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Dead Island (Xbox 360)
by sparkymarky1973
Let's be honest ~ Zombie games have had their day and kind of been done to death, right? (no pun intended). I mean Resident Evil is now on its what....sixth installment with lots of little spin-offs along the way? Not all of them good either. Left 4 Dead and its sequel were creative and refreshing for a while (not to mention fun to play ... in multi-player) but woefully short.....surely its about time that Game Producers moved on and tried something different, right?
Well, with Dead Island, that is exactly what they have done by producing what is probably the best Zombie game...ever!
Anyone who watched the trailer couldn't help but be disturbed. The scene opened with a dead girl lying on the ground then started moving the action backwards in time from that moment to show how she got there. Turned out her and her family were staying in this hotel and were running down the corridor to their room pursued by Zombies. She fell, got bit and turned. At which point she then leapt on her Dads back and proceeded to attack him. He fought her off, moved to the window and threw his own daughter through the glass....at which point she fell several stories and landed right where we find her at the beginning of this trailer. This little vignette has nothing to do with the main story of Dead Island but by showing her story in reverse, this trailer worked as a highly effective, visible appetizer for the game. Fans interests were piqued and, inevitably, Dead Island went on to sell by the bucket load.
But is it any good?
You play one of four playable characters staying in a hotel at a Caribbean island resort, hundreds of miles away from the mainland. You wake up with a hangover having over-indulged the night before and with vague dreams of people attacking each other last night down in the bar. But that was just a drunken dream right....? Wrong!
The island is the scene of a viral outbreak that causes its infected victims and the recently dead to attack the healthy and the living. Quickly you realize that it is up to you to stop this infection from reaching the mainland and to get the word out to warn them of what has happened but first you need to survive. And the only way to do that is to team up with other survivors and undertake missions to get them to help you along the way....
You can either play in single-player or, if you have XBOX Live, you can play with up to three other people. The resort is huge and the game takes you across several locations: so far I have discovered the resort, the city and the jungle. There are lots of weapons that you can pick up and use, though guns are in short supply at first, and all of these can be modified with Mod Blueprints that you find scattered around and which require certain pieces of equipment in order for them to be utilised. Weapons quickly depreciate the more you use them and the only way to repair them or to modify them is at work benches that you can find at key locations, which then costs you money to use. Luckily money can be found everywhere ~ on dead bodies, in suitcases etc as can the various pieces of equipment that you might need for modification such as batteries, barbed wire, etc etc etc
One of the many ways that this game excels is in the number of Mods you can find! There is everything from a Blueprint that runs an electric charge through your weapon to one that sets Zombies on fire or poisons them with toxic chemicals for extra damage. There is a vast array of different melee weapons for you to find as well! Every time you attack or run somewhere though, be warned ~ it costs you stamina and if you run out of stamina, you have to wait a few seconds for it to replenish meaning you are vulnerable to attacks! Killing enough Zombies gives you Rage, and this can be triggered by holding down the B button ~ sending you into a kill frenzy for several seconds!
There is so much about this game I enjoy! Achievements are gained by killing Zombies in various different ways and by attaining set goals throughout the game. And these can be lots of fun to try and get. The graphics too are very realistic and intense and the tensiin rarely lets up as often you find yourself fleeing a scene rather than trying to fight your way through it because there are just too many Zombies charging at you all at once!
Later in the game, you come across transformed Zombies (like those in Left 4 Dead) and this just makes things harder. Thankfully, as you progress you can level up and gain perks, much as you would in say Fallout 3 for example. Unfortunately, the Zombies level up with you!
One of the few things that is annoying is the way that Zombies respawn in areas you have been through. So, if you have cleared an area, don't be surprised to find it full again when you go back that way later. It is one of the few flaws in an otherwise near-perfect game. Other than that, there is very little here to be critical about and it plays absolutely brilliantly! This is one of my new favourite games of all time and right up there now with GTA!
I have the Game Of The Year Edition and this comes with the Ryder White missions (which I haven't played yet so can't review), a Ripper Modification Blueprint to start you off when you get your first weapon and The Arena download which is basically an Arena where you get to fight hordes of Zombies for Experience points and money that you can use in your main game. So far, the GOTY Edition is proved to be well worth getting as The Arena is a great place to level up quickly and get you used to the fighting styles you will need to develop in the main game. And the Ripper Mod is one of the best of the Mods too ~ changing your weapon into one with a circular blade that quite literally does as it says and rips Zombies apart!
