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
Buy Now
Buy on

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. spmxvc
    Oct 5, 2011
    0
    What happened to PC games? At some point along the line did the developers lose their way? Did they all get together and just make games for the console and then port them to the PC without bringing along any of the options that PC gamers have been used to for decades? Dead Island was released initially on PC extremely buggy, which shows how much time and effort these companies spend onWhat happened to PC games? At some point along the line did the developers lose their way? Did they all get together and just make games for the console and then port them to the PC without bringing along any of the options that PC gamers have been used to for decades? Dead Island was released initially on PC extremely buggy, which shows how much time and effort these companies spend on the PC version of recent shooters. In particular itâ… Expand
  2. Reaktorblue
    Sep 6, 2011
    2
    Dead Island has the potential to be a great game however, the game feels rushed and as such, there are a plethora of problems with this game that are beyond simple nagging problems. In it's current state, Dead Island is not playable.

    First, you have the sound. The sound works intermittently, one moment you have working sound and the next moment you have piercing static or a repeating    Dead Island has the potential to be a great game however, the game feels rushed and as such, there are a plethora of problems with this game that are beyond simple nagging problems. In it's current state, Dead Island is not playable.

    First, you have the sound. The sound works intermittently, one moment you have working sound and the next moment you have piercing static or a repeating sound clip. Next you have the actual playability. Dead Island freezes and lags constantly, even on excellent hardware. It's beyond annoying to attempt playing a game under those conditions.

    In the end, Dead Island does have the potential to be a fun game but the wise gamer will sit on this title and see if the developers can improve its functionality, else this game will fail hardcore. Right now, the game will leave you wanting to pull your hair out more times than it will offer an enjoyable gaming experience.    … Expand
  3. applethin
    Sep 7, 2011
    0
    To summarize in one sentence, this game is borderlands with zombies and like no guns. The midnight release play was absolutely terrible. The game stutters every 3 seconds for no reason. Everyone's mic is open and there's no way to mute them. I only got to play first three chapters before Techland decided to wipe my save without warning. Apparently they uploaded a console version to steamTo summarize in one sentence, this game is borderlands with zombies and like no guns. The midnight release play was absolutely terrible. The game stutters every 3 seconds for no reason. Everyone's mic is open and there's no way to mute them. I only got to play first three chapters before Techland decided to wipe my save without warning. Apparently they uploaded a console version to steam (DOH!) and considering how it still hasn't been fixed, the issue goes much deeper. The graphics looked absolutely terrible compared to what I was expecting from trailers. The character animations are hideous. Honestly, I've seen half life 2 mods with better animations. The inventory is a pain in the ass to use. Interface was made for consoles and it's absolutely baby-punch-frustrating as a PC gamer to slowly click through things because they were too lazy to change it. Honestly it wouldn't be so bad if weapons didn't break so quickly and I have to access item menu every 3 minutes. You shuffle through 10 diff containers and get 50 dollars which you'll have to spend to repair a knife that breaks after 5 swings. But seriously though, YOU SPEND MOST OF YOUR TIME OPENING CONTAINERS AND PUNCHING BABIES THROUGH BAD INTERFACE MANAGING ITEMS RATHER THAN KILLING ZOMBIES AND SURVIVING.

    The characters are also horrible. The models are hideous and it's really hard to take a liking to a character and level them when they're not likable at all. While they call this game an RPG the characters have no story behind them other than a tiny paragraph intro where they basically prove the developers are bunch of racist white men who never seen a non white person in their lives or something. The asian woman sometimes sounds super asian and sometimes just sounds white. The 'sure' and 'yes's that they say when accepting a quest are sometimes totally out of place and kills immersion. I will say that I liked the zombie animations and their ragdoll mechanics. It's pretty hilarious to stand on some stairs and watch zombies fall down the stairs when you kick them.
    When I was buying this game, I was expecting more L4D element but I was very wrong. This game definitely has borderland written all over it. It even has aimless driving. Btw, Why does a truck have infinite health in a survival game? It needs to get damaged and stalled by zombies. It's pretty ridiculous you just go godmode-run-over-everything.

    Am I mad bro? I think so bro. I just spent 50 dollars on this.    … Expand
  4. NICESNAG
    Sep 6, 2011
    2
    Oh boy, where do I begin. I was rather excited to play this game as I'm sure most people who watched the trailers were. It's no secret that a publisher would push an unfinished product out to people in order to meet a deadline, but it seems like it's trending to the point where games are broken and unplayable for the first week or so of play. This to me is completely unacceptable.

