Metascore

Mixed or average reviews - based on 41 Critics What's this?

User Score

Mixed or average reviews- based on 307 Ratings

  • Summary: Dead Island is a first-person shooter that pits you on an island full of zombies.
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 19 out of 41
  2. Negative: 2 out of 41
  1. May 21, 2012
    88
    Dead Island may lack that top level of polish, and even have its own awkward moments, but it's a game worth playing, and easily worth your money. The gameplay is deep, the visuals can be breathtaking (at times), and every bit of it is fun. This game earns itself a spot in the ranks of the best zombie games and RPGs around. There's still plenty of fun to be had with zombie games.
  2. Nov 17, 2011
    86
    Techland doesn't disappoint here by hitting most of the points necessary to make a good RPG and adding in some new ideas.
  3. Sep 12, 2011
    72
    Juggling a myriad of different game ideas, Dead Island works as either a cooperative loot fest with some friends or a solo decent into survival and isolation. For all it borrows from other games, it takes a step forward in twisting a real sense of adventure into the worn zombie apocalypse model. Unfortunately most of Dead Island's gifts can be compromised by a potentially ruinous save system or completely wiped out with bugs, neither of which should be considered acceptable.
  4. Oct 4, 2011
    40
    Even if it wasn't buggy and ugly, this would still be a chore to slog through. Dead Island's zombie plague is the stuff of nightmares in all the wrong ways. [Nov 2011, p.98]

