The game got a lot of attention during it's well made teaser trailer that was released a while back--the one where it's in reverse and the little girl becomes a zombie. If you were hoping for a survival-horror game with an emotional story, you won't find it here. Instead you will find a first-person, action-adventure game with a lot of RPG elements smacked on to add icing on the cake. But can gameplay alone carry the load on it's shoulder as the other elements fail to carry it's own weight?
Story:
Before you click on new game you are treater to a cinmatic preview where a guy is hammered out of his mind. As he goes through the crowd at this club on the island resort, he shoves people out of the way, pops some pills, drinking whiskey and at one point gets up on stage and seems to fight with an artist who is preforming some bad rap song. You'll notice a few zombie attacks but the guy is too wasted to know whats going on.
Once you go into new game you have the choice of choosing 4 people (The rapper is one). I chose the first character, Logan. When you click on the character you get a little biography of that person and what he/she specializes in.
After all that, you wake up in your bedroom at the hotel and notice everything is dark. As you walk through you notice something isn't right. You stumble your way into an evelator and it ends up crashing to the bottom floor. You meet up with a life guard names Somali and he tells you of their situation. Your quest to get off the island begins and it cannot come soon enough.
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Gameplay:
During your stay on the Banoi Island, you'll be chased down by your fellow vacationists who have all been infected with a virus and turned into Zombies. Convinently, which ever character you choose, you find out that you are immune to this virus. Due to this, the survivors you meet up with send you out to do a variety of side missions.
Side missions are essential in this game as it helps you progress into the main story and is beneficial in other areas as well (i.e: getting a car). You also have a wide Variety of missions some fun, some pointless--For instance, in this one mission, you have to find a Russian girl a bottle of champagne....sounds fun.
Anyway, the Island is huge so walking on foot to get to your objective might not be the best option. You get a vehicle to help you explore the Island to get from point A to point B at the snap of a finger. While running over Zombies can be fun, vehicles play an important role as they are often used to transport good.
Doing Side missions is a great and fast way to earn XP and earn skill points. Skill points needed to upgrade the 'skill tree'. There are plenty of skills to learn and each node can be upgraded 3 times. Once you upgrade a node 3 times you can move onto the next level of the skill tree.
During the side quests or just navigating your way around the island, you'll come across materials used to upgrade your weapons such as Nails, Tape, batteries etc. The option to create new weapons only come when you collect "Mods" (Think of it as a blueprint) scattered throughout the world. You can upgrade, create and repair your weapons at a work bench. It all cost money but there is plenty of cash laying around the island.
Speaking of weapons, ironically, the most useful "weapon" in the game will definitely be your kick. It can knock down enemies giving you an opening to retreat or save you from using your weapon because they easliy wear down and break. It doesn't use any of your stamina so it's very reliable.
The best way to experience this game is through multiplayer as it supports up to 3 other players. Finding another game is simple as you can do a couple of things. (1) Not do anything. You're always online and people can join you. (2) A notification will pop up asking if you wish to join this player with the push of a button or (3) Pause the game and search for a lobby. It's all effortless and works pretty well.
The game can be a little tough at times so it's always nice to have a little help. You can also tackle multiple missions as well if you split up.
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Graphics:
The island of Banoi looks pretty if you don't look at it up close. You have beach, huts built over crystal clear waters and trees as far as the eye can see. When you go closer, that is when the Island doesn't look too nice.
I'll start off with the horrible character models and animations.
There have been several times during a cut scene where a group of zombies will be running and during first second or so they won't be into their running animations as they just glide across the floor. Talking to the local survivors is awkward as well. Most of the time they don't look directly at you as their eyes wander off with their head down. When they finally do decide to stare at the person that is trying to help them you'll see that their lips don't match with what they're saying.
Character models are extremely ugly and reused. Most females are in their bikini's rocking their porn star bodies. Males have a bit more variety since you'll see a couple with a shirt and/or hat on. But they do have the same body type, thin and muscular.
You'll come across some thicker people but not as frequently and when you do, they look like the same fat guy you just pummeled a few minutes ago. Once you get into the city, the variety opens up a bit....except this time, everyone is dressed up as a nun.
There are also some rendering issues that make textures pop up late. This is more conspicuous when there is a cut scene and after the cut scene. Even if this problem was non existent, the textures would still look like rubbish. Even something as simple as the muzzle flash from the guns look off.
Also, the game is plagued with glitches as there are already tons of videos posted on youtube. It's not a game breaker but it shows off how unpolished the game is.
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Sound:
Should I go on? Well to be honest, the game sounds amazing....Ok, I lied. The game sounds terrible. Just like the recycled environmental and recycled character models, you also have to sit through recycled dialog whenever you find something, attacked by zombies, or accept/decline a mission.
Voice acting overall is pretty bad and everyone lacks emotion and spew out terrible lines from a poorly written script with dialog that could have been written by a 10 year old.
Sound effects are just as poor. Sharply steering your car around a tight corner ,breaking glass, and shooting guns produces a weak and faint sound.
