DoctorFinger
09-16-2011, 06:52 AM
Dead Island Review
Title - Dead Island
Platform - Xbox 360*, Playstation 3, PC
Developer - Techland (http://www.techland.pl/?id=home&lang=en)
Publisher - Deep Silver (http://www.deepsilver.com/us/)
ESRB Rating - M (mature)
MSRP - $59.95 (360/PS3); $49.95 (PC)
Editor - Michael "DoctorFinger" Chauvet
What's Hot: Big open world to explore. Constant stream of loot keeps the collector in you happy. Nice difficulty progression.
What's Not: Missions can get a bit repetitive. Combat is a bit too basic at times. Some glitches. Derivative of other games. The first thing you have to know about Dead Island: it’s not Left 4 Dead. It looks like it on the surface, but it plays like a totally different game. If you go in expecting a quick and dirty campaign, you may be disappointed by the more methodical and deliberate pacing in Dead Island. But if you go in with an open mind you’ll find an ambitious but flawed experience.
You begin the game choosing from one of four characters. Each of the four - Xian Mei, Sam B, Purna and Logan - are somehow immune to the zombie disease, so they’re the only ones who can go outside of the safe havens with any degree of safety. The characters get fleshed out a little in cutscenes but are mostly differentiated only by their unique abilities and stats. Each of the 4 plays a bit differently and those differences give the game a bit of replayability.
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5024/5556600254_b1c37f1783_z.jpg
T-minus 2 seconds to decapitation
Once you leave the hotel you find yourself waist deep in zombies looking to suck on your sweet, sweet brains. The game is set on a tropical island, and the early part of the game is centered around a beachfront resort. It’s not the sort of environment you see in many games of this nature, and it’s a nice change. Later on you’ll travel to the slums of the capitol city and the interior jungles, each with their own distinct look and ‘feel’. But they’re all populated mostly by zombies, most of whom are pretty quick. You have basic Walker zombies, the much faster Infected (who I presume are infected people who haven’t died yet) and a few boss-type zombies like the Thug, the Suicider and the Floater. At points you’ll even have to fight off completely unaffected human Punks, mostly armed with guns. Deadly guns which will kill you. You’ll die in this game. A lot. But it’s okay, since there’s very little in the way of a death penalty. You’ll lose a little bit of your cash, and respawn a few yards away from your death site after a short delay.
I mentioned before that Dead Island doesn’t really play like Left 4 Dead, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be familiar. It plays mostly like an Oblivion or a Fallout 3. You wander the world taking quests, managing inventories of weapons and choosing new skills when you level up. Most of the combat is up close and personal and while there are guns and grenades, they’re somewhat rare, especially in the early going. There’s also a hint of Borderlands with the weapons. Everything has it’s own stat line, and you’re constantly finding new and (sometimes) better weapons. Weapons also degrade as you use them, so you’re constantly having to spend money to repair them. As you play you’ll find blueprints which let you juice up weapons, adding fire, or electricity, or bleeding mods to the tools of destruction. The weapons get very powerful and complex looking as you go up in levels, and the collecting/loot hauling aspect can be pretty addictive.
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5028/5556017201_76750abac4_z.jpg
They're zombies, but they're pretty, well dressed zombies
So you’ve got some phat weapons. What do you do with them? Why kill zombies, of course! You swing with the right trigger, kick with the left button and jump/dodge with the A button. And that’s the vast majority of the combat. You can aim and throw any weapon too, but it’s not that effective for 3 of the 4 characters. Weapons can be recovered even from the still moving bodies, but generally when you throw a weapon you’ll have to switch to another until the end of that particular battle. You start out with a small-ish inventory, but it grows as you level until you have a veritable armory on your person. Combat can get very hectic at times - especially when there are Infected around - but it never gets that tactical. After a while you unlock a Rage attack, which can devastate enemies around you, but it takes a bit of time to recharge the Rage meter, so you’ll find yourself saving that for boss zombies. As mentioned before, there are guns but the ammo for them is pretty precious. They’re good when fighting Punks who also use guns, and therefore cough up ammo when they’re dead. However I’ve found that the guns don’t seem to do very much to the zombies, at least not the boss zombies whom I’d like to use them on. The molotovs and other grenade-type weapons are much more effective.
