2.6.2012

In their review IGN nailed it: "Occasionally a flawed game can be so charming and get enough of the big stuff right that it rises above wonky presentation issues and rough edges." I couldnt agree more with this statement.Welome to the Island of Banoi. You are one of four people who decided to make this island the next destination in his/her vacationing. After a rough night of partying you awake in your hotelroom and find that the entire hotel is overrun by zombies. Frantically, you try to escape, following a voice that directs you through the intercom; only to be seriously injured when the elevator you are in falls. Lucky for you a local lifeguard finds you and brings you back to good health.And from then on you along with the three other characters you could have chosen try to help other survivors get off this island. A task which proves to be just as tricky as it is bloody. And then without much further ado you are thrust into the beautiful and lush world of Dead Island and are free to do as you please.Right from the beginning the game asks you to chose between 4 different characters with different attributes: a blunt weapons guy (the character I picked), a guy who is really good at throwing weapons, a woman who is an expert with firearms and another woman whose main attribute is edged weapons. This is where the first problem begins. Although you have four different characters to chose from only two are actually worth using: the blunt weapons guy and the edged weapons woman. Since zombies dont take much damage from bullet shots and the rate of human enemy encounters to zombie encounters is roughly 1:200 she is not worth using, and as for the throwing weapons guy, since you only have a limited arsenal I never really saw the use of throwing my weapons away. To add to their uselessness every character can use every weapon and every character can also throw weapons. So why use the other two characters? No reason at all unless you want to go for certain achievements and/or coordinate playing this game with three other friends and youd like a group of four individual characters.The game itself plays like a mix of Borderlands, Dead Rising, Left 4 Dead and maybe a little Oblivion. You are thrust into the world of Banoi and are free to roam about it doing whatever you please. You will always have your weapon out, and combat plays out very much like it does in games like Oblivion and Skyrim, add to that the chaotic elements of games like Dead Rising and you are sure to never be bored (unless you fight humans where the game becomes a subpar shooter). Speaking of combat lets go to your arsenal. Weapons in Dead Island encompass everything you might imagine yourself you would use to defend yourself, a canoe paddle, an axe, machete, baseball bat, sledgehammer, and many more. The great thing about this is that you can further upgrade and combine weapons. For example, towards the end of the game I got this fantastic Sledgehammer and decided I was going to upgrade it by combining it with a large battery, barbed wire, normal wire, a belt, duct tape and a couple more things to have a so called "Tesla Sledgehammer". This was a fantastic weapon that would not only break all the zombies bones but in many a case also electrocute them causing extra damage. There are hundreds of combinations to try out; assuming you can find the blueprints for them which are scattered throughout the island. As you fight more and more enemies you start noticing differences between them. First there are the normal walkers. These are your standard enemies that just stand around and eventually come at you slowly. Then there are the infected which you can hear from far away; these enemies will come running straight at you, are relatively easy to kill but deal quite a bit of damage. Certain "boss" zombies also appear later in the game and this is where the game borrowed heavily from Left 4 Dead. The floater is a really fat slow zombie that pukes on you (Boomer), the thug will deal massive damage if you get too close and take long to kill (tank), the rammer will run right up at your and kick you in the face sending you hurling through the air (charger). These are just a few of the many enemy types you will come across.Combat is definitely the biggest part of the game. Dead Island gives you a huge selection of weapons to do your killing and thankfully it remains fun throughout. Sure, combat is very repetitive, but seeing a zombies head get smashed in by my sledgehammer in slow motion is something morbidly fun which definitely strikes the chaotic in me (and several others too). As you level up you gain points to spend on acquiring and developing different abilities. For example, I decided to ditch developing my lockpicking skills in favor of gaining the "Ram ability" an ability that knock enemies to the ground when i sprint at them. This makes it very easy for me to aim at the head as the zombies slowly try to get on their feet again. Here the game borrows heavily from Borderlands, giving you a skill tree that has three branches and every skill has multiple "levels" which you can spend experience on to further develop one particular trait of your character. Speaking of gaining levels, one great thing about Dead Island is that unlike Borderlands, zombies level with you. Meaning, at the start of the game every zombie wil be at level one (the same you are), but as you gain experience and get to level two, so will the zombies. This makes sure you will never be able to completely "overpower" any section of Banoi. No, this ensures that every zombie you encounter will be just as challenging to defeat as it previously was. This also means that there are no areas of the game where enemies will be too strong for you. Its a very welcome idea which definitely helps keep the game interesting and fair.As I said earlier, you