Dead Island is certainly one of those games that highlights the problems with trailers. I mean do you remember the teaser trailer? It was exciting to think a zombie title was aiming for so much emotional depth, and it really grabbed hold of the imagination. Of course, the game didn’t really come out anything like that, although the infamous family do make a cameo in the game.
No Dead Island didn’t really fall into the neat little niche created by their award winning tease, although it didn’t really fall into the standard zombie game category. Whilst the execution may have not been perfect, Techland were at least trying to set themselves apart in a genre that seems to grow more crowded by the day.
Although they’re worthy of praise for that, is the game itself worthy of any plaudits? Whilst we weren’t absolutely raving about it in our review, we hardly crucified it either. It sits at a respectable 7/10, meaning it’s certainly not worthy of instant dismissal even if it does feature its fair share of bugs and glitches. If you fancy knowing a little more about what we thought, here’s what we had to say about the game:
Dead Island is what you make of it. Sure, it might not be the game we were originally promised, but it’s still a lot of fun. The sheer scale of the island alone is an impressive accomplishment. There’s so much to explore, so many secrets to discover, and even more zombies to decapitate. There is no doubt that Dead Island is a good game once you look past all the glitches. It’s just a shame that Techland didn’t have more time to polish things up before its release.
Of course, that’s just our opinion and it doesn’t really matter all that much in WeView. Oh sure, our review still stands but now we want to know what you thought of the game; after all we’re not the only ones to have ever played it. Did you feel it was a fresh take on zombie killing? Did it have you smiling as you bashed in the brains of another undead nightmare? Or did you feel a little disappointed, only taking out zombies because you had to.
Whatever your feelings on the game you can let us know by simply dropping your thoughts in the comment box handily provided below. Whether you loved it or hated it we’re equally keen to know how you felt about the game. Once you’ve fully considered your opinion and written it out, make sure you give the game a rating as well. We don’t use a 1-10 scale here though, oh no. Instead just decide where you feel the games sits on the Buy It, Bargain Bin It, Rent It, Avoid It scale, and remember to drop it on the end of your comment.
Finally, don’t forget that you need to get your opinions in by Sunday afternoon at the very latest. Any later than that and we won’t be able to include it in the verdict article, meaning all your work will have counted for naught.
BIGAL-1992
I just want ask everyone a simple question about that teaser; why was everyone, if not most people, felt so emotional about that teaser? Inever really got the jist of it.
Origami Killer
Music did it for me. Huge contrast in the actual game though.
BIGAL-1992
Ok…..not sure how but i see why. In all honesty I actually burst out laughing at one point near the beginning, when i saw the zombie flailing about while on fire. Kind of says it all about my view on that teaser.
Origami Killer
haha! Im sure if i watched it without the sound I would laugh too :P
Mikiyaru
Dead Island falls into the unfortunate category of requiring a few friends to really prosper. The game was a mess on release and this has been improved by bit support from the developer on constant patches which in some cases dramatically changed how the game was played. Overall the gameplay is, to be comparative, an open world Left 4 Dead with the quest quality of a modern MMO (without all the kill x quests that bore you to death). The action is thick and fast and the character customisation brings it to a level where despite their being 4 of you at max you could all play the game very differently. Still, you have to go back to whether you will be playing it by yourself or with 3 of the best mates which is why its quite hard to come up with a direct answer to this.
If you would be playing with 3 friends you knew and could Skype/Mumble then this is a must have. The fun you can get out of this game is endless and the setup is perfect for co op play and general antics with your friends. So for that reason I’d say Buy It.
However if you feel that you wont have anyone to play with or you’re a bit partial to zombie games then I would probably say to Rent It. You will probably know within the first hour if this is the game for you and trust me, when your having fun that hour aint a lot of time :)
Origami Killer
Where to start? AS mentioned above the game that did set itself to be emotional was not at all in the end. The story line is weak, the voice acting is terrible, the cut scenes are poor. What I was hoping for in Dead Island I didn’t get at all, this is what made it really disappointing for me.
Sure the combat is great for a short time only. After a few hours of gameplay everything becomes a bit repetitive, Go to A kill some zombies along the way, pick up an object, go back to B and kill some more zombies on the way. Every single mission I have done so far uses that formula.
I was enjoying the game right up until the point where I have to go to the city. I just didnt find the city appealing at all, every texture was the same and it didnt look good. However, the lush green resort with crystal clear pools and sea was where I thought the game should have stayed. Not in some sewers.
Weapons degrade way too fast, some only have a few hits in them before you desperately look for a work bench. Rage mode doesn’t want to activate on my game too even though I have a full bar.
