Dead Island Review
I just recently completed Dead Island and I gotta' say it's a pretty damn good game.
Graphics
First up is the graphics. The game looks beautiful. The map is split up into different sections and each section is pretty damn big. So there is little loading time at all. The game starts out in the Resort area of the Island which looks "Like a fuckin' post card." as my character Sam B says at one point. So it is a very beautiful area. The game also takes you into the zombie infested city of Morseby on the island. Where broken down cars and walls have blind spots where zombies are hiding, and dark alleyways that may even lead to dead ends!
It also takes you into the sewers where combat in tight quarters and dark places will probably get you killed a lot, and there is also the jungle where it returns to a beautiful, outdoor area.
Basically all of the areas feel like how they were meant to feel. The resort feels postcard perfect. The sewers feel dingey and cramped. The city is more infested with zombies as it would be, and everything looks beautiful
However there are a few minor downfalls to the graphics. Like occasionally textures on things such as doors and small pieces of walls or the floor will take a second to load up to the graphical beauty of the rest of the area. Basically tiny parts of the area have PS1 graphics for a second before loading up, It is hardly noticeable most of the time and it's nothing to worry about.
There is also a slight motion blur around the edge of the screen when you move which could bother some people. There's no way to turn it off so that sucks, but as long as you don't spin around in circles in the game it shouldn't bother you too too much.
Score : 9/10
Game play
The best point about this game is it's game play. The controls take a little getting used to but they are fairly simple and close to a lot of other shooter titles. It can and will supply you with hours of zombie killing fun!
The enemies bodies are damage specific, meaning that if you aim for the arm, you will attack the arm. If you are aiming for the head, you will attack the head...etc. You can cut off heads, arms, and legs with sharp weapons like machetes or katanas making blood squirt everywhere, or you can break bones with blunt weapons like a wrench or a sledgehammer, leaving the broken bone to just flop about as the zombie moves around.
There are also firearms in the game like revolvers or assault rifles, but these are more useful on the human enemies in the game. The human enemies are not psychos like in Dead Rising, they are more or less gang members that have taken over areas and you have to clear them out for some missions. A few of them have melee weapons but the vast majority have guns. It is best to take cover and aim for their head. They will be easily taken down with a well placed head shot. The zombies on the other hand don't go down so easily, even if you shoot them in the head it usually takes several shots to take them down. guns can be useful for taking out Ram zombies from a distance by shooting them in the back from a safe place, like on top of a truck!
There are work benches scattered throughout the island where you can repair, upgrade or modify your weapons. It costs money to do all three of these things, which you get from looting bags, boxes and dead bodies around the island or by selling the vast amounts of loot you can find around the island. Weapons degrade over time so you have to repair them. A lot of people have complained that they break down too quickly. I don't think they really break down any faster than the weapons in Dead Rising.
You can also modify your weapons by collecting weapon mod schematics like from the Fallout games, and finding all the parts for it by looting areas or buying it from one of the many shops around the island that people have set up. You can make electric, fire, and poison mods and mods to make weapons stronger. There are plenty of possibilities.
There are several different kinds of zombies as well. You have the average zombie like from the Romero movies. The Walker. You have the fast zombies that have recently turned like from 28 Days Later. The Infected. There's a tall, lumbering zombie that can punch you across a room. The Brute. There's a huge zombie bound in a straight jacket who runs at you really fast and rams you. The Ram. You have a fat, ugly, bloated zombie that pukes toxic waste at you. The Floater. You have a zombie with his hands cut off, leaving exposed sharp edges of bone, who are faster and more violent than the infected zombies. The Butcher. Last but not least you have a zombie whose upper body is covered with big, pulsing tumors and when you get near him, he explodes. The Suicider. Each zombie has its strengths and weaknesses and you just have to find them and capitalize on them.
There is also 4 person online multi-player where each person can pick a different character or the same character, it doesn't matter, you can have 4 Sam B's if you wanted to. It is also drop in - drop out, meaning the game will tell you when another player is nearby and will ask you if you want to join them, so you can join their game or drop out of the game whenever you want, and you don't even have to be near the other player all the time, you can venture off on your own.
