Welcome to the beautiful island of Banoi, situated in the south pacific this lush and picturesque paradise is soon to become a living hell for its many wealthy vacationers who come to the island for a nice peaceful getaway. Out of no where a strange and deadly epidemic hits the island turning all but a few into mindless bloodthirsty walking corpses, the few who are left must work together if they are ever to leave alive. What i like about the story is it goes out of its way to really leave you in the dark about what has happened and how you can stop it, instead you have to either work hard through the story missions or if you are lucky find some of the many news excerpts scattered across the map. What you do learn is this, the royal palms resort is no longer a beautiful getaway with all the trimmings of pure luxury, instead its overrun with hordes of the walking dead who are hell bent on making your stay a living nightmare.
The first thing about Dead Island is this, yes it’s easy to draw comparisons to games such as Borderlands/Dead Rising and of course Left 4 Dead but it’s a bit more complicated than that because really the game adapts and crafts itself to your own choices and so it’s not the same for everyone playing. There are four different characters to choose from each with their own sense of style and special moves, they range from the usual gunning expert/throwing expert/sharp weapons expert and the more in your face brawling expert. As you would expect each character has more power in their chosen field than the others so it makes for a lot of replay value.
At the same time i find it hard and unfair to group the game in with so many others because a lot of what it is actually doing is more original than the usual type of game in its genre. Dead Island is at its core an RPG styled survival horror game, the horror comes in the form of the many hordes of zombies who never fail in instilling a sense of dread and fear in the player, and the RPG comes from the ability to tailor your chosen characters skills and build in order to make a more efficient and deadlier survivor. What really makes the game special is the many moments gamers all over experience one time another in their quest for survival, for some it might be something like diving off a roof only to land on a truck below in a desperate attempt to escape their undead pursuers while for others it might be taking on a whole horde and narrowing escaping death while a thrown knife just misses your head. It’s these little moments that really get the blood flowing and there are an almost endless supply once you take your first step into the infected world of the undead.
Playing the game really is easy and even if you are not that familiar with RPGs you will soon get a hang of the skill tree, it’s a very simple formula and it goes as so: killing zombies earns you XP (experience points) once you have enough you earn a skill point which you can use to enhance your chosen abilities. Abilities help you stay strong and make you a more effective zombie slayer, some will enhance the damage you do while others can help you pick locks on crates/run for longer/and much more. Players familiar with the skills and levelling up in Borderlands will feel right at home here because it’s almost identical to the same system the game used. With my own character i used a lot of skill points to enhance my fighting abilities with edged melee weapons, without these skills and enhancements it really would not have been possible to finish the game because like most RPG styled games once you level up the enemy does too.
Zombies are no stranger to recent and past video games but no where have they been as deadly or utterly relentless as in Dead Island, when it comes to motivation they are on a whole new level. Its brutal how they are so well done, they don’t just look the part they really are the part. The zombies are a huge part of the gameplay and its immense immersive styling so you would expect them to be good.. just not this good. As you explore the island you will see zombies eating many of the fallen victims, banging at doors and windows to kill the remaining survivors hiding inside or just aimlessly roaming around in a world of their own. Like almost everything in the game they are not just there for looks they serve a purpose and the game will try its hardest to make you their next meal. The first time you encounter the infected wearing their beach clothes while their faces rot off they are easily dispatched with a few whacks of a blunt instrument, when the game really gets going they start to move faster and prove to be more ruthless.
Not only that, there are many different kinds of zombies from the early shambling walker zombies to the fast and agile infected whose shrill screams will make you jump even before they come at you with their red eyes glowing. Bigger zombies will make their presence known and when they do you really have to react fast because as you would imagine the bigger ones do most of the damage. The Ram were already insane before they got infected, so kitted out in straitjackets all they can do is charge and ram you ..but that alone is enough, Suiciders are as their name suggests bad news and they go about killing you by exploding once they get within range of the uninfected. Further on in the game other zombies such as The Floaters and the Butchers will make themselves known, the former being a grotesque bloated behemoth capable of inflicting large amounts of damage as it spits up corrosive slime and bile. The Butchers ..well as the name suggests they are good at slicing and tearing their prey, they share the speed and agility of the faster zombies and put serious fear in even the most experienced player.
