Dead Island

 PC
User Score
6.9

Mixed or average reviews- based on 1659 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 816 out of 1659
  2. Mixed: 578 out of 1659
  3. Negative: 265 out of 1659
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  1. adrian0071
    May 11, 2023
    0
    Average game, run from here to there, bring me 2 packs of soda but if I bring 4 wont even take the other 2, combat is meh
  2. Giero
    Jan 3, 2023
    3
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  3. The_D4RknesS
    Jul 28, 2022
    4
    who knew that this crap here was created by the same developer that made the amazing DYING LIGHT 1
  4. r03vg
    Apr 17, 2020
    4
    Весьма однообразная игра. Ну, может начало интересное, а так больше и нечего делать.
  5. jalu
    Mar 28, 2017
    2
    Hardest Game ever i"ve ever played,Sucks gameplay and many more i die almost twice while doing mission very rare good blueprint and weapon damage so small but zombie damage to mush wtf game idiot game harddd
  6. Captain_Chaos
    Jun 22, 2016
    4
    2/15/2012: Dead Island is a textbook case of why videogame trailers should not be trusted. While I enjoyed the game enough to stick with it to the end of that first playthrough, I have no want to play it again and could not recommend it to anyone before, say, Borderlands. The trailer I speak of promised me a grim and gritty return to Dawn of the Dead style zombie fiction, with a focus on2/15/2012: Dead Island is a textbook case of why videogame trailers should not be trusted. While I enjoyed the game enough to stick with it to the end of that first playthrough, I have no want to play it again and could not recommend it to anyone before, say, Borderlands. The trailer I speak of promised me a grim and gritty return to Dawn of the Dead style zombie fiction, with a focus on emotional trauma and the bitter struggle to survive. Dead Island is not that game. It is instead an insipid, lootwhoring grindfest consisting largely of fetch and kill quests. Maybe if it were a free to play MMO or something would be worth it, because it does have entertaining combat- for like the first twenty zombies or so. After the umpteeth time you've broken a weapon, been duffed over by a Thug zombie or purged your inventory of vendor trash, you will wonder where the fun and drama went- and your money. Avoid this game if you can.… Expand
  7. Voyou
    Mar 15, 2016
    2
    It looks alright and it sounds alright. And then, you start playing and it's a different story.

    For starters, the controls are so abstruse that I couldn't figure them out without reading the manual. I never read a game manual. Ever. Never had to. Probably never will again. That says it all about the level of genius of the particular interface designer involved here. Also, classic    It looks alright and it sounds alright. And then, you start playing and it's a different story.

    For starters, the controls are so abstruse that I couldn't figure them out without reading the manual. I never read a game manual. Ever. Never had to. Probably never will again. That says it all about the level of genius of the particular interface designer involved here.

    Also, classic major flaw of action games, you can't save. In this particular instance, it means that you will spend your time looting 200 pieces of luggage (for some reason, you need dollars during a zombie infestation,) get killed, then restart the entire looting sequence. An unbelievably bad concept.

    And then, the first action sequence isn't even a fight. You have to run randomly until you either get killed or you find the right spot, with no help from logic or visual clues.

    If zombies don't kill me, boredom will. Bye game.    … Expand
  8. arctic_fox_sa
    Nov 10, 2015
    4
    When I first loaded it up, I thought it was pretty fun and exciting. Then about 20 minutes passed and I realized it was just the same thing again and again. There was no challenge to it, no fear nor excitement. It was a colourful chore at best. It has a few interesting ideas in terms of game mechanics, but these only matured by Dying Light, a far superior game.
  9. muzmuz
    Nov 4, 2015
    3
    While Dead Island has many potentials and is highly ambitious, it still failed to serve as an entertaining and exciting first-person zombie survival game.
  10. AnnoyedatThis
    Jan 27, 2015
    1
    Zombie killing FPS OK in between the mind numbing looking droning along to the weak story and pathetically no zoned maps with poor support on release and very badly configured graphics for an established game engine. tolerable then came the QTE

