New Game + is a mode that is featured in all the main, story driven Dead Island games (Dead Island, Dead Island: Riptide and Escape Dead Island). However, the one for Escape is unique in that it actually features locations exclusive to New Game +. These are areas and even mini-missions that are not present in the first run playthrough of Escape's campaign. In the previous, first person games, New Game + was simply a way of letting you play through the game and story again while keeping your weapons, level and skill trees with each run through. With Escape, this has been changed to unlock or introduce whole new areas or items, and unlike the main games, you loose all weapons and items you had obtained over the course of the story, requiring you to recollect them.
General changes[]
- Everything does 25% more damage. This means Shamblers can easily kill you in just two or three hits, while barbed wire and environmental effects will kill you after just a few seconds of touching them. The additional medkits available do not compensate for this harsh damage increase.
- Enemies have 15% more health, with the exception of mutant Aaron Welles, who has 15% less health. For most early game enemies, this is insignificant as they still die to the same amount of hits.
- All ammunition carries over between campaign run throughs. Whatever pistol and shotgun ammo you had left at the end of the last one, you'll carry it over to this one.
- All previously acquired medkits are lost meaning Cliff's health resets back to 2 HP.
- The Prologue is skipped and Rob is not seen or played again.
Mission 1 - Smooth Sailing[]
- The door to the right of the stairs to the boat cabin is now accessible, and opening it reveals a katana and medkit.
Mission 2 - One Less Boat[]
- Using the katana from the previous mission, you can get through the barricaded door to the deserted hut early, retrieving the medkit on the shelf facing the door. You can't get through to the jungle, however.
- Finishing the mission, after watching the cutscene where Cliff gets knocked out, you don't go right to the container near the marina as you did the first time. Instead, you're in a room much like the one on the mountaintop you kept waking up in.
Mini-mission walkthrough[]
- Collect the Mysterious Keycard, a new keycard exclusive to New Game +, from the table in front of you, then go to open the door. Unlike the other times, the door is stuck and takes several tries to open.
- Eventually it does, and Cliff opens the door to reveal you near the beach, not at the mountaintop. There's a storm going and it doesn't look friendly. Stepping outside, a person walks away quickly and you need to follow them.
- Head to the end of the short walkway to reveal the beach, with the crashed boat in the background and some Shamblers eating at various points. You need to get across to find the person.
- If you use your camera, you can zoom in on them to reveal that they just used a Shambler model for the person, not a unique, new model!
- Start to go down the beach. As you reach the Shamblers at the body, you get a cutscene. One of the Shamblers looks up at you but before you can do anything, a different Shambler grabs onto Cliff from behind.
- This then follows with a new flashback, where Cliff is telling Devan that he's got some good drawing skills. They have some banter before the flashback ends and Cliff wakes up in the shipping container near the marina as per normal.
Mission 3 - Echoes[]
- Thanks to the fact that you have the katana right from the get-go, you don't need to waste time stealthing through it as much. If you get spotted, simply whip out the katana and hack them up!
- The telephones in the staff offices now have different things they'll say instead of what they were before. Here are the new quotes they say:
“Listen, you're not awake. Stop dreaming.”
“Give him some more sedative. He is waking up.”
“You're not awake”
“Be careful who you listen to, Cliff. Not everyone is looking out for you.”
Mission 4 - Marathon[]
- When leaving the mountaintop, you're first attacked by four Shamblers that come out of the bushes and rocks. You need to kill them before you can go back to your friends via the cave.
Mission 5 - A Fighting Chance[]
- While going from the mountaintop to the airfield, you go past the entrance to the GeoPharm Labs. You also have an option to cut through the jungle past a previously locked building that has an entrance to the Underwater Labs. This building can now be opened with the mysterious keycard and inside is a large medkit for +3 health as well as the unlabeled keycard.
Mission 6 - Stories of the Dead[]
- At the helipad, after killing the Butcher and getting the final security keycard, you can see a wooden shack next to the helipad itself. In your first run through, this is locked by the keycard door. However, using the unlabeled keycard, you can open the lock and get in the shack. Inside is the hidden keycard.
Mission 7 - Beauty and the Beast[]
- If you didn't find the katana on the boat during Mission 1 - Smooth Sailing, the hidden keycard will unlock the katana in the case that's on the wall of the building on the mountaintop. If you already collected it, you can still unlock the case but you'll not be able to pick up the katana.
- If you open the case and don't collect the katana, on subsequent returns to the building, the cabinet will have been locked again and the keycard does not open it, effectively locking it out from collection.
Mission 8 - Devan[]
- A third Siren spawns at the area near the GeoPharm Labs, while walking to the Marina.
- The grappling hook is guarded by a Butcher instead of a shambler.
Mission 9 - Father's Day[]
- Nothing new is added
Mission 10 - Faith[]
- Nothing new is added
Mission 11 - Deliverance[]
- Nothing new is added