are one of four survivors, yet, when you play by yourself you never get this feeling of being in a group because none of the other survivors follow you around (although they apparently do because every villager refers to me as "you guys" and in every cutscene all four are present). Instead the game tries to shift your focus to the coop mode. This is apparent because everytime you start a new game the game will ask you whether you want to be visible to other players. This means that while you are playing the game it will notify you that some other player, anywhere in the world is at roughly the same spot you are and asks you whether (with the press of one button) you would like to join them. For those that are interested in playing this game cooperatively this poses a very easy and fun way to play with other random people. What is also good is that the more people play the harder the zombies become to kill. But this is basically where my knowledge of the coop mode ends because I decided to play this game alone and whenever someone would join my game I would simply drop out to continue playing alone. The only gripe I have about this multiplayer mode is that once turned on you cannot turn it off.The isle of Banoi is a very beautiful one. Its in no way the next Crysis and doesnt even come close to that game either but nevertheless this game is very pretty. Especially the Resort area, with the beach, the bungalows, the pool areas and even the hotel are simply amazingly done and remind me of the times I have been to similar resorts only that in this case zombies are everywhere. Seeing a nice pool with a dash of red coming from the floating bodies really helps set the mood fantastically. The later areas, The City of Moresby, The Jungle and the Sewers (just to name some) are all equally well done but in the case of the City and the sewers I wasnt quite as drawn into the world due to these places being rather boring and stale (especially the Sewers). Nevertheless, All the places you visit have clearly recieved a lot of attention to look realistic, and as far as possible, look good. The game in general boasts some very nice visuals. Zombies looks frightening, look great to smash up and move as you would imagine they would. In general, the game boasts some very nice visuals. The same however cannot be said for cutscenes and character movement. NPC generally have expressionless faces, look dull, move very awkwardly and dont get me started on the voice acting which is so over the top that in some cases (especially in the case of the black main character) could almost be seen as racist. These small gripes aside, the game has a great presentation.The entire game revolves around you completing quests to gain experience, cash and/or weapons. There are three categories here: main quests, side quests and continuous quests. These are all rather self explanatory but nevertheless I would like to say a word or two about the sidequests. Im still not quite sure as to whether these are mostly stupid quests or good ones. In certain cases you are given a quest that is rather emotional, like in this one instance when i was asked by a crying man to please go to his house and "release" his infected wife and son so that they may rest in peace. Sure it is easy to simply dismiss this quest as a "simple zombie killing" quest but I couldnt help but feel sorry for the man. Such quests frequently pop up and really help you connect with the world and really make you feel the struggle of the people. Other quests are more practical, like getting a toolbox for an engineer so that he can bolster the safe zones defenses. Its also great to see this game protray how every survivor deals with the outbreak in his/her special way. Most hudle together in groups and try to survive, but some have decided to take advantage of the situation and steal and plunder and I even came across a bungalow that had been barricaded only to find people inside who have given up hope and simply decided to party away their troubles, have sex and drink till they get eaten. However, for every quests that makes perfect sense to do (like those that I have mentioned) there is at least one other quests which is completely random, like retrieving the teddybear for a woman. Sadly there are more of those quests than I would like. Then again I guess its hard to demand every quests to be great. Quests are typically very easy since your map will always tell you in which direction to go and how far or close you are to the target destination. So all in all, the quests here are essentially handled the same way as they were in Borderlands.Closing statements:I got Dead Island about a week ago during the steam sale where i grabbed it for 12. As such I obviously wasnt disturbed by the countless of issues the game apparently had on launch. The game I have now finished playing (after 23 hours) is not without its flaws, bad voice acting, stupid quests, the occasional glitch (like getting completely stuck when trying to repair your weapon) all work against the game, and it definitely wont become the next standard neither for graphics, gameplay or anything for that matter. Regardless though, the game is simply fun. I cannot describe how much fun I had with this game, tearing through waves of zombies with my weapons felt fun and I couldnt stop myself from finishing every quest i came across. This game has sucked me in more than I can describe it. And for every second of frustration with the games weaknesses I was presented with an hour of sheer joy to let my inner chaotic run free on the island of Banoi. If you are the kind of person who likes games that dont take themeselves too seriously, can stomach all the carnage that is presented here on screen, and loves anything related to zombies (Zombieland anyone?) please, you owe to yourself to at least try this game.