    Once    Oh boy, where do I begin. I was rather excited to play this game as I'm sure most people who watched the trailers were. It's no secret that a publisher would push an unfinished product out to people in order to meet a deadline, but it seems like it's trending to the point where games are broken and unplayable for the first week or so of play. This to me is completely unacceptable.

    Once the cut scenes have finished and you're into the menu, the first thing you'll notice about the PC version is how it is nearly impossible to control your cursor. No big deal, after nearly suffering from tennis elbow trying to navigate yourself through the overly simplistic and console-like menu system, you'll find your standard sensitivity bar. Naturally you'll "crank that sh*t up to 11" and enjoy being able to actually move around somewhat normally in the menu. As mentioned your options are EXTREMELY limited, and for those of you who enjoy playing on 120hz displays, you'll notice that the game for some reason has a maximum of 100hz display refresh. No big deal I'm over that.. LETS FIGHT SOME ZOMBIES.

    Once you finally stumble your way into an actual game, the first thing you notice is because you set your sensitivity to max that it completely uncontrollable in game. You turn that back down and just hope you never have to go back into the menu system for fear of pulling a muscle trying to change anything in the future. Now most people's first instincts is to try and invite your friends or have them try and join your game. What's that? You don't have any option and aren't sure why? It's because the game requires you to play through the first part of the "Act" giving you some back story before actually allowing you to play with friends. This is fine, but I would recommend they actually explain it to people so they don't spend 10 minutes trying to get people into the game.

    Once you have completed the first Act, it's on to what I call "the cabin of despair". Why is that? Because you are going to be sitting in that cabin for a good 30+ minutes trying to get your friends actually into your game. Once they are finally in there, enjoy having the in-game Voice over IP system always running.

    Ok, an hour after the games been installed we are now ready to fight zombies. One thing that I found extremely annoying about this game is the movement. After exiting the cabin and you start to move around the island, the overly done bloom effect mixed with the sluggish movement feels like I'm suffering from a terrible hangover. I decide to power through it.

    After about 30 more minutes of wondering around the island picking up badly explained objective missions and fighting a very very small number of zombies around what I can only assume must be luxury resort due to the lack of people/zombies I find myself bored and playing with the "developer features" they forget to take out such as noclip.

