My Dead Island Review

[Cornagandarub]

So, while there is no official review thread for this game I've decided to write my own up anyways. It seems like there's a lot of differing opinions with this game so if anyone else wants to do their own review please do. It's always good to see a lot of opinions on a game if someone's considering a purchase.

Story
The story of Dead Island starts out as many zombie apocalypse stories would. You wake up and realize that not all is as it should seem. As the main characters discover what's happened on the island, the story follows their mission to get off the island and perhaps even find a cure. It's not an award winning story, but it's not bad either. It's good enough to keep you interested in what's going on so it doesn't feel like just mission-to-mission.

Gameplay
For an FPS, Dead Island offers a pretty unique gameplay experience. It focuses mostly on melee combat with a number of different ways to beat the shit out of zombies, and a little bit of shooting. The combat flows pretty well and can get kind of difficult at times, but with enough practice it's easy to take down the toughest of zombies. There are only a couple of times where I was "ambushed" by a pack of zombies with no way to defend myself, resulting in a death. Thankfully, the death system works similarly to the way it does in Borderlands where you lose a fraction of your cash and respawn nearby without having to redo the entire battle you were just in.

As for the RPG aspect, it's pretty much what you'd expect. You constantly look for stuff, find better weapons, sell anything you need to sell, manage your inventory, that sort of thing. Anyone familiar with Fallout 3/New Vegas or Borderlands knows pretty much exactly how it goes. There's also a repair system that features magical workbenches that you insert money into and out pops a fully repaired weapon. You can upgrade them too, which is advisable because weapons break really easily at first. Mods are also in this game which fit your weapons with special powers like Electricity or Fire, and is a little bit reminiscent of Dead Rising 2.

Controls
The controls are what you'd expect from any FPS. They work well, and there's also a secondary optional control scheme called "Analog mode" where you have to hold a button and then use the right stick to determine how exactly you want to swing your weapon. Many people don't really like this mode, and it takes some getting used to.

Graphics & Sound

Graphics: Aside from the odd visual glitch that occurs, Dead Island is a beautiful game. Everything is looks great and it gets to the point where you feel bad if you spill a Zombie's blood all over a tree.

Sound: The sound effects in this game are pretty good. Zombie screams and roars vary, and nothing sounds out of place. Things go a little downhill with some of the voice acting. Outside of the main 4 characters, the voice acting of the survivors is slightly below average and when you come across survivors out in the world they'll yell the same 2-3 lines over and over until you go talk to them.

WOW Factor
So with all I've mentioned so far, you might be wondering what's the deal with this game. Well, its the glitches. The game by itself works perfectly. If it had been released exactly how it should've been, the game would have been a 9.5/10 in my book. There are certain glitches however that can really frustrate you and partially ruin the experience. Most notably so would be a glitch that if you aren't careful, can destroy several hours worth of progress and neglect to unlock your trophies. It's easy to avoid this if you pay attention to see if the HDD indicator ever pops up, but can still be a huge pain and result in a lot of wasted time. From what I understand Techland is working non-stop to get a patch out that fixes all that and more.

Replay Value
Being an RPG like this, Dead Island has a fair bit of replay value. With the varying character's special abilities and Co-Op play, it certainly extends it's lifetime significantly and can prove for a lot of fun experiences.

Multiplayer (Co-Op) Experience
The Co-Op system in Dead Island works well. You and your friends can play with each other up to four players and do missions on the island of Banoi. It features a sort of Drop-In/Drop-Out feature and the game notifies you while wondering around if there are any players nearby where you are and offers you to join their game.

Rent or Buy This Game?
For most Zombie/RPG lovers, this game is a definite buy. For anyone even a little bit skeptical, wait. If you have interest in it I'd at the very least wait until the bugs are patched and maybe a price drop. It's certainly worth it's full retail price but being hesitant about buying this game is completely justified. A rent should tell you if it's your kind of game or not.

Final Verdict
Dead Island is a fantastic game, and even though it's current problems hinder the experience a little bit, I still think it's among the best games to come out this year so far. Thanks for reading! 8.5/10.

[wozzahotspurs]

official review is on ign mate

Dead Island - PS3 - IGN

but still good to get your opinion

[Cornagandarub]

Originally Posted by wozzahotspurs

official review is on ign mate

Dead Island - PS3 - IGN

but still good to get your opinion

Huh? I said there was no official review thread for this game like there are on this forum for some other games. Plus IGN isn't exactly the closest thing to an official review.

[wozzahotspurs]

Originally Posted by Cornagandarub

Huh? I said there was no official review thread for this game like there are on this forum for some other games. Plus IGN isn't exactly the closest thing to an official review.

Sorry its late i misread what you wrote!

and i agree i do not tend to trust ign i tend to base games over several reviews if i am unsure on any game

[Rawra]

Very nice read man, seems like it's what I expected, fun but currently full of glitches, not sure when I'll get it though but I've already got it on my rental list so I may end up buying it afterwards, seems like it could be worthy of a full buy eventually.

[NADO]

Good review mate.

[brianarney]

I agree with almost exactly everything he said. The game is good.

[Pabs_85]

I was thinking about buying this tomorrow, but wasn't sure with all the negative stuff I've read.

But this has helped, nice review.

[darklingpersona]

Good review, it's fair and just. The game really is a whole lot of fun. Last night I was able to play a few hours without any freezing or saving issues and I had a good time. I'm looking forward to the patch, hopefully it'll resolve all if not most of the problems people have been dealing with.

[o0DENSE0o]

Thanks for taking the time to post your thoughts; hopefully more people will share their opinions. I'm going to hold out until they've addressed more of the major issues, but it looks promising, especially for a new IP.