Bringing White Noise to Dead Island

Most antagonists in fiction border on cartoonish. They want you dead, or an organization dead, or the world dead. They usually want things dead, and we rarely understand why. Ryder White was anything but what one might call a "solid dude." The villain behind your plight in the Dead Island campaign was a lunatic, but he was a madman with motivation. I sunk a few hours into Ryder White's campaign, a $10 DLC pack coming this month, to see what the man was made of. The new story put me in the unusual position of playing as Dead Island's antagonist prior to the events of the core campaign. Additionally, this is the first instance of single-player only gameplay in Dead Island, and it's obvious why: We're looking at the downfall of one pretty solid dude.

Dead Island Video Review

The Ryder White campaign goes out of its way to shake up what worked in Dead Island. The Colonel has been tasked with cleaning up the infected island, but a helicopter crash and a slaughtered strike team throw a wrench in the gears. The adventure start simple enough -- a groggy White works his way toward an allied checkpoint by bashing zombies' brains in. Before long, he stumbles onto a military outpost loaded with pistols, grenades, and mounted machine-guns. Jackpot.

A substantial portion of the Ryder White campaign involves the use of guns, something Dead Island originally limited and downplayed. Armed members of the Raskal gang and escaped prisoners cause considerable problems for White; taking careful shots from cover offers a different kind of tension compared to sprinting from the undead. White is a military man but he's hardly a super-hero. Bullets hurt him like they would any other survivor, though he can hold his own better than those unfortunate few. Ammo is plentiful and explosives are everywhere. This solo campaign caters to anyone disappointed by the emphasis of close-quarters violence in Dead Island. It's also far simpler than the core co-op campaign, and puts action well ahead of RPG. I didn't upgrade my skills or level up at all. Ryder White is an established badass who's at his best behind the barrel of a shotgun, not pining over stat percentages.


Contrary to popular opinion, White isn't a mindless monster. He's arguably more human than any other character in Dead Island. His devotion to saving his wife from Banoi could compromise the entire mission -- I watched him become irrational and angry as he abandoned his cold dedication to tactical smarts. The closer he gets to completing his objective the harder his morale tanks. The more emotionally devastated he becomes, the better I understand him as a guy with human struggles.

Ryder White is a person I know will become a bad guy, but he's a great man. Playing from his perspective prior to the Dead Island co-op campaign is an exciting eye-opener. I know who he was, why he changes, and ultimately what happens to him, and I'm still stoked to see how this ends.

Ryder White will be $10 for the PlayStation 3 on January 31, and $10 on PC and 800 Microsoft Points on Xbox 360 on February 1.



Mitch Dyer is an Associate Editor for IGN's Xbox 360 team. He's also quite Canadian. Read his ramblings on Twitter and MyIGN.

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