Among the Dead

"There's a Darkness in us All"

- Official Game Tagline

Among the Dead is a 2017 open world survival horror video game developed by Axcero Interactive and published by AlphaPrime Entertainment. The game was released worldwide in October 2017 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Microsoft Windows. Set in the fictional infested Island Providence of the Opton Isles, the game follows Keith Grayson, a survivor without recollection of how he arrived on the island but with clear intentions on stopping the outbreak. The game takes a emphases on a survival gameplay with moral decision making.

The game is played through a third person perspective and involves fighting both living and nonliving attackers throughout the story. Upon its released the game was praised for its compelling narrative, great world design and gritty tone but garnered criticism for an overuse of light bloom. Following its release, Among the Dead won many awards and was nominated as Game of the Year by many game critics.

A DLC titled Among the Broken was released six months after the game released. The DLC serves as a prequel to the events of the main game and flushes out the backstory for the project that created the Virals on the game. Among the Broken follows a linear storyline following protagonist Robert Nash, a soldier in his exploits through what is labled the "War on Mankind".

Gameplay
Character health is relatively less than in other games. A health meter is present and will go down as the player accumulates damage, such as from a fall or getting shot. Health will only begin to regenerate once most of the players health is gone and will only fill up to the halfway mark. Scavenging for food or medical kits can resolve this issue.

Among the Dead has three different areas of movement: Land, that involves on foot or your Personalized Automobile; Aerial movement with use of helicpters, though this is limited by the amount fuel it holds; and aquatic movement, the two being rafts and small sized boats.

During gameplay the Virals, zombie-like enemies found in game, are characteristically different from each other due to mutations caused by the adaptable nanobots. Although the game doesn't feature different Viral "Types", each one may have different attributes that set it apart from another one; One might be able to climb certain ledges, run faster, or do more damage than another Viral, this might even be visible such as having thicker legs or more muscular arms. While this can make a Viral a harder threat than the norm, it might also create a weaker than usual Viral.

Most areas on the map are destructible.

Combat
Combat in the game has a focus on short to mid range firefights with little room for error or second guessing your actions. The two main enemies in the game, Virals and Raiders, have their own weaknesses and strengths that the player must confront in order to kill them. Virals do large amounts of damage and are difficult to kill but must get to arms length to attack while enemy characters use guns to attack at larger ranges but are easier to kill and do less damage.

An injury system is also present in the game. When sustaining high damage in a certain part of the body, the player will receive a status condition of having either a minor, moderate, or severe injury. The affected area can limit the players ability, such as walking slower from a leg laceration or a distorted vision from a skull fracture. The higher level the injury the more profound effect it has on the character, all injuries can be healed with a medical kit or have a certain time until it heals. Injuries are also visible on the player model and will reflect the damaged area.

Takedowns
When an Enemy approaches or gets too close, one can execute a take down ability which will either instantly kill the attacker or severely impair them. Certain attackers will have to be injured first in order to finish them off with this. The execution of a takedown changes depending on the surroundings, an enemy next to a ledge might get pushed off instead of beaten for example.

Stealth
Unlike the guns blazing route, players have the option to fight off or hide from enemies using a stealthier method. Stealth mode is advised when breaching an area with multiple enemies or when hiding from a threat. In stealth mode, the player enters a slightly crouched position that limits the players mobility but decreases noise made by the player. No visibility bar is present in the game instead the area around the player will turn darker in shade and slowly get brighter if the player is discovered; visual cues from the enemies will also assist the player. Specific areas, such as a cornfield, can help the player remain undetected for longer periods of time.

Combat is also altered when entering stealth mode. When activated, the first suppressed weapon from the players inventory will be given, if one does not own a suppressed weapon then your fists will be equipped. Although it is possible to switch your weapon once the player is undetected, it is recommended to keep a suppressed weapon as to not Attract attention with noise. Takedowns will also get a change once in stealth mode, the player will choke or knock out the enemies in a silence process.

Scavenging
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Crafting
Materials that are earned as a reward or by being scavenged can be used to create or modify equipment through crafting. Crafting can be used to make medical kits when the player needs extra health or even to make modifications to a weapon such as adding a sight or giving larger magazine sizes. When you commence a craft, it will usually take around 5-10 seconds to finish it, this leaves the player open to attacks without the ability to fend them off. Items that are used in the crafting process will be taken from the players inventory and be replaced with the crafted item; multiple items can be used in a single craft.

