Review: Dead Island

Nearly six million people around the globe have seen the trailer for Dead Island. There is no denying it is easily one of the most compelling, dramatic trailers for a video game ever produced.  A family vacationing on a island paradise fighting for their lives against a horde of zombies, played in reverse in slow motion set to dramatic music. It’s a marketing masterpiece which got not only gamers talking, but the general public.

There’s always a danger when you produce something so buzz worthy. It’s the same trap movies fall into. Can a title live up to the hype created by the trailer? In the case of Dead Island it certainly comes close, but falls a bit short.

Chaos and carnage has taken over the Royal Palms Resort on the tropical island of Banoi. A contagious zombie outbreak has sent the island into a frenzy. There are a few survivors, and those who are left are looking to you for help. For some reason you and three other tourists seem to be immune to zombification. It’s up to you to find a way off the island and save whoever you can.

We’ve seen a fair share of zombie-themed games lately across all platforms. Left 4 Dead seemed to start the craze only to be followed up by Capcom’s Dead Rising. Dead Island takes some of the best elements of those games and mixes it into a much larger experience.

You have the choice between one of four characters, each with their own special skill. One character excels at using firearms, another character’s forte is sharp-edged weapons and a third prefers blunt objects. You get the picture. However no matter who you choose the overall experience is still pretty much the same.

The island is pretty much yours to explore. It’s up to you to find weapons and medical supplies to ensure you survive long enough to find a way off the island. Fortunately weapons are plentiful. Knives, pieces of lumber, axes, and guns can be found if you know where to look. Many are hidden from plain sight and require careful exploration before you discover them.

You also have the opportunity to upgrade and create your own weapons. Like Dead Rising, you will stumble upon work benches where you can piece together makeshift weapons such as a fire axe, that is if you can find the blueprints and the material needed. You can have endless fun trying out new weapons and seeing how effective they are when battling a pack of zombies at close range. These workbenches can also be used to repair your weapons as extended use will render them useless.

The island is huge! In fact it’s so large you need a vehicle to cross it or else spend an eternity trying to cross it on foot. Vehicles themselves turn into weapons as you can plow into zombies. Nothing is more satisfying then barreling through a crowd of zombies in your truck.

With each zombie you kill you gain experience points which can be used to gain new skills such as lock picking to open locked crates and increased damage for certain types of weapons. Skills take a long time to acquire as you only receive one skill point every time you reach a new level. There are plenty of skills to opening them all will take plenty of game play.

Unlike Dead Rising the zombies in Dead Island are fast! Of course there are a few which lumber around but many run at you full bore screaming as they see fresh flesh to devour. These zombies get even faster and begin to not only dodge your attacks but use weapons against you as you progress through the game. They also get more powerful. One hit from a Thug zomobie will send your character flying back losing nearly a third of your energy. Fortunately each zombie has a power meter so you can see how much energy they have left before you snuff them out for good.

As I played through the first few hours of Dead Island I had mixed feelings. There are plenty of entertaining elements thrown into the game, but some of them didn’t seem very polished. When the game detects another player online with roughly the same level of experience as you, you’ll be given the opportunity to team up. While the co-op can be a lot of fun one has to question why you can’t team up with friends or strangers who are at a much higher or lower level than you which is a bit disappointing.

Another issue concerns re-spawning. Since you are immune to zombification you re-spawn if you lose all your health. Unfortunately you often re-spawn in a different location from where you died. Usually it’s only a short away but if you were in the process of gathering items it is an inconvenience to find your way back to the location where you just died. A patch seemed to fix this in co-op mode, but the issue still remains in single player mode.

My final beef is the constant searching you’re forced to do. You can open everything from computers and trash bins to suitcases to find money and other random objects to upgrade your weapons. The problem is there are so many places to search that the momentum of the game comes to a crashing halt. You’ll find yourself opening suitcase after suitcase finding small bits of money. I would rather find the occasional suitcase with $100 in it than 15 cases all next to each other with $5 to $10 in each.

While Dead Island may not be as polished as I’d like it to be I can’t deny the high fun factor of this game. Hitting zombies in the legs to bring them down to their knees before slicing their head off with a machete is just pure zombie slaying fun. The environment is fun to explore and you never really feel safe, thanks to the continuous growls and wails coming from unknown parts of the island. That’s the way a zombie game should feel. The fact that the island is so big and there are so many quests also adds to the value. Dead Island may not live up to the incredible trailer, but it’s still worth picking up.

The Good

Hundreds of weapons
Huge island to explore
You can drive vehicles!
Plenty of sidequests

The Bad

No communication between strangers during co-op
Fetch quests can get tedious
Annoying re-spawning issues
Gameplay a bit glitchy