|
Dead Island
Not another bloody Zombie game!!! It seems
that zombies are quite fashionable in the world of gaming and movies at
the moment and as a hardcore gamer, zombies are like a staple diet for
gaming and besides... we all enjoy dispatching a zombie or two... but
with Dead Island, this is probably in the high hundreds! Over the last
few months, Dead Island has been hyped up considerably and from all the
screenshots, interviews and trailers, this game soon became one of the
most anticipated titles of 2011. Needless to say, I've been playing
games for over a couple of decades now and I can safely say that Dead
Island has definitely lived up to the hype, if not more. Dead Island was
the release that the gaming world needed and developers Techland have
delivered with this entertaining and sometimes frustrating experience as
we slaughter zombies and attempt to save a handful of survivors on this
remote tropical island.
Originally, I was given Resistance 3 to
review on the PS3, however due to the extremely slow update, around
600MB, I decided to swap to Dead Island. Needless to say, I have not
looked back and Dead Island is a far more enjoyable and playable game.
The game begins with a rather impressive introduction that follows an
intoxicated person through a night club on this tropical resort as they
attempt to dance, chat up people and eventually get pushed off the stage
by the band, just in time to pass out. The song played by the band is
“Who do you Voodoo” which really sets the atmosphere of the game and got
stuck in my head for days! This is a precursor to game and just before
you pass out, you witness a zombie attacking someone in the night club.
Unfortunately for the staff and guests of the Royal Palms Resort on the
tropical and fictional island of Banoi (somewhere near Fiji), the sh*t
has really hit the fan.
From here you need to select your character
and when you do wake, you discover that the island has gone to hell.
Bodies are littered through the hotel and it’s like the island has been
invaded by soldiers but unfortunately these soldiers are the walking
dead. This is the moment your heart rate begins to climb and there are
many moments like this in the game. So if you have any heart conditions…
you might to keep playing Solitaire. The reason why you are the primary
protagonist in the game is because you are somehow immune to the effects
of the zombies, so no matter how many times you are bitten, you will not
change. In essence, you cannot die in Dead Island as there is plenty of
health littered throughout the game from energy drinks to first aid
packs. Even if you “die”, you only receive a cash penalty. Once you
figure this out, this does lessen the impact of your experience but
thankfully the gameplay is so fun, that you just want to keep playing.
There are four characters that you can
choose to play in Dead Island, each with a diverse history which include
Logan, Purna, Sam and Xian Mei, each with their own histories and
strengths. Logan is a former NFL player and is not only built like a
tank but his skill is throwing weapons. Purna, my favourite is an ex
Detective from Sydney Australia whose specialty is firearms. As
mentioned, each of the characters has an in-depth history that really
plays no part to the overall gameplay but does help get you acquainted
to the characters. Purna is quite a disheartened woman who grew up
racially abused as an Aboriginal and was unjustly discharged from the
police force. She has attitude which is probably why I selected her...
not to mention her firearm skills. Unfortunately there are not many
firearms on the island!
Sam is another of the playable characters who is a rap artist and likes
hitting things with blunt weapons. He is probably the ideal choice for
gamers as there is a considerable amount of blunt objects lying around
on this island. Finally we have Xian Mei, one of the employees of the
Royal Palms Resort and with her life thrown into turmoil, her speciality
are knives and other sharp objects. The characters also have some
slightly different statistics but in the overall scheme of things and
with the RPG element, you can customise the skills and abilities to your
own personal pathways like survival or combat or a combination of both.
There are a total of three paths that you can follow, however you can
mix and match the skills under these paths such as firearms or something
more entertaining like super kick.
After you make your first Zombie kill and get the knack of the controls
of Dead Island, it's time to help liberate the survivors of this resort
and hopefully get assistance from the outside. There are a variety of
missions in the game and by speaking with NPC's, they will give you a
mission which explains the task, the difficulty and experience points.
Although most characters will just complain or break down about the
situation, there are some characters that will be quite helpful in
giving you a mission and along the way, there’s plenty to be found or
upgraded. With this said, all the objects in the Dead Island are quite
useful and whether its upgrading your weapons or finding an object for
an NPC, they all have a purpose. Upgrading weapons is the key however.
By upgrading, this allows you to customise your favourite weapon and
even though weapons have a set number of times that they can be used,
these can be fixed at various repair benches.