    Unfortunately I found flying around the island using noclip and driving my truck off of cliffs much more fun than any of the gameplay thus far. People who claim this is only just "First Day/Week Hiccups" are definitely underselling it, and I would not recommend anyone spend any money on this horrible, bug riddled game. Please, think of your wallet and your elbow before wasting away either on this monstrosity.    … Expand
  5. tehpoutine
    Sep 6, 2011
    0
    This is an unfinished game. I don't buy the crap that they accidentally released a dev build or whatever. As a software developer, in my experience (granted, not related to the gaming industry), dev builds only contain additional items, like convenience keystrokes, debug info, etc, it is not an excuse for utterly broken/missing features. Blaming bugs on the wrong release version is theThis is an unfinished game. I don't buy the crap that they accidentally released a dev build or whatever. As a software developer, in my experience (granted, not related to the gaming industry), dev builds only contain additional items, like convenience keystrokes, debug info, etc, it is not an excuse for utterly broken/missing features. Blaming bugs on the wrong release version is the same as giving a teacher an intentionally corrupt document to get an extension on your homework. This is a dishonest practice, and this company should be called out for it. I feel scammed that I pre-ordered an unfinished product. I hope they will correct the issues with the game, deal with the messed up FOV, lack of basic PC graphics options like vsync, etc, but I would recommend anyone considering buying this game to wait, I don't anticipate problems being fixed overnight. Deep Silver and Techland have definitely fallen of my "Potential companies to pre-order with" list due to this turd. Shame on you.… Expand
  6. Acidblood7
    Sep 6, 2011
    2
    Deep Silver and Techland have royally messed up for a major release Dead Island, released a DEBUG version, to fix it caused files to become corrupt and user progression to be erased.
  7. 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
  8. 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
  9. 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
  10. tronchaviones
    Jun 2, 2012
    0
    Incredibly buggy. The good art and fight idea are spoiled by the most braindead programming "abilities" of the industry. Where can you hire such incompetent "programmers"? Is it necessary to be drunk to write so bad software?.
    They must hire:
    - someone capable to understand mouse basics. Just the basics. - another programmer whose code doesn't delete your progress every week. - a good    Incredibly buggy. The good art and fight idea are spoiled by the most braindead programming "abilities" of the industry. Where can you hire such incompetent "programmers"? Is it necessary to be drunk to write so bad software?.
    They must hire:
    - someone capable to understand mouse basics. Just the basics.
    - another programmer whose code doesn't delete your progress every week.
    - a good manager, to fire the responsibles of the disaster.    … Expand
  11. 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
  12. 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
  13. Sythian
    Jul 7, 2012
    3
    This game had a lot going for it, but for me it bombed. The combat feels clunky and oddly limited. The use of stamina is ok, but it is too low. Weapon range for melee seems oddly short with items that would otherwise have a greater swing arc. Damage scale for Player vs NPC is terrible, a zombie can hit you with it's fist and take half your health were as a shotgun blast to the zombie'sThis game had a lot going for it, but for me it bombed. The combat feels clunky and oddly limited. The use of stamina is ok, but it is too low. Weapon range for melee seems oddly short with items that would otherwise have a greater swing arc. Damage scale for Player vs NPC is terrible, a zombie can hit you with it's fist and take half your health were as a shotgun blast to the zombie's head doesn't. Story is so so, typical zombie out break, graphics are ok, physics could use some improvements. Some zombies seem to run through walls, barricades etc. Knock back with certain weapons needs another pass as well. A hit from a sledge should knock someone to the ground. The RPG idea is a good one, but the route this one takes just doesn't fancy my taste.… Expand
  14. poot
    Jan 6, 2012
    1
    I was hoping this would be as good as left 4 dead based on the trailer if not better.
    Sadly not!
    The game simply involves endlessly running around doing mundane tasks. I think the lack of weapons at the start only added to this boredom.
    To me this is definitely a lazy console ported game rather than a pc game
  15. shikamarunin
    Nov 26, 2011
    3
    I was greatly disappointed with this game. Honestly this game could do with another few months in development before it's in anyway fun. It is a shame as the game has so much untapped potential but the developers obviously rushed it and that is where things go wrong. Firstly the graphics are fairly good, amazing normally but there are several things that stand out. Faces are renderedI was greatly disappointed with this game. Honestly this game could do with another few months in development before it's in anyway fun. It is a shame as the game has so much untapped potential but the developers obviously rushed it and that is where things go wrong. Firstly the graphics are fairly good, amazing normally but there are several things that stand out. Faces are rendered terribly and the supposedly sexy bikini models sometimes look really old. The pick-up truck is also badly rendered. Game-play is quite good but the characters and level system is pretty much a direct rip-off to Borderlands. When I heard of this game I thought I would be able to create a character to escape the zombie apocalypse but no, each character is pre-designed and offer very little customization. Also their background stories are far from average every day people creating some distance from the zombie game most were expecting. The sound and music are not impressive either. Can't really say much else. The voice acting is terrible, the music is practically non-existent and the sound is buggy. Overall the game is terrible and barely playable. i suffered a bug for 2 weeks on my game where I actually couldn't save the game at all. This game needs taking back to hte drawing board, taking apart with a chainsaw and put back together with time and patience. Then, maybe, we could have the amazing game that we should have got.… Expand
  16. noobr
    Oct 2, 2011
    2
    Once you get past the novelty in the first hour or so, it becomes a brain dead trudge to victory **** you dont even have to know what your doing half the time. Not to mention the plot is of the calibre of an 11y/o's attempt at creative writing. Total waste of money :(