To sum it up, the story is weak as its non-existent and the gameplay becomes repetitive after a couple of hours. The resort looks great though. But its completely flawed in every other way.
AVOID IT.
McProley
Oh yes… the sewers. I still have a lot of hate for that area!
Origami Killer
Its a bloody bastard of an area. Partly ruined the game for me. Its not scary at all, the level design down there I think is terrible.
Origami Killer
also sorry I did say I would do coop on this but I just hate the game.
McProley
It wouldnt be half as bad if there was some kind of mini map. but its worse than the Labyrith to navigate. And David Bowie is far scarier than the bloody Bloaters!
McProley
Thats fine mate, I dont want you to force yourself to play it. Co-op is far superior to SP IMO though
Origami Killer
There is a mini map but its useless. haha! they did try and make it scary but placing the explosion zombies around a corner but instead I just found them annoying as they were instant deaths.
McProley
Yup, the explosive ones are very annoying. The only good thing about the sewers is there are less of the Infected down there. i hate them and their stupid windmill punches! for some reason though, they absolutely love me! they will allways run past everyone else just to rush me!
Youles
Yup, they defo prefered the taste of you than me mate. Although those Nazi zombies seem to prefer me.
Origami Killer
It just annoyed me how overpowered their punches were too. Another gripe with the game is that the shooting recognition is not accurate at all.
Youles
To be fair, the punches weren’t too bad until recently – when there was a huge patch. Now the infected get you in groups and can kill you pretty quick.
McProley
I found the shooting pretty good apart from the sotguns which didnt seem to have a spread so unless you were pinpoint acurate with the obstructive iron sights you would only get minor damage
Origami Killer
Just me then who got headshots for shooting zombies in the legs? Im sure im just nit picking with this game now…
McProley
You sure you didn’t have “Insta-Kill” on? Oops, wrong zombie game…
McProley
I think this is one of those Marmite games: you either love it or hate it. For me, it was one of my favourite games last year.
When i first got it i loved it, not much of an emotional journey, but it was still zombie slicing in a first person perspective. Then i had the dreaded save game glitch after about 14 hours :( i was stubbon though so i started with another character. 8 hours this time. 3rd time lucky? not a chance, stitched me up again after 6 hours! All these hours of my life wasted on me being stubborn (luckilly i get to play PS3 at work.) I was eagerly awaiting the patch so i could play it properly! And then it came out and i wasnt bothered. i left it a while. I came back to it after a while and jumped on with a friend or two. The single player can make you feel a bit isolated and bored (like Borderlands) playing co-op makes this game come alive. All the bugs and lacking story plots are forgotten when you and a few mates are caving in some zombie skulls or mutilating some limbs!
Buy It
Mickey2010
Well trying to think of a way to put this im going to keep it short and sweet! It’s like eating a box of Quallity Street starts off beautiful and then towards the end it starts to feel sickly,repetitve and annoyingly addictive.
Youles
I don’t remember there being loads of purple zombies at the end?
McProley
tee hee!
Youles
Difficult game this one, since for every good thing there seemed to be something bad. Dead Island is incredibly ambitious trying to tie-in RPG elements, FPS & melee combat, open world enviroment and character development. And sadly its a jack of all trades and probably a master of none. However, that doesn’t stop it from actually being pretty enjoyable! I was able to live with the texture pop-up, bad lip syncing and other various minor flaws – although I did playthrough Resistance 3 whilst the more major annoyances such as lost trophy progress were ironed out – since the co-op was such good fun. Playing with 3 friends was hilarious and it meant I didn’t care that the characters were cliched, the plot was weak, and that the A to B missions were repetitive. My mates and I were just able to smash the crap out of zombies with over the top weapons, whilst collecting juice, and helping Harry meet Sally, or whatever. Its worth mentioning that trying to connect to friends’ games was sometimes impossible, but once you were able to join, it was great fun. There aren’t too many games you can playthrough entirely 4-player co-op which deserves some credit in itself. I should imagine it would have been a totally different experience player solo, and you would probably wonder why there were 3 random characters at each cut-scene! Some good points include the variett of weapons, the variation of characters and their respective skills, decent graphics (ignoring texture issues), skill trees and character development, nice locations, vehicles. It is far from a polished game, but I would suggest Buying It, for the right price, but be sure to have some friends to play it with.
Forrest_01
I am playing by myself as I did do some co-op & whilst I did enjoy it, i got so confused with whether I was coming or going due to warping & missing parts of the story/sidemissions due to other players activating quests when I wasn’t there, I decided I would have a run through on my own & then mess about in co-op once I knew what was going on at any given point.