Combat in the game is quite realistic and you soon discover that even with so many upgrades you are far from invincible, luckily for you Dead Island not only gives you tons of weapons it lets you upgrade and modify them making them the more deadlier. For example early into the game you might pick up a kitchen knife that takes about 6 hits to permanently put a zombie to rest but after upgrading it the strikes needed are halved.. modify the knife to give them an electric shock too and you have a more reliable weapons. Thankfully kitchen knives are only just the beginning, on offer are all manner of weapons including machetes/axes/sickles/samurai swords/hammers/handguns/assault rifles/shotguns, the list goes on. They all serve a purpose and it’s a good idea to use weapons that suit your characters fighting style because you will deal more damage and earn more XP to use in crafting weapons and items. Crafting weapons and explosives cannot be done unless you have the required items and materials that make it possible but the island is packed full of places and things to loot so you will always be stocked up on items – though at times the items might seem useless its worth looting everything you can because you never know when you might need it. Driving is something i never expected to appear in the game so i was surprised to see drivable trucks popping up on the map, they do come in useful on the island as some of the locations are so vast you will need some wheels to get around where fast travel teleports don’t go.
The locations and world the game offers spoils the player in a way unlike anything you would ever imagine. I was quite content to just explore the resort and miles of lush beautiful beaches, little did i know there was more varied locations to come. As the story progresses other areas open up such as cities and even jungles, each one really is a testament to the work that has been put into the game and each one has something new and exciting to offer. Though the story missions are the main focus of the game they are not all that is there, through the player’s journey many side quests are made available and all offer a perfect opportunity to interact with the game world and its characters. Some side quests will require you to search for specific materials or kill specific targets; they all have the fun factor in common and can be done at your own pace with no timers to be seen. What i liked about the missions was the realism, characters will ask you to find them gas for cars, food and supplies and even fuel to burn decaying corpses; they all seem to be things you would expect in a real life outbreak. The realism makes the game all the more enjoyable because you feel like you really accomplished something by helping the people around you and in a way it makes you more aware of what’s happening.
The graphics are not the best the gaming world has to offer but in some parts especially outdoors they are really well done and very vividly portray the island and its surroundings, the trees and vegetation are lush and crisp, the oceans and water are beautifully rendered to the point of calling you to jump in and you will even if it’s just to crush the head of a fallen zombie. One of the most savage examples of the games graphics is the brutally vivid way a zombies body can be taken apart only to leave a staggering pile of limbs. The physics are not perfect but they are no way near horrible, if you toss a propane tank a quickly placed bullet will cause it to explode destroying anything within its devastating range. Throwing a knife at a zombie will result in a walking pincushion, then you can pull the knife back out when they are dealt with. Kick a zombie into water and funnily enough they will start to lose some of their life bar, equally running past with a sword at neck level will cause the head to come right off like a hot knife through butter ..is this all sounding violent? It is.
Dead Island is a not a game for the kiddies it’s a veritable gore fest of mass proportion, heads will fly, arms and legs will fly and it all gets washed down in a river of blood. Similar to Borderlands and Left 4 Dead the story quickly takes a back seat when Co-Op is in session, with or without other players its one of the most addictive games you will ever play. If you are not familiar with Co-Op in games then Dead Island is the perfect place to start, whether it’s with long time friends or just random strangers playing online is very enjoyable and the added company comes in very useful when you are swamped with a zombie horde coming at you from all directions. For the trophy and achievement hunters out there a whole host of challenges and requirements await, some are easier than others but most seem to be picked up through story progression or just random exploration. Levelling up is fun and adds to the games lifespan, along with that the choice of four different characters to play with opens the replay value to a whole new world of possibilities, in short you will never be lacking for something to do or see. I started playing the game the morning it was released and after 70hrs of game time and levelling up all the way to level 50 i’m still finding lots to do, it really is the game that keeps on giving. There are many games on the market which offer the zombie survival horror experience but none have been this fun or rewarding, though it has its small problems (see below) the glitches reported in no way hamper or take away from the real Dead Island experience. I loved this game and everything it had to offer, i’m giving it a much deserved 10 out of 10 and though it’s not even October yet it is already a serious competitor for the coveted game of the year.
Glitches & Bugs
When the game was originally released it was plagued by an infection of its very own, glitches and bugs. People who played before the patch and then installed it reported a loss of progression and even corrupted save data. My own experience was nothing short of brilliant, initially i only played the game offline with the Co-Op disabled on the main menus options screen and i had no problems. I then tried with the Co-Op enabled and i not only lost save progression, my trophies would not activate. Strangely enough now when i play on Co-Op with friends my saves don’t malfunction and my trophies work. Other people have not been so lucky so unless you want to wait for an updated patch to fix the bugs and glitches i’d advise playing it offline to prevent any data getting lost or corrupted. Even with the glitches the game is nothing short of brilliant, and to completely avoid it because of some release day bugs would be a bad idea and a complete loss of possibly one of the greatest games ever made. Dead Island is on sale now and DLC has already been announced.