This game was meant to be played on multi-player and even though I didn't do it much, I noticed you die a lot less while playing multi-player than when playing single player.
There are skill trees in the game in which you can add 1 point to a skill each time you level up. The skills aren't over powerful and are pretty evened out, but a lot of them will help you emensely in the game.
However here too there is a small downfall. There was one mission in particular that I could not finish. That is the "Wet Job" side quest. For this quest someone asks you to get Floater Tissue and I went out and got it and when I came back the man that gave me the mission had disappeared. The games radar was guiding me to the spot where he had been standing, but he was no longer there.
Also the Radar has a few minor problems. It uses a dotted line to guide you to your mission objective and although it works great most of the time and guides you the best possible path to take (excluding shortcuts that you could find, kind of similar to the radar in Saints Row) the radar occasionally trys to guide you through walls or into a large rock that cannot be climbed or easily passed in any way and you have to find your own way to the destination, but this is pretty much only a problem on a couple side missions.
Lastly.....you die a fuckin' shitload of times no matter how good you are at the game. Luckily you respawn nearby or somewhat nearby where you died a few seconds later. This is kinda an...ehhh...thing. It could go either way. Makes the game beatable even if you suck though. lol
Score : 9.5/10
Story
To say Dead Island has an epic story would be a lie, but it does have an ok story I guess, but at times it falls behind while one story quest links to another quest. Basically you have to work your way around the island and try to find the man behind the voice on the radio. He says he can get you off the island if you can get to him. You have to do various quests for people around the island, like a lifeguard at the Resort and a Nun at a church in the city, and each story quest leads you deeper into the island. It doesn't have a huge epic story to fit the epic landscapes around it, but this isn't a huge reason to not play the game, despite the slight lack of story the game is still remarkably good and fun.
Another thing is the NPC characters don't show much emotion. There is a little bit of emotion in the voice overs but there is no facial expression, the NPCs look kind of like the ones in the Fallout games. They kind of have an almost blank look on their face, but that doesn't bother me too much. This isn't LA Noire.
The game does have a few cut scenes during story quests and a few side quests. So it does have some story to it.
The 4 playable characters are also more like classes than characters, they are pretty flat characters that you probably can't relate to. One is a one hit wonder rapper named Sam B that is a blunt weapons expert. One is an ex NFL star named Logan that ruined his career when he get in a car accident that killed his female passenger, he is good with throwing weapons. (Which you can throw any weapon). There is a girl named Purna who is a former Sydney police officer who lost her job after killing a child molester, she is a firearms expert(which you don't find until later in the game). Then there is Xian Mei who is a girl that was born and raised in China and wants to get out and see the world, she is pretty much an assassin and a sharp weapons expert.
Score : 5/10
Replay Value
This game is huge, it's split up into several areas and each area is gigantic. So there is plenty to explore and plenty of zombies to kill. There are collectibles like peoples Personal IDs and Notes to collect. There are plenty of side quests in the game. I thought I got them all (besides that damn "Wet Job" quest) and upon my second play through, I noticed that I missed a few areas and a few side quests entirely. There are also hidden colored skulls to collect and put in different areas to gain new mods. There are also plenty of mods to collect, there's a few I missed entirely on my first play through the game.
There is also a level cap of 50 on the game, meaning you can't level up above lever 50, but even with 90 % of the side quests and all of the story quest and killin' a ton of zombies, I was still only at level 32 when I beat the game. So there is plenty more leveling up to do, and once you hit the 30s, levels come few and far between.
Plus there are 4 different characters to play as with 4 different skill trees. Each character plays differently and it will take a while to get every character up to level 50, and killing zombies takes a long ass time to get old in this game.
Not to mention there are a lot of Trophies / Achievements to gain in the game including one for exploring the entire island. So there is PLENTY of replay value to this amazing game.
Score : 10/10
This game is a kick ass game and if you like zombie games then I think this game is a definite buy for you. I'm glad I bought it! Also, most of the problems with the textures and the quests not being able to be finished are going to be fixed in a patch for the game so all will eventually be well.