You have to play through to the end of the first act with all 4 characters anyway right? :)
Anyway, I picked it up post-patch so I have had a decent experience, but to be fair, the ‘referring to the group’ thing in cutscenes (& just generally talking to townsfolk) is the only thing I find slightly jarring – Every time that a character refers to you, it’s always “you guys”, “you all” etc.
It’s not game breaking of course, it just makes me feel like I have multiple personality disorder!
Youles
Yep, I know what you mean. I can also sympathise with other members of your party activating missions and skipping conversation that you haven’t yet heard. Not mentioning any names but McProley did this, but as soon as I let him know that it meant it also skipped it for me, he stopped! ;) It helped that my mates would come to my house and play so it was easy to communicate what quests we would do etc, and usually do them one by one. To be fair to Dead Island, it has to cope with knowing who has already done what, and they still get the XP for repeating the mission they’ve already done.
And to answer your questions – Yes, you do have to complete Act 1 with all 4 characters if you are going for the Platinum. If you need help with any trophies, inc co-op ones, just give me a shout I’d be happy to help!
McProley
Yeah, sorry about that. I’m allways up for some more DI if you need me? I promise i wont skip anything!
Forrest_01
Cool – Well, i think that i am more or less nearing the end of act 3, so i will definitely be looking to hook up with some co-op partners at some point in the near future.
I shall keep you in mind matey.
Youles
Ok no worries.
I would be happy to jump in and pick up a few remaining Blue Prints such as the “Pick-a-Choo” mod; and show you where the remaining Developer Mods are, if you haven’t already got them. McProley and I also have a profile with each character which helps with the trophy for playing in a party with each of the 4 different characters etc.
Forrest_01
Only dev mod i am missing is the green skull one (number 2 i think?) & am not sure whether i can be arsed to trawl through the sewers again to city hall & then on to the shopping centre as apparently they are all kinda useless?
The only one i might use (coincedentally) is the baseball bat dev mod, but i already have an impact mace that does more or less the same thing & i think my high voltage axe even hits for a lot higher tbh. :/
Youles
The hand of glova is pretty good as it can knock thugs down. But the developer mods are expensive to repair. I only got them all due to my mild OCD. Which reminds me, I am missing just 1 fact/file/journal thingy in the prison!
retro_
A great game overall with a few glitches. Personally, I loved it, especially the city Mosely, dark, burnt out with the echoes of the undead, chilling. Saying that, I think ‘The last of us’ will be what Dead island wanted to be all along.
Torquemada
The trailer for me was very emotive. Everyone I knew who this had struck an emotional chord with shared one common theme; we were all dads. Being a dad gives you a whole new perspective on everything, and where you may have been indifferent to children before, you certainly arent now.
The game itself was a fairly enjoyable romp too. More Borderlands with zombies rather than Oblivion with Zombies. I think the problem with this game (and Borderlands) is if you come to it expecting a FPS game with zombies. Its more a collect ’em up than FPS IMHO. I really liked the game and found it quite creepy in places too.
cnutard
I’m glad this has popped up today. I just reactivated one of my LF accounts yesterday and put it onto my rent list. From the looks of these posts I might be taking it off again very soon!
Youles
Its not for everyone but worth having a go and making your own mind up!
Forrest_01
Agreed – Bear in mind that a lot of people were early adopters & therefore suffered some of the pre-patch glitches. I picked it up later & i happen to think its a great game.
It of course isn’t for everyone, but there is a lot to like here if you like FPS/RPG/Zombies (the last one is kind of a must really, as you will see a lot in this game!).
cnutard
@Youles, This is why it’s still in my list at the moment. I’m a firm believer of watching/playing/listening to content to make up if I like it.
What’s put me off are the stories of lip sync issues, bad textures (/loading of textures). I like games to be as polished as possible.
@Forrest, Good to hear the about the patches, when I saw McProley mention having to start three different times I nearly hit the ‘remove from list’ button. Don’t want to be wasting time with a rented game if it’s just going to delete/corrupt my save.
FPS – like, RPG – love (mostly the reason I wanted to rent it to start with), zombies – ‘meh’. The zombies won’t ruin this game for me, it’ll be the quality of the game.
retro_
No, I think it’s a great game, well worth renting.
MadBoJangles
I’m really glad this has come up.
My missus just bought me it for Valentine’s Day and the comments make for some interesting reading!
Just need to peel myself away from Amalur long enough to try it :D