Dead Island Tips - Part 3c The Resort Exploring the Lifeguard Tower

With everyone safely transported to the Life Guard Tower it's time for a leisurely look around. Talking to Sinamoi sets a new quest - help the others around the station.

Quests

Quests can be seen in the menu screen and come in two main types - at the top in white are the uncompleted quests; at the bottom of the list in grey are the completed quests. Only the white ones are of any real interest and they are split into three types.

1. The main story quest - Completing this advances the story chapters and can open up new areas.
2. Side-quests - Not needed to complete the story but can often good rewards for completion
3. Continuous quests - Never-ending quests. So long as the criteria is met the reward is always on offer.

Marking a quest as active will create a guideline and a goal flag to appear on the maps. Accepting a quest will set it to active; on completion of an active side quest the main story quest will become the active one.

Stuff in the Station

The representation of the station is full of new yellow icons. Once found these will always appear on the main map even when the player is out of range.

Fast Travel

A double arrow. It is possible to travel from any Fast Travel point to other selected Fast Travel points. For example it is possible to travel from the Tunnel FT point to the Life Guard Station, but not from the Life Guard Station FT point to the Tunnel. Fast Travel within the same area is instantaneous; Fast Travel between areas will require the game to load up that area.

Trading

This icon appears to be either a fan-spread of money or cards. Buy or sell items here - it is inadvisable to sell any of the non-weapon pick-ups unless the cash is absolutely necessary as they are used in weapon modifications.


Car

Not appearing yet, but as a reward for completing a quest that can be found in the station, drivable vehicles will appear on the map as a yellow steering wheel. They will reappear eventually at their original pick-up points if abandoned. All cars have at least four spaces - a driver, a side passenger, and two flat-bed passenger spaces as well as four storage spaces. All passengers can use weapons while in the vehicle. Driving comprises of steering, acceleration and barking (check the manual for exact controls). There are no hand-brake turns; reverse or forward motion can continue even if the opposite control is used; the car will stop almost instantly if the driver leaves.

Enemies can be run over and killed although this nets less experience than killing them 'by hand'; hitting enemies or items will fracture the windscreen until it is punched out. Enemies can still injure anyone in the vehicle.

Next entry - advanced bits not covered.