9.9.2011

So I installed the game today (pre-ordered on Steam) and I must say it's brilliant fun, here are my thoughts:Graphics - 7/10 - The graphics of Dead Island aren't brilliant, some of the NPCs look a bit silly and the blood effects are a bit lacking, but the environments are beautiful, and the water effects are excellent.The gore in Dead Island is also really cool, loads of corpses everywhere with guts hanging out, limbs missing and so on, when attacking zombies you can sever limbs and you occasionally get a bit of slo-mo when doing so, seeing a zombie head fly off as you cut it off with a bloodied and chipped cleaver in slo-mo is amazing.Weapons - 10/10 - The weapons are really fun,from sharp weapons like knives and cleavers, to blunt weapons like wrenches and baseball bats.When you hit a zombie you really feel the force of your hit against the zombie, be it stabbing one in the arm with a half-broken knife to smashing a zombie's face in with a paddle you found lying next to a half eaten corpse.There are mainly 4 kinds of weapons, and each character specialises in each, I'll get onto that later:Throwing weapons, while essentially just the same weapons as the melee weapons you can throw all of your weapons are zombies to attack from a distance, weapons quite well but you need good aim and it's still quite short range.Sharp melee weapons, these are knives, cleavers and things like that, you can dismember and stab zombies with these. They are relatively powerful and are very satisfying to use.Blunt melee weapons, these are things such as hammers, baseball bats and sticks, they work best at clobbering zombies, they can cripple limbs and smash zombies and are also pretty powerful, you can really feel the hit when you whack a zombie, and are great fun to use.Then there's firearms, while I haven't used these yet (I'm only at the beginning), ammo is really scarce, you can carry up to around 60 rifle rounds, 20 shotgun shells and something like 40 pistol rounds, can't comment currently on what they work like but will update this review then I use them.There is also an upgrading system which upgrades your weapons stats (and looks), at the cost of money.Weapons also deteriorate over use and you can either throw them away and find a new one or repair them at the upgrade station for a sum of money, upgrades only affect one weapon and not every weapon you come across that is the same to the one you upgraded so it is best to keep and repair weapons instead of throw them and find new ones.You can also craft new weapons out of old ones, the DLC for pre-ordering gives you the Ripper Mod, which adds a sawblade to a baseball bat and is really powerful. You find parts to craft weapons with around the island of Banoi.Characters - 8/10 - The NPC's reaction to the zombie outbreak is pretty good, many you meet are scared, crying or going insane, everything from rambling frantically about religion to screaming for your help.However the character reaction is pretty weak, you will occasionally here comments like "Oh god! This is wrong!" or "This is horrible!", but other than that your character doesn't seem too shocked at all.The zombies are very gruesome, most are heavily injured, with ribs, guts and whatnot hanging out of them, some have even been skinned!There are 4 playable characters, all specialising in different weapons:Xian Mei, specialises in sharp weapons, she is an employee at the Royal Palms Resort. Raised in China, she came to Banoi to meet new people and experience new cultures. She is fast with a fair amount of health, I play as Xian, and she is a fun character. Her first 3 skills are:Blood Rage - Use your fury to unleash some deadly attacks and deal with your enemies quickly.Blade Fighter - This upgrade makes you more efficient and deadly with sharp weapons giving you +5% sharp damage, -10% sharp stamina cost, +1 % sharp critical hit chance and +5% for head trauma.First Aid - This upgrade makes medkits 25% more effective.Sam B, specialises in blunt weapons, he is a rapper who made a famous song (Who Do You Voodoo?) but his fame is fading, he came to Royal Palms Resort to play a gig in the hope of making more money and becoming famous again. His first 3 skills are:Haymaker - This skill allows Sam to unleash devastating blows, taking enemies out with a single hit.Heavy Hitter - This skill makes blunt weapons more efficient and effective by giving you +5% damage, -10% blunt weapon stamina cost, +1% critical hit chance and +5% damage for head trauma.Recuperation - This handy skill regenerates 10% of your health per minute.Purna, specialises in firearms, she is a half Aborigine Australian detective. Bullied by her coworkers for being a woman, she lost her job after shooting a Paedophile who threatened her with a weapon because she couldn't get him arrested due to his wealth and connections. Her first 3 skills are:Guardian - This allows you to draw your sidearm and wreak havoc, and additionally your team members will get: +10% damage, +10% critical hit chance, -15% stamina cost and +26 health gain, also worth noting that this gives your revolver unlimited ammo for the duration of the skill.Blade Fighter - This makes sharp weapons more effective, giving you +5% sharp damage, -10% sharp stamina cost, +1% critical hit chance and +5% damage for head trauma.Boost Mood - Boosts skills relating to damage, force, handling and durability by 15% for all members located inside the aura. Aura range = 5 metres.And finally, Logan Carter, specialises in throwing weapons, he was a famous American football player until he lost his job after street racing and killing a young woman who was his passenger. His first 3 skills are:Bullseye - Bullseye allows you to hit 3 enemies with a single thrown weapon up to a distance of 15 metres.Maintenance - This upgrade slows down weapon deteriorationRank 1 = +5% durability | Rank 2 = +10% durability | Rank 3 = +15% durability.Boomerang - This upgrade gives you +15% chance to retrieve thrown weapons.Gameplay - 10/10 - The gameplay is really good, Dead Island is an open world game and there is plenty to explore, from vast beaches to spectacular buildings.It contains alot of scavenging, you can search places for money, parts and weapons and loot bags and boxes for useful items, in fact most of the stuff you use will be found from searching around.There are also side-quests which can be anything from killing a group of zombies to find parts to repair something, and will reward you with new weapons, blueprints and money, amongst other things.The combat is fast paced with alot of action, zombies can grab you, and you then have to punch them off of you and stab them in the face to kill them, they aren't your average slow zombies either, they will run after you, and most of the time it's better to fight than run.Co-op - Unknown/10 - I have yet to try co-op but will update this section when I do.Overall Dead Island is a fun FPSRPG with goodish graphics and brilliant combat, definitely worth buying. Overall score: 9/10.TL;DR?Graphics - 7/10Weapons - 10/10Characters - 8/10Gameplay - 10/10Co-op - Unknown/10

