Chris Kavan's Game Review of Dead Island

So I Herd You Liek Zombiez
Chris Kavan - wrote on 11/20/11

Dead Island is a game for people who like to kill zombies, plain and simple. Because in Dead Island, there are a lot of ways to kill the living dead - bashing their skulls in, decapitating head and chopping off limbs, burning, electrocuting and poisoning them - and, of course, simply blowing them away with a gun.

The story is pretty simple - you're on an island paradise resort that transforms into a nightmare when a zombie outbreak occurs. Your character happens to be immune to the virus, so that means you can get bit and not change into a slavering undead monster. You can still die, of course, but you can take comfort knowing you won't come back again.

You can choose to help various pockets of survivors along the way - everything from retrieving a lost necklace to putting one grieving man's family out of their misery - while killing zombies is all fun and good, if you want decent experience, you'll have to do the mundane tasks as well. But don't worry, along the way there will be plenty of zombies to kill.

The whole plot revolves around the one guy on the radio who says he can help you escape to civilization and just maybe come up with a cure along the way. Of course, if you believe that, well, you haven't played many zombie games, have you? Locals go from the beach resort, to the slummy town to the jungle to the penal colony. The presentation is pretty good - aside from the splatters of blood and occasional corpse in the opening, you could imagine yourself having a good time.

However, this isn't a game to enjoy the scenery - it's a game to enjoy the weaponry. Variety is the spice of life and here you'll find plenty of variety - baseball bats, batons and sledgehammers for bashing in skulls; machetes, katanas and blades for chopping off limbs and heads and shotguns, rifles and magnums for blowing them away - just to name a few. You can also thrown any available weapon as well - plus Molotovs and grenades pop up on occasion. Or you could just jump in a truck and run a bunch of zombies over if you wish.

However, the variety of weapons doesn't just stop with the sheer number of them - you can also find recipes to modify them. You have pretty much four main modifications: bleed damage, poison damage, electricity damage and fire damage. The poison one is particularly fun as a zombie will sit there and hurl while taking massive damage (especially at higher levels). Would a zombie even get sick? Probably not, but this is a game, so I'll let it slide. Also, watching an electrified zombie scream as it dances around due to being electrocuted is also quite amusing.

Speaking of zombies, you also have a little variety here. Your basic walker - common and nothing to worry about unless the gang up on you in great numbers; infected are super fast and luckily also pretty weak - much more dangerous if two or three rush out at the same time; thugs are bigger, slower and take much more damage - lucky for you they like to lose arms and then they gnash at you for much less damage. Then there are the "special" infected - the suicider explodes whenever they're near you - particularly annoying when hiding behind doors, but make for great home-made zombie bombs. The Ram can only be damaged on his back and deals massive damage - luckily he's easy to avoid. The Floater spits poison and also had much more life - either take him out from a distance or close in quick and slash away before he can get any attacks off. Finally the Butcher is a super-charged infected who slashes away until either you or he is dead - really annoying when paired with any other zombies - give him a swift kick and attack with your strongest weapons.

Each chapter usually introduces a new type of monster - lucky the Butcher appears in very small numbers. The best weapon in your arsenal is your kick. It staggers most enemies and often knocks them down. Should you so invest in the skill, once down you can stomp enemies for a quick death.

Leveling up gives you three skill trees - you can enhance your Rage - enhance your weapon skill or enhance your survival skill. I mostly ignored Rage - focusing on my weapon (I played the Asian who excels in edged weapons) and survival for better healing and experience.

When you die, you don't lose progress, however you will lose a chunk of money. The more you have on you, the greater the loss. Luckily, money is pretty easy to come by and even when you have weapon upkeep in the thousands, it's not usually an issue. There are a series of super special weapons that are incredibly expensive, but in the end, I do believe they're worth it - especially the bat that sends enemies flying - that never gets old.

You will be doing a lot of walking (or driving), including plenty of backtracking. Hey, I really love killing zombies, but even with the variety of enemies and weapons, it does get old after a while. Plus, without any real consequence to dying, it loses some impact. A lot of people compare this to Left 4 Dead because of the special infected and the multi-player aspect (like most of these games, I never tried the online experience). I can't say one way or another, as I've never played Left 4 Dead, but I would say based on this game I would most likely enjoy that series as well.

In the end, this game comes down to just how much you like killing zombies. The story and characters are not the strong point here. Simply eliminating enemies in the most satisfying and gory way is. I only encountered a few bugs for all the bitching and moaning that was going on about this game. The worst was after I installed a patch I suddenly couldn't hold as many weapons in my inventory and wound up losing about seven of them. Oh, and once I got trapped in a bathroom but managed to jump my way out of the invisible wall that popped up.

So if you like killing zombies, this is the game for you. If not, try something else and move along.