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. Charleh
    Sep 10, 2011
    9
    I really wanted Dead Island to be a good game, but I had my doubts. I was very pumped after that infamous first trailer, but my faith in the game went down from there. It is hard to screw up an open-world zombie game - and Deep Silver almost did. Luckily, Dead Island turned out to be an addictive and well-rounded RPG. I can tell that this game will be a strong guilty pleasure of mine forI really wanted Dead Island to be a good game, but I had my doubts. I was very pumped after that infamous first trailer, but my faith in the game went down from there. It is hard to screw up an open-world zombie game - and Deep Silver almost did. Luckily, Dead Island turned out to be an addictive and well-rounded RPG. I can tell that this game will be a strong guilty pleasure of mine for months to come.… Expand
  2. 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
  3. McDiddles
    Sep 10, 2011
    8
    Very very fun game with friends. If you can get past some of the game breaking bugs, ugly HUD, terrible voice acting, hilariously bad "tragic" moments then its worth a purchase.
  4. Proxy711
    Sep 9, 2011
    8
    Dead Island started out pretty rough. A developer build was released for steam users in NA that was incredibly buggy, and had developer tools like no clip and third person view. A quick patch was released the next day to update steam to the right build, but in the process corrupted game saves, created micro stuttering , and other graphical issues.

    Once 1.1 and 1.2 patches were released a    Dead Island started out pretty rough. A developer build was released for steam users in NA that was incredibly buggy, and had developer tools like no clip and third person view. A quick patch was released the next day to update steam to the right build, but in the process corrupted game saves, created micro stuttering , and other graphical issues.

    Once 1.1 and 1.2 patches were released a lot of the problems were fixed, not all but enough for the game to work as intended. However soon afterwards the stress on the multiplayer servers caused them to be overloaded and the awful in game multiplayer join system stopped working or just became super unreliable.

    On top of the techincal problems with the game there's a lack of graphic options that are easily changeable. No menu options for AA, FOV, filtering options, vsync, etc. The settings you can change in the menus don't have enough options. like shadow quality for example: high setting in the menu is pretty low at max, now if you go into the games files and make changes to video settings setting shadow map size higher the shadows are much better quality. The menus also exclude setting/changing options that the engine supports. Like FOV you can find workarounds to change FOV in the games files but the menu lacks these options. Why Techland doesn't allow users to set these options through the menu is a puzzling question.

    The game also lacks default support for modern game technology like SLI, crossfire, and multi-monitor setups. SLI and crossfire can be enabled with tweaks, but doesn't work from the start. When using a 3 monitor setup the game uses one monitor to display a huge mini map. While Dead Island technically works multi monitors the UI and way its displayed could have been done far better.

    So I've explained a lot that is bad about Dead Island, but whats good? Well for one once the game is tweaked and working, the game does look good. Animations could be a lot better, but you normally don't see the weird moving unless looking at your shadow.

    The game is a ton of fun and that's ultimately the most important factor. I had a lot of fun playing multiplayer with friends running and exploring an island full of zombies that want to take a bite out of your face. Killing zombies with melee weapons really never gets old. The ways to do so are also many. Want to smash a zombie with a paddle? no problem. Jump kick them down, then smash their head in? You can do that as well. Want to rig a baseball bat with a circular saw? Go for it! Which brings me to crafting.

    Crafting in the game revolves around finding or being rewarded with a blueprint, find the items needed and make a weapon, the quality of the main part(s) define the quality of the new item. every item has stats. so if i used a crummy bat to make a mace, that mace is going to be worse then if i used a superior bat in the design.

    Another well done thing in the game is the damage system. Like fallout 3 body parts have HP and can be destroyed. For example I walked up to zombie hit her arm and broke it. then I kicked her down, she attempted to get up but because of the broken arm she fell flat on her face again. When she finally managed to stand back up i broke her other arm, so instead of hitting me she attempted to bite at me.

    Game play is advanced through a quest system like an RPG there are quest hubs that you move in between and every now and then you'll discover a quest how in the world, like a man trapped by zombies you must save. Each hero you play has a unique back story and talent tree, and although you are playing a hero that is a gun expert your not forced only to use guns. The classes are flexible and unique in different ways. While not as dramatic as the trailers for the game, the sense of urgency and "zombie apocalypse" feel is done well, survivors are disturbed and scared by the nights events. You feel like danger is all around you as you explore the island.

    Despite the games draw backs, issues, and rough release, Dead Island deep down is a great game. Once you can overlook the bad and see the good the game is a blast, multiplayer is definitely a huge part of the game. With support for 4 player co-op that scales in difficulty and a length of around 25-30 there's a lot of fun to be had with this game.    … Expand
  5. MikeMaximus
    Sep 11, 2011
    7
    After playing through the whole campaign it's hard not to ignore some of the glaring console port flaws, lack of polish and obvious missed opportunities to make the game so much better. But even so it's still a great game, there hasn't been a zombie survival game like this for a long time that actually creates an environment that can creep you out and scare you a little. The areas areAfter playing through the whole campaign it's hard not to ignore some of the glaring console port flaws, lack of polish and obvious missed opportunities to make the game so much better. But even so it's still a great game, there hasn't been a zombie survival game like this for a long time that actually creates an environment that can creep you out and scare you a little. The areas are well designed, very detailed and fun to explore. The melee combat feels "right" and while firearms take a backseat until late in the game they are fun to use too. It's also a great looking and extremely well performing game if you have the ability to do a few configuration file changes. The co-op mode works great after a few launch jitters, i've never had any crash or even any type of technical hiccup while playing co-op for hours on end. Anyone that enjoys zombie games should check this one out.… Expand
  6. Rashaan87
    Sep 12, 2011
    8
    I dare to say I am one of the few lucky people who could get this baby go well. Played many hours now without bugs. And it is FUN. Much more realistic than any zombie game this far. Combat is reasonable, hit boxes too, damage system as well. My only problem is that sometimes repairing weapons with money becomes boring and frustrating. Bit of a cycle. But all in all, don't listen to trolls,I dare to say I am one of the few lucky people who could get this baby go well. Played many hours now without bugs. And it is FUN. Much more realistic than any zombie game this far. Combat is reasonable, hit boxes too, damage system as well. My only problem is that sometimes repairing weapons with money becomes boring and frustrating. Bit of a cycle. But all in all, don't listen to trolls, this game is fun, balanced and beautiful. Cheers!… Expand
  7. 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 :(
  8. 123ocelot
    Sep 10, 2011
    10
    this game is so epic i dont even know were to begin its simply awsome people just diant like this game cause there were whinning its great :)..th this does not deserve such a low user score. you can mod weapons and create in all sorts of way rag and galss on a batton is my favorite and the story and side quests make it very long plus using the diffrent character classes
  9. 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
  10. 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
  11. Johnny_Boy
    Sep 13, 2011
    8
    Loin d'être parfait, Dead Island a ce "petit truc" qui en fait un jeu accrocheur. Avec des référence évidentes et assumées à des jeux comme Borderlands ou Dead Rising il nous offre de bon petit moment de jeux. Ultra-gore, ambiance de films de série Z, environnements plutôt jolis, lesLoin d'être parfait, Dead Island a ce "petit truc" qui en fait un jeu accrocheur. Avec des référence évidentes et assumées à des jeux comme Borderlands ou Dead Rising il nous offre de bon petit moment de jeux. Ultra-gore, ambiance de films de série Z, environnements plutôt jolis, les geek fans de zombies devraient adorer!… Expand
  12. jmills
    Sep 12, 2011
    8
    This game is basically Borderlands with zombies, and bits of Left 4 Dead and Grand Theft Auto are mixed in for good measure. If you enjoy any of these games, you'll probably enjoy playing this too. There are some nagging problems, such as terrible voice acting and poor animations for the non-zombie characters. These don't ruin the experience, but it does cause Dead Island to fall a bitThis game is basically Borderlands with zombies, and bits of Left 4 Dead and Grand Theft Auto are mixed in for good measure. If you enjoy any of these games, you'll probably enjoy playing this too. There are some nagging problems, such as terrible voice acting and poor animations for the non-zombie characters. These don't ruin the experience, but it does cause Dead Island to fall a bit short of the usual standards. If you're thinking about buying this, you probably should go ahead and do it.… Expand
  13. Rime
    Sep 18, 2011
    5
    What is there to say about this game? For the price tag of $50, it is hardly worth it. This game was hastily designed, obviously. It is a decent looking game graphics wise, but it is filled with game ruining bugs. Invincible mobs clipping through walls, my upgraded top tier weapons disappearing into THIN AIR, rooms being literally black. I think they only recently announced the release ofWhat is there to say about this game? For the price tag of $50, it is hardly worth it. This game was hastily designed, obviously. It is a decent looking game graphics wise, but it is filled with game ruining bugs. Invincible mobs clipping through walls, my upgraded top tier weapons disappearing into THIN AIR, rooms being literally black. I think they only recently announced the release of this game, it wasn't in development for very long (AND IT SHOWS.)

    Hopefully they address these bugs in the next patch. As I am pretty upset that both of my orange weapons disappeared.    … Expand
  14. SoulReaver934
    Sep 11, 2011
    8
    Dead Island is a unique game that takes an overused genre, and completely redefines it. With the primary focus of the game being melee based combat, you'll get your hands on various things you can use to fight the undead. From the common pipe to the sharp as hell katana. Throughout the game, you assist other survivors in 'quests' and try to figure out how to get off of Banoi. The result ofDead Island is a unique game that takes an overused genre, and completely redefines it. With the primary focus of the game being melee based combat, you'll get your hands on various things you can use to fight the undead. From the common pipe to the sharp as hell katana. Throughout the game, you assist other survivors in 'quests' and try to figure out how to get off of Banoi. The result of that is an adventure of epic proportions. Single Player or Cooperative, you'll still have fun playing this game, as Techland makes sure fighting each individual Zombie is special. And even though it has some bugs and issues, it's still a great buy.… Expand
  15. 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
  16. sidesteal
    Sep 11, 2011
    8
    Despite the early whiners bashing the game on day 1, I've opted for a more long term view of it.

    Obviously first impressions count, so if you've got a nice rig you will be impressed at the gfx initially. I found the storyline very atmospheric and if you allow yourself to be carried along with the story you will be more than satisfied. Levelling up, quests and weapon crafting are the    Despite the early whiners bashing the game on day 1, I've opted for a more long term view of it.

    Obviously first impressions count, so if you've got a nice rig you will be impressed at the gfx initially. I found the storyline very atmospheric and if you allow yourself to be carried along with the story you will be more than satisfied.