21.9.2011

Bugs aside, this game is honestly one of the most fun I've played this year. You can tell it was unfinished at release due to the sheer amount of bugs present but the majority of these have now been fixed. I'll review each major aspect of the game in turn and then round it up, so skip to the end if you just want an overview.Story: The story and voice acting are really lacking, I'm not going to lie, this isn't the game's strong point. It's quite generic for the zombie genre; you're in a zombie infested area and have to escape. Where this game really takes off is by going into a more survival basis than other games and its fun factor, the latter being key to my positive review.Without spoiling anything you start off by waking up in a hotel room, trying to make sense of what happened and eventually progressing to leading an effort to escape the island resort (sort of). As I said pretty clichéd and generic, but who plays a zombie game for a killer story? The missions are also pretty repetitive, but if you're zombie game or survival fan you can probably look past this. Including sidequests it takes ~30 hours in co-op to complete and up to 50 on single player as you won't have others to help out.Gameplay: This is where the game really picks up the slack. I've honestly never felt this cut off from the civilised world in a zombie game since RE4 back when I was a teenager, it definitely feels like a survival game with the lack of items and foraging to survive. In certain scenarios you can really feel yourself becoming overwhelmed by the infected and wishing you'd bought more health kits. The RPG and levelling system is pretty similar to Borderlands, especially when you factor in the co-op, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. There are 4 characters, each with different playstyles. There's a tank and blunt weapon specialist, a DPS blade user, a buffer gun user and the throwing weapon guy who is the jack of all trades. The gun user is arguably pretty useless due to guns only being useful against the limited human enemies, but her survival tree is the best due to the buffs it gives yourself and the group so I'd only recommend her if you're going to play co-op. These playstyles are diverse and compliment each other (not to mention encouraging replay value) but you can tell this game was designed primarily for co-op. However single player is still fun too. Each character has three different talent trees; a fury/special attack tree, an out and out combat tree and a survival tree to improve survivability and other miscellaneous things such as finding rare items. The combat is fantastic. Being a melee oriented game it allows you to get up close and personal with the infected and just muller them. Deep Silver introduced an interesting new damage system in that the zombies have layers, meaning that you can strip away layers of skin and muscle, eventually down to the bone if you damage an area enough which really helps to immerse you in the game and feel as though you are the character in question. The damage you cause also depends on the area you attack, with head attacks dealing the most damage but attacking limbs can cripple a zombie by either breaking them or cutting them straight off; each situation calls for different types of attacks. As you progress through the character's combat tree you'll start to unlock special attacks such as head stomps for grounded zombies, or a straight knock out which is immensely useful against special infected and higher level basic infected. Most, if not all, of the weapons in the games are modifiable with a variety of upgrades from the basic nails in a bat to electrifying a military machete. These upgrades can cause a variety of effects such as setting zombies alight, rupturing arteries or just electrocuting and poisoning them. As you complete quests and level up, the enemies scale with you which I liked; you're meant to feel overwhelmed on an infested island struggling to survive, not a zombie killing God. It's also an RPG that actually gets more difficult at a higher level, with even the most basic zombies being potentially dangerous in small groups due to their hardier health and stamina and higher damage output which I thought was a fantastic touch. You can drive cars too, but they handle like a shed made of jelly on an ice rink. That said it is pretty fun to plough an off roader through a group of infected.Graphics: Much like Space Marine, the game looks pretty good considering it's a PC port and only on DX9. The resort is a beautiful area, the best in the game, which just adds to the atmosphere. The only area I found bland was the final area, the Island's prison but then again prisons *are* bland. The textures are fairly low quality in parts but it looks good enough to satisfy the graphical nuts out there.Overall I'd rate it at 7.5/10 losing marks for the bugs at release and the non existant and poorly written story. However the fun factor, movement back to a survival game (akin to RE) and RPG nature of this game is something I think that far outweighs the negatives and in my opinion, DLC/expansions aside, something we won't see again in the zombie genre for quite some time. It definitely satisfied my need for a sandbox zombie smashing game. Would heavily recommend.

