Dead Island Thoughts And Review

Dead Island Thoughts And Review

(This may contain actual spoilers for you in regards to game play. If you don’t want to be told the game mechanics – then don’t read this yet.)

For most of us…the trailer for Dead Island pulled us in. We were in awe as we watched it unfold. Maybe we even grieved a little bit each time we watched that poor family–forwards and backwards—die, as the trailer went viral. We all wondered the same thing- ‘the trailer looks great, but how will it play?’

The hard part about doing a “review” for the game right now is that it doesn’t feel completely finished. Oh yes, it’s totally playable and even enjoyable, but it’s hard to give you a review that in a few months time, some of these quibbles about it could be fixed and otherwise forgotten by that point. And yet, even after I played it for several hours today and am relaxing to try to get some other important work done…the game has infected my mind. It’s addictive. All I want to do is go buy my own copy, replay all that I did with a better understanding of the game mechanics, and forget about everything else. With those kinds of feelings, you can well imagine that I’m not getting a lot of my other things done, so I want to get my feelings “out” now, before the jubilation fades. So this is more an overview of what I’ve played, in hopes that it helps you too.

The game:

You’re on an island for various reasons (depends on who you choose as your character) when the zombie virus breaks out. You are then left to scavenge the island to not only survive, but to help the other survivors in your camp to get off the island too.

You currently have these playable characters:
Purna (gun specialty),
Xian Mei (blade specialty),
Sam (blunt weapons specialty),
Logan (throwing specialty).

I might have chosen Purna for her guns but I was immediately advised (thus I am advising you as well) that guns are not available to use for quite some time in the game. It’s true to the extent that you can’t carry one around like VI Warshawski but I can tell you that Purna does have a hidden sidearm and you can only use it in relation to her talent tree when you choose a “Fury” path. The first talent is “unleashes private sidearm when activated”- and further down the tree “Volatile” decreases the amount of rage that you need to release your fury, thus your hidden gun. Since it’s still not an “active” gun, you will still have to rely on blades or blunt weapons at least until level 10. There is a quest giver that I don’t want to spoil – that can relinquish your first gun. But don’t worry guys and girls, Purna can swing a pretty mean one handed weapon too.

My first time through- I played Xian Mei first. I woke up in first person mode (can only see my fists in front of me and then my feet- only when I’m kicking some zombie butt) in a hotel room. I am an Asian undercover agent working at the Royal Palms Resort as a receptionist for the Chinese Police. And lucky me– I am immune to the zombie virus (as are the other 3 playable characters). Immediately, I’m ready for a zombie attack as soon as I start looking around. I’m creeping around like I’m 15, sneaking into my bedroom at 3am. I check everything-everywhere. Looking for a weapon and picking up items. It’s an excellent time to note for the people who haven’t played yet- just about every ‘item’ that you pick up from bags, the floor, shelves, people, etc– has a price tag associated with it. Yeah- you’re paying for those items, so watch it when you go to collect it. But who doesn’t need duck tape, right? The money that you’re picking up from wallets and bodies is meant to purchase the items that you find in any location – especially and including weapons. So- don’t be like me…running around willy nilly at first, grabbing everything in sight, because it’s costing you.

You also should know– you can and should carry a bunch of weapons with you. Durability is a bitch in this game. Doesn’t take long before your item is either broken into smithereens or is in so desperate need of repair that it does diddly squat damage. You should learn how to kick- and kick often. At least your own foot doesn’t suffer durability damage! Besides, I had fun kicking zombies in sensitive areas- and in the face as they try to rush me while I watch them coming for me. Bam. Boot to the head! (nah, nah).

Anyway in regards to weapons- some broken items you just drop automatically and some, you can save into inventory in case you want to repair it later in the game. But there are a lot of weapons so you don’t have to save every broken one to repair-just pick up a new one to replace it unless you really like the weapon. Every item that you come across has stats- so you’ll quickly know, like in any other RPG- if what you’re carrying is equal to, better, or worse. It’s still a good idea to carry a bunch though. You don’t exactly have ‘unlimited’ bag space- but for the ‘items’ that you pick up, that aren’t weapons, there doesn’t seem to be a cap storage on that.

Anything you drop from your personal inventory- has a price tag to pick back up (so there’s no real ‘storage’ system). You can hold items that you might need or want to sell to a vendor too. You can carry a dozen different weapons and can repair, upgrade, or toss any weapon you choose once you’re done with it. You can mod weapons as well (there is a nail modification ‘pack’ that you can get fairly early on- it lists the weapons and components that you need).

Sprinting is a great move and it’s one that you learn close to the beginning since you start off with NO weapons- don’t forget it– you’ll need it. Your flashlight is easy to get to and a simple pad press (but it loses charge over time). Combat is a bit tricky to figure out at first. You can cycle through your equipped weapons with the right button and swing them using the right trigger. Sometimes you might hit the wrong button and be punching the zombies in the face with no weapon because you hit the wrong button first. Fair warning.

