Weekly Review - Dead Island

9th September

Dead Island is a game that has been in production almost as long as Duke Nukem Forever. The game was thought to have died in 2009 when the production team stopped work on it, however it was picked up by Deep Silver, the game was released on the 9th September. Dead Island is a survival co-op game, which can be played single player. Unlike Left 4 Dead, the game has a specified story and has elements very similar to an RPG, including level based enemies and loot systems.

Story

Dead Island is set on the resort island of Banoi, a seemingly ordinary holiday destination. However strange things are happening on the island, not least of which that the bodies of the dead are coming back to life and feasting on the living.

The story follows one of 4 characters (the story is unaffected by this choice). Purna is a South African police officer turned mercenary and bodyguard to the rich, however she is less than impressed by this work, having come to the island along with a client. Logan is an ex-football star who was disgraced after he killed a woman during a street race. He has come to the island to get away from the guilt and prejudice of the world. Sam B is a rapper with a fading fame, he has come to the island as entertainment to perform his 1 hit wonder. Finally, Xian Mei is an employee at the Royal Palm Resort on Banoi, who also had ties with the martial arts in her homeland of China.

After being rescued from a zombie attack by the lifeguard Sinamoi the character has to work with other survivors to try and survive the zombie apocalypse as well as escape the island. The story has the player travelling from the Resort area to the city, jungle and prison areas of the island. The story, though starting strong greatly loses its way halfway through.

Gameplay

The main gameplay aspect of Dead Island is the idea that you must scavenge to survive, whether its weapons or parts for weapon plans. These weapon plans allow for the creation of even mroe powerful weapons and these can vary greatly, from explosive grenades to flaming swords. These weapons also decay and break though so there is also also a need to scavenge money to repair these weapons.

Killing zombies and completing missions for the survivors awards experience that can level up the characters, allowing them to purchase new skills and perks. Each character also has a specific fury skill that turns them into a zombie killing machine, and can change the tide of a fast-losing battle. Enemies level up along with the enemies and there are many types of zombies, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, and with their own strategies to defeat them.

The missions for dead islands are split into 3 sections, Main missions are missions critical to the characters escape from the island, completing these missions unlock other ones and eventually lead to unlocking new areas. Side missions are missions given by survivors for their needs, usually involving a find and return of an item, these missions offer xp bonuses and new weapons and can only be completed once. There are also recurring missions that involve bringing a certain item to a certain survivor for a small xp or money reward, these missions can be repeatedly completed.

Dead Island also has a co-operative mode where up to 4 survivors can work together to make fighting the zombie horde a little easier.

While all of these gameplay elements make a highly enjoyable game it doesn't make it a difficult game, or even very satisfactory, weapons are far too easy to obtain, as is money, so there is little sense of necessity or threat.

Graphics

Dead Island has 4 large areas where the majority of the games are played, the resort is mainly made up of huts, bars and beaches, many of the houses can be entered and while well designed they are very repetitive.

There can be a large number of zombies on screen at any one time with little graphical reduction, however the overall graphic quality is not too high, and in later levels such as the jungle there are entire sections of poorly clipped and poorly designed graphics. At one point an entire treeline can be looked through.

Character graphics are generally good but the animations are fairly wooden and voice acting is not very good at all, although the facial animations match the words well.

Longevity

Dead Island has a large campaign, at least 30 hours for the main missions and possibly as long for the side missions, there are also secrets and easter eggs to find and many special weapons that can be collected.

However it is not a game that feels satisfying to play again, even with the choice of other characters, the story is very poor towards the end and co-operative does not add much to the feeling.

There is soon to be released DLC fro a new game mode called Bloodbath arena, that acts as a horde mode with zombies, that could be enough for some people to hold on to the game for a few months longer, but this game can be expected to be on the pre-owned shelf very quickly.

Story --------------- 7/10
Gameplay ------------ 8/10
Graphics ------------ 6/10
Longevity ----------- 7/10
Overall ------------- 7/10