    Levelling up, quests and weapon crafting are the mainstay of this RPG, so if you prefer more genric plug'n'play games then you might be overwhelmed with the amount of UI interaction. But once you get a hold of how the system works, your enjoyment will increase and you will become more skilled at killing zombies and completing quests.

    There are around a dozen or so major irritations with the UI, key mapping, FOV and physics which should get fixed in future patches. But nothing that really stops or overly hinders the games atmosphere or enjoyment (unless you're experiencing crashes - in which case I suggest you save up for a better rig).

    The graphics are solid, the story is solid, the game play is solid. This game *is* worth buying.

    I'd given it 9/10 if the present irritations weren't there on release.    … Expand
  17. ManOfX
    Sep 14, 2011
    8
    I waited before playing the game so never experienced the game before the early patches and fixes. As a result of this I can't see where all this rage is coming from. Dead Island is an enjoyable game which gives a real sense of "you against the zombies". The only negative point at the moment (and this is probably something I've done) is that my steam version doesn't seem to be updating onI waited before playing the game so never experienced the game before the early patches and fixes. As a result of this I can't see where all this rage is coming from. Dead Island is an enjoyable game which gives a real sense of "you against the zombies". The only negative point at the moment (and this is probably something I've done) is that my steam version doesn't seem to be updating on Steam Cloud correctly, annoying considering I'm at 50% on my laptop and only 30% on my PC, oh well.
    A word to the Haters: Stop hating, you'll live longer.    … Expand
  18. Kimi150
    Sep 17, 2011
    10
    Great game. It's fun to kill zombies by baseball. Espiecially Co-OP. LOVE IT:)

    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    Great game. It's fun to kill zombies by baseball. Espiecially Co-OP. LOVE IT:)

    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
  19. 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
  20. starsh3ro
    Nov 2, 2011
    9
    after i saw everything i have to change my first review.
    now the worst bugs are patched, some still remain untouched.
    but, even with some bugs, (dissapearing weapons, texture failures,...) this is a great game. the gaming world is very large, you have a lot of enemies to fight, especially after the 2nd chapter. the missions are okay, the story and the ending look like there will be a    after i saw everything i have to change my first review.
    now the worst bugs are patched, some still remain untouched.
    but, even with some bugs, (dissapearing weapons, texture failures,...) this is a great game.

    the gaming world is very large, you have a lot of enemies to fight, especially after the 2nd chapter. the missions are okay, the story and the ending look like there will be a sequel.
    the sound effects are nice, the graphics very detailed.- especially the water, the enemies and the nature. sadly the gaphics are missing some reflections, but probably on purpose to make the game playable, even on slower systems.

    if you dont feel like doing missions, you can just walk arround hours over hours, kill tons of zombies, with help of many different (craftable) weapons.

    you can play the campain alone or with 3 friends in coop, really alot of fun.

    50â    … Expand
  21. Zanklodvandam
    Nov 10, 2011
    10
    Its a great game if you want open world RPG action with zombie killing and weapon costumisation you got it.Sure there are a few bugs and that but nothing game breaking.Buy it you wont regret it.
  22. DameLCFC
    Jan 29, 2012
    5
    Without doubt, the official trailer to this game is astounding - THE best trailer ever produced.
    It also worked aswell as it made me part with £30 via Steam - even pre-ordered as I do like an occassional zombie-fest - I played the resident evil series since the beginning + silent hill + left 4 dead so I hope my opinion is valued in the genre.
    Review; Simply the worst of all    Without doubt, the official trailer to this game is astounding - THE best trailer ever produced.
    It also worked aswell as it made me part with £30 via Steam - even pre-ordered as I do like an occassional zombie-fest - I played the resident evil series since the beginning + silent hill + left 4 dead so I hope my opinion is valued in the genre.
    Review; Simply the worst of all the games mentioned above and I sooo wanted to like it. The graphics are better than average, controls simple enough, story is ok, its just gets very very boring very very quickly. Initial novelty wears off fast, the first part of the game adjacent to the beach is rather nice, the next level - the city, is not as appealing and then the sewer, less appealing. Its almost like the Dev's started to get bored half way through as well. I have not completed this game and doubt I will as its just not worth booting up. Shame it could have been much more with a little more commitment as it only does 60% well what it could have done at least 90%. Atmosphere is good, voice acting is shocking. Quests v v repetative. Although I do not hate this game, so far its the lowest scoring of all my reviews.    … Expand
  23. Mike_0x
    Nov 10, 2011
    5
    Extremely visceral mighty foot simulator. I was really looking forward to this game's release, however, it has shown to have several gameplay and graphical issues. There are times when you feel totally immersed in a world devastated by a zombie apocalypse, yet, with it's many and in some instances game breaking glitches serves to pull you right back out. All in all it's a decently mediocreExtremely visceral mighty foot simulator. I was really looking forward to this game's release, however, it has shown to have several gameplay and graphical issues. There are times when you feel totally immersed in a world devastated by a zombie apocalypse, yet, with it's many and in some instances game breaking glitches serves to pull you right back out. All in all it's a decently mediocre game, with mediocre gameplay. I just love killing zombies though.… Expand
  24. Strewthard
    Nov 21, 2011
    9
    Gameplay: 9 - Amazing. 1st-person melee combat has never been better in any other game. Dead Island allows you to slice and break individual limbs of your undead foes. Different strategies are required for different enemy types. Thugs need their arms broken, and suiciders are best taken out from a distance. The only thing dragging this game down at all are the bugs (of which there areGameplay: 9 - Amazing. 1st-person melee combat has never been better in any other game. Dead Island allows you to slice and break individual limbs of your undead foes. Different strategies are required for different enemy types. Thugs need their arms broken, and suiciders are best taken out from a distance. The only thing dragging this game down at all are the bugs (of which there are many).
    Story: 8 - Great. Cookie-cutter zombie story with a twist: You're on a Resort Island.
    Graphics: 9 - Amazing. Banoi is beautiful. The environments are breathtaking. Enemies vary in appearance. Only people look strange. Faces seem unemotional, and many of the citizens of Banoi look aged when looking at their face, yet young when looking at their body.
    Sound: 9 - Amazing. Creepy music is accentuated by terrifying zombie screams!
    Overall: 9 - Amazing.    … Expand
  25. outfctrl
    Dec 27, 2011
    9
    I am really enjoying it, and my friend and Sons are having a blast. At first, I thought it was another Left4Dead type game. Boy, I was wrong. It turned out to be an RPG, with questing, leveling, skill points and a HUGE and I mean HUGE world. Even your weapons degrade over time and it shows on the weapon.

    I know it had a bad start, but through the patches and tweaks, it is starting to    I am really enjoying it, and my friend and Sons are having a blast. At first, I thought it was another Left4Dead type game. Boy, I was wrong. It turned out to be an RPG, with questing, leveling, skill points and a HUGE and I mean HUGE world. Even your weapons degrade over time and it shows on the weapon.

    I know it had a bad start, but through the patches and tweaks, it is starting to shine. People are working on MODS for it too. There is even a tool you can download from steam to help tweak the performance!

    Last night I played with my Sons, cooperative. When you do, they match the zombies to your level! I am level 13 and my Sons are level 5 and the same zombie we were bashing, matched our level. Online playing is still a little buggy and you may experience some lock ups. Single player runs smooth.

    This game is definitely not for the squeamish. Arms go flying, heads crack open and blood gushes everywhere. They use every 4 letter word in there also, so beware.    … Expand
  26. v00d00m4n
    Jan 5, 2012
    7
    Potential gem, flawed by some bad design decisions and rushed release of beta or even alpha version.
    This game was announced long before Left 4 Dead, it started as zombie mod for Call of Juarez 1, for almost 5 years it was in development Techland managed to release Call of Juarez 2 and 3 and started Chrome 2. I was waiting for it for a long time and was impressed by screenshots, promises    Potential gem, flawed by some bad design decisions and rushed release of beta or even alpha version.
    This game was announced long before Left 4 Dead, it started as zombie mod for Call of Juarez 1, for almost 5 years it was in development Techland managed to release Call of Juarez 2 and 3 and started Chrome 2. I was waiting for it for a long time and was impressed by screenshots, promises and dramatic trailer with music which reminded LOST tv series music a lot.
    When game was finally released i was dissapointed - instead of full open world steaming island it have zones with loading and some realy weird map, i still cant get how one zone alligned to another and where on island it should be, worst thing - even many in-doors done as seperate zones with annoying loading. Despite game looks pretty good and optimised pretty well - it lacking advanced gfx settings and have object pop-in issues, aslo some ugly things like VIGNETTE EFFECTS (red blood corners and general darkned corners and upper side of sreen) cant be turned off, most of NPC are copy-pasted and number of animations is pretty limited which makes them repetitive. And gameplay areas are pretty limited and you will have annoying "you are leaving gameplay area" messages and respawns in so many places which you could and should explore without problems. Also resort area dont have any weather or day-nigh cycle, while other areas have.Thats all about tech-gfx.
    As for gameplay - oh its troubled, this game is another victur of curse of checkpoint, but its worse case i saw this year. This is freaking open-world RPG, in games like this you need to save like every 5 minutes to keep your progress, but this game dont have quick or manual saves, only checkpoints, very little number of checkponts with very big number of bugs related to checkpoint, starting from broken quest progress, like dissapearing or repeating quests (i mean regular quests, not infinite), ending by the fact that text "checkpoint" doesnt mean that your progress since previous checkpoint was really saved. Lost of progress, inventory items, skills, upgrades etc is regular issue in this game, and the only way to save game is to get through scripte checkpoint of some story-quest or to get quest or finish it - despite you cant die in this game, it gets really repetitive and borring, when after your death and respawn all the zombies in cleaned area just gets respawned at same places and your weapons almost demaged, and you want to quit this game because it annoyed you too much for today, but you cant, because you need to finish quest to save progress and you dont want to lose hour or progress - at times like this i really want to trow gamepad in my display! Game really needs patch with proper savings and at least need to trigger checkpoints every 5 minutes and after every time you buy, mod, sell, upgrade ot openclose your inventory! Another big problem - respawn of everything, even cars that wrecked some bungalow. Game really fails in saving game world state and turns into endless Boringlands (Borderlands) style grind and looting. Co-op gameplay flawed too - all the cut scene designed with appearance of 4 different chars, but you can play alone or with 4 same charactes in team and this really seems annoying, why there are no 3 bots when you play alone like in l4d? Why not show other players as unique characters? Its realy weird when you have clones in team. When you play at different levels, most of weapons dropped of zombies belongs to higher level players and lower level players cant use it, only sell (again same problem as in Borderlands), also sync is pretty lame, flashlights of others players not visible, if some of players will initiate dialog with NPC and start quest, other players will miss this part of story etc. Also progress save in co-op is even more broken than in single.
    And the story itself, well - trailer cheated a lot of people, we are all expected dramatic hearbreaking expirience and a lot of LOST influence, while we have a lot of LOST influence in game (actually it in every corner, you will even have Oceanic airplain) it not very dramatic, it dull mostly, because most of npc stays in one place and just giving you orders, and most of cut-scenes dont have anything that can brake your heart, except for only very few scenes.
    And game doenst really have solid story and cut-scene kinda screwed and make no sence - especially intro, the guy in intro was not any of 4 characters, since he saw them all, but you start game exactly at place this guy have fallen asleep and i havent seen any point where all 4 characters meets together for the 1st time.
    And actually cut-scenes are pretty rare, most of times you will have borring NPC standing in front of you and telling what you need to do.
    This game have even more flaws that i described, however these flaws cant ruin game totally, generally its a good game which needs really good patch with a lot fo gameplay changes and bugfixes.    … Expand
  27. 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
  28. MusAddict
    Nov 26, 2011
    8
    A beautiful, gory zombie killing game. I have not really played other zombie games (aside from Half Life or Silent Hill 2) so my rating is from a mostly unbiased standpoint, as far as zombie killing goes. The RPG element is nice, the MP element is fantastic (when it works), the story is ok, but what really pulled me in was the beauty. It gave the nice feeling of fear, while not beingA beautiful, gory zombie killing game. I have not really played other zombie games (aside from Half Life or Silent Hill 2) so my rating is from a mostly unbiased standpoint, as far as zombie killing goes. The RPG element is nice, the MP element is fantastic (when it works), the story is ok, but what really pulled me in was the beauty. It gave the nice feeling of fear, while not being demonic (other games can be disturbing in a spiritual sense, this game is not), so I felt comfortable while being scarred to death.… Expand
  29. jackblack12
    Sep 10, 2011
    8
    Usually fun and fast paced, but sometimes frustrating and glitched...
    They're probably going to fix at least some of the bugs, so the game is going to get even better. Totally playable now and very immersible.
    I've played only the single player campaign, but it's obvious that a co-op is the best mode for the fun.
  30. Clarky_93
    Sep 11, 2011
    9
    Having just finished this game in SP mode, and intending to COOP it with a different character soon, I believe that this game was worth the money, I've clocked up around 30-35 hours of gameplay from the game, and it was WELL worth the money I spent on it.