19.10.2011

I have to admit I am big fan of all things Zombie, so the general idea behind dead Island immediately appealed to me, deserted on a holiday island that has been hit by a Zombie Virus ? Sign me up ! I have spent almost 200 hours in Left 4 Dead, so I am no stranger to facing hordes of undead.The game looks good, although it could have been released a few years ago, the engine seems outdateded but what it does, it does good. It is not as much the textures or visual style that is interesting (it's not) but the game oozes atmosphere. Making a zombie set on a sunny and beautiful island is both innovative and utterly haunting, the first steps I took on the picture,nothing but the unsettling screams of seagulls and the lurking zombies around me, that was quiet the experience. The game offers lots of variety when it comes to environments, more t than Left 4 Dead or Dead Rising for example, there is the beach resort, the jungle, the sewers, the big hotel, whenever I became bored or used to a region, the game send a new one my way. The animation of the zombies is great and especially the damage model gruesome and rewarding if you are into that kind of thing. The bloom effect really makes the natural surroundings shine, but you need a system that can carry that load. The cutscenes and intro (and outro) are pretty bad and below industry standard, so, it becomes the more apparent that the viral buzz generator that had been the Dead Island trailer was not produced by Techland itself, as they clearly have to learn a lot about cutscenes.Speaking of cutscenes, the story is more or less non-existent. Trapped on the island, you have to get off, of course, not without helping each and every person than steps in your way who all need someone rescued, something found or something delivered, you know the gist if you played any RPG or quest-based games. Most of the quests are repetitive and of average interest, some are more interesting but those are usually the main quest and if you are a completist and want to do the sidequests, you might let go of the occasional sigh when you have to do the same thing again and again. Of course, you can expect all Zombie clichees to be in the game, the military is involved, people are turning against each other, someone's relative turns etc., been there done that, nothing new but as long as it delivers a nice framework for the killing. It is a shame that a game with so many (albeit superficial) moral issues never lets the player make any decision whatsoever and there is some potential for doing something like that. I am not saying the system needs to be as robust as Dragon Age, but just give me some choices, who to help, which path to go down. The ending is dull and very non-climatic, so that is a disappointment.The gameplay is fun and rewarding, which mainly comes down to the fact that it is such visceral fun to slaughter Zombies all over the place. There are many types of Zombies and that mixes things up a little. There are many weapons you can find, and the loot is random, so you get that classic loot hunting feeling and are always on the lookout for the better loot or weapon mod.The controls of the game are quite clunky and don't work that well, especially when firearms make an appearance and people who are experienced FPS players will groan in pain regarding the terrible execution of this part of the game. I don't mind fighting a few humans here and there, but it watered down the whole thrilling experience of being on a zombie-infested island for me. It is not only the controls that are unpolished, but the menu and interface as well. For a game that relies heavily on looting and items, the inventory management is a tedious chore and I hated going back to my inventory and sorting through my weapons and that is a sign of bad design because in other games like this, I always look forward to browsing through the loot and changing my equipment etc. The weapon mods aka Dead Rising) are interesting but not as freeform and exciting as you might think, the modifications are no random drops but always quest rewards or to be found at specific locations so this part of the game is underwhelming, using a modified weapon is fun though.Talking of bad design, the game has many glitches and bugs, some minor and some pretty annoying. For example (and that is only one of many), respawning does not work. When you die in the game you respawn somewhere else and one time, I respawned at a location I actually had to get to for a quest and died on my way, so the game just skipped a whole lot of game for me but putting me right into where I had to go. There are many of these bugs and especially when you die as a result of them, it becomes very frustrating.All in all, the game is a good game that is rough around the edges, but the setting and zombie fighting is so much fun, you still keep going and I enjoyed the most part of it, while I had to be patient and merciful for others. The controls, interface and first and foremost the lack of story prevented this from getting a higher rating. I would not replay this game any time soon, just because I could not take the bugs and glitches again, but I enjoyed the ride.