    Quick time events are for developers who don't know how to.
  11. N1nja_Jesus
    Sep 28, 2014
    0
    This game has hardcoded aimassist on PC! How could anyone give it more that 0?!!
    I don't even want to mention other technical dificulities with this game....
  12. Zhero
    Jul 1, 2014
    1
    It started out okay, there was a story going on, but then it takes a sharp turn and crashes. Real early in the beginning main storyline quests tell you to go do some 'side' quests. Movement is sluggish, trying to strafe while moving makes you slow to a crawl. The weapons break way too fast. Random enemies that are far stronger than anything else around that without a ranged weaponIt started out okay, there was a story going on, but then it takes a sharp turn and crashes. Real early in the beginning main storyline quests tell you to go do some 'side' quests. Movement is sluggish, trying to strafe while moving makes you slow to a crawl. The weapons break way too fast. Random enemies that are far stronger than anything else around that without a ranged weapon leaves you running in circles. The mouse sensitivity defaults way too high and when you adjust it the mouse moves too slow when you enter the menu. There is very little point to have a level system in a game if you're going to just make everything scale with you. It's a low quality PC port.… Expand
  13. Infearno666
    Apr 5, 2014
    4
    It's an unfinished mess. Textures are dreadful, lighting is from 1998 and whoever signed of those menus has never used a computer before. That and the fact my character seems to be ice-skating make it all but unplayable.
  14. randy_khoo
    Dec 30, 2013
    0
    I run a high end laptop that is capable of playing all the new titles in the market (Lenovo Y-410p).

    Dead Island just gives me a blank screen, and despite numerous attempts to correct this through forums, and support, this game has not been playable for me.

    I highly discourage you to purchase it, and encourage you to seek an alternative zombie game.
  15. Grismar
    Dec 20, 2013
    4
    This is not exactly a game with an open environment, as there is quite a bit of railroading going on. The voice acting is mediocre at best and the game looks and plays very much like a poor console port. There's all kinds of glitches, like sound fragments restarting over and over or sounding way too close. Or puddles reflecting like perfect mirrors until you get a feet closer and theThis is not exactly a game with an open environment, as there is quite a bit of railroading going on. The voice acting is mediocre at best and the game looks and plays very much like a poor console port. There's all kinds of glitches, like sound fragments restarting over and over or sounding way too close. Or puddles reflecting like perfect mirrors until you get a feet closer and the reflection disappears. The controls are stiff and feel like something from a decade back.

    The setting is not bad, but hardly original. Far Cry with Zombies pretty much sums it up. Except that Far Cry is a better game for its execution and mechanics. If you absolutely must have zombies in your game and you like it to be set in a tropical paradise, Dead Island might be your thing.

    The crafting is a nice idea, but a few dozen bland adjective to distinguish item quality, a workbench that accepts dollars to upgrade items, only allowing 7 slots for weapons but dragging around a truckload of junk to upgrade them with, etc. All of this makes it feel very poorly thought through. Fallout, Tomb Raider, Far Cry, they all did a better job of it. Sure, there's a lot of variety in naming and simple looks, but in the end it's still a wrench with a damage number that gets a bit higher.

    Healing is similarly silly you have to ingest insane amounts of snacks, fruit and energy drinks to deal with the mutilation inflicted on you by the zombies and every single one forces you to sit through a boring animation with annoying sound effects. As a game mechanic it's no fun and the realism is on the level of Serious Sam; but unlike Serious Sam, it takes itself too seriously and can't decide between zany and serious. It ends up picking the worst of both worlds.