    Although, I seem to be one of the lucky few who didn't have any bugs/glitches with game, aside from a few graphical errors such as    Having just finished this game in SP mode, and intending to COOP it with a different character soon, I believe that this game was worth the money, I've clocked up around 30-35 hours of gameplay from the game, and it was WELL worth the money I spent on it.

    Although, I seem to be one of the lucky few who didn't have any bugs/glitches with game, aside from a few graphical errors such as weapons vanishing into the ground, the melee combat and explorative elements made up for those.

    My favourite part of the game is definitely Act 1, you're just starting out and are basically switching weapons between every few battles which for me gave it a survival element, alongside the use of using soda cans to heal and there was barely any use of guns.

    Act 2 was also pretty good, the area was quite awesome to explore aswell as the constant threat of groups of zombies attacking you, however it was let down slightly from the exponential increase in availability of guns, seriously like every thug either having an assault rifle or a pistol, however sewers felt like it was copied and pasted.

    Act 3 was my least favourite, environment was nice but also looked like it was copied and pasted to take up space.

    In conclusion I'd say that the game is worth a purchase, and rate it atleast 7.5/10, probably higher if I had played COOP with my friends, the story is there to basically push the player to different areas and is lackluster, characters in the game aren't really fleshed out, moreso just introduced to give a quest more than anything, quests were similar to borderlands but were still quite fun, again though, the melee combat and explorative elements really made this game for me, being able to remove limbs from zombies/playing strategically e.g removing arms from thugs was pretty awesome.    … Expand
  31. Leader2light
    Sep 11, 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.
  32. Victel
    Sep 14, 2011
    7
    The zombies and environments look great, melee combat is great. In other reviews I see some saying the graphics are bad, honestly, they're not bad at all, especially for an open-world game the models and textures are actually very well done. With that being said, I'm not ignoring the fact that the AI in this game is extemely terrible, with its bad story, quest design, poor in-gameThe zombies and environments look great, melee combat is great. In other reviews I see some saying the graphics are bad, honestly, they're not bad at all, especially for an open-world game the models and textures are actually very well done. With that being said, I'm not ignoring the fact that the AI in this game is extemely terrible, with its bad story, quest design, poor in-game cinematics, and slow-loading textures, the game actually has some redeeming qualities. I observed all of this in the singleplayer, I'm not reviewing anything I haven't experienced. I was also not impressed with how the game treats new players. As stated many times, we're stuck with crappy weapons for the beginning hours of the game without any idea how to work many of the inventory, item, and shop features before really experimenting with them. The game really lacks a polished feel. All the driveable trucks are all the same and they don't seem to ever break down. Unlike L4D zombies who can actually find and hurt you, these zombies are straight up dumb. Most of the time you have to find them because they wont hunt you down like real zombies should. All you have to do is close a door and you become safe.

    The trailer for the game really was a teaser, it barely displayed the real game. What I saw in that trailer was an emotional, scary experience with aggressive zombies that will actually hunt your family down and kill you. Sure, it was a fantastic display of phenominal Cg Design, but here in the real game I'm stuck with zombies too dumb to climb out of swimming pools that barely seem to care about eating you. Yeah, the zombies will eat you but they lack the motivation to.

    Honestly, this game is good entertainment simply because it looks good, has a good combat system, and I personally love killing zombies.    … Expand
  33. RulerofEvilzz
    Sep 16, 2011
    8
    When this game first came out it worked well for me, but it did have the occasional bug. One patch later and it froze every 5 seconds and deleted my progress. A couple days after when the game got more patches it ran extremely well. The graphics on this game are not amazing but they work well enough for the environment to look pretty enough to feel like you are actually on a tropicalWhen this game first came out it worked well for me, but it did have the occasional bug. One patch later and it froze every 5 seconds and deleted my progress. A couple days after when the game got more patches it ran extremely well. The graphics on this game are not amazing but they work well enough for the environment to look pretty enough to feel like you are actually on a tropical island. The game play is satisfying, the best description of this is condemned mixed with borderlands, melee works great and some of the mods for weapons are awesome but the guns don't feel too great. Each character plays differently and each plays well once you get used to their strengths and weaknesses, but the skill trees do kinda run the same course. This game runs well, plays well and looks good and a few bugs( every once in awhile it will freeze for a second at the most and one cut-scene has a background that looks like it dropped acid) and this fun gets multiplied in multiplayer. The quests are mostly the same brand that you would in WoW (go here kill these, go there get those). All in all this game is great, some flaws but nothing to cry about.… Expand
  34. Sickocrow
    Sep 21, 2011
    8
    5 minutes into it I thought, 'This is a melee version of Borderlands'. Which is great because I enjoyed Borderlands immensely. There are many similarities to BL as to how characters advance and their given talent trees. Even the weapons follow a similar naming and color coding to hint at how good a weapon is. A major difference is though weapons degrade and can be modded with extra5 minutes into it I thought, 'This is a melee version of Borderlands'. Which is great because I enjoyed Borderlands immensely. There are many similarities to BL as to how characters advance and their given talent trees. Even the weapons follow a similar naming and color coding to hint at how good a weapon is. A major difference is though weapons degrade and can be modded with extra damage types (fire, shock, bleeding, etc.) once you have the upgrade mod collected, and have found the components you need found randomly around the vast searchable areas. Plenty of side quests to do instead of the following the main quest line, or you can just explore the vast open areas scourging for cash and bits of gear to upgrade your weapons. The game is fun single player, but improves moreso with multiplayer (especially co-ord mates playing), and the game scales accordingly to the number and levels of players. Fighting goes from flanking and nipping at bigger opponents to full on carnage with breaking bones and flying limbs against weaker targets. Each character has a special rage ability which builds up and then gets unleashed at your time and choosing in the fighting style of your character, and can be a game saver when overwhelmed. A 9kg gas bottle makes for an impressive impromptu bomb when thrown into a mire of enemies and shot. Homemade deodorant can bombs and Molotov's also impress. Visually impressive and seems mostly bug free after the initial release problems. Runs very well on my modest computer (E5200 dual core @ 3.5Ghz and HD6950. Win XP). Sound is good with lots of crunching and slicing effects. Music is fair, but most of the time you listening for the zombies anyhow.

    Well worth the $50 dollars on Steam for my vote.    … Expand
  35. bag
    Sep 29, 2011
    9
    I found the gameplay extremely addictive and impressed with how large the world was. You will stumble across glitches every now and then, and I felt the online interaction with players could have been improved, but overall its a great game.
  36. Spore
    Sep 29, 2011
    7
    It's pretty hard to give this game a fair review. It's incredibly addicting and slashing up zombies and collecting loot is fun. But it's also incredibly glitchy and the animations in coop are absolutely terrible. The textures and models all look pretty good though.
    So good things:
    I completed the campaign in about 3 days doing all the sidequests so there is plenty of content. There is also    It's pretty hard to give this game a fair review. It's incredibly addicting and slashing up zombies and collecting loot is fun. But it's also incredibly glitchy and the animations in coop are absolutely terrible. The textures and models all look pretty good though.
    So good things:
    I completed the campaign in about 3 days doing all the sidequests so there is plenty of content. There is also a new game+ feature where you can start over with all your items and skills.
    The weapons are varied and the crafting system is pretty neat. You can upgrade weapons with different types of add-ons to give them different properties. There are a good variety of add-ons but many of them do the same thing (just a bit better). Even the guns in the game are pretty satisfying to use.
    The cooperative feature is good, with drop in - drop out at any time. It even has a display showing when another player is nearby when you're playing solo and then it gives you the option to join their game.
    The gore is great, you can hack off limbs or bash in heads or break bones all the while blood splatters everywhere and your weapon gets soaked in it. If you want a splatterfest, go with the sharp weapon expert and hack away.

    Bad:
    It's very glitchy. I haven't come across anything gamebreaking but I've seen my share of unintentional bugs. For example some of the cars become invisible but people can still drive them. One of the attack moves wont activate if the zombie you're trying to do it on is hit by something else (which is frustrating).
    Invisible walls, this becomes most apparent in the 3rd act. You might feel like exploring but you can't stray off the road like you would expect from a sandbox game. You'll meet glitchy terrain, invisible walls, big holes you can't get out of easily, stretched textures and all that good stuff.
    The difficulty is pretty much non-existant as long as you pick the right class. Almost every single zombie you meet will fall over if you jumpkick them and kicking normally doesn't cost anything so they wont ever get up. All zombies have weaknesses to exploit but in the end, there isn't really anything challenging.

