Dead Island (video game)

[Danny]

Later in the game, you have to deal with a lot more of them. Oh yeah, there is another type of zombie called the butcher, which will piss you off, too. just started to run into them and they are much easier actually. kick strike, use back dodge, repeat, there only dangerous if you stay next to them when they do their rage attack after you hit them once, whereas the infected just never stop charging you. its the clipping behind you to one shot you when they charge that makes them worse for me.

[Mr. Clean]

I'm trying to get to the garage in chapter 3 and seem like I am doing so at a creeping pace. I can't imagine finishing this game in a very fast manner at all.

[Danny]

one shot a ram by running over it in a car. i feel there should have been an achievement for this. -- -------- Post added at 09:16 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:53 AM ---------- found what i think is a nice LOST easter egg. if you are in the jungle, for me near the downed oceanic plane but maybe not just there, and you sneak up behind a suicider it doesnt explode you just hear a whisper "...help me..." referencing locke in jacobs cabin? -- -------- Post added at 11:05 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:16 AM ---------- well i beat it. lvl36, 31/48 achievements (missing one collectible and 1 location for there and back again...) and a grand total of 30 hours. but goddamn it felt so much longer. Overall i had fun but i would call dead island a big disappointment compared to my expectations. its a bit of bioshock, left 4 dead, farcry and dead rising put together like i predicted. Only its really not as good as any of the things it draws from. not even close. Its rpg-lite. Diet rpg. i never felt like my skill point choices made a difference and every quest was fetch something or kill something with little to no variance. The story- what little there was was cliche bullshit i have played at least 5 times before in a videogame. like plot point for plot point. We are never given more than an opening monologue to try and form an emotional attachment to the characters but when you realise dying is just a 2 to 7 second respawn timer its no issue so there is no threat so you never had to worry about the mostly faceless hand that holds your weapon. It feels very 90's. You know what i mean. it starts great but gets increasingly cliche and shitty as it goes on and asspulls a random boss out of nowhere because they ran out of creative steam. The beginning is solid gold. the island resort section is beautiful and this is juxtaposed with the frenetic action and gore of the zombie virus outbreak. Then just as its getting samey you get into the city which at first is daunting. with all its dark winding alleys, humans with guns and whatnot. but that becomes tiring fetch quests after a time. quests which you have no reason to do when the story awards the best weapons and everything scales to your level anyway. Then the jungle which is a series of sub areas that are even more grindey and samey and then a prison which takes the copy pasted time wastes of the sewers in the city and thats just all of it. The soundtrack is nothing like the trailer may you believe. there are 5 pieces. 3 sad ones, an action one and a resident evil the movie theme derivative 'mystery' piece- and a ending credits ,ugh, "rap" song and i use the term extremely fucking loosely. All are supbar and utterly forgettable. there is no atmosphere or proper sound design used in this game. Speaking of design the world is a mess that gets progressively lazy as it goes on. Lines in the skybox. clipping ive not seen since a 90's pc game. floating bushes, gaps in the world that has the 'void' outside visible. zombies popping in in front of you and insta-killing you. dying on nothing. getting stuck in doorways because you move like a tank. zombies spawning in groups frozen in place. dying and losing all your items. game crashing. Stupid enemies spawning next to doors youve already passed to be a jump scare... The hole thing is a mess that was NOT ready for retail. I really could go on but the last 5 hours i was just asking "can it end yet please?" i had seen all i would see from the game, all i wanted to see and i had had enough and just for completions sake wanted to beat it. I have and now im probably never touching it again unless some friends desperately need another player. Would i recommend it to anyone? especially on here? no. not really. theres less variance in it than dead rising. it tries to be an rpg but fails. it tries to be a shooter. but fails. it tries to scare but it fails. At the end of the day its just like a fan reskin of borderlands. to the letter its just borderlands. even in terms of story and structure. If you didn't like borderlands- particularly its final portions avoid this. you will be left with just a sour aftertaste with this as you were with that. if you loved borderlands you may love this. If you are after an open world rpg for the zombie fan? you may enjoy it for what it is. but you will be left with more disappointment than satisfaction upon completion. its really just a 6/10. hit and miss. just above average and really nothing more and thats why it was such a disappointing experience. If there is a sequel im going to have zero interest in it. I wish i had just waited for gears of war 3 instead.

[MinionZombie]

I don't think I'll ever bother with Dead Island after hearing the detailed feedback on here ... it just seems like too much of a pain in the arse ... methinks my notion of 'Fallout 3 with shambler zombies' (as I, and other members, have discussed at length in other threads) is still but a dream. Now, Gears of War 3 - yes - that I want. Needless to say, it's apparently rather good.