    Dead Island reminded me a lot of Hellgate London and that's not a good thing. Who cares about game mechanics? Me, a gamer. There's plenty of titles out there that are more fun, have better zombies, better guns, better crafting, prettier islands and certainly more in the way of plot and voice acting. Unless you can get it for a few dollars on a crazy sale, I recommend against it. I paid 5 dollars, but I should have waited until it was 2,50.    … Expand
  16. ExtremeIroning
    Nov 30, 2013
    4
    I SO wanted to like this, I really did. It's a beautiful looking game with some fun gameplay to be had. It is however, ruined by a nonsensical, cliché ridden and disjointed story that is less half baked than completely uncooked, with voice acting that, while never awful is never truly convincing, either. There is also no sense of character development, with each cutscene (which barely evenI SO wanted to like this, I really did. It's a beautiful looking game with some fun gameplay to be had. It is however, ruined by a nonsensical, cliché ridden and disjointed story that is less half baked than completely uncooked, with voice acting that, while never awful is never truly convincing, either. There is also no sense of character development, with each cutscene (which barely even appear until the halfway point) showing the characters, both playable and no randomly changing their personality with no real explanation as to how or why, even within said scenes. The facial animations are at best laughable, while I did notice the zombies seemed to display a convincing look of rage, the characters the player interacts with always seem to look blank, even if they're supposed to be terrified for their lives. The combat AI for humans is also hilariously bad, with enemies directly in front of the player seemingly shooting right past them. The item break mechanic also seemed to make no sense, with the player going and seemingly paying a workbench to repair a weapon with cash, which given the large variety of items the player seems to run across makes it seem like a really lazy solution to an unnecessary feature. The combat was fun enough, although with zombies and specials pretty much spawning in the exact same place not minutes after the player cleared it out made it repetitive and quite frankly tedious.
    The item loot mechanic, which not only looks lifted from Borderlands was highly unsatisfying. I think this game had a lot of ambition, with some excellent ideas, a solid concept and a beautiful world but it was ruined by poor execution in many aspects of the game. It could have been something special but will probably be confined to the depths of mediocrity like so many other potentially great games. Still, it was better than Walking Dead: Survival Instinct.    … Expand
  17. markwhitton
    Nov 20, 2013
    4
    The truth is, I really wanted to like Dead Island but unfortunately it’s just not what I expected… The constant barrage of boring collection missions, an absolutely awful FOV which makes me feel sick after around half an hour playing, a weapon crafting/upgrading system which truly boggles my mind (I hate RPG/Strategy-esque things) and a really rather unattractive game in general (maybeThe truth is, I really wanted to like Dead Island but unfortunately it’s just not what I expected… The constant barrage of boring collection missions, an absolutely awful FOV which makes me feel sick after around half an hour playing, a weapon crafting/upgrading system which truly boggles my mind (I hate RPG/Strategy-esque things) and a really rather unattractive game in general (maybe it’s just the port)! I just couldn't find much too like about Dead Island, even killing zombies just wasn't that satisfying (it felt very repetitive) despite the sheer volume of weapons… I also didn't really understand the focus on money in the title; why should we be concerned about money in a zombie invasion; that's just contrived… Overall, I just found it a rather flawed and boring game!… Expand
  18. JasonHansley
    Sep 30, 2013
    0
    BAD GAME!

    I have put 20 hours on this game, the game has interesting story BUT it sucks as hell, i had to uninstall the game because of the endless annoyance it has. 1 Major problem for me, FEELS LAGGY! the game feels extremely laggy even i have +120 fps. 2 Mouse movements, in the menu the mouse is extremely slow. 3 No option to disable the head bobbing. 4 Combat system sucks!    BAD GAME!

    I have put 20 hours on this game, the game has interesting story BUT it sucks as hell, i had to uninstall the game because of the endless annoyance it has.

    1 Major problem for me, FEELS LAGGY! the game feels extremely laggy even i have +120 fps.
    2 Mouse movements, in the menu the mouse is extremely slow.
    3 No option to disable the head bobbing.
    4 Combat system sucks!
    5 No proper AA, AA seems doesnt work or has poor effect even on max settings
    6 Bad interface.

    I wish it worked as smooth as L4D series but forget that, the combat system makes you break your keyboard because theres nothing in combat system to learn, just hit hit hit, and hit and dont forget to hit again but for sure the zombies will hit you before you even reach them...

    Anyway 0 out of 10.    … Expand
  19. Sirik_Matak
    Aug 30, 2013
    1
    One of the most boring, pointless, broken production I've ever played. The feel of "why am I doing this" flows within this game all the time. Single or co-op, it's a terrible waste of time and nerves (technicaly broken). Combat is clunky and unbelieveably exploitable, maps are straightforward terrible, quests are all about BRING ME THIS OR WE WILL DIE (eventually: click this there). One ofOne of the most boring, pointless, broken production I've ever played. The feel of "why am I doing this" flows within this game all the time. Single or co-op, it's a terrible waste of time and nerves (technicaly broken). Combat is clunky and unbelieveably exploitable, maps are straightforward terrible, quests are all about BRING ME THIS OR WE WILL DIE (eventually: click this there). One of the worst zombie and co-op titles.… Expand
  20. Trueboy3rd
    Aug 3, 2013
    0
    The game was absolutely terrible. I have to say this is first boring game I have ever played that put me to sleep...literally.

    The combat is so tedious and the game has way to many bugs that it feels unplayable. Boring fetch quests, forgettable story and bland characters, there is nothing positive I can point out in this game to give it a higher score than a 0.
  21. Afroman22
    Jul 26, 2013
    2
    Dead Island was just... unfinished it seemed. The recycled enemies. The boring combat. The down right stupid story. The characters. It was... just terrible. I can't do anything but complain about this game.

    The story... well... uhh... it's there. It sucked but... it's there... right? I mean seriously half the time I didn't even know there was a story. I don't even remember any of the    Dead Island was just... unfinished it seemed. The recycled enemies. The boring combat. The down right stupid story. The characters. It was... just terrible. I can't do anything but complain about this game.