    What you have in the end is a fun, addicting game with a fair share of problems. The overall experience makes up for the big lack of polish. I would say this is definitely worth buying IF you have friends to play it with.Though I would only recommend this to fans of the genre.    … Expand
  37. headloser
    Sep 30, 2011
    8
    Dead island is what L4D and L4d2 should have been. You can go anyway and not be limited to a corridor . Side quests are excellent that will extend the mission even longer.
    There a few problem though that will make the experiences less enjoyable.
    First the flame bug, there is no flame you can see at all. PERIOD. But you get burned and damaged by them if you run into them. Secondly, the    Dead island is what L4D and L4d2 should have been. You can go anyway and not be limited to a corridor . Side quests are excellent that will extend the mission even longer.
    There a few problem though that will make the experiences less enjoyable.
    First the flame bug, there is no flame you can see at all. PERIOD. But you get burned and damaged by them if you run into them. Secondly, the zombies variety are limited but does have bonus that they all look different, not a clone copy like in L4D game.
    Third after a while you can predicted where the zombies up ahead will be, that going to be a big problem since L4D AI director can send more zombies in if you get good at it. That what this game needed.
    The best solution is to have both Dead Island And L4D, L4D2 game combine to have the best of both world while solving the problem each have. I am hoping that the patch and the DLC coming up soon will fix most of these problem.
    I would advise people to wait for it to go on sale especially during Halloween time.    … Expand
  38. remowilliams
    Oct 4, 2011
    8
    Once the initial bugs were ironed out (and they were quite a pain on day one), what was left was the game I had always wished L4D would have been. While the rpg elements aren't the most amazing in the world, and I don't have the desire (at the moment) to go through and replay the game, the multiplayer component was a blast, and the game gave me a good time exploring an island, shooting myOnce the initial bugs were ironed out (and they were quite a pain on day one), what was left was the game I had always wished L4D would have been. While the rpg elements aren't the most amazing in the world, and I don't have the desire (at the moment) to go through and replay the game, the multiplayer component was a blast, and the game gave me a good time exploring an island, shooting my guns, in a way i haven't had since the original Far Cry. I would recommend this game to anyone.… Expand
  39. phades
    Oct 30, 2011
    7
    Rather than rehash basic introduction for the game, i'll skip right into the meat and potatoes.
    First, the bad.
    Even after the patch in October, the game still has bugs and glitches within it. None of those that exist are show stopping. You will encounter some floating items here and there, some texture errors occasionally, an item falling into the world or erased via world clean up. Those    Rather than rehash basic introduction for the game, i'll skip right into the meat and potatoes.
    First, the bad.
    Even after the patch in October, the game still has bugs and glitches within it. None of those that exist are show stopping. You will encounter some floating items here and there, some texture errors occasionally, an item falling into the world or erased via world clean up. Those aren't really big deals though. The AI is mostly dumb, but the opponents are zombies and some human opponents, but even the humans aren't that smart. There are some hit registration errors involving the firearms as well, but for the most part it is not that big of a deal either.

    There are some items of game preference that can turn folks off. If you are offended by women in bathing suits who are rotting into zombies or trying to hide out somewhere, this game isn't for you. If you are offended if native peoples are exploited for whatever reason, this game isn't for you. If you are offended by implied sex or rape, this game is not for you. Hint: the game is rated mature for a reason...

    If you have issues with suspension of disbelief with items re-spawning, enemies re-spawning, players re-spawning or story continuity issues and some cut scene bugs; well you are probably an elitist and this game isn't for you. The game could use some tweaks in the item damage and modification arenas, but those are pretty minor issues at best.

    What the game does well are two things. First, the melee combat and location damage system are done pretty well. There are some continuity issues with striking limbs in the middle of an attack, but that is fairly minor (IE, an enemy can swing at you and then you swing towards where the limb would be and nothing connects or only you get hit as your character steps in while swinging). This would be a lack of parry and block mechanics found in other older games like Bushido Blade. The second thing the game does really well is the co-op game play allowing you to join on the fly or search for others with similar progress within the story line. The built in voice chat leaves something to be desired, with the lack of controls or push to talk. The digital controls for PC are the most responsive though, despite having the concept of free range motion using a game pad and the analog control set. However, the analog controls are not setup very intuitively and require full swings, rather than swings from a neutral stance to be performed. This causes over exaggerated movements to occur, despite the actual striking area to be rather limited.

    Unfortunately, the characters are not balanced well against each other or the world. This would be an issue of the game was harder. Although the designers could have labeled the characters with different difficulty levels implied while playing though. All but one character have many useless filler skills and the worst character forces you to allot points into some of them in order to get down into better skills. After the player attains the stomp skill, the game becomes ridiculously easy as it not only saves on the weapon durability, it also makes for quicker kills in most instances. The kick now uses stamina, which is a change from launch, but jump kicks do not seem to drain as much stamina anymore.

    Overall the game is fun and that is what is important. There are many things that could be fixed down the road, or done differently in the design phase which would make the game better. Hopefully there will be more developed titles following Dead Island's lead in the future.    … Expand
  40. Vany
    Oct 31, 2011
    9
    Dead Island is awesome. I have 147 hours played so far. I even bought this game for my college friend who couldn't afford it so we could play the game co-op. Sure it has a few bugs, most were patched. There might be a few things that are slightly annoying at first, like the durability on items but as the game progresses it isn't as bothersome. My biggest complaint might be that it seemsDead Island is awesome. I have 147 hours played so far. I even bought this game for my college friend who couldn't afford it so we could play the game co-op. Sure it has a few bugs, most were patched. There might be a few things that are slightly annoying at first, like the durability on items but as the game progresses it isn't as bothersome. My biggest complaint might be that it seems like they are trying to hide what they are patching on steam. There are no patch notes after i download patches, i do not understand why. The major thing people are complaining about this game is the bugs and when they patch it they don't release patch notes.… Expand
  41. Elsingo
    Nov 11, 2011
    5
    Nice open world game that is fun to play with friends but horrible to play with random ppl and boring to play solo. Imo way to bright enviorments for a zombie slasher.
  42. cunningmunki
    Nov 15, 2011
    7
    Much better than I'd expected, and far more enjoyable than the impression I got from the reviews. I was surprised that so little was written about the graphics, which in my opinion were easily as good as Farcry 2 or Crysis 2. I don't have the most powerful PC in the world, but even at medium settings the environments in Dead Island were probably it's strongest feature. That, and theMuch better than I'd expected, and far more enjoyable than the impression I got from the reviews. I was surprised that so little was written about the graphics, which in my opinion were easily as good as Farcry 2 or Crysis 2. I don't have the most powerful PC in the world, but even at medium settings the environments in Dead Island were probably it's strongest feature. That, and the perversely satisfying sounds you hear whilst beating zombies to death with a wrench.
    The main problem I had with the game was that I just didn't follow the plot at all. By the time it reached the finale (far too soon) I had no idea what the story was that led me there, or who these people were. Also, if you choose to play the story on your own, instead of enlisting random strangers, the cut-scenes contain all four characters, even though I was alone.
    The characters themselves were also a failing. Rather than having four distinct individuals (like say, Left4Dead) you just get two shallow alpha-males and their female equivalents. I'd like to have seen a couple of 'everyman' characters, like the father from the now infamous trailer. You know, normal people.    … Expand
  43. OmeNu
    Nov 15, 2011
    9
    the best zombie game out there thus far. it still needs allot of work in the animation department. as well as emotion. but its overall fun if i had to summarize it, i would say Fallout 3 meets Zombie Apocalypse. there was one thing i wish they had added it would have to of been the removal of the skill tree and implementing a learn as you go system based on how you playl. example if youthe best zombie game out there thus far. it still needs allot of work in the animation department. as well as emotion. but its overall fun if i had to summarize it, i would say Fallout 3 meets Zombie Apocalypse. there was one thing i wish they had added it would have to of been the removal of the skill tree and implementing a learn as you go system based on how you playl. example if you favor guns. then well the more you use it the better you get at it, the same would go for melee combat. oh and giving the option to play your own custom character.… Expand
  44. AeroAtlas
    Dec 6, 2011
    8
    Dead Island is a FPS Zombie Killing Multiplayer Sandbox RPG. Its just as good as it sounds. Only problem is that all of the zombies level up at the same rate you do, so unlike most rpg's back-tracking is often just as dangerous as advancing and if you don't get better weapons as you level up you get **** :) 8/10
  45. GameplayCrush
    Dec 12, 2011
    7
    This game is a 1st person RPG, very simmilair in gameplay as borderlands with the diffrence that recourses are very limited, like ammo and such, wich can cause you to be quite fragile some points, ofcourse its filled with zombies!!!
    Its a good fun game if you got a friend to play with.
  46. addie_ho
    Jun 17, 2012
    6
    This game is boring. They make it sooooo boring. I don't feel i'm having much fun playing it. Modifying weapons is interesting. Throwing expert is a very stupid class. I don't know why would they make a character stupid like that. It's just useless. There is a bug that our dropped weapon can go throw wall, and we would lose it forever.
  47. 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
  48. 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
  49. 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
  50. Killer_X
    Feb 10, 2013
    7
    I just finished Dead Island after putting in about 45 hours and that says something considering that I find the game very repetitive at times. There is barely any story in it and the missions are often tedious fetch quests.
    Having said that, the melee combat system in is game is probably the best. The weapons used in this game have weight and bashing the heads of the infected is very    I just finished Dead Island after putting in about 45 hours and that says something considering that I find the game very repetitive at times. There is barely any story in it and the missions are often tedious fetch quests.
    Having said that, the melee combat system in is game is probably the best. The weapons used in this game have weight and bashing the heads of the infected is very fun.
    The infected(zombies) are very well done with both walking and running types. Also a few boss types.
    The graphics in the game are beautiful on highest resolutions. I think the locations in the game are very well done and realistic.
    If you are into Survival Horror or love Zombie games, you really owe it to yourself to pick this game up.
    Like I said I do find that it gets repetitive but at the same time I had a lot of fun. Enough fun to want to finish the game. I give this game a solid 7.5. It does not get a higher score from me due to faults I mentioned earlier in this review.    … Expand
  51. 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
  52. 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
  53. BMF
    Sep 9, 2011
    10
    I have been having loads of fun since Dead Islands shakey launch techland takes zombie smashing to a whole new level with a epic damage system and RPG goodness all coverd in a nice FPS wrapper. The shipped steam version was origanaly a buggy dev copy of the game but was quickly patched. Any launch bugs will be forgiven the first time you smack a zombie with a blunt object and his arm boneI have been having loads of fun since Dead Islands shakey launch techland takes zombie smashing to a whole new level with a epic damage system and RPG goodness all coverd in a nice FPS wrapper. The shipped steam version was origanaly a buggy dev copy of the game but was quickly patched. Any launch bugs will be forgiven the first time you smack a zombie with a blunt object and his arm bone breaks and juts out of his arm in slow motion then if you want to realy over do it break their other arm and kick them over and laugh while they squirm and try to prop themselfs up with their usless limbs. Slashing weapons are just as visceral opening huge gashes and lopping heads arms and legs alike. Dead Island was built for 1 to 4 players. Difficulty seamlessly scales to your specific number of players and level so the action stays ballanced. Overall if you like killing zombies and you like RPGs and shooters this is your game 9/10 for a shakey launch and bugs.… Expand
  54. highlandyeti
    Sep 9, 2011
    10
    Everyone has heard by now that Dead Island may be a bit buggy, but im playing the UK PC release, and after putting in 5 hours already I can honestly say its one of my favourite games of the year. Great graphics, very addictive gameplay, awesome weapon crafting, great combat (its nice not just shooting stuff from a distance, getting up close makes it way more hectic!), loads and loads toEveryone has heard by now that Dead Island may be a bit buggy, but im playing the UK PC release, and after putting in 5 hours already I can honestly say its one of my favourite games of the year. Great graphics, very addictive gameplay, awesome weapon crafting, great combat (its nice not just shooting stuff from a distance, getting up close makes it way more hectic!), loads and loads to do, nice rpg elements. Im playing this maxxed out on the PC and it looks stunning, so far my top- game of the year!… Expand
  55. 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
  56. jonnyohio
    Sep 7, 2011
    7
    First how anyone can review a title moments after it is released is beyond me. Did you idiots that gave it a low score even bother to try to play the game or read the forums to get help? There was a major problem with the initial download, and the devs are working on correcting that. That said, there ARE some bugs in the game, but isn't there bugs in all games on initial release? So myFirst how anyone can review a title moments after it is released is beyond me. Did you idiots that gave it a low score even bother to try to play the game or read the forums to get help? There was a major problem with the initial download, and the devs are working on correcting that. That said, there ARE some bugs in the game, but isn't there bugs in all games on initial release? So my review is about the single player experience (since my MP player wasn't working and I didn't care at the moment). This is review is about the game, not about me crying about how disappointing that a certain thing wasn't in the game that I expected. First I'll start with the pros: zombie head bashing. There is a lot of that. I love that. Open word: I can go where I want and kill zombies wherever I want. I like that. Plenty of weapons and health lying around. I like that, because I hate dying constantly. Good graphics (but nothing I haven't seen) I'm fine with that. Seems like there are plenty of missions (including side missions). I like that too! If I were to sum this up positively I'd have to say this is almost like fallout has met the zombie apocalypse with a pinch of left of 4 dead added for spice. So far I have been enjoying the single player experience and the game is very well made. There is a variety of zombies that get harder as you level up. I like the idea of being able to mod my weapons. Now for the cons. The money system is kind of odd, but it works for this game, because the devs give you plenty of it so you don't have to wait long to start modding your weapons and upgrading them. The voice acting at times is LOL funny. Some of missions are quite pointless and off the wall stuff (luck getting a grown woman her teddy bear because she can't sleep), but they add to the time you get to run around exploring and bashing in zombie heads. I've hit a few invisible walls along the way but was able to get around them. At release multilayer over the internet was pretty much unplayable (at the time of this review), but a patch has been promised so soon I will get to play along side friends. Overall this game is fun, entertaining, game play is well thought out and enjoyable. I've played for several hours and it looks like I've just barely scratched the surface. It is just uncalled for giving this game a 0 or 1 because they accidentally released a dev version of the game on launch day. Most of the people doing that are trolls that have not even played the game yet. My advice though is wait until a week after launch then buy it. All this mess will be sorted out by then and you will have fun playing this game.… Expand
  57. KcSmiff
    Sep 9, 2011
    9
    Found no bugs so far. Likely because I got it on the 9th while the guinea pigs got it on the 6th. :>