1.2.2013

Dead Island is quite, quite brilliant. This genre is not normally my cup of tea but, by God, was I glad I picked-up this bad boy. Set on the fictitious island of Banoi, the holiday resort you're staying at has broken out in a viral epidemic which has turned 99% of the population into murderous savages (zombies between you and I). After waking-up from an alcohol induced sleep your character awakes to a deathly silent hotel. This is the obligatory intro to learn the ropes but still atmospheric as you're plunged into this waking nightmare. Guided by a disembodied voice over the radio you must make your way to them and salvation but not before doing loads and loads of main and side quests; not tomention being a one-man/woman zombie killing machine.As far as survival horrors go it is magnificent in its job; I haven't been this creeped-out since the Dead Space and Silent Hill games. The opening level is very effective in immersing the player; entirely shot in bright sunshine, mutilated bodies everywhere, totally silent, as you explore the beach all you hear is the lapping of the waves. In the corner of your eye, palm trees swaying in the breeze and the shadows they cast look like someone approaching. So you turn around, 'phew, nothing there'. Then BAM from your exposed flank all you hear first is that dreaded moaning that you'll learn to hate as the zombie (and these suckers aren't the slow, shuffling variety from the films) creeps up to take a chomp at your arm. Dammit! They did it again. Seriously, not recommended for people on Beta blockers. Speaking of atmosphere, sometimes it's the smallest aspects of the game that are most chill inducing. Like coming across a weeping man in a blood red swimming pool surrounded by his family he had to butcher. The fact that you can't interact with the character fully means you have to leave him there, sobbing. Very effective. A bit like in Dead Space 1 with the clearly insane NPC beating his head bloody against the wall of the spaceship.The graphics are absolutely beautiful with this paradise island perfectly rendered, though the further you progress the darker it gets. Combat is also excellent, I would highly recommend the analogue controls over the digital controls for combat. They are quite tricky at first as you have to manually raise your weapon then swipe in the opposite direction to connect the blow. Apart from the added realism it also means more accuracy so you can target various parts of the zombies' anatomy - weee, flying limbs and heads a-go-go!Like Rage and Borderland before it, Dead Island does really well in mixing an out-and-out action game with RPG elements so you'll earn experience points via combat to level up your character meaning more health, more power and more skills to choose from. Some are more effective than others, I wouldn't bother with the medkit perks as you'll have more than enough energy drinks and medkits at our disposal. Then there's the rage mode, once you've filled-up enough of your rage meter you can unleash your, er, rage for a few seconds during which you become a whirling dervish of flashing guns or knives tearing your way through the zombies. Fun, fun, fun.You get five characters to choose from (the fifth is only for the DLC version I think) all with varying skills; I choose Xian who is very weak (had I only known...) but an expert with all things pointy and sharp. Once she's fully buffed with skills and modded weapons with poison she is pretty damn mean towards the end.The zombies are also well varied, not only do they level up with you, the further you get in the game the more a diverse range of zombies you encounter. Trust me, once you meet the Infected you will learn to dread the sound of their trademark screams. These guys will cut you to pieces in seconds. And woe betide you if there's more than one...I could go on for ages but suffice it to say another cracking game for the Xbox and will provide over 30-odd hours of entertainment. Just in time for the sequel, Dead Island: Riptide, happy days.

19.9.2011

First of all...what a game the graphics are amazing the best i have seen since crisis 2, the gameplay is also exceptional choosing whether to smash its brains out with a mace, have that perfectly timed swing of the machete to get that rewarding 'CUT' light up as the head goes flying of with one swing or give the fella a facial with a shotgun at close range. the game has everything you need the single player is a sheer adrenaline rush as you fight to keep that substantial amount of money you lose if you die when you are crowded by what seems to be a 'zombie' that lives up to its name that doesnt always fall down after one hit but keeps standing back up like it hasnt read the script.the multiplayer although,you need to be online to actually play with a friend is brilliant as the scurge of zombies seems somewhat oppressed as you fight them off with the exotic weapons available to create or find and the fear of travelling round the next corner doesnt send you running to the drawers for a new pair of pants as youcant help but shed a grin as the four of you kick the life out of the zombie once more and the 'BREAK' sign appear everywhere as the bones crack.ofcourse all games have their CONS as we have all experienced firstly their has been a recent update of patch most of the glitches however your hand does still magicaly disappear as you open the doorsecondly the driving is the worst i have ever seen im sorry but have deep silver ever heard of a rear veiw miror or reverse veiw but you kind of get boarded of the driving once you get the acheivement for running 50 of the lifeless corpses over. and i mean do you really want to drive round the island when you can walk and experience that terror of hearing that shreik or an infected an running for the nearest van to jump on to turn around and see just how many your up against.also the saving system is somewhat a new experience as i feel im always gambling whether or not it has saved so play carry on playing until i see the little biohazard symbol spins around.i bought the game on day of release and have played for over a week now and that feel of enjoyment as there lies several of the undead bodies scattered around in a pool of blood and peices of body all over the place, oh did i mention the graphics are awesome, is as rewarding as finding a more valuable weapon that makes the massacre a whole new experience.i felt the need to write this review as their were some idiots writing misleading comments about how bad the game was i mean one person said that their wasnt enough zombies, well i think there was a perfect amount too many take away the fear factor of not knowing what lies in wait and ofcourse theirs not as many zombies as in dead rising as they cant exactly spawn and walk out of the ocean now can they.all in all a good game around 15hrs to complete the campaign and still plenty more after that 8.5/10 as no game is a 10/10 as there is always room for improvement. anyway hope this helps you decide to get a game that is actually worth the asking priceand does deliver the goods with extras.

