The Case

After, possibly, the most touching, intriguing and dramatic trailers of this gen (maybe even all time) Dead Island held fairly high expectations . But, does this open world, first person, RPG, co-op, zombie killing simulator live up to those expectations...?

The Trial

Unfortunately, the trailer for Dead Island mislead the entire population of Earth. Dead Island is far from a genuinely emotional, deep, story driven game. In fact, the story and characters are more like something from a Grindhouse movie. This would not be a bad thing, as I love the cheesy B -Movie type films that get released (Planet Terror, Hobo With a Shotgun etc), however, as the trailer gripped me so hard, I expected something a bit more from the story and characters.

Set on the island of Banoi, your selected character (4 in total) wakes up in a hotel room, after a pretty heavy night out. Almost immediately the player is told to evacuate the hotel. It's soon apparent that the hotel has been overrun by the undead. After you are attacked and rendered unconscious, by one of the zombies, you are saved, and helped, by a group of survivors and you learn that you are immune to the zombie virus. From here the story takes you across the whole island, from the beach resort, jungles and swamps to a small city area.

To be fair, the story does have some decent parts, and sometimes the odd character crops up that you may start to actually care about, but on the whole it's, as I said, more B-Movie horror than thought provoking.

Where the game does shine, for me, is the gameplay. Dead Island focuses heavily on melee combat, mainly with sharp, pointy objects. There's nothing more satisfying than swinging a samurai sword at a zombie sprinting at you and seeing their head fly off their shoulders in glorious, blood drenched slow motion. The player will have the chance to use fire arms (pistol, assault rifle and shotgun are the only firearms that I personally encountered), but these turn up later in the game, and are just not as fun as the 'in your face' melee weapons.

Taking a page out of Dead Rising 2's book, Dead Island allows the player to create their own weapons. Throughout the island you will find (or be rewarded with) various "mod sheets" that, along with the correct components, allow you to build some pretty brutal weapons - nailed bats, deodorant bombs, electrified blades... the list goes on.

Now, just because you're tooled up with a fire axe hooked up to an electric current, doesn't mean you're going to slice through the undead with ease. Sure, you will be able to handle the typical "Walkers" with barely even a bead of sweat, but taking down some of the larger, stronger and generally, more pissed off zombies will require a bit more thought and power! Throughout the course of the game, you also encounter living enemies which I found to be very easy to take down. Perhaps a little too easy!

This is where the levelling system comes into play. With each quest completed and with every slice and dice you earn experience. This experience increases your level, allowing you to assign points to a variety of upgrades such as extra health, increased chance of a critical hit...the list goes on. The skill trees are pretty expansive and really give you the incentive to complete every quest and (attempt) to slay EVERY zombie you encounter.

During your time on Banoi you will be faced with a fair amount of backtracking. This would normally become a tedious task, however, random zombie placement and loot to pick up - including a variety of different collectibles, make the mundane backtracking bearable. Also, some locations require you to travel across the whole area so the inclusion of vehicles is a welcome one, not to mention the ability to fast travel to each location you’ve previously visited.

Dead Island's presentation is a mixed bag, ranging from great, to just downright poor. Stepping out onto the beach for the first time, looking out onto the blood soaked sand and glistening ocean is simply stunning. But, below average character models and indoor environments, shockingly poor voice acting (for the most part) and graphical glitches definitely overshadow the good things Dead Island, visually, has going for it.

Having said that, the sound, minus the voice acting, is spot on. Slowly walking through a dark corridor with your flashlight about to die, only for you to hear the ferocious growl of a zombie, that could be lurking anywhere nearby, really can give you the chills. Not to mention the sickening, crunching sound effects of a blunt object snapping the bones and tearing the flesh of the undead.

The Verdict

Despite it's shortcomings, Dead Island is an absolutely great game. Often terrifying and hugely enjoyable, especially with 3 friends, this is a must play for any zombie fan! The poor story, bad characters and voice acting may be enough to put many people off, but if you're able to look past these faults then you really should try out Dead Island.

Case Review