    Real fun game to play with friends and the world is pretty huge.
  58. Randomsanity
    Sep 10, 2011
    8
    Game was a disaster on launch, however it was patched quite quickly. The game now runs stable and beautifully provided you edit the games video settings file. The FOV is still very narrow, though this is expected from a console port. The game itself is loads of fun, it is not the dramatic zombie survival game we were all hoping for however. Food and items re-spawn within minutes of leavingGame was a disaster on launch, however it was patched quite quickly. The game now runs stable and beautifully provided you edit the games video settings file. The FOV is still very narrow, though this is expected from a console port. The game itself is loads of fun, it is not the dramatic zombie survival game we were all hoping for however. Food and items re-spawn within minutes of leaving an area, ammo is hardly as scarce as was suggested.… Expand
  59. Levardos
    Sep 10, 2011
    8
    I like zombies a lot, though I can understand people who say that they are over-rated. I mean, there are so many movies and games about zombies, that making a game about zombies will not seem original. But, Dead Island is original. There is no other zombie game with such fantastic melee fighting, and such nice and open world. It is a lot of fun to just explore the island. The plot doesn'tI like zombies a lot, though I can understand people who say that they are over-rated. I mean, there are so many movies and games about zombies, that making a game about zombies will not seem original. But, Dead Island is original. There is no other zombie game with such fantastic melee fighting, and such nice and open world. It is a lot of fun to just explore the island. The plot doesn't seem original, and neither do quests really, but, at least for me, most of them are fun. It's really fun how many survivors are out there, that barricated themselves in huts or wherever. They'll always need our help one way or another. There are many weapons which we can improve, or craft new ones. Similar to Fallout:NV, except that here we use melee weapons most of the time. I didn't play co-op a lot, since as of now I don't have any friends to play with. But as much as I played with random people, I must say that.. I just don't know if there's a bigger sense in playing co-op mode. This game is nothing like L4D. Sure, it may be fun to kill zombies together but you'll never really feel like you're badly needed. Maybe it is tougher later down in the game, I wouldn't know, but so far I've been playing alone and I didn't have bigger problems. Died only few times. The truth is though ,when you play with friends.. every game is be fun. And playing Dead Island together with friends would be fun aswell, methinks. But as for playing with random people... I dunno, I think I'd just recoomend L4D better. The character skills tree seems to be done well. Our opponents' level is matched to ours, but when we join somebody's else game and they have low level... Opponents are matched to the host level and then we can truly see how stronger we became. As for the graphics, the models could be better, but how detailed the world is, the light effects and stuff like that, the views... It all makes the game beautiful. Makes you want sight-seeing. As for characters, there are 4 characters with background stories, explaining their life and why are they on the island... And they aren't bad. Each character has different specialities too. I think that's all I wanted to tell about the game, really. If you're a fan of Fallout/Oblivion and like zombies, you'll love this game. Ps. I just realised I'll add one more thing. Plenty of bad things could be said about the multiplayer but then again there is no other RPG with such well done multiplayer.. It's sorta like playing Fallout or Oblivion with someone. Pros: -Amazing melee fighting system. -Beautiful, open world that just makes you want to explore it. -Gore. -Well done character. Cons: -Plot. -Repetitive quests. -Multiplayer could be done better.… Expand
  60. asmoron
    Sep 10, 2011
    7
    The idiot children here giving the game a negative rep bomb are all basing their ratings on the fact the game launched on PC with an incorrect version and a few bugs, ALL OF WHICH have been fixed and sorted out now. Do not take the word of a bunch of 13 year old crybabies with cheap computers that fail to run this game. If you like Borderlands-style gameplay, and really visceral goryThe idiot children here giving the game a negative rep bomb are all basing their ratings on the fact the game launched on PC with an incorrect version and a few bugs, ALL OF WHICH have been fixed and sorted out now. Do not take the word of a bunch of 13 year old crybabies with cheap computers that fail to run this game. If you like Borderlands-style gameplay, and really visceral gory zombie melee, and an incredibly rewarding game to play with friends this really can't be beat. Do not listen to all of these retards.… Expand
  61. Vex
    Jul 7, 2012
    9
    This game is just sublime, I haven't had this much fun in ages. I've been looking for a decent game recently that would suck me in and wouldn't bore me to tears but I had no such luck until I picked up Dead Island. Graphics are just amazing and the game looks better than 90% of current games on the market. Visually, it's just stunning. Gameplay mechanics are pretty good as well,This game is just sublime, I haven't had this much fun in ages. I've been looking for a decent game recently that would suck me in and wouldn't bore me to tears but I had no such luck until I picked up Dead Island. Graphics are just amazing and the game looks better than 90% of current games on the market. Visually, it's just stunning. Gameplay mechanics are pretty good as well, considering it's basically an RPG crammed into a first person perspective. Now, the best part about this game is the open world setting that allows you to roam around the island as you please and just explore and do whatever you like. Lots of games these days are touted as "open world" but it's quite rare to find a truly open world game like this. Performance wise, the game runs perfect (everything maxed out) on a 5 year old PC with the only fairly new part being Geforce GTX 460. Draw distance is amazing and the island renders perfectly and with no performance drops over large distances as well.

    I haven't experienced any bugs, crashes and issues that everyone keeps talking about, but then again, I picked this game up 10 months after its initial release so I assume the developers have already fixed everything there was to fix.