OVERALL SCORE : 9/10
Graphics
First up is the graphics. The game looks beautiful. The map is split up into different sections and each section is pretty damn big. So there is little loading time at all. The game starts out in the Resort area of the Island which looks "Like a fuckin' post card." as my character Sam B says at one point. So it is a very beautiful area. The game also takes you into the zombie infested city of Morseby on the island. Where broken down cars and walls have blind spots where zombies are hiding, and dark alleyways that may even lead to dead ends!
It also takes you into the sewers where combat in tight quarters and dark places will probably get you killed a lot, and there is also the jungle where it returns to a beautiful, outdoor area.
Basically all of the areas feel like how they were meant to feel. The resort feels postcard perfect. The sewers feel dingey and cramped. The city is more infested with zombies as it would be, and everything looks beautiful
However there are a few minor downfalls to the graphics. Like occasionally textures on things such as doors and small pieces of walls or the floor will take a second to load up to the graphical beauty of the rest of the area. Basically tiny parts of the area have PS1 graphics for a second before loading up, It is hardly noticeable most of the time and it's nothing to worry about.
There is also a slight motion blur around the edge of the screen when you move which could bother some people. There's no way to turn it off so that sucks, but as long as you don't spin around in circles in the game it shouldn't bother you too too much.
Score : 9/10
Game play
The best point about this game is it's game play. The controls take a little getting used to but they are fairly simple and close to a lot of other shooter titles. It can and will supply you with hours of zombie killing fun!
The enemies bodies are damage specific, meaning that if you aim for the arm, you will attack the arm. If you are aiming for the head, you will attack the head...etc. You can cut off heads, arms, and legs with sharp weapons like machetes or katanas making blood squirt everywhere, or you can break bones with blunt weapons like a wrench or a sledgehammer, leaving the broken bone to just flop about as the zombie moves around.
There are also firearms in the game like revolvers or assault rifles, but these are more useful on the human enemies in the game. The human enemies are not psychos like in Dead Rising, they are more or less gang members that have taken over areas and you have to clear them out for some missions. A few of them have melee weapons but the vast majority have guns. It is best to take cover and aim for their head. They will be easily taken down with a well placed head shot. The zombies on the other hand don't go down so easily, even if you shoot them in the head it usually takes several shots to take them down. guns can be useful for taking out Ram zombies from a distance by shooting them in the back from a safe place, like on top of a truck!
There are work benches scattered throughout the island where you can repair, upgrade or modify your weapons. It costs money to do all three of these things, which you get from looting bags, boxes and dead bodies around the island or by selling the vast amounts of loot you can find around the island. Weapons degrade over time so you have to repair them. A lot of people have complained that they break down too quickly. I don't think they really break down any faster than the weapons in Dead Rising.
You can also modify your weapons by collecting weapon mod schematics like from the Fallout games, and finding all the parts for it by looting areas or buying it from one of the many shops around the island that people have set up. You can make electric, fire, and poison mods and mods to make weapons stronger. There are plenty of possibilities.
There are several different kinds of zombies as well. You have the average zombie like from the Romero movies. The Walker. You have the fast zombies that have recently turned like from 28 Days Later. The Infected. There's a tall, lumbering zombie that can punch you across a room. The Brute. There's a huge zombie bound in a straight jacket who runs at you really fast and rams you. The Ram. You have a fat, ugly, bloated zombie that pukes toxic waste at you. The Floater. You have a zombie with his hands cut off, leaving exposed sharp edges of bone, who are faster and more violent than the infected zombies. The Butcher. Last but not least you have a zombie whose upper body is covered with big, pulsing tumors and when you get near him, he explodes. The Suicider. Each zombie has its strengths and weaknesses and you just have to find them and capitalize on them.
There is also 4 person online multi-player where each person can pick a different character or the same character, it doesn't matter, you can have 4 Sam B's if you wanted to. It is also drop in - drop out, meaning the game will tell you when another player is nearby and will ask you if you want to join them, so you can join their game or drop out of the game whenever you want, and you don't even have to be near the other player all the time, you can venture off on your own.
