Greetings folks! You maybe not know but im rather interested of zombie games- not extreme fan of them, but i enjoy them a lot (though i dont play many). And i noticed i dont have any zombie games reviewed. Well, i aim to fix this with todays review of Dead Island. So get cozy and start reading! NB!!! This review may contain images some may find disturbing, so if you are weak-hearted, you have been warned!
Basic introduction Heroes (playable characters) from left to right: Purna, Xian Mei, Logan, Sam B
Dead island is open-world action zombie survival horror game and it has roleplay elements as well. It was originally supposed to be released in 2006, but it was in the end released as late as september 2011. Game takes place at relatively early days of zombie apocalypse in resort island of Banoi (fictional island, located right off Papua New Guinea). You, as one of 4 heroes are survivors last hope...
PC System Requirements (off steam page):
Minimum:
OS: Windows XP
Processor: Core2Duo 2.66 GHz
Memory: 1 GB RAM
Graphics: ATI 2600XT 512MB VRAM (GeForce 8600GT)
DirectX®: DirectX 9.0C
Hard Drive: 7 GB available hard drive space
Other: keyboard, mouse
Recommended
OS: Windows 7
Processor: Core2Duo 2.66 GHz
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Graphics: GeForce 9600 (1GB)
DirectX®: DirectX 9.0C
Hard Drive: 7 GB available hard drive space
Other: keyboard, mouse
Story Zombie-selfie? no, its zombie trying to chew your selected hero's face off!
Like i said in basic introduction, story takes place in fictional resort island of Banoi. Since World war 2 ended, when japanese fortified the island, the island has become hot tourist destination for rich and famous! Before you start the campaign, you select between 4 heroes, each having special traits and own backstory you hear at character selection screen. I give you short review of characters too (i only played bit as Logan and whole campaign as Sam B- note that each hero has own rage skill):
Logan is former american football (i.e handegg) star- he still plays american football in Canada, but his career got pretty much killed after he crashed in street race and killed a girl in accident. Hes probably best one to pick, as hes all-rounder, but most speciality on thowable weapons (his skill allows get even grenades back after exploding- given you have enough luck)
Sam B is one-hit wonder rapper with "Who do you voodoo, b**ch" (also theme song of Dead Island). By time of career start, hes career has pretty much ended, as Banoi is his last shot. He has speciality on blunt weapons and is the tank of the team, taking most damage.
Purna is former cop, fired after shooting pedophile (who survived that shot btw), now VIP bodyguard. Has speciality on firearms and also one blades-related skill. While playing as her, note that she makes more damage to male zombies! Only one who does more damage based on sex.
Xian Mei is undercover chinese cop from Hong Kong, spying on wealthy westeners in Banoi. Her disguise is desk clerk, but apparently not too good. Her speciality are bladed weapons, but shes also the weakest of the group and only one not having firearm-related skill.
Ok, now that you picked character, you should decide if you go online or singleplayer- i chose latter, so i could focus on story and game itself. Main difference should be that in online, other players aproximately at same story progress join your game or you theirs, thus teaming up. In singleplayer however, you roam only alone, which seems weird a bit as in cutscenes all heroes are present.
Story starts (dont worry- i only spoil few first minutes) at Banoi hotel, where you wake up in your hotel room and apparently decide to go outside. When in elevator, you are contacted by mysterious voice, advising you to escape hotel as soon as possible and you soon see why as you are attacked by horde and when escaping, you get bitten. After coming to in lifeguard lodge (where you were dragged to by Sinamoi, lifeguard), you discover you, as other heroes are immune!
After that, story starts progressing by filling quests for survivors, note, however, that you only need to finish fraction of quests in order to fulfill story, but many sidequests give a LOT of good stuff and maybe even some backround info. Whole time in main story, your goal is to get off the island- promised by voice on the radio!
Again- if you play co-op you may have people joining you, if singleplayer you are always alone.
Setting is really interesting because usually zombie games are where you move at nights or you have rainy weather, while in Dead island you have sunny weather in tropical paradise setting
Whats stopping you fulfill these tasks are whole bunch of zombies and also bandits!