    The only reason why it doesn't get a perfect 10 from me is because the dialogue part of the game (with NPCs) is binary and you get to only accept or refuse quests and there are no real dialogue trees. If this game had the dialogue on the par with Mass Effect, it would definitely be a 10 in my book.    … Expand
  62. TheangryOne
    Sep 7, 2011
    8
    In record time, Techland has taken most of the major bugs out of Dead Island, and it's finally playable, and I can assure you that you will love this game. The "paradise lost" environment you find yourself in is somewhat low-rez, but definitely does a good job of conveying the general feeling of Banoi, as the island is called. What really brings the whole island together, however, are theIn record time, Techland has taken most of the major bugs out of Dead Island, and it's finally playable, and I can assure you that you will love this game. The "paradise lost" environment you find yourself in is somewhat low-rez, but definitely does a good job of conveying the general feeling of Banoi, as the island is called. What really brings the whole island together, however, are the NPCs you come across. They react exactly like you would expect during a catastrophe, and no two are alike. Weapon wise, there are all kinds of pipes, paddles, divers knives, kitchen knives, sports equipment, and even some firearms end-game to keep you happy, and like Dead Rising 2, you can combine them in suprising ways to further increase your killing potential. Each character specializes in a certain type of weapon, and each of their skill trees vary widely. All in all, now that the glitches are less of a problem, I can now confidently say that this might be worth the buy.… Expand
  63. REDSIPERAS
    Sep 15, 2011
    9
    Best Zombie GameBest Zombie Game Evar!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!… Expand
  64. Sprock
    Sep 10, 2011
    10
    Although I haven't completed the game yet, I can safely say it is a good one. I've played around 11 hrs so far and love it. It really has that sense of actual survival to it, searching for items, money, food etc (except for only losing a bit of money and re spawning near where you died.) And being able to modify and create weapons but not to the retarded extent that Dead Rising 2 did withAlthough I haven't completed the game yet, I can safely say it is a good one. I've played around 11 hrs so far and love it. It really has that sense of actual survival to it, searching for items, money, food etc (except for only losing a bit of money and re spawning near where you died.) And being able to modify and create weapons but not to the retarded extent that Dead Rising 2 did with weapon modifications. I personally didn't experience any of the bugs and issues that a lot of people seem to have, and the only thing I don't like is that there is no v-sync option (only minor though). It's nice too to have a different setting, as the game is set in Papua New Guinea not the typical American setting etc. The developer techland, has managed to create a good and well fitting atmosphere for a zombie apocalypse.

    Co-op is extremely fun, and the drop in drop out co op for me has worked flawlessly with no issues at all. Certainly a worthwhile purchase    … Expand
  65. Felhad
    Sep 9, 2011
    10
    Simply the best zombie game to date. The combat feels very visceral with the game's outstanding damage models. A constant sense of struggle and survival makes this a very solid buy for either a single-player or multi-player experience.
  66. 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
  67. fryzee
    Sep 9, 2011
    8
    The game itself is and was great. There's no denying that I loved the game and what it has to offer. But after the rush of enjoying the zombie filled world you start to realize there are a lot of problems. The main problem being they shipped with a debug build of the game, which was basically a version they sent to microsoft built for the xbox 360, to find this out hurt me pretty bad, i'mThe game itself is and was great. There's no denying that I loved the game and what it has to offer. But after the rush of enjoying the zombie filled world you start to realize there are a lot of problems. The main problem being they shipped with a debug build of the game, which was basically a version they sent to microsoft built for the xbox 360, to find this out hurt me pretty bad, i'm very upset that they'd say to us and reassure us that our pc version is NOT A PORT, but look what happens, yes I know people make mistakes and the debug version on steam may just be an accident, but it's annoying, especially after waiting such a long time to finally play the game. I finally finished the game this morning and am happy to say I loved it and I cannot wait to go through and play it again with all the characters. When everything in the game works (co-op, graphics settings) it brings out the best in the game and it's fantastic.… Expand
  68. ATG141
    Sep 20, 2011
    8
    Don't believe the people who strike this game down for all the "bugs". In my experience the game is no where near as broken as people say it is. I believe in "don't shoot the messenger" in this situation. The game is good and the developer is working hard to fix the issues that are arising. Yes it's inexcusable that the game was shipped in such a poor state but that's the developer's faultDon't believe the people who strike this game down for all the "bugs". In my experience the game is no where near as broken as people say it is. I believe in "don't shoot the messenger" in this situation. The game is good and the developer is working hard to fix the issues that are arising. Yes it's inexcusable that the game was shipped in such a poor state but that's the developer's fault and not the game's. Dead island is a fun and satisfying co-op rpg with some very unique elements to it that make it distinct. If I have any issues it's that guns feel weak and the game suffers similar balance problems to borderlands in that enemies become either too easy or too difficult in the higher levels. Though the game looks pretty in pictures it doesn't stand up as well when in motion. There's simply nothing eye catching about it's visuals. It creates what it set out to create well but the end result simply can't hold up against other recent games that feature tropical environments. Though I do recommend dead island Id'e say to wait maybe a month or so for bug fixes but be sure that dead island is good fun and doesn't deserve the hatred allot of people have for it.… Expand
  69. Hoyste
    Sep 10, 2011
    5
    Bluntly put, Dead Island is a bad "melee version of borderlands". The PC version seems to be a straight console-port as well. You have minimal graphical options, bad FoV and the mouse sensitivity is laughable in the menus (though it works normally while ingame). Not to mention the weapon-selection is just horrible. The gameplay is quite similar to Borderlands or MMOs: you are given a taskBluntly put, Dead Island is a bad "melee version of borderlands". The PC version seems to be a straight console-port as well. You have minimal graphical options, bad FoV and the mouse sensitivity is laughable in the menus (though it works normally while ingame). Not to mention the weapon-selection is just horrible. The gameplay is quite similar to Borderlands or MMOs: you are given a task to run (usually far away) to retrieve something and then you run back for the reward. The combat is repetitive and boring, since there's hardly any variety on the monsters. The weapons break surprisingly fast also. You are supposed to handle vehicles as well, but the driving is even worse than borderlands. The camera angle is from inside the car, so you don't really see where you are going that well.… Expand
  70. MrJambalaya
    Sep 10, 2011
    10
    Good zombie survival game to play with friends and a unique feeling of survival and it reminds me of the movie 28 days later(its stupid to give a new released game a bad evaluation because it has few bugs)
  71. Neverlight
    Sep 13, 2011
    10
    I like open world games, i like weapon crafting, i lke to become more powerful while i play and i like zombies. To sum it up, i absolutely love dead island. I've played 27 hours so far and no bug since now (uk release). Some moments in game made my jaw drop down, like the strange noises near the huge hotel and the noises in the city. Had to shiver when i remember these moments. Best gameI like open world games, i like weapon crafting, i lke to become more powerful while i play and i like zombies. To sum it up, i absolutely love dead island. I've played 27 hours so far and no bug since now (uk release). Some moments in game made my jaw drop down, like the strange noises near the huge hotel and the noises in the city. Had to shiver when i remember these moments. Best game so far in this genre.… Expand
  72. JoeH
    Sep 19, 2011
    10
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Best zombie game I have played in a long time. The rpg elements are great, the co-op is a welcome bonus, and the combat, very cool how you can sever limbs and break bones. I highly recommend this game to anyone who likes rpg and/or zombie games.… Expand
  73. Mothas
    Sep 22, 2011
    10
    Nice Game, blood everywhere. Xp, and evolution tree for characters, nice... physical combat is intuitive and really fun, weapon mods and upgrades gives a new taste to games like that, for me is a left4dead mixed with fallout and borderlands all together. if you like one of this games, go ahead for Dead Island.

    ++++ recommended.
  74. miro9781
    Oct 9, 2011
    10
    For me the best RPG in a long time. Love the setting - horror survival with pleasant environment. Zombies, first person hand-to-hand combat, weapon upgrades, contemporary settings. Quests feel natural and fitting, and are well located, no need to travel around over extensively. The graphics on the PC (GTX 560) is insane. If the graphics development stopped here I'd be fine with that :). ItFor me the best RPG in a long time. Love the setting - horror survival with pleasant environment. Zombies, first person hand-to-hand combat, weapon upgrades, contemporary settings. Quests feel natural and fitting, and are well located, no need to travel around over extensively. The graphics on the PC (GTX 560) is insane. If the graphics development stopped here I'd be fine with that :). It has the right mix of everything, kept me hooked up till the end which rarely happens even with AAA game. Yeah, it has bugs, but every new game does, don't care as long as they fix quickly. Will remember for a long time. In fact, I WANT DLC or part 2. PLEAAAASEE!!! :)… Expand
  75. 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
  76. Contagent
    Oct 18, 2011
    8
    The only problem i found with this game is the beginning stage at the beach. The graphics here were just horrible and of course having to pick up a new weapon after 1 fight blows. BUT, once i left that beach....the game did a complete 360 on me. I could not put it down. The story makes sense and draws you in. On top of that as you get closer to the end of the game, you find yourselfThe only problem i found with this game is the beginning stage at the beach. The graphics here were just horrible and of course having to pick up a new weapon after 1 fight blows. BUT, once i left that beach....the game did a complete 360 on me. I could not put it down. The story makes sense and draws you in. On top of that as you get closer to the end of the game, you find yourself putting in hardcore hours just to see the next part. Staying focused on the main story was difficult because the side quests were just amazing too. I just wish i could have gotten my friends to soldier through that beach area.....I believe they really missed out on this one.… Expand
  77. DubFire
    Oct 25, 2011
    5
    The game has the potential, but sinks in its inconsistency, the interface problems and the feeling of being in an arcade.
    The problems with the mouse in the game and in menus, the problem with the assignment of weapons and drunkenness that attack us without notice.
    The downside of seeing this incredible game, we create a sense of realism rarely saw the world to have a zombie to roam. But    The game has the potential, but sinks in its inconsistency, the interface problems and the feeling of being in an arcade.
    The problems with the mouse in the game and in menus, the problem with the assignment of weapons and drunkenness that attack us without notice.
    The downside of seeing this incredible game, we create a sense of realism rarely saw the world to have a zombie to roam. But however this is thrown on the ground thanks to the damage system you use.
    If you have extracted many good ideas from other games, so it seems, one that certainly miss all those who are fans of hard and realism is the damage system. You can be as hard and tough as you want, but a shooting death forever. 1 headshoot 1 death ever forever.    … Expand
  78. 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
  79. Afghani
    Jan 4, 2012
    9
    Very good polish action/RPG/FPP/survival horror game, that presents a new approach to zombie topic. Combining zombies and tropic island theme (which are contrasting with each other) was very good idea.

    PROS: * very nice graphic * RPG elements * fight system * weapon crafting and modding * good plot * open world * great game-play CONS: * lots of bugs on release day * flat main characters    Very good polish action/RPG/FPP/survival horror game, that presents a new approach to zombie topic. Combining zombies and tropic island theme (which are contrasting with each other) was very good idea.