This game was meant to be played on multi-player and even though I didn't do it much, I noticed you die a lot less while playing multi-player than when playing single player.
There are skill trees in the game in which you can add 1 point to a skill each time you level up. The skills aren't over powerful and are pretty evened out, but a lot of them will help you emensely in the game.
However here too there is a small downfall. There was one mission in particular that I could not finish. That is the "Wet Job" side quest. For this quest someone asks you to get Floater Tissue and I went out and got it and when I came back the man that gave me the mission had disappeared. The games radar was guiding me to the spot where he had been standing, but he was no longer there.
Also the Radar has a few minor problems. It uses a dotted line to guide you to your mission objective and although it works great most of the time and guides you the best possible path to take (excluding shortcuts that you could find, kind of similar to the radar in Saints Row) the radar occasionally trys to guide you through walls or into a large rock that cannot be climbed or easily passed in any way and you have to find your own way to the destination, but this is pretty much only a problem on a couple side missions.
Lastly.....you die a fuckin' shitload of times no matter how good you are at the game. Luckily you respawn nearby or somewhat nearby where you died a few seconds later. This is kinda an...ehhh...thing. It could go either way. Makes the game beatable even if you suck though. lol
Score : 9.5/10
Story
To say Dead Island has an epic story would be a lie, but it does have an ok story I guess, but at times it falls behind while one story quest links to another quest. Basically you have to work your way around the island and try to find the man behind the voice on the radio. He says he can get you off the island if you can get to him. You have to do various quests for people around the island, like a lifeguard at the Resort and a Nun at a church in the city, and each story quest leads you deeper into the island. It doesn't have a huge epic story to fit the epic landscapes around it, but this isn't a huge reason to not play the game, despite the slight lack of story the game is still remarkably good and fun.
Another thing is the NPC characters don't show much emotion. There is a little bit of emotion in the voice overs but there is no facial expression, the NPCs look kind of like the ones in the Fallout games. They kind of have an almost blank look on their face, but that doesn't bother me too much. This isn't LA Noire.
The game does have a few cut scenes during story quests and a few side quests. So it does have some story to it.
The 4 playable characters are also more like classes than characters, they are pretty flat characters that you probably can't relate to. One is a one hit wonder rapper named Sam B that is a blunt weapons expert. One is an ex NFL star named Logan that ruined his career when he get in a car accident that killed his female passenger, he is good with throwing weapons. (Which you can throw any weapon). There is a girl named Purna who is a former Sydney police officer who lost her job after killing a child molester, she is a firearms expert(which you don't find until later in the game). Then there is Xian Mei who is a girl that was born and raised in China and wants to get out and see the world, she is pretty much an assassin and a sharp weapons expert.
Score : 5/10
Replay Value
This game is huge, it's split up into several areas and each area is gigantic. So there is plenty to explore and plenty of zombies to kill. There are collectibles like peoples Personal IDs and Notes to collect. There are plenty of side quests in the game. I thought I got them all (besides that damn "Wet Job" quest) and upon my second play through, I noticed that I missed a few areas and a few side quests entirely. There are also hidden colored skulls to collect and put in different areas to gain new mods. There are also plenty of mods to collect, there's a few I missed entirely on my first play through the game.
There is also a level cap of 50 on the game, meaning you can't level up above lever 50, but even with 90 % of the side quests and all of the story quest and killin' a ton of zombies, I was still only at level 32 when I beat the game. So there is plenty more leveling up to do, and once you hit the 30s, levels come few and far between.
Plus there are 4 different characters to play as with 4 different skill trees. Each character plays differently and it will take a while to get every character up to level 50, and killing zombies takes a long ass time to get old in this game.
Not to mention there are a lot of Trophies / Achievements to gain in the game including one for exploring the entire island. So there is PLENTY of replay value to this amazing game.
Score : 10/10
This game is a kick ass game and if you like zombie games then I think this game is a definite buy for you. I'm glad I bought it! Also, most of the problems with the textures and the quests not being able to be finished are going to be fixed in a patch for the game so all will eventually be well.
OVERALL SCORE : 9/10