  17. Curt
    Nov 2, 2011
    1
    Dead Island is your basic hack & slash with a tolerable main story-line. I wouldn't bother with the side quests, because the quest tracking system is very frustrating with map waypoints and paths showing up or glitching and showing nothing. Also the quick-travel locations are so far apart you will find yourself hacking and slashing your way up and down the same paths over and over toDead Island is your basic hack & slash with a tolerable main story-line. I wouldn't bother with the side quests, because the quest tracking system is very frustrating with map waypoints and paths showing up or glitching and showing nothing. Also the quick-travel locations are so far apart you will find yourself hacking and slashing your way up and down the same paths over and over to complete multiple side quests. The side quests are nothing more than your basic retrieval, kill this zombie, or button pushing in multiple locations. The Auto-Save feature isn't adjustable and you can't save before quitting the game so you will likely lose progress each time you quit the game. There is also no real penalty for death so you can just flail around bashing zombies heads in till your health hits 0 and repeat. I jumped more in Minecraft when a zombie jumped out from behind a corner and hit me... But hey if you have severe OCD and get a kick out of bashing zombies heads in over and over until the next cut-scene then this may be the game for you. I gave this game a "1" because at least the graphics looked nice and gory.… Expand
  18. daimmonr757
    Jan 10, 2012
    3
    Attempts to developers to make the game too well, has led to the fact that the game was really quite boring. Personally, I do not really like it and go on a huge island in search of the next quest, met for a total time 10 zombies, breaking with his favorite subject of close combat. And how do metal pipe can bend specifically on two strikes?
    Boring, no paddle
  19. MrSniker
    Feb 3, 2012
    4
    Perseverance, that's what it took to complete this game. Let's start off with the good, nice open world with zombies and combat is fun albeit repetitive. The bad, the game has numerous bugs, awful character development, boring quests, awful leveling structure and a checkpoint system. Lets start with the bugs, which are still pretty bad even after half a year of release. The game hasPerseverance, that's what it took to complete this game. Let's start off with the good, nice open world with zombies and combat is fun albeit repetitive. The bad, the game has numerous bugs, awful character development, boring quests, awful leveling structure and a checkpoint system. Lets start with the bugs, which are still pretty bad even after half a year of release. The game has issues with sound, such as loud crackling and popping noises every once in a while. It progressively gets worse and worse until you reach the sewers where I had to throw my headphones off the audio was so loud. After that it sort of tapers off, but the sewers are a good ~10 hours in the game. The game's character development, as an RPG you'd think they'd invest some time into explaining characters. Nah, you're just there and the only information is the bio at the beginning, they introduce characters but they're cliche and you can't wait until they die. The quests are stupid and repetitive, Dead Island has two types of quests and doesn't even try to hide it. Fetch and escort, that's it. You may have one or two go here, fetch item and protect guy, but that's as interesting as the quests get. One of the problem with quests is there's no reason to do them. The enemies follow a strict level scaling and you never get the feeling that you've ever leveled up. Often times games introduce new abilities to offset this mechanic so it appears you get stronger compared to your opponent but you actually don't, Dead Island does none of this. Once I realized this towards the end of Act 2, I just stockpiled on decent weapons and avoided enemies and quests because I knew the faster I leveled the more obsolete my weapons would become. The checkpoint system is awful because of two reasons, it means I can't leave the game whenever I want; but the real problem with the checkpoint system is it's bugged. The checkpoint system leaves you in unexplained places upon your return. It happens from my count at least a third of my checkpoints left me in weird areas, two of the most noticeable were in Act 2 I left the game, when I returned the game placed my in the Jungle, which is Act 3. So I drove around for an hour trying to figure how to leave and finally just reloaded my last checkpoint which put me back in Act 2. Another checkpoint problem was I left the game and the quest had be going to some control panel to unlock doors, guess what the checkpoint did? It put me right in front of the control panels with the doors unlocked. There's plenty of WTF moments in Dead Island, and while I was able to beat the game by 50% of the main plot progress it was beating me down. The game's shortcomings all slowly start to beat you down until you no longer want to play. You'll spend more time screaming at the screen because of bug's than the actually difficulty. Game took ~16 hours for me to beat but towards 50% I was just rushing through everything just for the sake of completion and not fun.… Expand
  20. SittinginBasket
    Aug 6, 2012
    2
    I'm giving a 2 for the graphics and effort, but the core gameplay and game mechanics are horribly flawed. First, I get hastily introduced to random characters that are forgotten in the first minute, stumble around pointlessly, and struggle with the clumsy movement controls. Then, all of a sudden I am joined by random people since there is some kind of multiplayer mode enabled by default,I'm giving a 2 for the graphics and effort, but the core gameplay and game mechanics are horribly flawed. First, I get hastily introduced to random characters that are forgotten in the first minute, stumble around pointlessly, and struggle with the clumsy movement controls. Then, all of a sudden I am joined by random people since there is some kind of multiplayer mode enabled by default, something that I didn't even choose myself. Then we stumble around more, trying desperately to actually hit and do damage to pretty much anything. Now here is the real issue, I missed out on 90% of the story already. The other players rush around everywhere and activate all these different quests while I'm trying to figure out what the hell is going on. They skip all the dialogue so I have no idea what the quests were even about in the first place, and then this other guy has an electric sword while everyone is using sticks. Heck, I think I even missed a plane crash or whatever that noise was.