6.10.2012

This review is meant to guide others who are reading this and wondering whether to part with the cash...Dead Island is a pretty decent game, the graphics look good most of the time, but there are some pretty jagged texture draws at intervals, which spoils the fluidity of the animation somewhat. However it is not a persistent problem:unless you change weapons CONSTANTLY (then it might prove unbearable!).I don't want to add any spoilers as I hate it when others give the whole point of the game away prior to playing it yourself. I will comment mainly on the control system and the features of the game, so I hope this info comes in useful for someone.+'s1) Great selection of weapons, blades, bludgeons,tools, guns, customs...you name it...it's all here. Some much better than others; I lost count of how many times I scoured the island looking for parts for the "ultimate custom weapon" only to find it a huge disappointment after all.2) Nice animations, like the dismemberment actions...very well "executed" (pun intended) if you have a sick sense of humour, it never gets old.3) Money for upgrades can be found EVERYWHERE, I was never really hard up. Admittedly paying to maintain your weapons gets a bit irritating after a while...but you will probably not keep one longer than an hour before the more powerful replacement is unearthed in a case somewhere.4) The "Classics Edition" with the DLC and bugs "fixed" (cough cough) is good value if you pay just over £10 like I did!5) Customisation skills tree allows for loads of individual quirks with your character. No two playthroughs are the same.-'s1) Buggy as hell! Zombies run straight through you and end up smashing you in the back of the head before you can 180'.2) Odd engine quirks. Such as not being able to pick up medikits/molotovs even though you are holding some already. Drop your weapon for said item and it adds to the stock, then pick up your original weapon again and good to go. Why make it so bloody convoluted?3) The 2nd chapter is a bit repetitive and the designer of the 3rd should be shot (unless the intention is to get you lost)4) Sneaky easter eggs that require at least another playthrough to collect (unless you spoil it and research ahead of time;which I didn't)5) A fair bit of "doubling back" as I come back from an area after completing a task..only to find I have to go straight back!All in all: Equal parts good and bad, although it must be said that I enjoyed playing and found it quite addictive (except sewer sections). Hopefully the second one will be better and more thoroughly produced. To be fair to Deep Silver though, they are not the richest games manufacturer out there, so I think they did pretty well for a smaller games making outfit.Final Score = 75% (Mainly due to the price; I would not be happy if I had paid £30+)

11.9.2011

The waffle:Being an avid zombie fan I looked at the early hype surrounding this game with the childlike naivety that Dead Island could offer an emotionally and psychologically gripping experience. The end product turned out to be more like a coffin filled with birthday cake - definitely worth cracking open but not entirely what you expected to find.Cutting to the chase, Dead Island features a quest-driven levelling system regular gamers should recognise very well. Survivors will hand out various quests that have you trudging from one end of the map to the other to flick a switch or escort a survivor or fetch back some vitally important object ("please find my teddy bear!").Upon completion you'll be rewarded for your efforts with some experience (to go towards adding points to that RPG staple - the skill tree), some money (to go towards repairing/upgrading your weapons) or a new weapon (to go towards making zombie jam).While this approach gives you a good excuse to explore the island some of the requests are totally unreasonable and will leave you feeling like a cheap experience junkie rather than a terrified survivor (just how thirsty can one woman be after 60 bottles of water?). Personally I would have liked to see a bigger effort to create immersion. A first-person zombie game with melee-heavy combat is surely the perfect foundation for a gritty and terrifying ordeal, but unfortunately the jeopardy is not strong. Your only incentive to stay alive is the small sum of money you lose on death, and your only incentive to keep hold of your money (which is fairly easy to earn) is to become an even more effective killing machine.There are definitely a few elements of Dead Rising 2 about the game, but what caught my attention was a certain reminiscence of Bioshock here and there. Specifically the tension of checking corners and peeking around hedges for jack-in-the-box zombies lying it wait and the sunbathing corpses that stand or leap up as you pass by.Overall I found Dead Island very appealing and I've already racked up many hours of enjoyable play. The few gripes I have with it are largely based on personal hopes/expectations that weren't met, which was only enough to knock a single star off my rating. I'd recommend this game to a friend, but I wouldn't advise paying over £30 for it.The bullet points:Pros:- Customisable weapons- Detailed zombies- Decent variety of enemies- Large free-roaming world with vehicles- Choice of combat style- Picturesque environmentCons:- Falls short on immersion- Low/medium environment interaction (I couldn't kick down a sandcastle D:)- Combat animation is sometimes a bit clunky- Enemy AI could use a bit of work (I was able to stand on a roof and shoot down three guys with guns without any of them so much as looking in my direction)

