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. 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
  2. LaggyMclagster
    Sep 6, 2011
    8
    It seems that I was one of the lucky ones who managed to get his game running first try, was able to adjust the options to work perfectly on my computer and actually play it within 10 minutes (getting everything to the right balance). If you somehow become lucky to play this game, it feels like a cross between Left 4 Dead and Borderlands.
    Pros: - Fun concept - great combat    It seems that I was one of the lucky ones who managed to get his game running first try, was able to adjust the options to work perfectly on my computer and actually play it within 10 minutes (getting everything to the right balance). If you somehow become lucky to play this game, it feels like a cross between Left 4 Dead and Borderlands.
    Pros: - Fun concept - great combat - huge place to explore (good and bad to that) - Join others quickly

    Cons: - Lame uploading on the dev's part - way to bright in some areas - iffy first few days - some classes unable to use full potential till later access to their weapons

    Overall it seams like it's just a bit too early to judge the game. I have my faith in the devs to patch the issues that most people are having in less than a week.    … Expand
  3. tyrannis
    Sep 6, 2011
    7
    Like most people Dead Island's trailer pulled me in. From there i was excited, and decided to pre-order on steam. The night game goes live i let it run the opening day patch and than try to play. That is where i encountered my first hiccup, the game was incredibly fragmented. I am not sure if its my computer or the files, i have never had this issue before. Once i get in the game there wasLike most people Dead Island's trailer pulled me in. From there i was excited, and decided to pre-order on steam. The night game goes live i let it run the opening day patch and than try to play. That is where i encountered my first hiccup, the game was incredibly fragmented. I am not sure if its my computer or the files, i have never had this issue before. Once i get in the game there was some issues changing my graphic settings and such.. than i start playing. It was an amazing amount of fun, really engrossing, just a flat out great time. Yes there was the clipping issues i noticed a few times. Than all of a sudden when im driving around my game just crashes, and the night goes downhill from there.

    Game Receives a 7.. and i feel i am being incredibly generous there. It is an amazing amount of fun but they release a game that to say its buggy really understates the point. Friday they are suppose to release a patch, so wait till after Friday to pick up your copy.    … Expand
  4. 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
  5. spydercanopus
    Sep 6, 2011
    5
    12am: Game launch with wrong build. 3am: I fix it and can play for hours 10am: I close and come back to an updated, completely broken game. Ran fine before, now it stutters and hangs and my save file is corrupted. I want my money back and to be compensated for my lost time. Class action lawsuits might be needed in this case.
  6. 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
  7. MrWalrus
    Sep 6, 2011
    10
    Iv played this game since it was unlocked on steam this morning and i cant stop. i dont know why people are trolling this game? i can run 1980x 1080x perfectly fine, maybe dont buy computers from bestbuy ? or for you Canadians Future shop. cause future shop is the red devil :) . The game is very fun thou the story is meh. bottom line you will have hours of fun with your friends just beIv played this game since it was unlocked on steam this morning and i cant stop. i dont know why people are trolling this game? i can run 1980x 1080x perfectly fine, maybe dont buy computers from bestbuy ? or for you Canadians Future shop. cause future shop is the red devil :) . The game is very fun thou the story is meh. bottom line you will have hours of fun with your friends just be sure to play coop… Expand
  8. hemmingjay
    Sep 6, 2011
    8
    If you are one of the lucky folks who have no problems running it, the game is a blast. Its no GOTY but it is tons of fun. I didn't enjoy it for the first 15 mins but after going back in I am absolutely loving it. If you are one of the people worried about losing progress, don't. I see it as an opportunity to try one of the other builds. Please ignore the irrational trolls who rated a 0If you are one of the lucky folks who have no problems running it, the game is a blast. Its no GOTY but it is tons of fun. I didn't enjoy it for the first 15 mins but after going back in I am absolutely loving it. If you are one of the people worried about losing progress, don't. I see it as an opportunity to try one of the other builds. Please ignore the irrational trolls who rated a 0 because it didnt work for them at launch. Also please disregard the 10's as anyone who cant find a single flaw is a fanboy.… Expand
  9. GameInterpretor
    Sep 6, 2011
    8
    Beautiful! This hell truly does look like paradise and feels like the best zombie slayer this year. The graphics are great and the game is incredibly easy to run! If you don't fall in love with the game play than you'll truly enjoy the rpg elements! Great game Play IT!
  10. moarx
    Sep 6, 2011
    6
    NOTE: The original build that was released was an internal development build and was accidentally uploaded to Steam as opposed to the finished version of the game. Deep Silver/Techland are currently in the process of distributing a patch on Steam that should update the game to it's actual release build.
  11. 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.
  12. CrazyCommi
    Sep 6, 2011
    10
    I've only been playing this for a few hours. But put simply? My game of the year! Yes, there are a few bugs but so far, nothing game breaking. Controls are fine, environment are amazing. The only thing is the voice acting but I can live past that.
  13. Karunashi
    Sep 6, 2011
    10
    First off, I'm one of those 'poor' victims that have been left to play Dead Island on the PC with the 'developer' version or whatever the hell that was. After being linked to this metacritic thing and seeing how biased people's votes were, I just had to make an account myself to rate it for myself.

