Dead Island Review

Hits

• Deep RPG Leveling System
• Gory, Bloody, Goodness
• Tons of Replayability
• Expansive/Dangerous Environments
• Seamless Drop In/Drop Out Co-Op

Misses

• Zombies Can Be Overwhelming At Times
• Financial Issues
• Annoying Bosses

 Back in 2006 developer Techland announced a zombie game that would focus primarily on melee and have an expansive game world. Nothing was seen for three and half years until a cinematic trailer featuring a family during the outbreak shook the internet and game world. Although the mood for the game wouldn't be the same as the one in the trailer, people thought that things wouldn't work out for the little zombie game that could. Boy were they wrong.

In theory this game is like Condemned met Left 4 Dead, had babies with Borderlands, and made L4D raise the kids as its own. You have the choice of 4 main characters who each have their own special skill. For instance, Sam B is an expert with blunt weapons which in this game is the equivalent of having Kareem-Abdul-Jabbar in a kiddie pick up game.

"You's A Dead Bitch Now!"For each character there is a different backstory, Sam B for example is a one hit wonder rapper who was brought to the resort to play said one hit wonder. Logan, is a former football star who's career was destroyed by his own ego.

The story takes place on the island of Banoi which is one of the most sought after vacationing locations due to the wealthy and celebrity tourists. You'll explore numerous locales such as the Jungle, a laboratory, and even a city that's literally gone to the dead.

Just because it's a zombie game don't expect the cliche shambling corpses. Techland did a really good job with incorporating different zombies into the game. You have the traditional Romero zombies, the fast 28 Days Later zombies, and you have special zombies. Usually, special zombies are a real lettdown in games like Left 4 Dead due to the implausability of it but here it works surprisingly well. The Ram for example, is essentially an infected human who's in a mental patient gettup. Like his name, his main attack is ramming you so for the love of the Doctor be careful.

Although the gameplay works in terms of smoothness the undead can easily overwhelm you and some can even knock you out in just one punch. I see a lot of broken controllers with cheap shots like this. The weapons work like you'd expect and despite being a pacifist, it's extremely satisfying to lob a head off a zombie like an undead nightmare. That being said, certain weapons you get later on aren't as good as the machetes you can find early on.

 One of the things that Dead Island was promising was a deep crafting system and they delivered on that promise. You have mods such as shock machetes, and even craftable ammo. Despite this, you need to 1. have your weapons at 100% and 2. by the time you get them back to good condition you have almost nothing left.

When you talk about this game you may bring up Dead Rising 1 or 2 but in truth this game is everything Dead Rising wanted to be. You have countless side quests to distract you from the main quest and continuous ones to keep you focused. Certain ones will seem pointless and others on the other hand will be downright difficult.

One of the worst things about this game though is the survivor escort system. Like Dead Rising this games survivor AI isn't that great. The first time they see a zombie they will go crazy or won't even defend themselves when they are being struck by the undead attackers. It's not big enough to break the game or anything but it's something that after a while can be quite frustrating.

The multiplayer for this game was another feature that was heavily anticipated, being able to drop into a game mid-stream is something that is difficult to do these days and Dead Island pulls it off. It can be annoying to have people constantly dropping in but thankfully there's an option for that.

With most of the gameplay feeling like the original Condemned there is unfortunately another thing the game has in common with Condemned: gun mechanics. Oddly, guns aren't that effective against the undead. Even if you shoot them in the head multiple times they will still shamble on towards you.
Eventually, when you encounter certain enemies later on you have boss battles that are extremely frustrating due to the poor gun mechanics. Like the challenge says: "Guns don't work, but they help".

 After 4-5 years in development Dead Island succeeds on most things it promised but others it doesn't quite do well in. The shoddy gun mechanics, poor survivor AI, and frustrating enemy AI really stop Dead Island from shining as one of the greatest games of 2011. With all that said there is enough satisfaction in here to get your moneys worth.