Review: Dead Island

Remember the cinematic video that was released when we first heard about Dead Island? The dark and sad foreboding video that warned of a game that wouldn't focus on the Romero-esque horror of the walking dead but instead instead more of the human cost like, well, 'The Walking Dead'.

 


Sadly that isn't what Dead Island delivers, instead what we get is controversy and a possibly unfinished version. Yet despite all it's “teething problems” Dead Island is a very fun game to play.

The best way to describe Dead Island is to think of a mix between Borderlands and Condemned. There's vehicles for you to drive around the island, a levelling system, and while almost anything you can pick up is a weapon they all have base statistics and rare versions indicated by a blue or orange name. There's also very little in the way of a story, the cinematic pieces are few and far between and sometimes overly shocking. It's just enough to tie the game together but don't expect it to win any rewards. In terms of game play emphasis is on close combat as opposed to weapons, for the first few chapters you would be lucky to even see a simple revolver let alone an assault rifle. Even on the later levels where everyone seems to have a machine gun you will find yourself choosing to use the machete instead just to conserve ammunition.

While you have a choice of 4 different characters, each with their own speciality, the undead themselves come in numerous different flavours. From the shambling undead that like to pretend to be corpses right up until you see them chewing on your ankle to the marathon running zombies you'd see in films like '28 Days Later'. I won't spoil some of the other special zombies as they have all have a cut scene that does a good job of introducing them in a, “Oh crap I have to fight that?” kind of moment.

Thankfully the game has a nice crafting mechanic, by collection some seemingly ordinary objects that litter the island for example a car battery, some wire and some duct tape. You can turn your machete into a high voltage blade of death. It definitely comes in useful.

Visually everything looks stunning though the setting, which is for the most part bright and cheerful seems to be at odds with the undead carnage that litters the beaches of this once tropical resort. Surprisingly though this setting only serves to make the occasions you have to venture into a dark and potentially undead filled beach hut even more unnerving.

All this makes for an interesting single player but what is it that makes Dead Island so interesting? The multiplayer. Taking on a group of the undead with a couple of friends is a great experience, particularly when it all goes wrong and you have to think quickly or just run away very fast.

Getting into a multplayer game is easy to do too, even if you're in single player mode you're still given the option to join another person's game who has reached a similar level of progress.

So if you've got some friends who already have the game or are thinking about getting it, grab a copy yourself and enjoy the undead horror. If you're a fan of the undead genre then give the game a shot, the frantic game play will keep you entertained for some time.