Dead Island

You would normally be expecting a bunch of mini reviews from me.

But not today. Today I'm in the position of having a game, that's only been out since Friday, and I have played it almost all weekend.

So today you get a real review, a review of Dead Island.

As you might of guessed from the fact that I named this site Zombie Outbreak that i'm a sucker for anything zombie related. I love zombie films, I play zombie games and I read zombie comics. So when I saw the teaser trailer for dead island, I knew I had to have it

Go on, I dare you to watch this trailer and not get interested in this game.

So when the game came out on Friday, I had to have it, I ran down to my local game store, then after finding out they had sold out of it got it from Asda (Pro tip, it was £8 cheaper in Asda than any where else)

I got it home and started playing (I have only been playing offline single player, so for a review of what its like in co-op go elsewhere) from the opening video (to the delightful tune “who do you voodoo bitch) to the character select screen (you get a choice of 4, all with unique special skills) I could tell I was going to like this game, only problem was, I underestimated it.

This game is tough, I mean really tough. I got used to playing dead rising, where zombies go down quickly health is easy to find and weapons are created equal. This game is not like that. Zombies are tough, taking multiple slashes with your best weapons to go down, talking about weapons this game takes an RPG approach to items, they have stats and a large part of the game is comparing different weapons stats to see witch are more suited to your current needs, if you don't keep on top of it, you will soon find your weapons have been out classed by the zombies and your doing hardly any damage any more.

Weapons also degrade, and they degrade quickly, you spend a lot of time running back to work benches to keep your weapons in tip top condition. This game also features a borderlands style level up system, you pick skills from a skill tree in one of 3 areas; rage, combat or utility. Combat and utility skills are pretty self exploratory, rage however is your “uber” skill, when your rage gage is full in allows you to unleash a super attack unique to your character, it takes a while to build up, but its cool when it works.

The weapon system, along with the fact that the zombies level up with you means you can never relax in this game, the challenge is on at all times, and you really have to pay attention and be quick on your guns to keep ahead of the constant threat. For the first time ever in a zombie game, I found myself rounding a corner, seeing a group of 4 or 5 zombies and turning around to run away, my tail between my legs.

The game does a great job of piling on the pressure and giving you a stressful but downright fun experience, you really feel as if your fighting for your life.

That is in till you die.

I got a good way into the game before I died for the first time (I got to the city for those of you who have played it) when it happened, I was shocked, it was all over, all my hard work, I felt genuinely shocked and saddened, ending up dead in a video game had never meant so much to me. Then 5 seconds passed and I re spawned about a foot away from where I died, with full health and all my items. All the zombies I had killed where still dead, the zombie that got me was still standing there, and it took me a couple of seconds to finish the job.

That was it, 5 seconds (and you lose a tiny amount of the insanely easy to get in game money) what a let down, suddenly death was no threat, you can die over and over fighting the same zombie with hardly any penalty, I suppose its so you don't have much down time in the online game, but thats really no excuse, you should at least have to return to a safe house, or a check point or something.

This games handling of death ruined it for me. Plain and simple. I'll continue playing but its with all the challenge taken away. Its a real shame, the game shines in so many other areas, but this is really a major failing on the part of the developers.

Before I finish I should also quickly touch on how buggy this game can be, I've heard the PC version is much worse than the Xbox version I have, but I have encountered one particularly annoying bug while playing. Dotted all around the resort are these underground bathrooms, full of useful loot and worth checking out, but the stairs that are the only way out of them are incredibly buggy. You run up them only to find your character slowing down like they are in a bowl of treacle, you force your way to the top of the stairs only to find your self catapulted back down the stairs as if you had run into an invisible elastic band. It took me about a quarter of an hour trying to get up the stairs and I'm not exaggerating, in the end I had to just keep jumping towards the top of the stairs till I got lucky and escaped my invisible prison. Its not an isolated bug either, a quick google search will tell you that a lot of people are experiencing it.

All in all, a ok game, that could have been great with a few minor improvements. 3 out of 5 brains.

Yeah, I know I can't draw hands, before you say anything.