Dead Island

Title: Dead Island 
Platform Played On: Xbox 360 
Release Date: September 6, 2011
Date Played: June 2012 
Time Played: 28 Hours 
Completed (Y/N): Yes 
Score: 5/5



Opinion:
Dead Island made quite a splash with its early 2011 trailer. Not only did it graphically look amazing, it was also very emotional. A few months after the trailer stunned the world, the game came out, and surprisingly got forgotten fairly quickly.

Dead Island was developed by Techland, the company behind the Call of Juarez series. The action is set on a tropical island, a prime vacationing spot and also the location of the world's most notorious prison located in the middle of the bay (akin to Alcatraz). Four people from completely different backgrounds ended up on this island by a strange twist of fate, and all four are immune to the zombie bite. You can choose to play as one of the four. Each has his or her own playstyle, his or her own strengths and his or her own background. The character I played receives bonuses to thrown weapons. Other choices are, bonuses to blunt weapons, sharp weapons or firearm bonuses.

First thing that I noticed when I started playing Dead Island is that the game is gorgeous. The entire island is very detailed and every place looks as you would expect it to look in real life. Second thing that I noticed about Dead Island is the fact that the game world is ginormous. It is broken up in several locations, resort, city, jungle and the prison. Each location has its own quest hubs and each looks distinctly different from the others. Introduction of new environments is very well paced and overall Techland did an excellent job keeping the gameplay fresh.

Skill Trees For Logan

Third thing that I found rather interesting in Dead Island is the RPGingness of it. Not only does it have the colored loot, and leveling mechanics, but it also features skill trees. Each character has 3 skill trees they can dump points into (each level gives you 1 point), which allows you to further customize your character to suit your play style. Speaking of the tiered loot. Items can drop from zombies (if they are wielding them), picked up from chests, found in the environment (pipes, bats, paddles etc), and received as quest rewards. They can vary in quality from White -> Green -> Blue -> Purple -> Orange, with Orange being the best and rarest. I only picked up 4 of them in the first playthrough (not counting about half a dozen or so that I received as quest rewards). Almost every piece of loot can be modified and improved, most with a variety of mods, plans for which can be either found or received as quest rewards.

Example of Loot

Dead Island features two different combat styles, a whats called analog style and a digital style. The digital style behaves as you would expect it to behave, left trigger to aim, right trigger to swing or shoot. Analog style though completely changes the experience. In analog mode left trigger becomes a "ready" button, and the right stick becomes your swinging arm. In analog mode you can direct each blow precisely where you want it to go. It gives you granular control in combat, which allows you to strategically damage the zombies (which has its benefits).

Most of the game I stuck with slicing weapons, such as cleavers and swords. I found that one precise slice to the neck is far more effective than trying to bludgeon a zombie to death.

I played as Logan an ex-football player who ended up on the island as a celebrity promoting a blood drive. I played through the whole game single player, which was a very enjoyable experience. But playing Dead Island co-op and rolling around as a 4 player posse could be extremely fun. Dead Island is a very good game, I would go as far as saying it is the best Zombie game I have ever played. It just has so much to offer. It looks amazing, the character variety offers over a 100 hours of replayability, the random tiered loot, weapon upgrades and leveling mechanics keep you coming back, the analog battle system, variety of weapons and environments give Dead Island depth. I think it is pretty clear that I had a very good time with Dead Island, and think that Dead Island should be in everyone's collection. I can not wait for the sequel (Dead Island: Riptide).

My Stats After Finishing The Game For the First Time (As Logan)