    PROS:
    * very nice graphic
    * RPG elements
    * fight system
    * weapon crafting and modding
    * good plot
    * open world
    * great game-play

    CONS: * lots of bugs on release day
    * flat main characters
    * driving a car is difficult as hell
    * game saving system
    * and again: lots of bugs!    … Expand
  80. Chris_DK
    Jul 7, 2012
    0
    One of the biggest disappointments I have experienced. The game was so interesting and the idea of the game taking place on a tropical island seemed solid. But the game is so poorly executed, the gameplay is awful, it is such a robotic movement and it's hard to get an overlook of all the enemies attacking you. The gameplay is especially bad when it comes to using firearms. The charactersOne of the biggest disappointments I have experienced. The game was so interesting and the idea of the game taking place on a tropical island seemed solid. But the game is so poorly executed, the gameplay is awful, it is such a robotic movement and it's hard to get an overlook of all the enemies attacking you. The gameplay is especially bad when it comes to using firearms. The characters are so ridiculously stupid and the voice casting is horrible. Last but not least the numerous amount of bugs ruins this game. Even with all the patches the game has a huge amount and because of that I can't make a progress in the game. I can't get any further because I have runned into a really annoying bug.… Expand
  81. 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.
  82. nirvycn
    Sep 9, 2011
    2
    Good idea, poorly implemented. Graphics are not that great for a Pc title. There are SO many bugs/crashes its not funny. This is a poor console port, the UI and inventory may work on the xbox, but its very poor on the PC. This could have been so much more than the mess it is.
  83. Talos84
    Sep 7, 2011
    8
    good idea, just expect the graphics to be so much better, as for the whole wrong version release i just don't buy it. the patch really didn't do much, also can not connected and play with friends unless we setup a VPN 1st. what happen with working with steam-works? i almost feel ripped off i expected a lot more for my 50 bucks, maybe after Friday everything will be patched up and workinggood idea, just expect the graphics to be so much better, as for the whole wrong version release i just don't buy it. the patch really didn't do much, also can not connected and play with friends unless we setup a VPN 1st. what happen with working with steam-works? i almost feel ripped off i expected a lot more for my 50 bucks, maybe after Friday everything will be patched up and working correctly but till then this game is almost a let down.… Expand
  84. InRainbows
    Sep 7, 2011
    6
    "Meh" pretty much sums up the quality of this game, which is unfortunate given how long we all waited for it. The island itself is beautiful: swaying trees, water moving about in realistic waves, and some incredible lighting. They really nailed the atmosphere here. The graphics aren't my complaint (although some of the indoor areas are particularly underwhelming).

    My biggest complaint    "Meh" pretty much sums up the quality of this game, which is unfortunate given how long we all waited for it. The island itself is beautiful: swaying trees, water moving about in realistic waves, and some incredible lighting. They really nailed the atmosphere here. The graphics aren't my complaint (although some of the indoor areas are particularly underwhelming).

    My biggest complaint with this game is that it's just very shallow. I find myself skipping all the cutscenes and conversations simply because the characters are so insipid and one dimensional. It's as if they designed the entire game and then thought to themselves the day before release, "wait, shouldn't we have a story?" And I get it: this game isn't about the story, it's about killing zombies, but the novelty of running around bashing heads of the undead wears off rather quickly when it's the only thing the game has to offer.

    The interface is tacky and unnecessary at times. The stamina bar is intrusive and appears in the bottom center of the screen every time you so much as sprint. The zombies have their own healthbars and, each time they're hit, you see "+7 XP, +25XP, etc." which really kills the atmosphere (but this can be disabled).

    Another complaint I have is that there's no day/night cycle, nor is there a weather cycle. Granted, certain parts of the game take place at different parts of the day with some variety in weather, but it seems like having a day/night cycle in an open-world RPG would be a given.

    I was also thoroughly unimpressed with the "multi-layer damage system". I simply haven't seen it. Little variety in the wounds zombies can obtain and, if you smash a zombie's head, it's smashed in the same exact pose every time. There are plenty of rewards for leveling up and the zombies level up with you in a Borderlands-esque fashion, which is nice. And the weapon customization system is quite useful, although the weapons break far too quickly.

    I'm crunched for time right now, but all-in-all, I ended up really disappointed with how this game turned out, but I'm excited to see the mods that the Dead Island community will create.    … Expand
  85. lw_01
    Sep 7, 2011
    0
    I was very excited about the release of this game - I am very disappointed. As of right now, you cannot play this game. Every time I have tried, I have run into numerous bugs, and I quit, angry, one again.
    On top of all that, the developer's press release about how they would fix the buggy release was entirely disingenuous - all they did was strip the debug information out of the game and    I was very excited about the release of this game - I am very disappointed. As of right now, you cannot play this game. Every time I have tried, I have run into numerous bugs, and I quit, angry, one again.
    On top of all that, the developer's press release about how they would fix the buggy release was entirely disingenuous - all they did was strip the debug information out of the game and comment out the keybindings for the debug keys - every single bug remains, and multiplayer is still broken.
    Unacceptable. If I had paid $50 for anything else, I would get a refund but Steam does not issue those.    … Expand
  86. althekoolkid
    Sep 6, 2011
    1
    This game has been jerking my d*** ever since I installed it. It has so many bugs and various issues that its difficult to separate what works properly from what doesn't. Non the less, the original release was a DevPort of the Xbox 360 version, but on top of that after the fix which "ported" back to the PC version all my savedata was destroyed and my special edition content was removedThis game has been jerking my d*** ever since I installed it. It has so many bugs and various issues that its difficult to separate what works properly from what doesn't. Non the less, the original release was a DevPort of the Xbox 360 version, but on top of that after the fix which "ported" back to the PC version all my savedata was destroyed and my special edition content was removed and the codes became invalid. Ill give it one point just because they managed to release it. That alone amazes me.… Expand
  87. Freesoul
    Sep 10, 2011
    10
    it s borderland with zombie, just the perfect co-op game to play with some friends and a cold beer !
    I love it !!
    Sure it's not story driven...but who care, sand boxe game with awesome gameplay and co-op ??
    one of the best game i played this year.
  88. Yddraiggoch
    Sep 12, 2011
    10
    Right... I can say that I'm enjoying it so far. Some comments that I've seen compare it to Fallout 3 mixed with left4dead, mixed again with Borderlands. IMHO that's certainly true; but with a hint of FO (but the dialogue is one-sided) a large dash of Borderlands (particularly the skills sytem), a sprinkling of Oblivion (in as much as it's heavily melee combat oriented) a pinch of DeadRight... I can say that I'm enjoying it so far. Some comments that I've seen compare it to Fallout 3 mixed with left4dead, mixed again with Borderlands. IMHO that's certainly true; but with a hint of FO (but the dialogue is one-sided) a large dash of Borderlands (particularly the skills sytem), a sprinkling of Oblivion (in as much as it's heavily melee combat oriented) a pinch of Dead Rising 2 (combining items to make better weapons) and it has all the zombie gore of l4d.

    I can't say with all honesty that it's better than L4D as they're games of a very different ilk; L4D is of course very heavy on gunplay, and Dead Island's emphasis is very much on melee combat. But the delight (and the occasional howl of anguish!) of it's combat system is in the improvisation that you find yourself doing - split second judgement even. You will find yourself thinking "right, I'm gonna throw this at here Fast Zombie sprinting towards me, then a quick kick to this one on the right, pick up this hammer here and try and break the arm of the one on the left....". Notice I said "break the arm". I could have equally said "cut off the arm" - which in itself is fantastic - this game gives you the ability to chop off various limbs (although you won't see any zombies dragging themselves along by their arms if you cut both legs off - believe me, I've tried!). It is hilarious though, watching a zombie trying to headbutt you to death!

    The game is not perfect; there are some graphical glitches and the main storyline is a bit weak and dull in places. However, for the sheer joy of going toe-to-toe with the walking dead (and revelling in the resulting gore!) you can't get any better than Dead Island.    … Expand
  89. Beliar
    Sep 10, 2011
    4
    Im in III act. I played the game with 2 friends on coop. I picked up sort of "tank" character and i was mostly using 2H weapons. I gotta say, apart from nice graphics and some cool body chopping effects, this game isn't worth the money.

    As a L4Dead fan and CoD5 zombie mod fun, i expected more variety, customizing and coop missions, but it's SIMPLY BORING. You pick up a quest, kill 20    Im in III act. I played the game with 2 friends on coop. I picked up sort of "tank" character and i was mostly using 2H weapons. I gotta say, apart from nice graphics and some cool body chopping effects, this game isn't worth the money.

    As a L4Dead fan and CoD5 zombie mod fun, i expected more variety, customizing and coop missions, but it's SIMPLY BORING. You pick up a quest, kill 20 zombies, get quest item, kill 20 zombies again on the road back, return quest, get sucky reward, that's it.

    This is pretty much the whole game. Other then that, the number of available weapons is just SAD. I wanted to get huge hammer to smash things, i've got lvl 31 and still after checking all the "vendors" there's NOTHING new. Just "old" weapons for higher level. Sad really.

    One big plus for this game, is it's climate. You really feel in danger, the people are fighting to survive and it's great. But this is like only plus along with pretty decent graphics.

    More coms : a lot of graphic BUGS, glitches, disappearing textures, artifacts in cutscenes. I mean, really? Did anyone from the dev's play the game before the release? Seems like they didn't.

    All in all, as a person that played it in coop mode for the last 3 days, i do not recommend buying it. I had some fun, but i just can't imagine playing it solo, it must be devastating after 1 h gameplay.

    Get Left4dead 2 instead, there are lods of mods and maps for it, it's not so "open" as Dead Island , but definately it's worth its money.    … Expand
  90. JMEJAY
    Sep 10, 2011
    3
    Truly disappointing. Completely lacking in depth, as the 18 hours of game play consists of walking around picking things up and returning them to whoever asked. I recall 6 different types of zombies and they must have around 3 different sounds. Not to mention walking around you'll find about four zombies standing around so it really doesn't feel so realistic. The first level area is funTruly disappointing. Completely lacking in depth, as the 18 hours of game play consists of walking around picking things up and returning them to whoever asked. I recall 6 different types of zombies and they must have around 3 different sounds. Not to mention walking around you'll find about four zombies standing around so it really doesn't feel so realistic. The first level area is fun and feels well designed but after that it is apparently rushed, with even some missing textures. The game also will fail to immerse players in the story on-line as whoever accepts the quest can skip the story leaving other players in game clueless. Audio problems, Networking problems with huge lag or game crashes, No mouse support so your lovely gaming mouse buttons aren't supported, and, as it is a console port you'll find the in game mouse cursor VERY irritating (especially if you like a low mouse sensitivity). Add on top of that weapons that break after about 10 hits and one attack move you have a rather tedious game. Its a shame as they could have made this insanely good. If only they spent as much on the game as they did on the original trailer!… Expand
  91. Thicky
    Sep 8, 2011
    4
    It's a real shame. Been waiting on this for a long time. I was assured over and over that it would NOT be a console port. The game is released and it's most definitely a console port.