The currency in the game is cash and
looting bodies and suitcases sometimes seems to go on forever but
thankfully you have an almost never ending carry bag for objects but in
terms of weapons, these are limited to a set number of slots. As brooms
and paddles break so often, even metal pipes, you can keep another
weapon as a backup which does assists when you go against this never
ending hoard of enemies. As the weapon creation system is similar to
Dead Rising, Dead Island just seems more realistic and like those
classic Romero horror films due to the realism employed in the game
thanks to the first person perspective.
Combat is quite bloody and violent in Dead
Island. As you hack, smash and shoot these zombies, the first thing that
you will notice is the realistic damage mechanics. You can even target
certain parts of a zombie such as their limbs and even decapitations are
possible. If a zombie does come too close, they will lunge at you and
you virtually need to punch them off you which is actually quite scary
as it’s in a first person perspective. Zombies in the game are not that
varied and every now and then, you'll face a tougher undead thug which
does take some strategy as opposed to just bashing them over the head
repeatedly. Nothing is more fun than throwing a gas bottle at a zombie
to knock it over and then use one of your last bullets on it to explode
it. Boom! Deodorant bottles work just as well! Zombies are easy to
fight one on one but when they surround you, discretion is often the
better part of valour… for example, RUN! In order to maintain your
weapons, once you have knocked a zombie down and as they slowly clamour
back up, you can keep kicking them until they die. Alternatively, if you
knock them into water, they will also die.
As the game is in a first person perspective, the way your character
interacts with the environment is quite realistic and sometimes you need
to wiggle the right analog stick up and down to break down a door or
perform some other interactive event. If you want to build up your
experience points, driving cars is the way to go as you run over these
hideous living dead. In terms of experience points, these points can be
used to upgrade certain skills of your character and I was quite
surprised at the customisation options available to the player. All in
all, the gameplay comes together rather well but the only drawback to
the game is the sometime repetitive nature of the missions and the
combat. I know it’s hard to keep a game about zombies entertaining from
start to finish but Techland almost succeeded!
Graphics/Audio
Graphically, Dead Island is a stunning looking game that really mimics
this fictional resort quite well. At times, you can just sink in all the
rays as you overlook the tropical bay or some other area like a swimming
pool with its tropical huts around it. There are also some great
lighting and water effects employed into the title that helps with the
immersion of the overall game. The highlights in the game are the
various zombies that you face that have all been extremely well animated
from zombies that sort of stumble towards you or those that run at
you... which is still quite scary. The downside to the graphics is that
some of the "human" characters seem a little too dead, especially their
lacklustre eyes and also the lip syncing seems to be out every now and
then. Another problem with the graphics are the pop-ups on the 360
version. Even so, it’s a very good looking game.
Voice acting of Dead Island is pretty damn horrendous. As the game is
based on this fictional tropical island with Australia as its closest
major country, the majority of characters are Australian. Unfortunately
all the voice actors in this game over emphasise the Australian accent,
so be prepared to hear words such as "mate" quite often or over
exaggeration of letters as they speak. Obviously this is how we sound to
the rest of the world! It is truly horrendous! Thankfully the sound
effects and background ambient noises help in completing the gameplay. A
special mention should be made about the theme song to Dead Island which
rocks. Also, Dead Island makes great use of your surround sound system
so be prepared to be blown away as you hear the grunts and screams of
these zombies.
Final Thoughts
Dead Island is a brilliant game and if you want to take this game one
step further, the cooperative mode online truly transcends the
single-player experience. Although the gameplay and story around
single-player is entertaining, playing with other people online enhances
the survival horror experience, especially when you're playing with
strangers as you're trying to complete objectives and save lives. Once
you have finished the single-player game, there is so much to do via
multiplayer that you might be playing Dead Island for a considerable
amount of time. My only problem with the game, besides the horrendous
Australian accents is the inability to save where you want and once you
have started a mission, you pretty much need to complete it for it to
auto-save. If you “die”, the game throws you back to the closest
checkpoint which may not have been the path you travelled but thankfully
there is a map with a bread crumb trail. However apart from that, I have
not had this much fun with a zombie game in quite some time and if
you're looking for some great first person action, than Dead Island is
that game! Wow... what a ride, for some good old fashioned Zombie
action. |