    The game was quite nice even when there was obvious bugs/issues that literally consumed 2    First off, I'm one of those 'poor' victims that have been left to play Dead Island on the PC with the 'developer' version or whatever the hell that was. After being linked to this metacritic thing and seeing how biased people's votes were, I just had to make an account myself to rate it for myself.

    The game was quite nice even when there was obvious bugs/issues that literally consumed 2 hours for me and my friends in trying to get a single lobby going where all of us were in the same game. Of course after we got that out of the way, we only suffered minor issues such as graphic cards overheating and crashing someone's computer and crashing our game due to random things like, crashing into a female zombie with a truck. But overall, I found that the game had a huge potential. Its intended features/concepts are present but just left in a lackluster manner due to the known bugs/issues that was released on the first day for the US. So I say give this game a chance, and ignore the 'rage' from these people that are bringing this game's score down to as low as 4.4. Chances are you'll like this game since it offers a lot of fun and exploration, as well as replay value. Oh and in before massive negative votes on this review post from those same raging nerds that can't just go have a life and maybe return late in the evening to find a better patch---Or something, rather than wasting their time trying to defame a game after only a single cluster of issues (admittedly a huge cluster). Because don't get me wrong, they should have avoided all of this via quality assurances or something.

    Was actually going to give this game a 8/10 or 9/10 because it was quite satisfying for me, excluding all the annoying bugs and the inability in 'push to talk' or having an easier way to arrange lobbies. But since the game's score has been shot down by angry nerds, I must give it a 10. Enjoy the game when it's fully patched.    … Expand
  14. Heaviermetal
    Sep 6, 2011
    10
    Loving this game so far! Its fun, different and what I hoped L4D would have been more of. I have had no problem with controls and any issues other trolls have problems with. If u like survival horror, rpg and fps melee you will like this game. If you like games being a movie, then go away.
  15. Quadratica
    Sep 6, 2011
    9
    This is a very good game. For all the funny youtube videos showing off the debug mode, it's less buggy than other open world games such as New Vegas or Oblivion, and has co-op to boot: especially important to note that this is not a single player game. You have that option, but you really need to bring a friend or three.

    The plot isn't as paper thin as a title like Borderlands, but is    This is a very good game. For all the funny youtube videos showing off the debug mode, it's less buggy than other open world games such as New Vegas or Oblivion, and has co-op to boot: especially important to note that this is not a single player game. You have that option, but you really need to bring a friend or three.

    The plot isn't as paper thin as a title like Borderlands, but is still on the shoddy side; you won't mistake this for an Avellone venture. With gameplay this solid, though, the narrative sinking into the background while you and your friends are on voice chat suits it just fine.

    The controls are slick, your actions feel purposeful. The melee combat is really well done, I was definitely impressed. This is all rather insubstantive so let me take you through a cool moment:

    My friend and I saw this swole zombie by the edge of a pool full of bodies. I threw my cleaver at it, my buddy threw both his knives (and was then out of weapons). I moved in start wailing on it with my baseball bat, but it punched me and I went flying into the pool. As my character stumbled to his feet, the bodies in the pool got up.

    I went into Fury Mode and started boxing them and my friend had to walk up to the big guy and pull his knives out of him - while he was still up and dangerous - in order to continue packing in the damage.

    The game is full of things like this. I pre-ordered it Monday and it's been worth every penny.    … Expand
  16. Deamos
    Sep 6, 2011
    4
    Great potential, Horrible bugs kill this games. Check back after a patch is released to take the released development build to the actual retail release.
  17. Horrendus
    Sep 6, 2011
    8
    Just because people are upset about bug on a release. . which happens with most games anyways. Doesn't automatically make this a poor game. Also anyone who says it's a port should have their ratings taken away because they don't know that it's actually not a port the pc just got the wrong version upon release. But it's still has plenty of fun in it.
  18. Bromacia
    Sep 6, 2011
    10
    Great when playing with friends and do the co-op together. The game has a good atmosphere with a good character advancement tree + crafting. If you enjoyed Dead rising or Borderlands, you will enjoy this game.
  19. metalhead980
    Sep 6, 2011
    9
    Dead Island is a Open world, first person view, zombie survival horror with item collection and character skill advancement trees. Its as If Borderlands and Dead Rising got together and had a baby, that baby would be dead Island. This game has rich four player co-op, simple yet effective story, a deep weapon crafting and character customization system. Do you love zombies? Exploration?Dead Island is a Open world, first person view, zombie survival horror with item collection and character skill advancement trees. Its as If Borderlands and Dead Rising got together and had a baby, that baby would be dead Island. This game has rich four player co-op, simple yet effective story, a deep weapon crafting and character customization system. Do you love zombies? Exploration? character advancement? item collections? co-op? then dead Island is a no brain-er. The only reason this game doesn't get a ten is due to a slightly bugged user interface that should be fixed this week with a patch.

    I would like to add that Dead Island on a high end pc is the ultimate zombie killing experience. This version has no texture loading issues, great control and much better graphics over all.    … 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

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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.
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  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.
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