Soundtrack is forgettable and barely noticeable.
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Lasting Appeal:
It seems obvious that the developers neglected the other aspects to the game and spent the majority of their time creating a massive island and developing the gameplay.
If you can look passed the imperfections that plague Dead Island, you may discover that the game is entertaining to some degree. Meleeing Zombies is fun, the RPG elements have depth and there is hours upon hours of missions to do. There is much to do on the Island of Banoi so you rarely find yourself doing the same things. However, I simply can't look passed the games shortcomings as they are too prominent. If you can, then you might fully enjoy your stay in paradise while dismembering a few Zombies.
We might be in the age of remasters, but it doesn't look like the Dead Island 2 devs believe remaking the original game is the right move for the series.
but remakes require far less effort for these companies and they can still charge $70 for them!
Feel like everyone makes fun of Skyrim re-releasing like 18 times yet applaud these remasters elsewhere. Would much prefer NEW games
Making sequels really is the way to go. Otherwise we'll be stuck playing only the first entry, forever!!!
Josiah Motley of KnowTechie writes: "I love video game trailers. While I don’t believe they are an integral part of a game’s success (especially these days), there’s something about a well-produced trailer that really just reminds me why I like video games."
How so? Because it focused on a family that you see dying? (innocent question, haven't gotten a chance to play any Dead Island game yet)
More the tone of it - the tone of the trailer suggested something personal and dramatic, but the game was very much reminiscent of Left 4 Dead in that you were just there to kill zombies and nothing more
You play as a singular character there is no family involved at all in the game. Still a stand out trailer that I remember clearly from years ago.
Did you not like the game?
I remember going in expecting a L4D style of game, but the excessive camera swaying honestly made me feel ill, and it's rare for a game to do that to me, still don't understand why the need for anything other than maybe a subtle slight camera movement when doing melee attacks etc. Other than that i didn't really find the game that good. In all honesty i had more enjoyment out of DNF, and i know many people crap on that game.
It’s the music. It’s perfect. I agree with this for sure, it is well choreographed….unfortunately the game didn’t live up to the trailer.
Maybe not, but it was still a good game. I liked how they expanded things with Dying Light, but Dead Island was a great first attempt! I really liked all the Easter eggs and homages to other horror franchises sprinkled throughout. Sure it was a little cheesy and over there top, but it was a good happy medium between Far Cry and Fallout with zombies.
Have you ever seen any of the MGS 3 or MGS 4 trailers? Those blow this out of the water for me.
They require prior knowledge of the franchise, tho. You show this trailer to anyone, and I mean ANYONE, and they can understand what's going on and relate to the family dynamic almost immediately. No need to know who is Snake, or Fox Hound, or Raiden, or Metal Gear...
Kevin F. from Link Cable Gaming writes: "Many of the best Xbox 360 games are playable on the Xbox One and Series X|S consoles. Some even with some enhanced visuals and performance. Unfortunately, not every game from the Xbox 360 library has received this glorious feat of being able to be played on more modern Microsoft consoles."
The Spider-man games will never happen. The xbox 360 Marvel Ultimate Alliance games have a better chance of happening than Spider-man titles but won't happen. The Xbox One Ultimate Alliance games delisted years ago
Yeah... you can totally forget about those entries that got delisted because of licensing issues. Those are not happening.
Almost all of the games people want to play are BC, and that's a hell of a lot better than having none available.
Almost all the games people want to play? Not true. Majority picks screw over the minority who have games collecting dust. Metal is right. Fans make it seem that it's all. 39/997 games from OG Xbox is NOT all. 568/2154 from 360 is NOT all. But you guys play it up like it is.
And from my count, there are 4,000+ PS4 BC games on PS5 that I see. And almost every VR game. Series X has no Kinect games or Kinect 2. But you played that up too. No more dancing.
As for the article, some of the BC games make sense. The others with Spider-Man aren't happening.
Nice review, I'm still on the fence about this game myself, been interested in it for a while but planned to get it later on when the price of it goes down but figured that by the time that happens no-one I know will be playing it. I've seen some pretty good reviews for it but lately more fairly average reviews are the ones that are appearing so I'm not entirely sure what to do. But if the game is as glitchy and buggy as it sounds like it is (and since I don't really have any extra money to buy it now) it looks like I'll leave it for a little while.
Thanks for the your honesty in the review, it showed. Glad to hear the gamplay is nice and coop work well, also that there's hours worth of missions. Graphics and a few glitches are definately something I can forgive in a large open RPGish world as long as there is substance. Iv already ordered the game and just for it in the post.
Nice review.I totally agree but for me it the score will be 6.5.I really cant understand gaming journalism this days how can some reviewers give 8 and 9 to this game,putting this average game in the same status has L4dead,Dead space,or even Dead rising its just hilarious.Long life to Edge and Gamekult.
Thank you for the review. Your cons have encouraged me to wait for a price drop, rather than give into pressure from a friend.
The game in coop mode is really one of the best experience on consoles. It feels sometimes like little MMO. Single player is good - but nothing more. THis game is designed for 4 people.