With Halloween fast approaching it’s the perfect time to start playing zombie games, and with the recent release of Dead Island, I decided to do just that! After seeing what I’d consider one of the best trailers for a video game ever released, I put this game on top of my MUST GET list of games coming out this fall. I was curious to see if the gameplay was just as epic as the trailer and I have to say, I was only somewhat impressed.
THE STORY:
Dead Island is pretty much a combination of Left 4 Dead and Dead Rising with a bit of Fallout mixed in. You start the game as one of four survivors who just happen to be immune to the virus that is making everyone on the island turn into zombies. Someone finds you lying on the ground passed out after a zombie attack and takes you back to their safe haven.
Initially your job is to pretty much do everything for the other survivors since you’re immune; they figure you’re the best person to take out all the zombies to secure other safe places to hide and to play fetch getting supplies and items that people want or left behind. Your ultimate goal in the game is to find a cure for the virus, or if all else fails, get off the island… which pretty much the same goal as every zombie game and movie out to date. Unlike most zombie games, however, Dead Island isn’t set in a post apocalyptic dark and dingy looking city; it takes place on a beautiful fictional island called Banoi which is a nice change from the norm.
THE CHARACTERS:
Dead Island gives you the choice of playing as one of four characters: Xian an employee at Royal Palms Resort, Sam a one-hit wonder rap star, Logan a former NFL star, and Purna a former officer of the New South Wales Police Force. Each character has a specific skill that they specialize in as well as different health, stamina and speed ratings. What I found interesting about these characters is that they all have a type of personality that most people not only can’t relate to, but most people really don’t like. I also found that the characters that you run into throughout the game both for the main storyline and the side missions all seem very dull and lifeless, which didn’t make me very motivated to help them.
QUESTS:
The main storyline has you finding safe areas to hide, getting supplies to fix equipment or vehicles, disposing of rotting corpses and looking for a vaccine, but the side quests are rather repetitive and boring. Most quests will just have you going from one place to another then back again with lots of zombies obstructing your path which gets old pretty fast. I found myself getting bored of doing sidequests after doing just a few due to the repetitive nature of the quests. I also found the quests where you have to protect another survivor to be the most annoying as the characters tend to either just stand in one spot or slowly walk. I’ve even had a character walk all the way to the goal, stop, turn around, and run back to where we started our quest. After running all the way back to the starting point to protect her she just turned around and jogged back to the spot she was supposed to be at in the first place. Glitches like this were something I encountered frequently in quests and it was rather annoying.
ZOMBIES:
I was pretty impressed with the zombies in this game. The zombies range from bigger sluggish zombies that you can see coming from a mile away and can just kick to death, to zombies who will rush at you beating you down with a rusty pole. I wasn’t too used to zombies wielding weapons so that totally caught me off guard the first time I saw it. While most of the zombies you encounter are the run at you screaming and flailing around types, there are a few special zombies that you have to watch out for. Special zombies include The Suicider, The Butcher, The Thug, The Ram, and finally The Floater, an enemy covered in slime with large red eyes who vomits slime similar to Left 4 Dead’s Boomer. These zombies require a more strategic method to kill them. I also like that the zombies level up along with you throughout the game. Unlike what was seen in the trailer, however, zombie children are not found in the game.
WEAPONS:
The weapons selection in this game is pretty impressive. The fact that you can walk along the beach and pick up an oar or walk in a room and grab a coat rack to beat down zombies with means you’ll never be without a weapon. On top of the long list of regular weapons in the game, there’s an even bigger list of various items that you can find and use to modify your weapons creating even more destructive ways to obliterate the enemies. One thing I really loved about the game is the fact that the developers hid “skulls” in the game which when found and placed will give the player a blueprint for special modifications. Unfortunately most of the guns aren’t found until toward the end of the game though, so most of the time you’re going to have to utilize random objects you find and modify, or earn modified weapons by completing missions.
The downside to weapons in this game is that they have a life span and slowly break down as you use them, so you’ll have to constantly find workbenches to repair them dishing out lots of money each time you do so.
COMBAT:
I personally didn’t like the way the combat felt in this game. For the most part I found myself flailing a machete around hoping for a lucky strike chopping off the head. There was supposed to be a way to target specific limbs but I never really got that to work out. I was, however, very impressed with the damage layering that they put into the game making it so that you could see the damage you inflicted on the zombie as every hit took a chunk of meat off. It looked a lot more realistic than most games.
I also found it rather funny that one of the most effective attacks in the game was the kick. With a swift kick you can not only knock a zombie down, but you can also kick them to death. A kick is also the only move in the game that can’t be interrupted by the enemy.
DRIVING:
First of all you’re driving on the right side which is not the norm and takes a bit to get used to. On top of driving on the right side, the car is pretty unresponsive when it comes to steering and breaking and the windshield usually shatters within the first couple times you hit something causing your character to have to bust it out just to see. The vehicles are great for one thing though… running over zombies! I felt like I was playing Grand Theft Auto as I hijacked a truck from another survivor’s hideout and used it to run over every zombie I found gaining massive amounts of easy experience points.
MULTI-PLAYER:
One of the features I both loved and hated about this game is the fact that there’s drop in-drop out multi-player. I liked that you see a little message telling you that there’s a player nearby that is at the same point in the story as you and you can choose to join them if you’d like. That’s so much better than having to deal with lobbies and waiting to find people to play with. I found this game is much more enjoyable when played with 3 other people instead of solo.
The bad part of random people joining your game is that you can have people with a much higher level of experience than you joining your game and killing all the zombies before you get a chance to even take a swing at them. While you might say “what’s wrong with that? That makes it easier for me!” the problem is that you won’t level up if they kill all the enemies, and on top of that all the items dropped by zombies killed by them will be weapons that you have to be at their experience level in order to pick up.
Another negative to the game is that there is no local multi-player split screen, so you need an XBL gold account if you want to play online with other players.
GLITCHES:
From annoying glitches like the radar telling you the wrong way to go or updating late, zombie body parts coming through solid walls or doors to hit you or even worse, mission glitches and save glitches, this game definitely full of issues that can cause you grief. This game also has some glitches which people have exploited to get things like unlimited ammo, items needed for upgrading weapons such as batteries and diamonds as well which will give you millions of dollars if traded in.
GAMEPLAY/REPLAY VALUE:
This game can be beaten in about 6 hours if you stick to the main storyline and know exactly where to go, and can provide around 25 hours or more of gameplay if you decide to do the side missions and explore the island more. Once you beat the game you’re given the option of starting over again but this time with all your abilities, items, weapons, money, etc. which can make the game more enjoyable the second time around.
Overall if you’re into zombie games and like the Left 4 Dead and Dead Rising series you’ll probably love this game. The game has pretty good replay value so it’s not a waste if you buy it, and with the game being found online for around $40 I’d say it’s completely worth buying. There’s always a new area you can explore, skulls to find, and new weapons to create to make your next playthrough better than the last. I highly recommend playing this game with friends for the best experience though so if you don’t already have an XBL gold account, now would be a good time to look into getting one.