Some zombies are quick bastards. You think you are getting the drop on them, but they surprise attack and jump you. When they are that close, there is a way to punch them backwards. You need to pay close attention to the screen- left trigger to push followed by right trigger to punch–they fall backwards–then wail like an SOB on them with your weapon of choice.

The island is big. It’s open world with main and sub quests driving you through the entire game- but you can pretty much do whatever you want. You level up your character as you go along and you have three tiered talent trees to add desired skill points to-like Torchlight or World of Warcraft. The zombie levels scale with you. Because you’re immune to bites- if you die, you just resurrect at your last checkpoint. Items respawn over time- so if you drink too many energy drinks- they’ll come back later (but there’s no point in waiting at a table for them- there are plenty around. You can’t carry them with you.). It’s the same for all loot found in the environment, including money. Also- it’s a good time to point out that just because you “clear” an area of zombies…it doesn’t mean the area stays that way. They won’t just randomly generate in front of you (like those old Hunter the Reckoning games) but they can be back where you’ve already cleared. Just be on the look out. The only real places that will stay clear after you wipe out the dead- are your safe houses (beginning cabana room, lifeguard station, lighthouse, etc) so far. Whether that changes in the game later, I haven’t gotten that far.

The zombies themselves look pretty bad aesthetically and usually if you’re watching before you barrel ass around a corner, you can hear or see them usually. Though I admit to you all…a few times, my own shadow still startles me- and sometimes for good reason (I’m not paying attention!). Since there is no nudity in the game, each bikini clad zombie girl looks just about the same with varicose veins big enough to pump lead through (the men have odd veins too but the women you can just see more of). There are different types of zombies as well. So far, I’ve seen three kinds – “Walkers”, “Infected” and the “Thugs”. These big guys hit like a Mack Truck on steroids and knock you back, making your character dizzy. The good thing is, they are pretty slow- the bad thing is, if ‘Thuggy’ has company, they might reach you before you shake yourself smart again. Avoid his whammer hands, dodge, kick to stun or toss something at him and strike. Rinse and repeat. Did you know zombies can drown? They can if they are face down in a pool. /wink

The quests themselves are fairly straightforward and for the easily lost navigators among we gamers, there is a quest tracker associated with each one. Follow the white dots like PacMan and you get to the quest item. Any new quests that you pick up while you’re already tracking one- resets the tracker and you’ll soon find yourself spinning in circles if you don’t go back into the quest tab and re-select the one you want. Yes…a tad annoying, I know.

Speaking of annoying- some of the bugs and silly things can feel a bit ‘ugh’. For instance- some pools have no water in them. Why? I don’t know. You’re on a tropical island in Papua New Guinea and some pools just don’t have water in them. Maybe those are the discount cabanas. Here- Slide down in to the waterless pool, children! The room is half off if we slog down to the beach instead. /shrug. You’ve got me- I just play here. Also- some of the dialogue…while lame on its own- doesn’t distinguish the sexes. I’m not a “him”; I’m a “her”. Also- there is an area after the lifeguard station where you are ‘rescuing’ some people who are trapped in a cabana after ramming their truck into the front of it. There is a huge red floating stripe through the place. Apparently it’s your quest tracker line on the floor. It doesn’t do anything or mean anything- it’s just visible there. I’m sure it will be fixed. So far, I’ve only played the offline single player version and can only share the rumoring that there may be bugs and issues in co-op mode too. From what I understand, Techland-the developer- is working on various bugs now and is patching the game already.

With all this said- it’s a gory, addicting, and fun survival horror action game. The quests get a bit repetitive but so is every hack and slash RPG type game after a while. It’s all about finding things, people, items, locations, etc. Once you work out the combat of the game, it gets easier. When you have the basics down, it’s a blast moving through it. The scenery is great, the sound effects, the blood and gore effects are great. The story itself gets a bit lost with the huge influx of side quests that are available-but they are all optional, so you can choose to cruise along the main quest line if you want a shorter game. Overall, Dead Island reminds me of a cross between Dead Rising 2 and Borderlands with its own little brand of wicked flavor (hopefully to get better as the bugs are fixed).

If you’re someone who wants the game perfect on the first try, this game might not be for you, yet. Wait a little while until all the kinks are worked out. If you don’t mind some glitchy bugs- for a bit, the game is still a hoot to play. Just keep your eyes open for web articles regarding existing bugs in the game so that you can avoid those things completely until they’re fixed.

It’s mostly perfect. It has more overall positives than negatives to it, in my opinion. The upside is, it can only get better with patches. Definitely worth checking out if you get the chance.