    The story... well... uhh... it's there. It sucked but... it's there... right? I mean seriously half the time I didn't even know there was a story.

    I don't even remember any of the characters. None of them had an impact on me.

    Graphics and visuals were below average. I never seen something like this at the price it cost ever. Except for the water which was oddly the most detailed thing in the game.

    Gameplay was just down right atrocious. The hit box for some melee was just awful and they want me to jump and hit too? Yeah no. Controls well... it handled well but again... with the combat being so spotty you can't really say it controlled well. Multiplayer CO-OP made it a tad fun as all my friends and I laughed at all the horrible things in the game and cracked jokes.

    OH BOY WAS THIS GAME HARD! If you're looking for a challenge look no further than this! This game's poor hit box and controls and overall boring game play just makes everything a god damn challenge.

    Would I recommend this game? NO! DO NOT TOUCH THIS!    … Expand
  22. BakaGamer
    Mar 27, 2013
    1
    Graphics and visuals are not all that great. Best thing I saw in this game was the water. Story is just awful. I never once knew what the hell went on and I never will... this was awful. Characters were awful... it was just... awful. Gameplay Movements and camera were all good but the combat... yeah that was horrendous. That's actually part of the difficulty. Hitting something. Wow if IGraphics and visuals are not all that great. Best thing I saw in this game was the water. Story is just awful. I never once knew what the hell went on and I never will... this was awful. Characters were awful... it was just... awful. Gameplay Movements and camera were all good but the combat... yeah that was horrendous. That's actually part of the difficulty. Hitting something. Wow if I was ever looking for a challenge this game is it. It is defiantly a challenge and I found it to be very hard. I enjoy a good challenge every now and then so this was defiantly a plus. Length/Replay I never got to the end. I couldn't. It was too BORING. It was just so unbelievably boring! Summary I did not enjoy this game one bit at all. It was too boring... too dull... nothing really new it's zombies with melee weapons now. I really enjoyed the challenge though its what got me as far as I went. I never say no to a good challenge but all the terrible things were weighing it down far too much that I caved and gave up. Waste of my money and time.… Expand
  23. TheRubixGamer
    Mar 1, 2013
    4
    The trailer dragged me right into a pre-order which now that I think back to it was a very stupid decision. The game has 4 characters that all have the same intro which really sucked and just seemed like the developers were just being lazy. At first the combat is really cool but it quickly becomes very repetitive and tedious. The zombies are not much of a threat as I found myself justThe trailer dragged me right into a pre-order which now that I think back to it was a very stupid decision. The game has 4 characters that all have the same intro which really sucked and just seemed like the developers were just being lazy. At first the combat is really cool but it quickly becomes very repetitive and tedious. The zombies are not much of a threat as I found myself just running passed them and occasionally jumping on top of a car so that I could catch my breath or just shoot them down so they stop pestering me. The biggest mistake about the zombies is they can not break down doors instead they just walk or run into it which causes a horrible clipping bug that just looks hilarious. The side missions were really boring because they were all the same, it seemed to me that there were only three types of side missions and that was fetch,kill,escort. I later moved onto co-op but it was just like playing the game on single player as my buddy just ran past zombies with me and we actually had more fun crashing are car into stuff but that quickly got boring due to the horrible physics engine. Speaking about the physics engine, everything in this game seemed to be a static object.

    Overall this game can be fun but gets very boring very quickly so it can easily be skipped.    … Expand
  24. TitaniumDragon
    Feb 26, 2013
    3
    The game suffers from severe bad design. The levels are not laid out in any sort of logical manner, instead more resembling what a real-world location would look like this sounds great until you realize that real world locations are designed for usability, while a level is designed to be a challenge. The net result? Confusing level design where stuff is just lying around randomly.

    The    The game suffers from severe bad design. The levels are not laid out in any sort of logical manner, instead more resembling what a real-world location would look like this sounds great until you realize that real world locations are designed for usability, while a level is designed to be a challenge. The net result? Confusing level design where stuff is just lying around randomly.

    The controls are poor, the game is slow-paced, the size of the areas makes completing quests a pain... the list goes on.