Gameplay
Combat ingame- note stamina bar at center bottom, radar on right bottom, health and xp (yellow) on upper left and flashlight
Gameplay, as said, revolves lot around guests given by survivors and i must say, those guests will feel like some chore over time. Guests often are "kill that guy" or "bring me *name object*". True, how guests are built up makes some variety, but not whole lot of it. Rewards, however, are worth of these, as you can get very rare weapons.
As mentioned in "story" section, each hero has different skill tree, which you can upgrade as you level up. In my campaign i finished i reached level 32, but that left about half the tree empty, but as i didnt explore much, well, if you like to explore, then you can fill that skill tree.
Skill tree has 3 sections though- fury, combat and survival. Fury is filled and ready to use when you see fist icon with flashing red half-circle around it next to your health bar and its very useful when facing tough enemies or hordes. Needless to say, fury portion of tech tree improves fury. Combat portion of tech tree improves combat skills, allowing you access to extra moves, giving weapons more damage, etc. Survival portion allows you improve survival skills, though there is option in survival section to attract zombies easier. But other than that, it improves luck (good for finding stuff), health, stamina and such.
Combat is melee-based in Dead Island- firearms are pretty much non-existent until about midway of chapter 2, since when its actually very easy to find ammo (hell- you can even make some later on). So stamina is VERY important resource in game, as melee swinging takes bit off your stamina, as well as running (not walking though)- stamina restores after a bit you dont use it or when you are knocked down. Try aim for head or towards hands
Weapon types are following:
Blunt weapons- from oars to sticks to knuckles/fists (fists are only weapon that will stay with you) to wrenches and maces and baseball bats, these are designed to smash. Aiming for head and getting lucky shot in can cause head to be totally smashed. Aiming for arms/legs (more often arms) can break them, rendering them useless. Blunt weapons seemed to be most widespread in terms of different weapons in it. Blunt weapons have generally also best range from melee weapons (excluding kick)
Blade weapons- pretty much everything from axes and knives to swords and machetes, can be used to chop arms/legs/heads off, but i have also managed to just break with blade weapon. generally have lesser range than blunt weapons, but they have better chance of rendering zombie limb useless than blunt weapons do (less its a knife)
throwable weapons- while technically you can throw anything sides firearms (good thing to do when weapon is nearly spent) at enemy, this category includes molotov cocktails, grenades, meat-bombs and such. Dont worry about picking them up- they share same slot in inventory. Best used as Logan as Logan can get (with good luck) even explosives back so that they still kill enemies.
Firearms- there are just 3 types of firearms: pistols, shotguns and rifles. My favourite weapon was rifle, right in front of shock mod pistol (more on it later). I also dont know if its possible for other weapons, but i liked that you can make your own ammo for pistol.
Fists & Kick: 2 weapons you always have. Fists are good for fast clobbering, though they dont do much damage less in rage mode. Kick, however, is extremely useful for pushing enemies back and its only attack that cant be interrupted by enemies.
All weapons mentioned, except fists, kick and firearms lose integrity when used and thus you either have to repair them at workstations, throw them away and look for new ones or just buy new ones. i used looking for new ones method.
Besides weapons, there are also healthkits and alcohol (works as healthkit, but it blurs the vision and you cant walk straight). Weapons can be found also in locked boxes.
As for workstations- these things are really useful as you can repair, upgrade or mod weapons. Weapon mods make modded weapon much more deadlier, such as mentioned shock mod gives enemy lasting electric shock when critical hit is made, which causes extra damage. But to mod a weapon you need 2 things- mod plans (some are guest rewards), weapon mod can applied to and items you need to make a mod (found in bags and dead bodies).
There is also economy system in place- across Banoi, there are people who sell items and this is where cash, you got for guest reward, found in bags or on dead bodies come in. Note, however, if you die ("dieing" in Dead island only spawns you back few meters), you lose considerable ammount of money.
As for enemies, there are several types.
Walkers- one of 2 most basic zombie types. They are relatively slow, keeping up with you when you are walking. Dangerous in masses, but as most zombies- stupid. Best strategy when facing a horde is to find higher spot to smash them from or enter rage mode. They are also easy to knock down. Some carry weapons in hands they can hurl at you.
Infected- second of basic zombie types. These are very fast, regognisable by their screaming. Infected are harder to knock down than walkers, so try to keep them at distance. They also regognise you from very far, even with "zombie alert" skill from skill tree not selected, so keep ears open for that screaming. Can attack you with melee weapons.