The core of the game are the missions, and it’s unfortunately a bit weak on that count. Like most open world RPGs you’ll get quests from various NPCs, who in turn give you rewards for completion. The majority of the missions are simple fetch quests, but there’s little variety in them. You can’t really choose a playstyle the way so many other sandbox RPGs of this nature let you. At most you can choose a path through the map to get to and from your destination, but there are very few real choices to be made. You want to complete the side quests to get the reward, but a few of the missions can get tiresome. There are some more interesting and complex missions, mostly involving more restricted areas, but the game screams out for a little more variety in the missions. I should also mention that the game as a whole scales, so as you get more powerful and snag better weapons the enemies gets similarly stronger. I like the scaling, but I know it's the sort of detail some people dislike.
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5138/5556598500_f79dd5fab3_z.jpg
This is The Ram, one of the boss zombies
Dead Island’s visuals are very inconsistent. Some areas look great, and for the most part the zombies look amazing. But there’s a host of small graphical glitches. Clipping, missing textures, pop-in. Techland’s proprietary Chrome Engine 5 handles the rendering duties and it’s clearly could use a bit more polish. It’s not bad, but it’s also not up to the level of the major graphic engines used in these sort of major releases. On the flipside, the audio in the game is tremendous. You’ll be able to identify which direction the zombies are coming from just from by sound alone, and the subtle soundtrack and ambient noise make for an aural treat.
Multiplayer is fun, but it doesn’t feel all that integral to the experience. Multiplayer felt noticeably easier than solo play, but otherwise playing with friends didn’t change the experience that much. There were a few quirks with the matchmaking, but generally things went smoothly online.
Score: (3.5 out of 5 Cogs)
http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/CoG3_5.png
Michael says, "Dead Island is a bit hard to grade. The combat can be a bit flat, there are some dull missions and you’ll run into the occasional bug. But I found myself consistently wanting to go back and play it some more. If you’re looking for a fast-paced shooter, take off half a point. If you’re looking for a methodical, occasionally obsessive RPG, give it an extra half a point.”
* Review based on 360 version.
Title - Dead Island
Platform - Xbox 360*, Playstation 3, PC
Developer - Techland (http://www.techland.pl/?id=home&lang=en)
Publisher - Deep Silver (http://www.deepsilver.com/us/)
ESRB Rating - M (mature)
MSRP - $59.95 (360/PS3); $49.95 (PC)
Editor - Michael "DoctorFinger" Chauvet
What's Hot: Big open world to explore. Constant stream of loot keeps the collector in you happy. Nice difficulty progression.
What's Not: Missions can get a bit repetitive. Combat is a bit too basic at times. Some glitches. Derivative of other games. The first thing you have to know about Dead Island: it’s not Left 4 Dead. It looks like it on the surface, but it plays like a totally different game. If you go in expecting a quick and dirty campaign, you may be disappointed by the more methodical and deliberate pacing in Dead Island. But if you go in with an open mind you’ll find an ambitious but flawed experience.
You begin the game choosing from one of four characters. Each of the four - Xian Mei, Sam B, Purna and Logan - are somehow immune to the zombie disease, so they’re the only ones who can go outside of the safe havens with any degree of safety. The characters get fleshed out a little in cutscenes but are mostly differentiated only by their unique abilities and stats. Each of the 4 plays a bit differently and those differences give the game a bit of replayability.
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5024/5556600254_b1c37f1783_z.jpg
T-minus 2 seconds to decapitation
Once you leave the hotel you find yourself waist deep in zombies looking to suck on your sweet, sweet brains. The game is set on a tropical island, and the early part of the game is centered around a beachfront resort. It’s not the sort of environment you see in many games of this nature, and it’s a nice change. Later on you’ll travel to the slums of the capitol city and the interior jungles, each with their own distinct look and ‘feel’. But they’re all populated mostly by zombies, most of whom are pretty quick. You have basic Walker zombies, the much faster Infected (who I presume are infected people who haven’t died yet) and a few boss-type zombies like the Thug, the Suicider and the Floater. At points you’ll even have to fight off completely unaffected human Punks, mostly armed with guns. Deadly guns which will kill you. You’ll die in this game. A lot. But it’s okay, since there’s very little in the way of a death penalty. You’ll lose a little bit of your cash, and respawn a few yards away from your death site after a short delay.
