Dead Island Interview

The folks at Team Xbox have interviewed Deep Silver's producer Sebastian Reichert, and ask about how similar the tone of the game will be to that of the much-discussed trailer, the length of an average playthrough, just how really open the open world is and more. Here's a snippet:
How long (on average) would you expect a play-through to take?

25-30 hours is the average. It is of course easy to spend way more time with the game if you want to help all the people on the island and explore the whole scenario with all side quests.

What will you be doing in terms of replayability? Are there multiple endings, or choices that you can make that dictate certain areas inaccessible in one run-through of the game?

In terms of replayability we have four different classes with a unique play style and three different skill trees to get even more out of the game through the way you specialize there. Additionally you can restart the game with your old character and see if your skill set works out to compete against much stronger undead.

Can you walk us through some of the main gameplay nuances that will help instill a sense of (survival fear) in the player?

Everything that was put in the game was set up to bring this terror of survival to you. Your weapons will break so you will never feel overconfident with only one weapon; no matter how good it is. As it is a vacation island you will rarely have enough ammunition therefore you are forced to get into close combat with these vile creatures. The skill system makes sure that you can overcome the more dangerous inhabitants of the island. Gathering all sorts of everyday items on the island shows off how desperate the fight is. Using these items in combination with blueprints to improve your weapons will help you a lot but at the same time this gives the player the constant feeling that they need to keep an eye on their scarce resources.