1. msherry9

   9

   There's no way that this game deserves below an 8 from anybody who even played it for more than 1 hour. First, let me establish EXACTLY what kind of game Dead Island is, since so many other user critics fail to describe it accurately. Take the brutal and intense co-op zombie-slaying action of Left 4 Dead, the open-world exploration of Fallout/Oblivion, and the addicting looting of Diablo to form Dead Island. I don't understand why people can complain about Dead Island "ripping off" other games...It simply takes proven formulas and combines them into a new, superb one. Please disregard any user score below an 8, as most of them are utterly wrong in their reviews...not to mention that they're all written at an elementary school grammar level, which should tell you a little something about the writer. I have to stress to you that while the game is still extremely addicting even when playing by yourself, the amount of fun is literally multiplied for each additional friend you're playing with. Sounds cheesy, but is nonetheless true. The storyline is about what you would expect from a zombie game, consisting of the survivors attempting to get off of the island. It consists of about 30 hours of gameplay, excluding much exploration. The game's RPG elements are a nice touch, making me feel like all of the zombie-killing has more purpose than just good fun. I wouldn't describe the game's RPG elements as light, but they're about as straightforward and novice as you can get. You level up by doing quests and killing things, unlocking one skill point every level to spend on your character. Each character has 3 skill trees with about 15 or so skills per tree. You can spend this point to either unlock a new skill, or improve upon a current one. The skills aren't immensely deep, consisting of skills such as "Improved Weapon Durability", or an increased chance to kill a zombie in one hit. There are other skills that are much more exciting than the ones I described, but the core ones are generally passive that overall improve your characters combat skills. The four playable characters all represent some standard RPG classes, which are tank, leader/firearms expert, assassin, and throwing weapons specialist (who's also the "Jack of all Trades"). Combat in Dead Island is some of the most addicting melee combat ever implemented into a game. I highly recommend going to the Options at the main menu and switch your combat style over from "Digital" to "Analog". Digital consists of you mashing Right Trigger over and over, while Analog allows you to utilize precision with your melee swings. You use the Right Analog Stick to literally swing your weapon, allowing you to target various limbs. It takes a little time to get used to, but after a few minutes, it's fantastically addicting. The visceral mutilation is amazing graphic-wise, and the blood effects are astounding. In fact, the entire game possesses phenomenal graphics and the world is never bleak or dull. The looting on this game, as I mentioned, is very Diablo-esque, and never ceases to stir up excitement when I discover another weapons chest that may or may not contain that next godly machete or sledgehammer. You can attach various mods to any of your weapons, allowing them to cause even more destruction. Since this game revolves around melee combat, I had anticipated the shooting to be clunky and boring. I couldn't have been more wrong. The gunplay is extremely fun, and is not cumbersome to utilize whatsoever. Scoring that sick headshot on an unsuspecting zombie with a shotgun or magnum is a breeze. However, ammo is scarce throughout the game, but you can craft it later on with the necessary materials. Aside from all of these positives, I do have some gripes. The normal enemy zombies are called Walkers, with the next step up being called Infected. However, I think the Infected are some of the cheapest enemies in the game. They rush you furiously without any regard for their own life, and will literally chase you halfway across the map. As if that didn't tire them out, they're a ball of energy when they finally reach you, flailing their arms in all directions and scoring multiple devastating hits on you. The most annoying part is when you are in Act 2, and you're required to proceed through the "Quarantined" area, where the Infected literally spawn every 5 seconds nearby, forcing you to either die or fight an army of them. My biggest gripe of this game is weapon degradation. Your weapons degrade at astonishing rates, forcing you to repair quite frequently. This wouldn't be a problem if it wasn't so expensive to repair them. Couple that with the 10% of your cash penalty you receive when you die (which is often), and you've got yourself an annoyance to induce rage to even the most stoic of gamers. Overall, easily one of the best co-op experiences available on consoles, and in my opinion, a frontrunner for Game of the Year.… Expand

   • Helpful?

     5 of 5 users said yes
2. Venatis

   5

   This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The thing with Dead Island is, it starts of very enticing, you want to carry on playing and find out, 'How did this happen?' 'Why am I immune to this disease?' But the more you go through the game, the more you can actually live without knowing. It has a very repetitive style, NPC always asking for something. It's fetch this and fetch that, and halfway through the game you are just feel like saying, 'Go do it yourself!' And the ending left me very disappointed, the cure turning Ryder White into a zombie, oh please! Although admittedly the whole gameplay is very unique and nothing iv seen in a zombie game before, mainly melee combat based to make the game more tricky, but then I wasn't even afraid of dying because you lose some money and then are respawned in exactly the same place, or in some cases at your actual location your going too! Overall its good for about the 1st act before you realise the repetitiveness of it all, combat can be very fun, but sometimes very challenging if you are playing single player rather than multiplayer as you are overwhelmed with zombie (Especially at the church area) but still don't worry, you only lose money! The NPC as well as the PC's are very bland and you don't connect with them, I really couldn't have cared less if they would have all died in the end! (To be honest it would have been a better ending!) The scenery in this game is just amazing and it is fun just to sometimes take time out of doing repetitive quests and just explore the open world!… Expand

   • Helpful?

     3 of 3 users said yes
3. Keetron

   0

   I wanted to like this game, I REALLY wanted to LOVE this game. I tried, but I couldn't. With a game breaking weapon break system, horrible release version full of glitches, patches that caused more issues than they fixed, and "Pre-Order DLC" that still hasn't been released (it was announced today to finally come out on November 22nd, months after release) I can say that when I traded this game in, the 25 dollars I got back were a sore disappointment. A game with huge potential that got horribly mishandled by what seems to be a fledgling developer may have been the nail in their coffin for me.… Expand

   • Helpful?

     1 of 1 users said yes

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