Dead Island: What Do We Know?

Dead Island will be an open world game (sandbox, like GTA) and played from a first person perspective, with added co-op of up to four players (much like Left For Dead). There will be a host up customization, experience system and a skill tree, bringing the element of an RPG into the fold, as well as a big focus on melee combat. 
In addition, your weaponry will only sustain so much damage/use before you must discard it and locate another, and also a 'stamina bar', in which your character must allow to fill again before you can attack.

The only info we have regarding plot, is that the game is set in the Royal Palms Resort (in fictional Banoi) located in Papua New Guinea. After waking in the night, the player is alerted to a zombie outbreak.

Mission one is played as a tutorial, with the player trapped in a beach hut along with other terrified survivors, one of which begs the player to go outside (always us, eh?) to go and aid a lone person fending off a horde.

As for characters, the four playable are Xian Mei -- a staff member at the hotel, Logan -- a surfer, Sam B -- a former rapper and Purna -- no details. For reasons we aren't aware of, the 'hero' characters are immune to the zombie infection. 

source: wikipedia