Dead Island is a first person game by Techland. The game takes place on the island of Banoi. While visiting the island’s resort there is a zombie outbreak. People are either turning into zombies or being eaten by them with some small pockets of humanity still left on the island. You can play the game solo or with one to three other people.
There are four main characters which you can select from. Each character has a background story as to why they are on the island. You have the jack of all trades type character who can use any weapon. The tank/brute, the blades expert then the gun specialist. During the character selection the the voice actors for each character narrate the background story explaining your character’s life leading up to the events on Dead Island.
The game is all in first person view and is combat heavy. You will need to find weapons wherever you can. They start you off with a oar then you move up to a rusty pipe, hammer, knife, batons, ax etc…, and eventually firearms. Weapons have to be monitored since repair will be needed after some time. Make sure to collect a lot of money for repairs. Some will be ridiculously high when it comes to rare weapons and upgrades. Your best weapon will be your kicks. At every turn there will be dead people coming for you. A quick kick to a incoming zombie can make a big difference in survival. The zombies are plentiful and can be fast, slow, strong and sometimes explosive. And may I add gross.
The island itself is big. The game plays a bit like Borderlands in lots of ways. Missions are broken down into Main Quests, Side Quests and Repeatable such as the guy that wants extra batteries if you have some. The island itself is also in parts. You start at the resort but eventually have to move toward the city and later the Jungle.
The Good
The combat in the game is very fun. You are given many tools to help you take out the dead. The animation when killing can be over the top and gory. It’s provided a lot of good laughs at times. Ever see a zombie scream it’s head off while getting electrocuted? Want to see one puke it’s guts off after being poisoned by a blade? Well here is your chance to do just that. The open world is also very good. I’ve spent quite some time exploring the resort and finding cool weapons to use. Just be careful where you go. Some areas in the game just keep pumping out zombies non stop.
The in game audio is also well done. You’ll be recognizing zombies just by the sounds they make. Very similar to Left 4 Dead. The soundtrack is also a bit unsettling at times. It can really set the tone at times.
Co-op in the game is great. I’ve been playing with a friend and it’s been a blast. In the beginning we had our settings to public and we’d always run into other players. So if you need help with sometimes usually there are others nearby who can lend a hand. But if you are more the loner type or just want to play with friends you can set your games to private.
As mentioned above the areas are big and fun to explore. Some parts of the game even feel like an MMO in that you have so much open world to walk through and some quests that are set in specific locations like an instance. Weapons also have the MMO feel to it. They go from White, Green, Blue, Purple and Gold for rarity.
The Bad
The game is buggy admittedly. Zombies running through closed doors or an arms going through a solid door to hit you when you think it’s safe. Something the developers may have thought was a good idea was having a zombie materialize out of nowhere to attack you when your back is turned. This happens in areas you completely clean out and all of a sudden you are under attack. The one things that annoys me most in the game is setting a quest but then the map not showing where exactly it is I’m supposed to go. If there were at least a marker but they don’t always appear as they are supposed to.
The save feature is not very good. The game is on auto-save at all times but it feels more like it saves when it feels like it. I would love the simple option to just save a game so I can continue next time. What ends up happening is I come back to the game at a later time I have to re-do some things I did in my previous session.
Final Thoughts
In the end the game is still worth playing. It’s far from a perfect game. But somehow they managed to create a great title that is worth the experience. Even some of the hokey voice acting and script along with the sometimes awkward animation just add to the good time. The combat can sometimes get crazy and you’ll find yourself trying to scramble for a safe place to rest in order to try to recoup and survive. I’ve played the game with a friend the whole time but on the moments where we found ourselves split up a bit of fear starts running through you and survival is your main priority. Even playing with a friend you’ll find yourself looking around any corner in order to avoid a nasty surprise. Dead Island is available on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC.
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