Reviews// Dead Island

The Zombies have levels too, so if you don't level up strategically, you'll stand less and less chance as the game progresses.

While the game is non-linear, it is constructed in such a way that you'll explore certain regions, and encounter certain opponents first. And as the story progresses, so the area of the map you'll need to traverse expands.

There are also rival bands of survivors who barricade themselves into certain of the islands secure installations, which are the source of the majority of your missions. There are also "Fast Travel" points that enable you to move instantly between installations, though the exact mechanism behind this teleportation is not dealt with in the game story.

Overall, the rival factions in separate installations, abandoned secure facilities, crashed airplanes and tropical island settings give the whole game a strangely Lost feeling.

Dead Island is not without its frustrations. Delivering mission objectives is annoyingly picky. You have to carry the item to the right place, find the ghosted version of itself and place it exactly there. So, you can be facing a guy, with a can full of petrol in your outstretched hands, and all he'll say to you is "Go fetch me petrol". Not until you place it in the correct spot near his feet will he reward you for your successfully completed mission.

One of the mission-giving characters speaks in a Gor Blimey Guv, Stone the Crows, Apples and Stairs, Eliza Doolittle voice that it is actually offensive. I mean, the South Pacific accents in the game are bad enough, but they sound at least slightly authentic… but it is almost impossible to believe that Techland were completely unable to find a real English voice actor.

As you progress, you'll begin to use vehicles to get around the island, and to complete some missions. While this is great fun, and ploughing down Zombies is a quick and easy way to earn vital XP, it reveals the fact that Dead Island's physics model is rudimentary at best.

Some parked vehicles have open doors, and if you hit one of these in a speeding SUV, you don't expect it to stop you in your tracks. But that is exactly what happens.

Dead Island seems to have pissed off some people, because they found it "inconsistent". To those people I say this: It's a video game. Video games started in space, and typically include magic and/or super-powers.

This video game features the walking undead. "Consistency" is neither a traditional nor a required property of games. What is important, I find, is fun, and playability, and Dead Island delivers these.

Sure it's not RPG-ey enough for RPG fans, sure it's not Horror/ Survival-ey enough for Survival-Horror fans. Sure its action is not smooth nor action-ey anough for FPS fans. But for lovers of the Zombie genre, who are looking for something that is large, entertaining and enjoyable - this game ticks all the right boxes.

SPOnG Score: 75%

Conclusion
I really want to give Dead Island a higher score, based purely on the fact that I put hours and hours into it (and will do so in the coming weeks). But, objectively, it is too flawed to deserve it. Despite those flaws it delivers an entirely playable game with gruesome Zombie-slaying fun in spades. There is enough depth and strategy to make it appeal to players who find the glossier Tomb Raider/Uncharted-style adventure games shallow, but are not ready yet to delve fully into the world of RPGs. it's a crossover game, and deserves kudos for that.