paul W.S. Anderson’s Event Horizon builds upon the heroic image Neill established for himself in Jurassic Park. Dr. William Weir (Neill) is a physicist temporarily joining the crew of the Lewis and Clark to assist in their latest rescue mission. Seven years after vanishing without a trace, a spaceship called the Event Horizon has suddenly reappeared near Neptune’s orbit. As the creator of a top-secret gravity drive designed to facilitate faster-than-light travel, Dr. Weir has been sent to explore the ship and find out what happened to its missing crew.
Still haunted by his late wife’s suicide, Dr. Weir is a sympathetic figure, particularly in comparison to the harsh Captain Miller (Laurence Fishburne) who commands the crew of the Lewis and Clark. But Weir’s desperation to return to the infamous ship hides a sinister secret that leads his fellow astronauts to the threshold of hell. Neill’s talent for playing the everyman pays off in spades as the formerly sympathetic widower transforms into a disciple of this frightening dimension. Resembling a long-lost cenobite, Weir claws out his own eyes and prepares to drag the crew into a world consumed with sadistic pain.
Daybreakers (2009)
Neill returns to his Omen roots in Michael and Peter Spierig’s action-packed film as a secretly sinister businessman. But rather than the Antichrist, Charles Bromley (Neill) is a proud vampire convinced of the species’ superiority. With human blood in short supply, Bromley Marks Corp. is working on a synthetic substitute to prevent the human race from impending extinction. While hematologists perfect the formula, Bromley oversees disturbing fields of humans chained to massive machines that systematically harvest their blood.
Neill chills in this sinister role with vampiric yellow eyes, a pale complexion, and subtle fangs. But more upsetting is the fact that he honestly doesn’t believe he’s wrong. Once diagnosed with cancer, Bromley was delighted to find that vampirism would totally reverse his illness and grant him the gift of eternal life. He begged his daughter Alison (Isabel Lucas) to turn alongside him, but she has rejected her father’s controversial choice and is now hunted by his bloodthirsty goons. In a heartbreaking moment of clarity, Bromley brings his daughter to the brink of death, then turns away in disgust when she will not embrace his undead lifestyle.
Daybreakers is a surprisingly thrilling exploration of survival and sustainability. Similar to a plot Damien Thorn would hatch, Bromley’s ultimate plan is to placate the vampire population with synthetic blood while allowing the human population to replenish itself. With a larger stock, he plans to sell authentic humans at a premium, hunting these poor souls to season the meat. Bromley rejects a cure that would reverse the vampiric disease, choosing to enrich himself over saving the world. The strangely captivating villain’s end is a cathartic nightmare and fitting punishment for a wealthy man who places himself above everyone else.
In the Mouth of Madness
While the world may remember Neill for his signature role as a gruff but compassionate paleontologist going head to head with a raging T-Rex, horror fans may picture the versatile actor maniacally rocking back and forth in a filthy Berlin apartment, commanding a boardroom of corporate vampires, disappearing into the darkness of a haunted spaceship, sermonizing to satanists, or giggling over popcorn in a deserted movie theater. Or perhaps you have another favorite role in the beloved actor’s stellar career. But whether he was playing a hero or villain, Neill brought undeniable humanity to every role, redefining our idea of masculinity and the very nature of goodness vs. evil. By bringing such disparate characters to life, Neill challenged audiences with a variety of complex roles, asking us to examine the humanity of each character no matter how flawed or virtuous.
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