back to article Dead Island

Sweaty locals and voodoo always remind me of Angel Heart and I was as confused as Mickey Rourke after watching Dead Island's appalling intro. Seriously, who says "git" these days? Must be all those red pills and JD. This may explain the reverse time trailer I saw a few months back, which mislead me into thinking there might be …

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  1. Robert Grant
    Thumb Down

    "this game is all about kicking zombies while there down"

    Really? REALLY?

  2. Godwhacker

    Minor reviewing fail

    You do get a weapon right at the start. It's a paddle, right next to the door.

    Anyway, it's a rather shambolic game, but also remarkably fun and at times surprisingly scary. There are some horrible UI moments, but that's what PC gaming is about, right? The interface is at least better than the one used in Ultima Underworld.

  3. HP Cynic

    Dead Buggy

    As I understand it the version which was released on Steam was incredibly buggy and flawed and a recent patch (to the correct version they intended to be on there) has actually made it worse.

    It looked like a cheap, messy Left 4 Dead to begin with but I'm staying well clear until they get it working properly.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    75%!?! Is the console version actually not cra*p then?

    Have played this on the PC. It's bloody awful. Can't be bothered to repeat all the gripes as I've already mentioned most of them elsewhere (http://uk-tf.co.uk/index.php/forum/19-half-life-2-mods-steam-games/3122-dead-island-release-trailer).

    Also, I'm assuming the "impressive backstory of the characters" was cut out of the PC version as I seem to have missed it.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      The backstories are there on PC, but if you click through the opening screens too quickly you will miss them.

      I had a few reservations about getting the game after the launch debacle, however having played the patched (1.2) version over the weekend I have yet to have any real problems other than the odd thrown weapon evaporating.

      Gameplay is a little clunky, but that just makes you feel a little less godlike. The repeating quests are a bit daft, and serve little narrative or progression purpose. Having someone complain they still need water after you have supplied enough bottled water to refill the atlantic ocean comes to mind. They are optional though.

      The story is a bit weak, but then I can think of several similar games which have the same problem (Resident Evil everything, Dead Rising 1+2, Left4Dead). But then again, when have stories mattered in zombie bashers?

      1. Hud Dunlap
        Joke

        Perhaps they wanted fresh water

        "Having someone complain they still need water after you have supplied enough bottled water to refill the atlantic ocean comes to mind"

        Perhaps they wanted freshwater not seawater.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Wait, let me get this straight..

    You find starting the game with a weapon scarier than not starting with one? That's...uh, that's just crazy. Surely the prospect of facing down zombies unarmed has got to be scarier? I mean, its all very well thinking the game designers aren't going to put you in danger without giving you a means to fight back, but that seems like an unwarranted assumption to me. Plenty of game designers are sadistic enough to do exactly that, particularly if it achieves the aim of a zombie game, to whit, scaring you to death.

    So, anyone played the PC game? What are the graphics like on that?

  6. Graham Jordan

    as a fan of Dead Rising...

    Should I buy this or wait for DR2: Off the record?

    Answers on a postcard please...

    1. Jay 2

      RE: as a fan of Dead Rising...

      I wasn't overly impressed by DR2 (PS3 owner, so never played the orig), mainly due to the time constraints that stopped me from exploring. Though I hear that DR2:OTR will have a sandbox mode. I think I'll stick with DI.

      The good thing about DI is that you can explore everywhere with no time limit, even (I think) whilst you're in the middle of a mission. There are loads of weapons to be found (and modded). The down side is that weapons tend to wear out easily and it costs you $ to repair them (at a bench). This gets a bit silly after you've spent lots of $ to improve and mod them, the repair bill can be quite horrendous. The vague saving grace is that all the places that you find items to use/sell respawn something after a time.

      Whilst I quite like this game, I agree with many of the reviews. The depth perception can be quite tricky, so when you get an 'infected' zomb doing its best Usain Bolt in your direction one incorrectly timed swing/stab/kick/etc will see you jumped on and rapidly killed. Once dead you will respawn somewhere semi-random nearby, with some $ removed. In one case I ended up respwaning inside an objective room I'd never been to before and was killed outside of!

      Another thing that annoys me is the lack of defined saving. In short you don't get to decide if/when you're going to save, and the game doesn't make it entirely obvious. So you have to keep an eye out for the "checkpoint reached" message which briefly appears. Otherwise you might quit the game and upon resuming find yourself going over old ground.

