Dead Island Review

By cinderkin — September 18, 2011
Tags: cinders-corner dead-island deep-silver review techland

Dead Island has recently been released and with all sorts of choices for zombie games, does Dead Island have what it takes to keep your interest. Is it worth your money? I tell you straight in the Gouki.com Official Review. Don’t be a Jimmy! Check it out.

Zombie games have become quite popular in the last few years, with successes such as Dead Rising, Left 4 Dead, and Dead Nation (see a trend here?). Techland and Deep Silver have gotten on board with a Zombie game of their own with Dead Island. Does this 5 year plus developed game show a fine polish or is it another Techland disaster? Find out in the Gouki.com Review.

Story:

The story of Dead Island is by far one of the most uninspired pieces of garbage I have seen in a game in a long time. The game starts with giving you a short character bio for each of the four cast members, detailing why they are on the island of Banoi and a little insight into who they are. None of these things matter as the game quickly removes any real story aspect from the game. The game starts with you in your hotel room after a zombie outbreak has occurred, leaving you helpless to fend off zombies. You quickly here a voice that tells you to grab a weapon and head for safety. You’ll soon find yourself incapacitated by the undead, but find out that you are immune to becoming a zombie (how convenient). Meaning that every surviving person on the island makes you their personal errand boy/girl because you can’t become infected by the undead and they all can; making for some pretty cheesy story arcs. You’ll soon find yourself ignoring any sense of story here, which is probably the only bad thing about Dead Island.

Gameplay:

The gameplay mechanics in Dead Island are what you would expect from your average first person shooter, but this is no shooter. While there are guns, they are very hard to come by. Your only real source for survival is relying heavily on melee combat, and team work. Dead Island is a 4-player co-op experience and this is where the game shines very well. It reminds me a lot of Borderlands with all of the weapons and how there are hundreds of different customization options for them. Dead Island also uses a very unique way of melee combat, with the right analog stick you can slash and swing in whichever direction you feel. It makes aiming for the head or limbs that much easier, and as we all know cut or bash a zombie in the head and they’re dead. This takes a bit of time to get used to but once you do it is a lot of fun slicing the heads of zombies with perfect precision. There are times when there are a ton of zombies attacking you at once without any frame rate issues. Also there are a bunch of different zombie types, ranging from Walkers, Infected, Thugs, and more. My only gripe with the online multiplayer is that the game doesn’t force character selection like in Left 4 Dead, which sounds like a good thing, but when you have 3 out of 4 players using the same character it’s impossible to differentiate between them as each character looks exactly the same. This also doesn’t help with team unity, because in Dead Island each of the 4 characters has special abilities and skills that benefit one another for the best survival. When all 4 players are the same guy it tends to become mute point. Another great thing about co-op is that you aren’t really tied to a leash with your partners, you are basically free to explore the island however you like, but there are some missions that require all players there to start. Exploring the island is essential for finding new weapons and mods, plus also secret missions. The driving mechanics in the game aren’t bad but there aren’t great either. I do have a problem with driving in first person only and with the steering wheel being on the right side, but I’m just being picky here. Overall the game plays much like Borderlands and Left 4 Dead and that is a good thing.

Visuals:

The look of Dead Island feels a little outdated with some bad textures here and there, and the character models look a little flushed out and not as refined, but the undead look great. The environments also look pretty good considering how there are so many places to go and zombies on screen. The game rarely loads either unless you are leaving or entering certain areas of the game. Seeing a zombie get his head bashed in by a spiked bat never gets old, the way the blood splatters and how pieces of flesh fly everywhere are great touches. For the most part the game looks good and you can really immerse yourself in the island of Banoi quite easily. Weapons look like you would expect them too; it’s also nice to see the wear and tear the more you use them. Bats start cracking, knifes look rusted, sickles start to bend its great. Also seeing your weapons change as you upgrade them and customize them are a nice touch as well. The fire effects from Molotov cocktails and exploding canister look great as well. Overall the visual aspect of the game isn’t the best, but it doesn’t take away from the experience.

Audio:

The audio department can be a bit of a hit or miss in some areas. While the voice acting is done rather well, the cheesy one liners and pleas from some of the other survivors are sometimes quite laughable. The zombies sound great and the ambiences make you really feel like you’re stuck on an island that is infested with the undead. You can literally hear a zombie around the corner moaning and groaning while they wait to attack. The character you play as don’t sound bad at all, but can get cheesy too with how they are feeling about the current situation. Unfortunately the cheesy one liners get repeated quite often as you explore the island. For the most part the audio in Dead Island does a good job immersing you into the game.

Overall:

Dead Island is a pretty good game with a lot going for it. The 4 player co-op is a lot of fun, and the single player is just as good. The RPG elements that of Boarderlands with skill trees, weapon customization, and leveling up are all represented well here in Dead Island. The game clocks in at well over 40 hours, and the each character plays so differently that you can essentially play through 4 different times. This game remains fun from chapter 1 until the very end. Dead Island is a huge success over Techland’s latest Call of Juarez: The Cartel. Anyone thinking about playing Dead Island will be happy to know that you can enjoy it solo or with friends and there is a character for every play style.

Dead Island

Dead Island Review

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