    The sad thing is, I didn't like Borderlands that much, but this is way worse than Borderlands Borderlands at least had logical level design and somewhat interesting monsters.    … Expand
  25. NuclearBurrito
    Feb 17, 2013
    3
    It is a disgusting,buggy,repetitive console port.The game is barely even working.It feels unfinished.Graphics are out of date,the missions are boring,the core fighting system makes killing zombies a chore more than anything.Exploring this half finished island is completely useless.
  26. LT1derland
    Jan 15, 2013
    4
    Scenery looks great, characters, a little less than stellar. The real problem lies with the level up system, there is no point when the zombies level up with you every inch of the way. Guns are another problem, they are useless against zombies so choosing the character with the gun perks is a complete waste, a mistake i made my first time through. There are bugs but that's not what ruinedScenery looks great, characters, a little less than stellar. The real problem lies with the level up system, there is no point when the zombies level up with you every inch of the way. Guns are another problem, they are useless against zombies so choosing the character with the gun perks is a complete waste, a mistake i made my first time through. There are bugs but that's not what ruined this game for me, boring quests a broken leveling system and a lack of any kind of story makes this sub par.… Expand
  27. snowshreder
    Dec 23, 2012
    0
    Graphics are crap i mean the Skins and textures were neglected really bad even the weapon models, the game mechanics are not comfortable to play with imho. The game was on sell for $6 so i didn't lose much money, Though i remember when it was like $50. The game is linear and i wouldn't recommend it to anyone, look elsewhere like left 4 dead/2 heh even the older games have better graphics.
  28. andytimber
    Aug 25, 2012
    3
    cut a long story short: this game has a lot of potential but ultimately it falls flat on it's zombie nose. the mission system is broken. soemtimes the map marker does not work so you do not know what do to next and have to to do the ENTIRE MISSION all over again. this is completely unacceptable in a 2011 release. moreover the inventory system sucks so hard and was so obviously designed forcut a long story short: this game has a lot of potential but ultimately it falls flat on it's zombie nose. the mission system is broken. soemtimes the map marker does not work so you do not know what do to next and have to to do the ENTIRE MISSION all over again. this is completely unacceptable in a 2011 release. moreover the inventory system sucks so hard and was so obviously designed for consoles instead of a PC. last but not least the story doesn' go anywhere (well at least not after having played for 7 hours!)… Expand
  29. Axton
    Aug 12, 2012
    3
    Repetitive, **** rpg elements, and pretty much a CoD-like take on an army of zombies gameplay hacking and slashing through them.
    This game was promised to be a good RPG, survival zombie game. That promise was not delivered.
  30. gas
    Aug 6, 2012
    4
    Bought during Steam summer sales, so quite nice price, im not very disappointed, the game is playable, its overall well made, the concept is good, at least as idea. The main issue in my opinion is that the game is boring and most of the situations are completely stupid.
    Its a sandbox game like fallout 3 or skyrim, but it lacks story, interesting zones, interesting enemies, character    Bought during Steam summer sales, so quite nice price, im not very disappointed, the game is playable, its overall well made, the concept is good, at least as idea. The main issue in my opinion is that the game is boring and most of the situations are completely stupid.
    Its a sandbox game like fallout 3 or skyrim, but it lacks story, interesting zones, interesting enemies, character developing, weapons, sense of progression.. basically it lacks everything except zombies.
    Quests are not interesting and usually it seems they are written randomly by someone who never played a game in his life.
    Character development is very streamlined and poor, also the game lacks really common sense, as in example you save an NPC and carry him into the safe zone, then he starts to sell weapons to you, like he could import weapons on a zombie island or even if in case of a zombie apocalypse ppl still use money to buy stuff each other to fight them... A good concept ruined by really stupid developer choices.    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

46
#46 Best PC Game of 2011
16
#16 Most Discussed PC Game of 2011
36
#36 Most Shared PC Game of 2011

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
80

Generally favorable reviews - based on 24 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 18 out of 24
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 24
  3. Negative: 0 out of 24
  1. Pelit (Finland)
    Oct 19, 2011
    91
    Dead Island is maybe rough around the edges, has things that could have been better and has some strange solutions to gaming mechanics, but really, who cares? The main thing, close combat with zombies on an open environment, is both exceptionally well done and most importantly, great fun. Even alone. In the land of blindingly pretty, but simplified tubeshooters the ugly zombie game is the king. [Sept 2011]
  2. Computer Games Online RO
    Oct 17, 2011
    88
    Dead Island has plenty of reasons to be likeable: a satisfying duration, enough freedom and interactivity to create addiction and enough potential to become a classic. And although it isn't what the elitists would call a mandatory title, I think it's infectious enough for me to pull my friend's sleeve to buy the game too.
    Read full review
  3. Thunderbolt
    Oct 9, 2011
    60
    It's the mission design that proves most disappointing. Its scale is highly ambitious but Dead Island's population of living dead aren't enough to compensate for its barren lack of variety and an increasingly tedious structure.
    Read full review
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