      Overall I quite like it, though it often infuriates me in almost equal measure!

  7. Anon the mouse

    Impressive backstory?? Really?? you mean the page of blurb on the character select screen surely.

    Playing PS3 version and I've not had any of these bugs appear to ruin my fun yet.

    Biggest annoyance is the Zombies level with you... did techland not see the grief Bethesda got over oblivions autoleveling baddies? Oh and the screen tear for a minute after fast travel.

    1. Guido Esperanto

      uttered from the Zombie on Dragons Den

      I'm out.

      levelling the bad guys with you is a pure chewbacca defense....it makes no sense.

      you are not rewarded for spending time, you in fact punished for it.

      bethesda lost me as a fan when they did this with oblivion, looks like Im gonna avoid this one too.

  8. Fading
    Meh

    Dead Calm

    For anyone wanting a fast paced gore fest or a deep moving experience investigating the fragility of humanity when faced with overwhelming prevalance of death and horror, then this isn't the game for you. It is neither L4D action of Silent Hill horror but more a borderlands jaunt without the humour.

    It's fun finding new weapons to mash decaying holiday makers to a pulp (though no Judith Chalmers look-a-like unfortunately) and in co-op with suitable mates it has it's moments (as long as being molatov'd by your friend's incompetent manipulation of the game's clunky inventory mechanic is considered entertainment). But the graphics on the PC are disappointing and frequently look dated up close (think half life source not even as good as L4D one or 2) nice vistas shame about the objects.

    The game also suffers from random glitches for object placement and your character will find at times an edge of a paving stone impassable - frustrating almost as much as the random zombie grab distance.Really needed a bit more play testing time on the PC as the console mechanics are a distraction from what isn't a really bad game just one that has too many rough edges.

    Not worth the £29.99 (especially as a four pack of Game of the year edition Borderlands was on steam for £14.99 the other week) but come the Christmas sale it will be worth picking up as a budget title (if you can drag yourself away from BF3 that is).

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    I say still say git

    you git !

    (but then I am plus 40 :) )

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Whoopy Do!

    Wow yet another Zombie game!

    Crikey, are games houses going the same way as Hollywood?

  11. Erroneous Howard

    Fun but...

    My biggest issue with the game is that I have basically lost progress when quitting. I am sure that I reached another checkpoint (in fact several) after the point it sent me back to, but basically lost about 2 hours of progress. Redoing the same missions confirmed a number of "checkpoints" which seem to have been lost in the save game.

    To be honest, I can ignore a lot of the bugs as I love the open nature of the game and the satisfaction of mashing zombies with a variety of violent weapons.

  12. Spleen

    "If you are given a weapon right at the beginning you know something is waiting round the next corner."

    That sounded like an interesting observation when I first read it, but then I realised the author just hasn't played enough games. Amnesia and the beginning of Half-Life 2 are obvious examples of games where being unarmed doesn't mean you won't be attacked. On the other side, Doom 3 gives you weapons well before the action starts..

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Gimp

    completed all four characters

    well i`ve completed all four characters, and enjoyed it for the dismemberment, sure lots of gripes, but i had a lot of enjoyment too, 20 hrs your having a laugh, so many different ways to upgrade the weapons, so many ways to upgrade yourself. i logged 164 hrs. i found three of the hidden skulls which are dotted round the island but still cannot bring myself to youtube the answer.

    bugs: picking up alcohol and it replacing your weapon drinking it at the wrong time, or it being replaced by a different weapon, real pain in the butt, inventory was a pain in the but, equipping the right weapon back again.thrown weapons disappearing. The lock pick skill arent worth a toss, to be honest, crafting grenades, changes your weapon, invariably when coming out of the menu one gets thrown, throwing a molo in a door way hits the entrance, when clearly it should have gone through

    zombies seemed to be in packs of 5, no hordes, scary your having a laugh, the hardest section is near the medic tents where the super fast zombies respawn so quick, 3 of 4 of those on your tail makes you pucker. I would like to have seen zombies come running when a grenade went off. Difficulty levels would be nice too, one where your scared to step out of the door would have been nice.

    In the end it reminds me very much of left 4 dead(without the hordes)http://www.reghardware.com/Design/graphics/icons/comment/gimp_32.png

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