See all 41 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 65 out of 116
  2. Negative: 31 out of 116
  1. Great Game! Yes there are bugs, but in the end the ability to beat a zombie senseless with a boatoar makes you forget about those. Definitely an online game, though playing on single player gives you more of a challenge. This game has a ton of replay value, with four different characters to play with. Kinda wish that you could have made your own, but oh well. This game reminded me of a cross between Grand Theft Auto and Left 4 Dead, and in my opinion combined great aspects of both. Another way to think of this game is a BETTER version of Boarderlands, a game in my opinion was boring and unplayable. Worth every penny, and later patches should fix alot of problems, don't listen to the haters, go out and but this game you will not be left unhappy. Expand
  2. this is a really fun game its borderlands mixed in with bioshock with zombies put in its overall really fun the graphics are meh but the game has been in progress for like 5 year time span the fighting is awkward but it actually was done on purpose to show the desperity of a zombie apocalypse it has a good leveling up system the story isnt amazing but most people get it to kill zombies really fun get it Expand
  3. Dead Island is a unique game. Not in such a way that you have never seen or experienced anything like it, because well, there really isn't an original bone in its metaphorical body. In Dead Island's case unique says a little more about its playability than its complete experience. See, the game is flawed, very flawed, extremely flawed, yet I could not put it down, and would play it again. Let us go back in time, to a time where the dead had not taken over the island of Banoi, but were merely threatening to, to the time of a certain promising looking trailer. What has not been said about the contrast of Dead Island the trailer and Dead Island the game? Not much I would say, so I will be brief. By now you most likely know the game has little to do with the emotion captured in that deceptive three minutes of footage that reviled to us a family (literally) torn apart in what was only moments all while on a nice warm vacation. Gamers cheered and anticipated the bloodied drama we were about to have unleashed upon us, but oh no, it was not meant to be. Instead we have a game that delivers the blood yes, and lots of it, but not an ounce of drama, well it tries, but doesn't succeed. Dead Island came to be a game more about action and sticking it to the infected more so than fearing them or a heart ache chaser in that gin 'n' survival horror tonic. Bottom line, the game in the trailer does not exist, but a game called Dead Island does. Now, the review. The game is fun, yes, very fun and addictive at that. It took me forever to get to playing it simply because I was disappointing by the way it turned out but after enough price dropping I picked it up and am glad I did. Now, the closest thing I can compare this to is Fallout 3, but do not let that fool you, I don't want my words ending up like the trailer. By comparing this to Fallout I only mean in its general delivery, picked up items, storing them, selling them, traveling and speaking to the community only to be sent miles away across dangerous terrain to fetch something which may or may not have any importance to you. Typical yes, but what did I say before? the F word, fun, and that's what it always is. It is unlike Fallout though in its depth, attention to detail and development and of course the fact that in Fallout you can often care about someone. In this game people are just there to be there, pieces of meat with limited character. You cannot speak back to them except when excepting or declining a quest which your characters musters out an "uh huh" or "cant do it." This is not a game for those wanting a deep and rich role playing journey. It is a game for people wanting to spend hours bashing in zombies brains and watching them bleed, and that you will get in spades. Dead Island gets a lot right in its limited gameplay. Zombies check, tension check, violence check, fun factor check. atmosphere check it but not in ink. Atmospherically the game has you convinced everyone is in trouble, and you will feel the need to press on surviving but at no real cost, and with no true emotions on the line. Graphically, aside from issues such as slow loading textures ect. its great, especially the island itself. The trees, water, fog, sounds of animals that you never get to see are all great and honestly have more life than half the NPC's. The story, well there really isnt one, there is a loose plot yet its really a graveyard of plot holes, and the flow and pace is the equivalent of thumbing through a spiral notebook of video game ideas and blue prints. But if your analyzing this game then your playing it wrong. Its an RPG and a good one even, you level up, upgrade, mod, side quest and co-op your way through a decent sized world of tropical zombie goodness. The gameplay though showing its disappointments here and there often is usually interesting and makes up for the flimsy story. You will choose one of four characters and then be thrown head first into the apocalypse. And though you seem to be traveling alone, you really aren't, the characters you didn't choose will be by you in most cutscenes, which kills the single player illusion but is easily forgiven in this game. Which brings me full circle to the beginning of this review, it is unique. Amongst the flaws, issues, and sheer lack of inspiration, the game is worth your time. Depending on your preference this game can be worth nearly any price you will find it for, though I recommend maybe $40 and less for the average gamer. Never before have I played a game so drastically different than what was expected and then so flawed on top of that yet didn't mind so much once I got into it. I like Dead Island, honestly. I never hated it, not once. If your doubtful I say just try it, don't think too hard, find your favorite weapon to silence the undead with, and become a mother loving hero on Banoi Island. For zombie lovers its pretty much a must, for the rest of you, this may make zombie lovers out of you. Expand
  4. This game is a prime and shining example of truly poor execution. What this game is, is sad. It was a game with potential to be so much better than what it turned out to be, and it turned out the way it did in due to an utter lack of any polish. Something could easily have been done to fix this game in just about every way, and the worst part is the developers knew it, they just didn't care. Lets start with the good. The first part of the game is spectacular, the opening is mediocre, but the environment couldn't be more outstanding. As soon as you enter onto the beach you have a feeling that it's going to be a great time, and it is, but only for a while. The combat is great fun and you really get invested in trying to make every battle as stylish as possible. There are loads of side missions and they set you up to really feel that you're surviving whence you realize just how big a part consuming food is along the journey. Everything seems great, and it almost is. Now the game is damn good from the start, but the problems were always there, they just weren't as annoying the first 100 times. After you've played the game for a few hours and it no longer feels like holding your hand, you realize just how bad the game truly is. The first part of the map is great, the rest is just horrible, but that's not the real problem. So lets get started on the negatives. The problem is pure gameplay, first off: this game is the glitchiest game I have ever played, not only is the pop in horrible, but the sheer number of bugs is enough to knock you over. You get stuck a lot, your HUD will tweek out on you constantly, the minimap is constantly navigating you in the wrong direction etc etc, There are many glitches that are so debilitating enough to keep you from progressing in the campaign. You'll have to get out and get back into the game. The absolute biggest and game ruining glitch you will run into is the technical range calibration of your weapons, for example: I'm playing as a character that seems to be 6 foot, and I'm holding a machete in hand, so that's a few feet of range right? wrong. After a brief stint of playing this game you'll come to realize something quite odd, and that is that your arm and weapons length is not realistically calibrated. You will realize that, in order to make contact with your enemy whence using a melee weapon, you will need to me at least 5 inches away from them, and this is never something you get used to. You will constantly be miss-judging distance, and you should, you know why? because you think logically, and this game is anything but. Next off, the friendly AI is moronic, slow, and incapable of ever helping themselves, the human enemy AI is the same way, the driving is horrible, stiff and boring, the graphics are just plain bad, the physics are horrible, the side missions (even though plentiful) are rehashes of each other, the story does nothing but insult your intelligence and the RPG is not in the least bit flushed out. I could go into detail about all this but I'm not, it's not worth my or your time. Just don't buy the game because it looks MUCH funner than it actually is. The more you play the more you realize that there is not a single good thing to say about it. Like I said, the beginning is deceivingly fun, the range calibration is annoying but whatever, but then you speedily spiral into an abysmal pile of garbage in more than one aspect. It's abysmal in all aspects. Expand

See all 116 User Reviews

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