Dead Island 2 developer defends breakable weapons: “Guns have ammo, weapons degrade”

Whether you like it or not, weapon durability is here to stay in games. Whether you’re in the camp that thinks it helped make Breath of the Wild one of the standout games of a generation or not, you need to admit that the controversial system is a permanent fixture. Turn to pretty much any genre of game and you’ll find it there – Yakuza, Dead Rising, Fire Emblem, Far Cry, State of Decay, Minecraft, Zelda, Silent Hill. Weapon degradation is here to stay.

But it’s not a bad thing, is it? Sure, it can seem unrealistic – why would a katana cease to function as a sword after five or six goes? It’s not made of glass (in theory). Using a weapon that functions perfectly well, at full strength, until it breaks so catastrophically you cannot wield it at all is a little unrealistic, in my eyes; would it not dull, or jam, or lose some function first?

But, as a mechanic, I like it. Breaking weapons forces you, as a player, to adapt to the world you’re in. Far Cry 2 would have been far more boring if you could just waltz about with a gun that never jammed, right? Breath of the Wild would have lost a lot of its charm if you could just keep hold of that one early-game sword you loved so much.