Dead Island Reviews

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Written by WorstUsernameEver on September 16th, 2011

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Each setting is huge and most bring with them new forms of zombie infections. I was surprised how far into Dead Island I had to play to experience everything new in the game. Not just new settings, new zombies, new characters, but new ways of playing.

It wasn't until the very end, when I was confronted with killing other people, not zombies, but innocent people, that I felt I had touched on everything Dead Island has to offer.

Dead Island may not be everyone's favorite, but its deft combination of role-playing, action, horror, gunplay, driving and exploration makes it the sort of game that everyone should at least sample.

I've got to go now, I only paused the game and I really do go want to level up my fury skill.

Thus is the enigma of Dead Island. The surroundings and the art design are beautiful. The sound works well and provides creepy background. The quests range from a few logical requests to every ludicrous notion under the sun. The NPCs are clingy and annoying. The main characters run the gauntlet from normal to glib and idiotic. None of this matters. Either you can ignore the clumsy interface and fight through to the game beneath or you can't. There's a great game under all the rubbish, but you have to be willing to shrug off a bunch of annoyances to get there.

Techland has confused me. How can a game so undeniably unpolished (some might even say broken) still hold my attention? Why is it that when I ran into bug after bug all I would do was scream, pick my controller back up, and resume playing? Even with all of its problems, Dead Island is a fun game. The sad part of all of this is that Dead Island could have been an infinitely better game had Techland just taken care of these problems before launch. A patch has released to mitigate some of the game's problems and from what I can see; it has cleaned the game up a bit.

Dead Island is a fun game that gets you as close to living out a zombie apocalypse as you can get. I just wish it had been polished so it could have really shined.

There's a lot to like about Dead Island. The graphics and overall sound design (the zombies are especially well voiced/moaned) are great and the control certainly ain't broke either. With a few tweaks here and there and maybe a tad more prep time, Dead Island could have been something truly special. As it is, it just has to settle for being a fun, scarey, action packed, and at times flawed, zombie romp.

So kick back, raise a drink, and aim for the head- because I have a feeling we'll be seeing more post-life vacationing in the future.

Overall, Dead Island offers hours of fun despite its few setbacks. Although it is not perfect, it definitely gives games like Dead Rising and Left 4 Dead a run for their money. A widespread world, open to DLC with some minor flaws earns this game an above average rating from me.

It's certainly not the most polished game on the market, but it succeeds where it matters. The fighting, looting, crafting, and acting lift the game above its many technical issues. Forget all the mutated monsters from Left 4 Dead and Resident Evil, Dead Island proves that regular, run-of-the-mill zombies are still scary.

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