Thugs- first special zombie you meet- though they are basically beefed up walkers. They are tall, slow and very strong, capable of making hero fly backwards with single landed punch. Best strategy is to keep them at bay with kick (kick has slightly longer range than thug punch) or long-ranged melee weapon (or firearm, if you have bullets) and then close in whatever melee weapon you have when he starts shouting. With some timing, you can easily kill them like that without taking single hit.
Suiciders- guy with "bubbly" body. Will explode when you get close to him, but if you see hes trying to kill himself and you get your timing right, you can easily use him to take down hordes of infected or cause serious damage to special infected. just keep way back clear.
Rams- Basically a thug in straight-jacket. Since he cant use his arms, he tries to ram you, speeding up towards you (in straight line though so you can avoid him) when you are further or when you are near him, he tries to kick you. Doesnt take much damage from front (just 1), so you have to attack him from behind.
Bloaters- This zombie type has been submerged a long time, so it looks like grey overweight person. This guy is only special infected to have ranged attack, but its quite easy to dodge, if you zig-zag. At close range he uses close-ranged acid attack (i guess- he barfs up something!) or punch. Still, best strategy is to close in and quickly hack him with melee weapon as he is basically only one getting disturbed by attacking.
Butchers- Oh boy i hate those things.... They basically look like some weird chinese karate guy from some bizarre old movie getting his face punched in, eaten by zombie, submerged and then zombified, with only difference being that instead of palms this guy has bones sticking out. If you think taking that guy on melee, then dont- less you have rage ready. Otherwise im quite sure you are gonna die.
Humans- there are several names for human enemies. They are mostly armed with firearms, but you see few with melee weapons too.
Now, few words about map as well- map is actually huge, with several areas. You start game in resort area, which already is quite big, then you move to city (2 areas, bigger!), jungle (i dont know how many areas) and finally prison (note however- after going to prison, you cant move back to island). To help you get around map faster, you can drive cars (though basically there are only 2 kinds- truck you get in mission and pickups). Resort is where you start your campaign, its filled with zombies. City and jungle have people in them and both are rather rich with ammo- more city though. Prison has mostly zombie enemies, but it has plenty of ammo lieing around.
There is tons of exploring to do in map, but truth be told, as enemies spawn basically at same ammounts around same areas and usually with same type, you kind of lose the excitment over time, if you know which zombies and by what numbers are where exactly. i mean by end of game, when exploring city, i could immideatly tell that how many enemies i face if i go to some place.
Game is also still littered with bugs, some being humorous and others just sad and even gamebreaking- for example i had to escort one guy and he just tripped over his own leg and decided to take a nap. So after poking him with foot and sticks, he still didnt want to get up, saying "5 more minutes", i gave up and reload the checkpoint. Pathfinding is also big issue, as many zombies run randomly and away from me- guess thats why we dont have any hero bots besides us in singleplayer. And also story skips some parts at times. annoying.
Sound & Graphics
There is not much music (though i do like theme song tbh). But sound- sounds are actually rather good. Voice acting seems ok to me (though same cant be said to people were talking to), zombie sounds are good.
As for graphics- ok, you maybe not enjoy them, but tbh i have to call them great if not for anything else for reason why i didnt finish Dead Island year or so ago: it gave me trouble sleeping. Seriously- last nightmare i had was year ago caused by this frikin' game! And im not the one to get nightmares easily nor i get scared playing games. And by any means- these really are best zombie graphics i have seen in video game. so 10/10 for graphics
Summary
Dead island is very interesting zombie game for its setting and its open-world theme, as zombie games are usually more linear and closed up and have dark weather.
While story spells confusion on exact time of when zombie apocalypse time- start suggests just few days at tops, while city suggests already weeks and is rather usual tbh, with lot of things just not adding up, dead island is great game if not for anything else, just for exploration of tropic zombie paradise
And of course, graphics of zombies are great.
Still, bugs and repetivity of tasks and zombie spawns make Dead island bit more boring.
So overall score- 8/10 Great game, but expect lot of bugs and repetivity
Heidinn veor- dark age mod for M2TW now recruiting scripter/coder
Dead Island