6.10.2011

I love this game, visually it is beautiful, the gameplay is immersive and there are so many weapons and mods this is the first game I've played where I felt every weapon I use is truly unique.Having said that I am on the verge of destroying the disc out of sheer frustration. I am playing as a knife thrower and it is way too easy to lose your weapons (see the 'useful glitch section below' section).Only Things I wish they'd fix:The worst thing about combat as a thrower is getting your weapons back mid-fight. If I've just thrown my last machete and I'm diving for the short sword sticking out of a dead zombie's chest you can be pretty sure that the game mechanic will kick in and interpret this as an insane attempt to loot the 31 bucks in his shirt pocket instead.

21.9.2011

I wont go on about the story and mechanics of the game as many people below me have already done that.Bottom LineThis game is pure fun, and very addictive you always just want to do that last -close by- mission, which then leads to another mission. Ive racked up a lot of hours on this, and still only 14% progress on the actual story, because Ive been doing lots of side missions. The combat is fun, especially when u get a strong weapon and as a zombie runs towards you u hit him in one smash and his head blows up, as his body continues on running!! The graphics are good, the scenery does remind you of being on holiday, but it has a very eerie feeling.

12.9.2011

Why, you might ask, would I title a review in such a way? Well, simply put, this is a good game, but does not fall into one category or another, and therefore, to my mind is not 'great'. For example, there are smatterings of other game genres in here apart from the simple zombie apocalypse which most people will expect. There is an element of Fallout style gameplay, side scenarios, much searching through places to find equipment, creating your own weapons from rags, lighter fuel and a dead frog (i jest), as well as the storyline driven escapades that your character goes on. However, it is not as good as Fallout or Oblivion or other games of that genre. It is part survival horror too,

6.10.2011

After reading a lot of reviews from amazon buyers and from various gaming sites I bought this game and was not disappointed at all.I wouldn't say im scared of zombies as I regularly watch zombie movies/tv programs with much enjoyment, but this game definitely makes me jump and has me on edge!Most reviews were pretty spot on about the slight delay in graphics loading when you fast travel but this is more than acceptable when you see just how detailed the game is. A negative of this is that there are items which, in other games of this style can move when walked past (eg: beach balls, chairs, bottles, etc.) are all rigid in this game, for example a beach ball floating in a pool will not move when you run into it,

18.4.2012

Everyone reminders the mind-blowing trailer on YouTube, no doubt put together by an over-enthusiastic and non-gaming playing marketing team in some shiny office somewhere. I believe this created an unrealistic expectation on this game.Firstly, I will say there are some bugs and quirks, such as weapons disappearing, bits of the story skipping and other inconsistencies. Add to this, the Steam factor which will drive some players over the edge.However, for me, these quirks didn't ruin the gaming experience which is based on finishing the game twice in single-player mode - I didn't try it on multi-player - that's just not my bag.Picture this - an idyllic beach resort, complete with delightful huts,

14.9.2011

Dead Island is set on Banoi, a tropical paradise. Our protagonist (whoever you choose) wakes up in their hotel having been left for dead [pun intended] and finds that the resort is overrun with flesh-eating zombies. Grabbing whatever is at hand, you proceed to bash, slice and hack your way out of the chaos, stumbling across survivors as you go.Firstly, a little about my set-up: 2.66Ghz Intel Dual-Core, Nvidia 9600GT with 4gb RAM, the game runs well at 1900x1200, details are great, there is a little bit of slow-down at some points, usually when there are a lot of the undead on screen. The game allows you to adjust your preferred set-up for quality vs. performance with a simple slider bar - very convenient.DI is simply a great game.

13.3.2012

It starts off a bit like a role playing game, but as you proceed further it gets you in a frenzy and you really feel the adrenalin pumping through your vains, while your crunching, smashing, slicing and shooting your way through the enemy in a struggle to stay alive. Especially the love to the details while dismembering the walkers is a sure eye catcher and makes you feel the situation your in. Either fight (with all you got), or be eatin alive! So it's pretty much fun to upgrade your weapons at the work benches and make a hell of a weapon. And it's a real pleasure to watch the slow-motion when you land a critical hit! The maps are huge (open world) and the graphik is very nice.

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