Screw this game. I tried to play it, for a review’s sake, but I just can’t. What’s wrong with Techland? We all know of the famous announcement trailer earlier this year. It starred a little girl and her family. After watching said trailer, it just about ripped the heart out of everyone that watched it. Almost everyone who is a fan of zombies was overjoyed. Finally a game that shows the drama that goes on in a zombie apocalypse. Ever since then, we waited on edge. Is Dead Island going to be the game to change all zombie games? Will Left 4 Dead be a thing of the past? I can answer that in two little words: Hell no.
Story:
The story is simple. Dead Island is an open world game, played in the first person perspective, with up to four people being able to play a cooperative, heavily interactive world. The game takes place in a fictional island of Banoi, located off the coast of New Guinea. The main characters wake up at a resort after a night of drinking to find that the island is being overrun by zombies. Very early in the game, you learn that you are immune to whatever is going on. You, along with others, must find a way off the island to see what is happening to the rest of the world.
Sounds like a great idea, right? I fell in love with the idea as soon as I knew the plot of the game. However, it fails miserably. The game mostly consists of missions going from point A to point B. You grab the food and run it back. You drive to go get more gas and then go bring it right back. It is true that there are many games out there now, classics even, that use this formula and have achieved success with it. In Dead Island, this is not the case. That’s all the game really is. I like to think of it as a sorry excuse to make the game at least have the basics of a plot.
The side quests aren’t that much different from the plot. Most of them consist getting items for survivors, such as gas, food, and even teddy bears, and bring them back. You are awarded with experience, cash, and maybe even a weapon. I got very confused early on. That was mostly due to the fact that I got quests from what seemed like the same person at least two dozen times. Each one having a different name, of course.
Gameplay:
The combat feels very broken. All you really need to do is mash the melee button to no end. If your weapon breaks, you switch and keep mashing the button. It gets very repetitive. Part way through the game, humans are added into the mix. They shoot at you with their silly guns, only to be pwned by the melee button. The game’s difficulty just depends on your weapon of choice. If it is durable, you will almost never die. If it isn’t, prepare to be beyond pissed because this game will kill you to no end.
Visuals and Sound:
I can’t even begin to describe the graphics or sound. It’s just down right horrible. The game is so incomplete. Bushes in the middle of the road, flying cars, invisible zombies, etc. There is pop-up everywhere, and because of that, the waypoints are constantly shifting, even though your character might not be moving. Zombies can literally appear out of walls. It’s annoying almost finishing a quest only to hit a zombie with your car, causing the zombie to glitch into the car and explode instantly.
The sound also frequently cuts out. Occasionally, a scream or something similar will repeat over and over again. I even saved and reloaded and it was still there. Shutting the game off didn’t help that often, either.
Online:
Adding co-op makes this game so much better. When prompted, anyone can shift in and out of the game and help out. By adding more people, the glitches almost get forgotten as you are having too much fun with your friends. You also have to work together to survive. It gets annoying when someone takes the wheel of a car and leaves you to die.
Overall:
This game wasn’t done when they released it. No amount of patches will make up for that mistake. I can’t review this game on what the game could have been like. I have to review it for what it was at launch. What it was at launch was a complete mess. I had some fun here and there, but it didn’t make up for my frustration at the glitches, horrible acting, and everything else that went wrong with this game. Just another game that didn’t live up to the hype.