    I just finished some random quest about a gas-station, and I've had enough of this game already. I don't even know what happened since the beginning of the game to this point other than the fact that "we killed zombies". Not much of a story there.

    The game is just a jumbled mess. Movement is sloppy, gameplay is sloppy, cinematics/cut-scenes are sloppy, story is sloppy, game mechanics are sloppy.

    The game is sloppy. Nuff said. Good thing I bought it during the Steam Sale.    … Expand
  21. FryGuy
    Mar 22, 2012
    3
    Stupid story, stupid side quests, pointless weapon mods and only few "good" ones and interest about this game dies after first play-through. Dead Island tries to be partly RPG but that is impossible because game is too short and getting survivor to max level you need to play this through about 8 to 10 times and after that you have no interest to try doing same thing with other survivor.Stupid story, stupid side quests, pointless weapon mods and only few "good" ones and interest about this game dies after first play-through. Dead Island tries to be partly RPG but that is impossible because game is too short and getting survivor to max level you need to play this through about 8 to 10 times and after that you have no interest to try doing same thing with other survivor. All survivors have some specialities so first choice is going to be only choice. I think this studio was very lucky with this game because main idea has so much potential and its hard to understand why anyone did not make this kind of game before. Game was released as some beta version and after that there has been million different bugs, AI problems, bugs, problems and DLC:s were not worth of paying. Arena was ok but Ryder White? F*cking single player DLC? Seriously? I have no idea what these guys were thinking...… Expand
  22. upi
    May 30, 2012
    3
    I think this game is a huge missed opportunity. They obviously spent a lot of effort on creating a world rich in eye candy. Unfortunately you will spend most of your time traveling to various locations and brawling with the same few types of zombies, running boring errands that you won't care much about anyways. Did I say "repetitive"? I lost count on how many times I had to do theI think this game is a huge missed opportunity. They obviously spent a lot of effort on creating a world rich in eye candy. Unfortunately you will spend most of your time traveling to various locations and brawling with the same few types of zombies, running boring errands that you won't care much about anyways. Did I say "repetitive"? I lost count on how many times I had to do the jumpkick / stomp on the head killer combo.

    It is unfortunate that such a rich environment should inform the player so poorly. An openable door, a breakable door and a piece of wall that just appears like a door all look the same. There are invisible barriers designed to keep you on track that you just can't pass. The "GPS" supposed to help you navigate from point A to B on a boring trek will cheerfully try to lead you through solid walls. After a daring jump you can simply get stuck somewhere and have to restart from a checkpoint.

    You cannot save. You have the one game progress that is automatically kept for you. Seriously, games in the 90's had saves!

    And then there are the big and small aggravations. You can carry a hundred medkits and they take up one inventory slot. But 13 knives? No. I won't even go into weapon breakage.

    Pick up a bottle of alcohol, and it becomes your active weapon. (You don't notice this because you don't see the bottle anymore.) So next time a zombie attacks you and you click attack what happens? Your hero DRINKS IT RIGHT ON THE SPOT and gets drunk in the middle of a fight. God...

    But all these little faults are irrelevant compared to the fact that the game just fails to connect emotionally. The NPC's are bland, their terror unauthentic, acts and needs out of touch. There's a woman in the middle of the zombie apocalypse NEXT TO A SWIMMING POOL asking you for water. (Gives you 100XP for each bottle, oh yeah, now I'm immersed.) People huddle in shelters with the door wide open. Yeah, now I really believe their fear of inevitable death. Sometimes NPCs attempt to instill a sense of urgency with lines like "We must waste no more time", all the while comfortably standing in one spot, doing nothing. The lines are repetitive (oh only you can help us, thank you so much for your help, our heroes), the voice acting uninspired. In the end I started to think these people deserved the undead brought upon them, which in my mind turned the zombies into the game's protagonists. The "plot", well... worse than a summer blockbuster, except there are no twists. The game just lacks atmosphere and spirit.    … Expand
  23. 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
  24. 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
  25. 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
  26. 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
  27. elessar101
    Oct 8, 2011
    4
    Whilst the idea of the game itslef is good. The exexcution once more was rather average. Innumerable glitches dragged this game down. Let alone the fact that at the very last stage of the game, whilst fighting the boss, the game decides to crap itself making it unplayable, whilst only using up half of my processor and ram power..

    Really wish people would put time into making a smooth    Whilst the idea of the game itslef is good. The exexcution once more was rather average. Innumerable glitches dragged this game down. Let alone the fact that at the very last stage of the game, whilst fighting the boss, the game decides to crap itself making it unplayable, whilst only using up half of my processor and ram power..