There is very little more I can say about this game except that it is absolutely awesome! If you like Zombie games but been disheartened until now, you really need to check this out!
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Dead Island (Xbox 360)
by purplekimmy
Ok, this review may not be much use to some people, after all I am a 38 year old woman, who rarely gets to use the xbox, due to her 16 year old son (who lives on it) and her fiance who is on it when he isnt working or my son is at school or in bed.
I am not aware of adverts for many games, I rarely look forward to them coming ... out, my sons/fiance will rave about a game for a while and either for birthday/christmas or because our ears are bleeding, either my finace or I will give in and buy said game.
Dead Island was mentioned a few times, I yawned a bit and thought I may have a go when the xbox becomes free for a bit. I watched both my son and fiance play, cringing over the gore and hiding behind a cushion when certain zombie monsters appeared (thug, ram, god I hate that ram!!). However when I started playing it myself I really got into the game.
I will try to give a rough idea of the game, although if you are reading this far you will probably know what its about. You can be one of four characters, each one has their own strengths. You have to travel around different areas of the island, helping survivers and killing zombies to get off the island at the end.
During the game, unlike other zombie games, you do not start with a gun! These are rare and ammo is more so. You start with knives and bats and things you collect for completing quests for people. You can collect money and upgrade your weapons making them do more damage. This is a unique idea and very worthwhile. Much better than randonly running about with a gun. Your weapon gets damaged overtime and you need to repair it before it breaks, clever!
The noises during the game freaked me out, the ram scares the hell out of me and I did spend a lot of time jumping on cars, attacking people from there, as a lot of them cant get you. The ram however loses interest and walks away. The sewers were horrible and the hardest area I found.
I have played with all four characters and enjoyed all of them, I keep forgetting to use the fury, which when used helps a lot, if only I could remember to use it! I have cringed and screamed my way through this game but have really enjoyed playing it. I havent played it online or with others, I have just done a single player version but very worthwhile.
Svetty is most annoying though!!
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Dead Island (Xbox 360)
by silvercrusader
Dead Island is a first person/RPG survival game which pits you as one of 4 characters trying to escape from a so called "paradise holiday"... which has now been infested with millions of zombies. To survive, players have to complete a variety of quests to help people survive and eventually find a way of the island.
The ... controls at first seem very simple, arrows to select your weapon, a to jump, right trigger to attack... The trigger to attack button gets furiously boring after a while; killing a zombie by furiously pulling on a trigger provides little entertainment as you have no control as to where you cut, slice or bash the opposing zombie. However, there is a option in the game to change the attack button to using the analogue sticks. By flicking the sticks in the motion you wish to attack, your player will attack in the desired way. This results in a lot more accuracy and fun in killing zombies, as you can carefully and tactically choose where to attack, be it an arm, a leg, or the head.. you get the idea. Later on the game you access firearms which control much like a typical first person shooter, although it is easily much more fun to kill a zombie by cutting of each body part rather than a simple shotgun shot to the face.
The RPG aspect is well.. ok at best. By completing quests and killing zombies you gain experience to level up, and with each level up you gain access to better weapons and also a skill point to put on your skill tree, granting you various perks. The perks I think could be improved, as aside from the ability to stomp on zombies, most perks are very basic, such as increased life or increased damage, which doesnt leave the player much of an incentive to level up and gain new abilties. However, the first person aspect of the game more than makes up for this.
The best feature of the game though is easily the multiplayer option. Playing single player can be fun for a while, but the real fun begins when you get some friends together to play. Unfortunetly the game does not support local multiplayer, so unless your friends have online and a copy of the game, your pretty much stuck with the single player. However there is a option to join other random peoples games if there game type is set to open, so even if your friends dont own the game it is still possible to play online, but people tend to kick you from their games farily frequently and lets face it: Its much more fun to kill zombies with your friends then complete strangers.
Overall Dead Island does have some downfalls and isnt worth buying brand new, but if your able to get it preowned for £20 or less, its a worthy buy if your a fan of good old zombie killing fun.
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