I mentioned before that Dead Island doesn’t really play like Left 4 Dead, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be familiar. It plays mostly like an Oblivion or a Fallout 3. You wander the world taking quests, managing inventories of weapons and choosing new skills when you level up. Most of the combat is up close and personal and while there are guns and grenades, they’re somewhat rare, especially in the early going. There’s also a hint of Borderlands with the weapons. Everything has it’s own stat line, and you’re constantly finding new and (sometimes) better weapons. Weapons also degrade as you use them, so you’re constantly having to spend money to repair them. As you play you’ll find blueprints which let you juice up weapons, adding fire, or electricity, or bleeding mods to the tools of destruction. The weapons get very powerful and complex looking as you go up in levels, and the collecting/loot hauling aspect can be pretty addictive.
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5028/5556017201_76750abac4_z.jpg
They're zombies, but they're pretty, well dressed zombies
So you’ve got some phat weapons. What do you do with them? Why kill zombies, of course! You swing with the right trigger, kick with the left button and jump/dodge with the A button. And that’s the vast majority of the combat. You can aim and throw any weapon too, but it’s not that effective for 3 of the 4 characters. Weapons can be recovered even from the still moving bodies, but generally when you throw a weapon you’ll have to switch to another until the end of that particular battle. You start out with a small-ish inventory, but it grows as you level until you have a veritable armory on your person. Combat can get very hectic at times - especially when there are Infected around - but it never gets that tactical. After a while you unlock a Rage attack, which can devastate enemies around you, but it takes a bit of time to recharge the Rage meter, so you’ll find yourself saving that for boss zombies. As mentioned before, there are guns but the ammo for them is pretty precious. They’re good when fighting Punks who also use guns, and therefore cough up ammo when they’re dead. However I’ve found that the guns don’t seem to do very much to the zombies, at least not the boss zombies whom I’d like to use them on. The molotovs and other grenade-type weapons are much more effective.
The core of the game are the missions, and it’s unfortunately a bit weak on that count. Like most open world RPGs you’ll get quests from various NPCs, who in turn give you rewards for completion. The majority of the missions are simple fetch quests, but there’s little variety in them. You can’t really choose a playstyle the way so many other sandbox RPGs of this nature let you. At most you can choose a path through the map to get to and from your destination, but there are very few real choices to be made. You want to complete the side quests to get the reward, but a few of the missions can get tiresome. There are some more interesting and complex missions, mostly involving more restricted areas, but the game screams out for a little more variety in the missions. I should also mention that the game as a whole scales, so as you get more powerful and snag better weapons the enemies gets similarly stronger. I like the scaling, but I know it's the sort of detail some people dislike.
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5138/5556598500_f79dd5fab3_z.jpg
This is The Ram, one of the boss zombies
Dead Island’s visuals are very inconsistent. Some areas look great, and for the most part the zombies look amazing. But there’s a host of small graphical glitches. Clipping, missing textures, pop-in. Techland’s proprietary Chrome Engine 5 handles the rendering duties and it’s clearly could use a bit more polish. It’s not bad, but it’s also not up to the level of the major graphic engines used in these sort of major releases. On the flipside, the audio in the game is tremendous. You’ll be able to identify which direction the zombies are coming from just from by sound alone, and the subtle soundtrack and ambient noise make for an aural treat.
Multiplayer is fun, but it doesn’t feel all that integral to the experience. Multiplayer felt noticeably easier than solo play, but otherwise playing with friends didn’t change the experience that much. There were a few quirks with the matchmaking, but generally things went smoothly online.
Score: (3.5 out of 5 Cogs)
http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/CoG3_5.png
Michael says, "Dead Island is a bit hard to grade. The combat can be a bit flat, there are some dull missions and you’ll run into the occasional bug. But I found myself consistently wanting to go back and play it some more. If you’re looking for a fast-paced shooter, take off half a point. If you’re looking for a methodical, occasionally obsessive RPG, give it an extra half a point.”
* Review based on 360 version.