Dead Island: Epidemic starting up closed beta soon

The world’s first ZOMBA (Zombie Online Multiplayer Battle Arena) is heading towards closed beta status. Find out how to join the ranks of the survivors (or the dead) after the break.

Deep Silver’s Dead Island franchise has been on a roll; first with an original IP that caught on with gamers in a big way and then with a sequel that likewise hit pretty big while delivering more of the tropical zombie-smashing that fans wanted. Now a spinoff to the series in being readied for release as a Multiplayer  Online Battle Arena game- or actually, make that Zombie Online Multiplayer Battle Arena, because that’s what the publisher is calling their first foray into the popular genre.

Centering squarely on the action, players can choose to play as a survivor or a member of the ranks of the undead in the title. Where this ZOMBA differs from most MOBA’s though is that you have direct control over your character. And what Deep Silver means by that is that your WASD keys move your avatar directly and the more familiar (for the genre) ‘click to move’ mechanic has been done away with. DIE (Dead Island: Epidemic) also allows you to craft your own weapons, much like in the console FPS series, which is definitely a first and pretty cool too.

So far, the game has been played a boatload of Alpha Testers (30k to be exec) and the publisher has gotten plenty of positive feedback about it. So much so, that they’re ready to enter the final stages of development and open the grave on this rotter to let it out into the world. Before that though, there’ll be a closed bate test where more gamers can hop on board and test things out prior to release.

“We received outstanding feedback from our Alpha testers and are looking very much forward to many new players who will join us and help us to make Dead Island: Epidemic the best possible ZOMBA experience”, says Isaac Parakhen, Brand Manager for Dead Island: Epidemic at Deep Silver. “Once the Closed Beta starts, we can’t wait to see players battling it out 24/7.”

Deep Silver also says that players who join the beta when the closed portion opens up will get special buffs and rewards and even be able to hang onto them when the game officially releases. The team-based title will be making it’s way into that new stage of development sometime soon; to find out more about the closed portion of things, head over to the official site for Dead Island: Epidemic here.