    - clunky controls using a keyboard, would probably feel right with a controller. - just like easy mode in Half Life 2, the game insists on helping you aim. There is no way to turn this off because it is a    It's a real shame. Been waiting on this for a long time. I was assured over and over that it would NOT be a console port. The game is released and it's most definitely a console port.

    - clunky controls using a keyboard, would probably feel right with a controller.
    - just like easy mode in Half Life 2, the game insists on helping you aim. There is no way to turn this off because it is a staple of console games.
    - The FOV is setup for a television and cannot be changed, for some reason it thinks your pc is a console.
    - The menus don't support a mouse, they do however support a controller or the movement keys. - Changing weapons is a breeze... if you have a controller. They use a circle menu like you'd find on any console game.
    - There are 4 different attacks... if you are using a controller set to digital. If you're using a keyboard there's 1.
    - The first version released had tons of references to xbox controls and xbox live stuff. The first patch released removed all the references that the game is a port.

    There are bugs but big whoop, bugs can be ironed out. The console port problems this game suffers from will probably never be able to be remedied.

    I have nothing against consoles, but I do have a problem with console ports that have little thought as to how someone with a mouse/keyboard will be playing the game.    … Expand
  92. Sifer2
    Sep 6, 2011
    1
    The PC version as of the time I write this review is just completely broken an unplayable. They have laid out a nice story about it being the wrong version an so forth. However I don't believe them since they already put a patch out that fixed nothing. The game is another bad console port cash grab that is all. Maybe in a few months it will be worth purchasing if your lucky.

    But as of now    The PC version as of the time I write this review is just completely broken an unplayable. They have laid out a nice story about it being the wrong version an so forth. However I don't believe them since they already put a patch out that fixed nothing. The game is another bad console port cash grab that is all. Maybe in a few months it will be worth purchasing if your lucky.

    But as of now I can only recommend that you do NOT buy this game. It is broken an not worth supporting. I only give it a 1 instead of 0 because at least I could get to the main menu. From there it just a screen torn stuttering mess that eventually starts to crash.    … Expand
  93. OverlordOutpost
    Sep 7, 2011
    0
    Released version was a developer's debug copy, and ran incredibly bad on my system. After the first day patch all my progress was removed, and the game is now completely unplayable due to lag, stuttering, and freezing issues. Combined with the fact that online Co-Op doesn't work, nearly every reason I had to own this game is completely gone until it is fix, eventually. Either way, theReleased version was a developer's debug copy, and ran incredibly bad on my system. After the first day patch all my progress was removed, and the game is now completely unplayable due to lag, stuttering, and freezing issues. Combined with the fact that online Co-Op doesn't work, nearly every reason I had to own this game is completely gone until it is fix, eventually. Either way, the release points to shoddy management and QA from a company that just seems to not care.… Expand
  94. R4PTUR3
    Sep 19, 2011
    2
    Useless until patches arrive. I have stopped playing this game until bugs like the slow cursor and autosave glitches are fixed. It seems like it'll be great when it works though.
  95. CmbtGhost
    Sep 16, 2011
    10
    Dead Island is a Open world, first person view, zombie survival horror with item collection and character skill advancement trees. An excellent game and a lot of hours of fun gameplay.
  96. CyanAvery
    Sep 18, 2011
    10
    Dead Island is one of the best games this year it is unique and has tons of replay value i find it satisfying to chop off a zombies head legs arms and going into a blood rage and killing zombies in bloody gory fashion if you like RPG's Zombie Apocalypse's you will love this game the only problem is pop in and that's not even a big deal i suggest you pick up this game as soon as you can
  97. Jason999
    Oct 22, 2011
    8
    I acquired this game from Steam less than 1 week ago. Let's take care of the negatives: Since I was not an early adopter of the game, I didn't suffer the 'corrupt' SAVE issue many users have mentioned. I can appreciate how that would infuriate many people. I believe that PC issue has been resolved in patches. What I have continued to experience though, is wonky inventory situationsI acquired this game from Steam less than 1 week ago. Let's take care of the negatives: Since I was not an early adopter of the game, I didn't suffer the 'corrupt' SAVE issue many users have mentioned. I can appreciate how that would infuriate many people. I believe that PC issue has been resolved in patches. What I have continued to experience though, is wonky inventory situations where an item just wont pick up even though I have space. Not a big deal though, as I've managed to understand how the problem occurs and how to rectify it. I'm sure it will be dealt with at some point. Another issue is the awkwardness of weapon selection, using the middle mouse button to bring up the now popularized circular selector. It would make things easier if I could hot key each item, rather than awkwardly select with the mouse. Once again, hopefully the developer hears this and sends out another patch.

    Positives: The game's quest system, whether it's primary, secondary or continuous quest lines are well designed with a helpful cookie trail to follow your way to the destination. The quests themselves are really enjoyable, I haven't gotten bored of any of them, nor do they seem repetitive or 'fed-exish' . This is important to me, as I will quickly lose interest in a game if quests become mundane or identical. Four unique characters to chose from. Pick your preference and have fun with him / her. There's co-op too, although playing with strangers can be annoying. Some people like myself, like to open all loot bags, chests etc. Whereas others I have played with like to fly through and ignore potential loots. For my own enjoyment, I prefer playing this as single player, so I can take my time by completing quests and looting at my leisure.

    The sound effects, background ambiance really set the mood, creating quite a scary scenario. Well done.

    The graphics are top notch in my opinion, with light / shadows being exemplary. I'm running crossfired ATI 5770's with an i7-860, 4gb ram, win 7/64-bit. Both cpu and graphics cards are at stock speeds. Not sure what the average frames-per-second is, but it's quite smooth, no complaints. Now, if I could understand what they've done with anti-aliasing and anisotropic settings, then I'd be happier. Yet, as it stands the 'High' settings across the board @ 1920 x 1080 looks like candy to my eyes. The artificial intelligence is quite good. The varieties of zombies will challenge you and you simply can't approach all encounters slicing wildly. The zombies can and will interrupt you, throw things at you and even straffe you to attack your side or flank [namely 'infected' zombies]. I have died many, many times due to being overwhelmed or performing a bad decision attack. Granted I'm not an avid video gamer, yet the challenge is definitely there. Worst case is you lose money and continue a few meters from where you died. Weapons degrade with use that you can 'repair' upon finding a repair/upgrade workbench scattered around. This feature alone makes you think twice about wildly swinging and instead makes you rely upon well placed hits or even kicking approaching zombie. Dismemberment is done with style.
    You can also throw your weapons, toss grenades or molotov **** at groups of zombies. At close proximity though, a grenade is likely going to blow you to smithereens as well, so don't go bonkers with explosives ;) For gun enthusiasts, there is one of 4 characters to chose whose specialty [read bonus damage] is guns. Otherwise, most of the time you'll be swinging your cleaver, knife, machete, or maybe breaking bones with sledge hammers and maces. There are upgrades you can buy for weapons and 'mods', which will gives you a chance to electrocute, poison or set ablaze your target for example.

    All in all, a fun game. Yes, this is a long game and so far I'm enjoying it and feel that I'm approximately 1/2 way through. There is very minor 'farming' to do to acquire cash. You don't have to, and there are alternate ways to acquire money to buy your goodies. I definitely recommend this game to all.    … Expand
  98. hcookie
    Sep 18, 2011
    7
    Dead Island suffers from a far too early release. The game 'looks' polished, but when you get down to business, there are a lot of details that are missing. As we all know, the devil is in the details. From missing animations, awkward movements, strange design decisions, strange design executions, design decisions which should have be shelved, some of the weirdest looking facialDead Island suffers from a far too early release. The game 'looks' polished, but when you get down to business, there are a lot of details that are missing. As we all know, the devil is in the details. From missing animations, awkward movements, strange design decisions, strange design executions, design decisions which should have be shelved, some of the weirdest looking facial animations, smooth animations in some areas, awkward animations in others, it is a proverbial list of things to do, but never done.

    The game plays like a very strong beta, so it's safe to say, the game was released at least 3 to 6 months too early.

    Dead Island is fun, if you can forgive the unpolished bits. The game is violent and the language foul, well suited for the teen and mature audience who are howling for gore. Definitely not one for the kiddies.

    The game shoots for realism, with it's body part damage system and the realistic graphics. But it all ends when you start realizing you're carrying 4 oars, 3 knives, a modified chain saw, pistol, 6 large batteries (from cars), glue, bits of scrap iron, etc. Which totally goes off tangent from the 'realistic' setting the game tries so very hard to portray.

    It's hard to put a finger on whats really wrong with Dead Island. It's a fun game, for sure, but the immersion is a strange mix of hit and miss, more miss to be honest.

    The only way I can describe the feeling when playing dead island is like putting a round peg into an oval shaped hole, 'almost fits', but not quite.    … Expand
  99. drachehexe
    Mar 21, 2012
    4
    This game really should be fun but because of a crappy port this has the worst performance of any game I have played in the last couple of years. A game with textures and environments so poor and plain and simple should run like lightning, but it's performance is not optimized in the least for the PC. I can run Crysis 2 and Battlefield 3 at close to max settings and get WAY betterThis game really should be fun but because of a crappy port this has the worst performance of any game I have played in the last couple of years. A game with textures and environments so poor and plain and simple should run like lightning, but it's performance is not optimized in the least for the PC. I can run Crysis 2 and Battlefield 3 at close to max settings and get WAY better performance that in Dead Island. And that's sad because the setting and presentation of the game, as well as it's combat mechanics and whatnot seem to be quite solid. Still, the poor performance just make s this no fun to play on the PC. Buy the XBOX version.… Expand
  100. attilab
    Sep 10, 2012
    10
    Perhaps the best most realistic zombie game ever made.

    The hit detection is more advanced than any other game out atm. Example: you chop a zombie in the arm with a machete, the arm gets chopped off, after that he only hits your with his other arm, and if you chop off his other arm he will try to bite, headbutt and kick you. Although the multilayer isn't awesome the single player puts    Perhaps the best most realistic zombie game ever made.

    The hit detection is more advanced than any other game out atm. Example: you chop a zombie in the arm with a machete, the arm gets chopped off, after that he only hits your with his other arm, and if you chop off his other arm he will try to bite, headbutt and kick you.

    Although the multilayer isn't awesome the single player puts L4D2 single and multilayer to shame. There is no unlimited health or unlimited ammo, you will never feel like your running though the same map made with some POS map editor (Hammer) along the exact same path over and over and over just to get a better score. Its different every time; you have somewhat of an open world scenario where you can trade weapons with other survivors at hideouts. If you shoot a zombie in the hand you wont kill him. You can play this game how ever you want.    … 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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