Most crafting items are permanently placed in the characters inventory although temporary craftable items with limited use do exist. These are usually very situational items, such as crafting a grenade to clear a small room. Even if you have collected all items to craft, certain conditions must still be met.

Vehicular upgrades
Crafting is not limited to wieldable items, crafting is used in order to upgrade the players personalized vehicles. Scavenged equipment is able to be equipped onto your vehicle to fit a more suitable play style to the player.

Setting
Among the Dead takes place in the fictional Opton Isles, an archipelago located off the coast of North Carolina. Although an island chain, only the main and closest island are traversal. Known formaly as an insustrial Metrapolos, Croshaw city, and the only main settlement, was heavely inspired by early expanding urban cities such as Philadelphia in the 50s but with a more modern architectural look. Much of the streets in the city are cracked with buildings fallen down and overgrown vegetation in some areas. The map itself contains a thick forest to the north of the city with a Large lake leading to a river known as the Calypso Lake. A short mountain range to the south leads to the more rural area of the map which is surrounded by the Atlatic ocean. The world itself was described as:

"A dark world with a very twisted and warped atmosphere. You truly feel as if the world continues to change regardless of where you are, not to mention that the constant 'Fight or Flight' scenarios will keep the player glued to the edge of your seats for hours on end."

- Gamer's Critic Reviewer

Single Player
"What we sought to create wasn't your typical game. This is different. Your average game has the good guys, A.K.A. you, triumphing over the bad guys. In this game there are no sides. The main focus is surviving and that applies to everyone, so you're gonna have to end up doing things your not proud of. Each action, each decision will have you thinking back to who the real bad guy is and who deserved their fate. How far are you willing to go? Get ready to rethink everything you thought about survival."

- Lead Designer Drake Winston

Plot
The game starts with flashing lights and images along with a steady heartbeat. Gunfire is heard and grotesque images of people with tattered clothes and blood are shown. A conversation is hear in the background between two unseen people and the face of an old scientist appears. He talks to the player telling him to wake up before screaming it and everything turns black. the main protagonist, Keith Grayson, wakes up strapped down on a wooden chair as a fire slowly consumes the room. Struggling, the floor caves in and Keith falls down a floor while the chair breaks upon impact. In a daze, Keith half limps through the hall while the fire spreads and hearing voices in his head. Upon reaching the main entrance, Keith attempts to remove the boards blocking the door but the ceiling above gives away and comes crashing on top of him. Jumping away, Keith back up the spiraling staircase and decides to go upstairs. Reaching a hall without the fire, Keith looks out the windows to see a full moon and a city sprawling in the horizon.

He hears a yell and turns to the opposite side where a persons screams can be heard behind a metallic door. Failing to try and open the door, he runs to the security room and pushes a filing cabinet out of the way to enter. In the security room Keith flips open the switch that opens the doors and runs back out to the hall to help the person. With the fire now spreading, Keith successfully opens the metallic door only for a mutilated woman to tackle him and bite him on the neck. Kicking her off, Keith continued to hear voices as more of the Virals flooded the hall through the rooms he opened. With the fire approaching too, Keith continues up a staircase and reaches a room leading to the roof. Going inside, the room shows a dead man sitting on a chair with three corpses next to him and the word 'The Dead Walk Among Us' written in blood behind him. While Keith examines the body, one of the corpses tackles Keith down. In panic, Keith grabs a vase and smashes it against the creature only fazing it. Desperate, Keith picks up the gun hanging on the dead mans finger and shoots the creature a it lurched at him. Pushing the now dead Viral aside, voices and images continue to flash through Keith's head. Looking down at the gun and contemplating suicide, he stops when he hears the pounding on the door.

Getting back up, Keith goes to the ladders in the room and climbs up to the roof where he shoots the lock of the roof hatch and climbs up. With the light of the full moon, Keith is awestruck to see the city that lay before him. In the distance, one could see Croshaw city covered in vegetation and moss while broken down building littered the roads. The fire had continued to spread and caused part of the roof to collapse. Virals slowly shuffled up this to reach the roof where Keith was. Watching in horror as some burned from the fires while others continued, Keith decided to pull off a last stand on the roof, shooting the Virals as they approached. The fire had weakened the structure and cause the building to shake before the roof completely crumpled away sending Keith crashing down. Landing on a staircase and rolling down, Keith looked down the hall he was trapped in to see a lone window. With a ringing in his ears, he slowly ran for it, slowly getting faster. Jumping over flaming debris and pushing aside a viral, Keith shot the glass before jumping out through. Falling on top a tree, the branches slowed his fall as he landed in a lake. Pushing himself to the surface and collapsing from exhaustion, Keith looked up to see the building fully crumble down. A sign saying "Croshaw Insane Asylum" can be seen as Keith passes out. A voice can be heard saying, "The dead don't walk among us, We walk among the dead".

