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"[GAME] Dead Island - PC/360/PS3"

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This thread has been linked to the game 'Dead Island'.
Sat 17/09/11 at 21:52
Regular
"Braaains"
Posts: 439
'When there is no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth.' So said Peter, one of the main characters in George Romero's Dawn of the Dead. Although in the case of Dead Island, the zombie apocalypse appears to be restricted to one small tropical island, albeit one that's become a thriving holiday destination. And wouldn't you know it, you happen to be on the island when all hell breaks loose. By 'you' I mean which ever character you choose to play as, although in fact the game plays largely the same way no matter who you choose. Whether you're playing as a tattooed a***-kicking bloke or a karate chopping female secret agent, the game begins in exactly the same way. Which is mildly disappointing since Resident Evil 2 did a decent job of showing you the same story from a number of different perspectives - here you're doing the same thing, just with a different character model.

As the game starts, you wake in a hotel room and have to make your way outside without being brutally murdered. Dead Island is a 3D action game with RPG elements, the latter being your character's ability to improve their skills. I'd call it a shoot-em-up but that wouldn't be entirely true since you don't get your hands on any guns until much later in the game. This might be of some concern to you since zombies are generally only killed by headshots. However, while the zombies in Dead Island do go down quicker if you whack them in the head, do enough damage and they'll die. You have to make sure, though - since until their handily displayed life bars are empty, they can get up and do you some damage.

In fact, it could be argued that the zombies are the real stars of this game. The game does slowly introduce other types of enemies such as the running infected and a slow but very strong type of super zombie, but the shambing undead are your real foes. They're particularly scary since they're relatively quiet and, despite being quite slow, they can corner you. You can feeling quite smug after having slaughtered two of the weak but fast infected, only to find that several regular zombies have sneaked up behind you. Dead Island excels at making you jump out of your skin.

Another thing that makes Dead Island scary and fun to play is the fact that you can't just go around fighting every zombie you come across. While Dead Island's play area isn't as large as Grand Theft Auto or Saint Row 2's world, you still have the freedom to roam around. So in the first area you can visit the hotel you started in, a lighthouse, a life guard station, a number of pools and bars and also some holiday cottages. It turns out that your character is one of the few people on the island who can't be turned by a zombie bite, so you end up being a general dogsbody and roaming around completing quests. There are plenty of side quests to do as well, although some of these can be a bit samey sometimes. But either way, you need to traverse the island and since the dead are everywhere, that can be a trial in itself.

Fortunately, the game does let you get into vehicles and drive them around - but there aren't too many of them about. On the first map, there are about four in total. This is a pretty clever design move since it means if you wreck your car, you can find yourself having to fight your way through the living dead to get to your destination. And yes, that means there's plenty of gore in Dead Island. Things get progressively gorier the more you level up, since some of the higher levels give you skills like 'head stomp' which is pretty messy. So when you knock a zombie over, you can get right in and finish it off with a few well placed kicks to the head.

Sounds fun? It is - but Dead Island isn't without its flaws. The game lets you use some items as weapons but is oddly inconsistent as to which ones you can actually pick up. The same thing applies to the game's physics - you can knock offer some items, but other items will just stay put. I demolished a few flower pots in the hotel only to find the pots broke, but the plant stayed hovering in the air. Also, the game will remind you that you're leaving the play area if you stray too far either by heading into the sea or just by trying to go to an area of the game you haven't got to yet, which kind of takes you out of the game. And as I've mentioned, some of the quests are quite samey. Perhaps they're more fun when you try tackling them in the game's co-op mode but I'd have liked to see a little more variety in the side missions.

The graphics are good, but they're not spectacular, though this probably allowed the makers to have several zombies on screen at once. And PC owners should be warned that the game uses Steam, something which isn't mentioned on the box anywhere. This means that you can't re-sell the game once you've bought it, as you need to go online to activate it. Even worse, you have to go online every time you want to play the game. Every other Steam game I have lets you play in offline mode, but not Dead Island.

However, while these gripes do detract from Dead Island somewhat, the fact remains that it's one hell of a game. If you've got even the slightest interest in zombies, it's a must buy. And even if you're not a zombie fan and just a gamer it's still worth picking up. It's scary as hell, a real blast play and unless you're dead from the feet up you should check it out.

