Dead Island

- Reviewed on PS4 -

Dead Island released on September 6th, 2011. 

Dead Island also released on May 31st, 2016 along with Dead Island: Riptide and the arcade style game, Dead Island: Retro Revenge as a part of the Definitive Edition. 

For this blog post I will be discussing my experience with Dead Island as a part of the Definitive Edition. 

This review WILL have Major Spoilers so keep that in mind before continuing...

For a game series I knew nothing about before jumping into this game, Dead Island served as a big surprise to me as I instantly fell in love with the whole overall atmosphere of the zombie thriller. 

Taking place on the fictional island of Banoi, you can take the role of one of four characters. 

You can also play the entire story mode with three other friends for online multiplayer.

The four characters you can choose from are named...

    - Logan Carter (Throwing Expert)

    - Purna Jackson (Firearm Specialist)

    - Xian Mei (Sharp Weapons Specialist)

    - Sam B (Blunt Weapons Specialist)

Along with the Definitive Edition, you also get the free Ryder White campaign (DLC) to wrap up the ending of the main story (campaign) which I really enjoyed, and it truly served its purpose of summarizing how the ending took place in White's point of view. 

Graphics wise, Dead Island really delivered on making you feel like you were on a tropical resort. The water was breathtaking, the light (and shadows) was very pretty, and the overall setting was beautiful. 

One gripe I do have with Dead Island, however, was that there was no day and night cycle. There were weather effects like rain (in the city portion) but overall, it was never dark outside which I feel was a missed opportunity for this game considering Dead Island wasn't truly a scary experience, more of an action-packed experience at most. 

The premise of the story is that you wake up in your hotel room and notice immediately that zombies have taken over Banoi.  

As you start the actual game from your console menu, you get this short movie scene of Dead Island that shows you how it all started with a party at the resorts and the actual in-game gameplay picks up where the cut scene leaves off. 

Gameplay wise I never got used to the slippery controls that Dead Island tended to give us (players).

A lot of times I found myself having to step back a bit after running to open up doors, locks, containers, etc. 

Although annoying, this did not take me out of the fun of Dead Island. 

The massive amounts of weapon customizations are extraordinary, and it was a lot of fun using all different kinds of weapons on the massive amounts of zombies running at me.

Weapons in Dead Island can be categorized as Blunt Weapons, Sharp Weapons, Throwables, and Firearms. 

As previously mentioned, each character you play as, specializes in one of these categories and their individual skill trees relate to their preferred weapons. 

One thing I appreciate from this game is that you are not forced to only use a certain weapon type for a certain character. 

For example, if I played as Sam B who specializes in Blunt Weapons, I can still use Sharp Weapons with just as much damage if I was using Xian Mei who is the Sharp Weapons specialist. 

One big problem with Dead Island for me was the NPCs. Specifically, when you had to protect and / or follow NPCs to their destination(s). 

Dead Island doesn't only have the normal traditional zombies, Dead Island features multiple kinds of zombies, and they all behave differently. 

I will be playing this game at times and all of a sudden see a running zombie coming right at me. 

Cut scenes also introduce you to these new zombies across the many different maps in Dead Island. 

In Dead Island you will visit the Resort(s), Jungle, and Prison Island just to name a few. 

Glitches are very common in Dead Island I'm afraid. These glitches can also be game breaking as well, in terms of not being able to proceed in missions, get out of an area (forcing you to reload a last checkpoint), or even zombies not being able to get to you due to a small object in the way. 

Driving vehicles is a lot of fun and it can feel great running over zombies and collecting all these challenge trophies sprinkled within Dead Island however, I don't know if it was intentional, but you can never get a good view of where you're driving, and the windows are very annoying as they can get stuck while driving. 

Finally, Fast Traveling is amazing in terms of speed, Dead Island (as of writing this blog post) has the quickest fast travel loading times I have ever experienced so I appreciate that as it doesn't suck my excitement / joy from my current play through(s). 

I was expecting a horror game at first, but then quickly realized that Dead Island is more of a fun, action packed game that just so happens to feature Zombies. 

If you are looking for a horror spectacular, Dead Island might not fit your criteria however this game is the perfect action-packed zombie game out there even for its age! 

Pros: 

    - Amazing Graphics

    - Lots of Weapon Customization

    - Great Music

    - Fun Characters to Play As

    - Great Longevity 

    - Addictive Gameplay

Cons:

    - No Night Cycle(s)

    - Bad NPC Programming

    - Lots of Game Breaking Glitches

    - Bad Driving View

    - Slippery Controls

My Rating for Dead Island (on PS4):

3 / 5

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Disclaimer

All Reviews, Ratings, Pros, Cons, and Opinions Shared on this Blog (Press A Reviews) are my (Connor Butler) own Thoughts and Feelings.