[Precinct13]

But Gears doesn't have zombies.. ;-) If you think about it, the state of zombie games is rather depressing, really. There is nothing that comes remosely close to what has been done on film, in particular as video game developers are merely mimic the most superficial things of zombie fiction: here be gun, there be zombie, now shoot 'em in the head - you're immune anyways, because thou are the chosen one! It's the same drivel as in most games out there. The zombie models could as well be exchanged with aliens, Nazi evil or killer tomatoes. There are a couple of promising indies, but the big guns (Dead Rising, Left 4 Dead) in essence are just glorified shooting galleries (and I'm enjoying Left4Dead... in small doses). No doubt that the writing in Telltale's adaptation of The Walking Dead will be the best amongst the best zombie games have ever had on offer, I'm just not sure if they will provide the core game experience that will back the writing up. I honestly think the audio of Dead Island is amongst its strongest assets though, ditto how taking down zombies takes some thought and timing (read what I proclaimed earlier). But then I'm reloading every time I die, rather than abusing the respawn. What point is there? The penalty is minimal, it's almost a God-mode and it takes away any excitement that you otherwise have. Forget about the narrative - as simple as it is, Techland don't even know how to really tell their story WELL, simple as it may be. But with a few mods I could see myself coming back one day, even though Dead Island isn't near as being a great game - it isn't even aiming for much. If you just set up a couple of rather self-contained maps that merely reset after a while and fill them up with fetchquests like that, you cannot be. Especially considering how autoleveling and simple location resets do most of the balancing job for you.

[Danny]

But Gears doesn't have zombies.. ;-) um, not wanting to spoil gears 3 buuut.....

[ProfessorChaos]

looks like i may have made a good decision in regards to skipping this game. seems a very large percentage of the reviews i've read and feedback i've heard from fellow gamers has been neutral to negative in tone, so i'm not surprised that much. perhaps one day when it hits the bargain bin and i have no other games holding my interest at that time, but until then, no thanks.

[Neil]

looks like i may have made a good decision in regards to skipping this game. seems a very large percentage of the reviews i've read and feedback i've heard from fellow gamers has been neutral to negative in tone, so i'm not surprised that much. perhaps one day when it hits the bargain bin and i have no other games holding my interest at that time, but until then, no thanks. Well, to bump the average seemingly in the other direction then, I'm really enjoying it

[Tricky]

Well, to bump the average seemingly in the other direction then, I'm really enjoying it I'm with you on that, sure it has its issues, the plot could have worked a lot better, as could aspects of the game world such as buildings you can enter & things you do actually having a long term impact on your surroundings, but its probably the best zombie game I've played in years! The dead shamble around in the way we like them to in the films, its quite good to get to a vantage point and just watch them sometimes, its a shame there isnt a scope so you can zoom in on them. Its also genuinely creepy when you run away from a horde of them & then stop to catch your breath, before realising that they are still following you and if you fire a gun they all start flocking to the sound...

[shootemindehead]

Hmmm...not getting all the hatred being generated for this game. Very strange. It's certainly been more entertaining than a lot of stuff I've played recently. Certainly more atmospheric and creepy.

[Danny]

Hmmm...not getting all the hate being generated for this game. Very strange. god i hate that term. ironically i suppose. there is a wide range of responses between BEST GAME EVAR and FUKKEN DOGSHIT. sometimes a game is just 'alright'. but we cant have that online can we? not when the grand witch hunt to find out "who be straight up hatin' dis" is afoot Not to say this at you personally but people cant be lukewarm to things on the internet anymore. They can only be fans or 'haters'. Its the 'us or them', 'coke or pepsi', 'nintendo or sega' school yard adolescent mindset taken to its most obscenely ridiculous conclusion. Sometimes things are just middle of the road. There is nothing wrong with it, nor does a IP require staunch defenders to hold the line against such vile heresy as the below 8/10 haters.

[AcesandEights]

Why you be hatin' on zero-sum* opinions, Danny? I authorize partial misuse/bastardization of this definition.

[clanglee]

I have been enjoying this game as well. . .It's less silly than the Dead Rising games, and less hectic than L4D. . . Not perfect, but I like it.

[MinionZombie]

Are so-so reviews dead on the internet? The tribal thing definitely exists, but there's an awful lot more reviewers out there much more interested in laying down the need-to-know information and surmise if the game is utter shite, pretty iffy, okay, decent, pretty darn good, or great, and any variants in-between by pointing out flaws and benefits and weighing it all up. It's almost like Danny's decrying prescriptive reviews by being prescriptive about the entire general idea of reviews and reviewers in general.

[shootemindehead]

god i hate that term... There...I fixed it. -- -------- Post added 27-Sep-2011 at 11:51 AM ---------- Previous post was 26-Sep-2011 at 07:03 PM ---------- So, I just finished this last night and have to say that while it's not a world beater, it certainly isn't deserving of some of the nonsense it's been on the end of. Especially that ridiculous 3/10 "review" from 'The Edge' mag. Overall, I enjoyed the game and hope it's successful enough for the producers to build a sequel on it. They may think twice, though, before putting out an ultra serious trailer again as I'd say that that had a lot to do with the negative reception to the actual game from some quarters.