    Really wish people would put time into making a smooth engine and fix the hundreds of bugs glitches in the game, it is so annoying. Over all the game starts of great, but finishes in a disgraceful manner.    … Expand
  28. grico316
    Sep 7, 2011
    4
    Dead Island...The cake is a lie! This game is a hot mess of unfinished business. The Epic fail of this year! I cannot believe a company would put out an unfinished game and then claim they didn't know about it. What they didn't have QA in their budget. What makes it bad is the fact that it is both the digital and disc format versions. I tried playing this game at midnight on release dayDead Island...The cake is a lie! This game is a hot mess of unfinished business. The Epic fail of this year! I cannot believe a company would put out an unfinished game and then claim they didn't know about it. What they didn't have QA in their budget. What makes it bad is the fact that it is both the digital and disc format versions. I tried playing this game at midnight on release day but my game loaded up to a black screen. I didn't get to play at launch so I went to bed angry. The next day I read that there was a patch released, but the patch seemed to make things worse. I loaded the game again to a black screen. After about 2 minutes I got impatient and started hitting random keys and the game started. WTF? Then it was followed be a sharp piercing loud static that made me rip my headphones off my head. The first thing I tried to do was change the video settings that had the resolution defaulted to 1024x768. I set everything to Highest quality and it required the game to be restarted. I reloaded the game, same thing. Nothing changed. I did this about 10 times without any success. I even tried deleting and reinstalling the game, nothing helped. So I gave up and finally played, but I was stuck with 1024x768 resolution stretched across a 1920x1080 monitor 16:9 ratio. It looked terrible, but my eyes adjusted to it after a while. After playing for an hour the game started to Lag very badly. I'm talking 2 second latency every few feet. I am running a high powered gaming rig so i knew it wasn't my computer. I was playing online with my brother and the lag was really bad in certain areas. Then a random person popped into my game and started and completed MY missions before I could even get to them. Really??? So I gave up, went back to the start menu and disabled public multilayer and just played single player. The lag stopped but it was not as fun as playing with other people. The game feels very unfinished and rushed, like 2 to 4 months early. This was such a big disappointment.… Expand
  29. Qwertie
    Feb 1, 2012
    4
    This is a game based on scarce resources--good weapons are scarce, molotovs are scarce, alcohol is scarce, ammo is very scarce, and weapons break much too quickly. Unfortunately, numerous bugs keep cheating me out of my stuff! Near the starting point there's a guy who supposedly gives you ammo for saving him, but the ammo was nowhere to be found in my inventory. And you can't just buy ammoThis is a game based on scarce resources--good weapons are scarce, molotovs are scarce, alcohol is scarce, ammo is very scarce, and weapons break much too quickly. Unfortunately, numerous bugs keep cheating me out of my stuff! Near the starting point there's a guy who supposedly gives you ammo for saving him, but the ammo was nowhere to be found in my inventory. And you can't just buy ammo from any vendor, that would be too easy. Harlan Johnson should give a molotov for every three alcohols, but if your inventory is full he will silently take the alcohol and give nothing in return (I lost two molotovs this way). And you can't just buy molotovs, that would be too easy. Every time I close my inventory, my weapon swings, but if I'm holding a molotov then it is thrown! (I lost two more molotovs this way.) If you pick up an alcohol when you have an empty weapon slot then it becomes the active "weapon" but there is no indication that this has happened; so next time to try to attack an enemy, you will become drunk instead and lose your alcohol. All these bugs would have been OK except that you have to spend a lot of time to acquire these items, so losing them due to bugs is unacceptable (especially as it was released over 4 months ago.) I'd give this game a 7 or 8 if it weren't so frustrating. In multiplayer, I don't want an open mike (the Steam options offer push-to-talk, but it doesn't work) and there is no way to kick AFKs or troublemakers.… Expand
  30. CorporateGreed
    Nov 11, 2011
    0
    Game doesn't work. Wasted money. Some bug prevents me from getting past elevator 2 minutes into the game. I can leave it on all night right before the elevator with no problems, cross that little line and boom, games down. I've only see the first 5 corridors, but I have 1.5 hours of playtime trying over and over with different settings. The company that makes this game is no officialGame doesn't work. Wasted money. Some bug prevents me from getting past elevator 2 minutes into the game. I can leave it on all night right before the elevator with no problems, cross that little line and boom, games down. I've only see the first 5 corridors, but I have 1.5 hours of playtime trying over and over with different settings. The company that makes this game is no official forums at all for support... meaning you're on your own. If you have a 5xx series NVIDIA, don't even consider buying this game.… Expand
prev
Page:

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
See all critic reviews »