Score: 80%

(review also posted on Dooyoo.co.uk)
There have been no replies to this thread yet.
Sat 17/09/11 at 21:52
Regular
"Braaains"
Posts: 439
'When there is no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth.' So said Peter, one of the main characters in George Romero's Dawn of the Dead. Although in the case of Dead Island, the zombie apocalypse appears to be restricted to one small tropical island, albeit one that's become a thriving holiday destination. And wouldn't you know it, you happen to be on the island when all hell breaks loose. By 'you' I mean which ever character you choose to play as, although in fact the game plays largely the same way no matter who you choose. Whether you're playing as a tattooed a***-kicking bloke or a karate chopping female secret agent, the game begins in exactly the same way. Which is mildly disappointing since Resident Evil 2 did a decent job of showing you the same story from a number of different perspectives - here you're doing the same thing, just with a different character model.

As the game starts, you wake in a hotel room and have to make your way outside without being brutally murdered. Dead Island is a 3D action game with RPG elements, the latter being your character's ability to improve their skills. I'd call it a shoot-em-up but that wouldn't be entirely true since you don't get your hands on any guns until much later in the game. This might be of some concern to you since zombies are generally only killed by headshots. However, while the zombies in Dead Island do go down quicker if you whack them in the head, do enough damage and they'll die. You have to make sure, though - since until their handily displayed life bars are empty, they can get up and do you some damage.

In fact, it could be argued that the zombies are the real stars of this game. The game does slowly introduce other types of enemies such as the running infected and a slow but very strong type of super zombie, but the shambing undead are your real foes. They're particularly scary since they're relatively quiet and, despite being quite slow, they can corner you. You can feeling quite smug after having slaughtered two of the weak but fast infected, only to find that several regular zombies have sneaked up behind you. Dead Island excels at making you jump out of your skin.

Another thing that makes Dead Island scary and fun to play is the fact that you can't just go around fighting every zombie you come across. While Dead Island's play area isn't as large as Grand Theft Auto or Saint Row 2's world, you still have the freedom to roam around. So in the first area you can visit the hotel you started in, a lighthouse, a life guard station, a number of pools and bars and also some holiday cottages. It turns out that your character is one of the few people on the island who can't be turned by a zombie bite, so you end up being a general dogsbody and roaming around completing quests. There are plenty of side quests to do as well, although some of these can be a bit samey sometimes. But either way, you need to traverse the island and since the dead are everywhere, that can be a trial in itself.

Fortunately, the game does let you get into vehicles and drive them around - but there aren't too many of them about. On the first map, there are about four in total. This is a pretty clever design move since it means if you wreck your car, you can find yourself having to fight your way through the living dead to get to your destination. And yes, that means there's plenty of gore in Dead Island. Things get progressively gorier the more you level up, since some of the higher levels give you skills like 'head stomp' which is pretty messy. So when you knock a zombie over, you can get right in and finish it off with a few well placed kicks to the head.

Sounds fun? It is - but Dead Island isn't without its flaws. The game lets you use some items as weapons but is oddly inconsistent as to which ones you can actually pick up. The same thing applies to the game's physics - you can knock offer some items, but other items will just stay put. I demolished a few flower pots in the hotel only to find the pots broke, but the plant stayed hovering in the air. Also, the game will remind you that you're leaving the play area if you stray too far either by heading into the sea or just by trying to go to an area of the game you haven't got to yet, which kind of takes you out of the game. And as I've mentioned, some of the quests are quite samey. Perhaps they're more fun when you try tackling them in the game's co-op mode but I'd have liked to see a little more variety in the side missions.

The graphics are good, but they're not spectacular, though this probably allowed the makers to have several zombies on screen at once. And PC owners should be warned that the game uses Steam, something which isn't mentioned on the box anywhere. This means that you can't re-sell the game once you've bought it, as you need to go online to activate it. Even worse, you have to go online every time you want to play the game. Every other Steam game I have lets you play in offline mode, but not Dead Island.

However, while these gripes do detract from Dead Island somewhat, the fact remains that it's one hell of a game. If you've got even the slightest interest in zombies, it's a must buy. And even if you're not a zombie fan and just a gamer it's still worth picking up. It's scary as hell, a real blast play and unless you're dead from the feet up you should check it out.

Score: 80%

(review also posted on Dooyoo.co.uk)

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