Storyline Missions
The Storyline of Among the Dead features 39 Story missions separated in 4 segments, along with 21 total side operations.

Side operations

 * Long Forgotten/Long Remembered
 * Devil's Howl
 * The Light of Day
 * Mercy in the Apocalypse
 * Tune of Death
 * Do I Know You?

Online Multiplayer
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Development
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Release
Among the Dead was released on Microsoft Windows,Playstation 4,and Xbox One platforms in North America and Europe on November 4th 2017, November 6th for Asia, and November 10th in Australia. Celebrating the release of the game, staff members including lead designer, Drake Winston, hand signed multiple copies of the game. An enhanced version of the game was given to anyone who received a preordered copy, while a Game of the Year edition which contained all three DLCs and a bonus mission were released on November 6th 2018 internationally.

Controversy
The game received a big outlash from many Anti-Gaming groups for a scene in the mission Not Everything's Black and White. The scene showed Marlow and Keith encountering a family with an infant as they tried to hide from a pack of Virals. The infant, who was attracting the Enemies with its crying was executed by Marlow who also shot the family in order to stay alive. These groups viewed the act as "Extremely distasteful" and claimed the murder of a young child in gaming was "Unprecedented and a show of how violence in gaming completely unnecessary." Lead Designer Drake Winston issued an apology but commented on how the scene showcased the grittiness of the world and the moral dilemma that was a major component to the game.

Memoirs of a Dead Man
Before the release of the game, Axcero published an 80 page art book titled Memoirs of a Dead Man. The book featured original concept art of the game along with images of scrapped content and level designs. One can see written commentary on the margins next to most of the pictures, this has been confirmed to be Jason Quinn, a main character in the story that worked on the project that created the virals.

The book itself serves as a guide to new players to introduce them to the Opton Isles. A copy of the artbook was given to anyone who pre-ordered the game.

Dowloadable Content
Before the initial release of the game, AlphaPrime Entertainment announced that over the span of a year, the game would feature 3 DLCs, one of which would be free.

Among the Broken
Among the Broken was the first and a free DLC for Among the Dead released on April 26 2018, six months after the initial release of the game. Among the Broken serves as a prequel to the game and explains why and how the project that created the virals came to be. The DLC features an entirely new linear storyline with a new playable character Robert Nash, An Army soldier, as he fights in a series of battles on what is known as the 'Johannesburg Conflicts'.

Among the Living
Among the Living was the third and last installment of Among the Dead Released on November 21st. The DLC expansion follows an alternate timeline to the main plot in which the main protagonist, Keith Grayson, isn't immune to the infectious nanobots spread through bites by Virals and therefore would have been affected by the bite he received on the first level. The player plays as a zombified version of Keith functioning as a friendly to others Virals while being enemies to normally friendly characters. The events of the DLC were confirmed as non-canon.

Trivia

 * The name of the games main city, Croshaw City, is a reference to Nate Croshaw, the main character of AlphaPrime Entertainment's Western title, Blood Stained: Retribution.
 * Certain plates on vehicles have the word C0N$OЯT1UM on them. This is written in Leetspeak and is a reference to AlphaPrimes Entertainment's Cyberpunk title, Consortium.
 * In the mission Feral Instincts, if the protagonist has the Rogue Voyager outfit on when encountering Dreyer, he will mention that he hates men with scarves. This is a reference to his cameo in Among the Broken when Robert Nash apprehends him with a similar outfit.
 * This is also the only reference to the DLC prequel in the entire game.
 * Through files and dialogue found in game, it is hinted that the Opton Isles, the setting of the game, might be seen as a state or at the very least, territory to the Unites States.
 * During an interview game developers spoke about how the story centered around the underlying issue: if necessary sacrifices are truly justified.
 * A scrapped concept known as Among the Dead: Online was found in cut files when datamined. According to the developers, it was an ambitious concept that never made it in the game.