Product ReviewsDead Island (Microsoft Xbox 360, 2011)

Amazingly fun zombie slaying game! Worth my money by far!

Great new zombie game
Pros;
- Leveling up with Skill Tree to upgrade stats
- Loads of weapons to pick from
- Crafting your weapons to make 'em better
- Free roam so you can explore
- Game is humungous
- Good graphics for a zombie game
- Nice and good flow in the gameplay
- Realistic fighting (cutting off limbs or breaking bones)
- Various missions with many different objectives
- Co-op missions that you can join anytime
Cons;
- Running around takes a while (although you get vehicles at times, but now always..)
- Bit of glitches
- Most weapons are melee, still has ranged weapons but what I've seen mostly melee
- Lip syncing on the people is off at times
- Multiple texture glitches
- Dying only loses money, should have a higher penalty, also you spawn very close to were you last were
- Game at times is extremely easy, or super hard

Overall is my favorite zombie game I've played yet, alot of my cons could be fixed with an update so we will see. It seems like you would either love or hate this game so I'd recommend renting it first. But definitely love the gameplay the most out of everything, slaying zombie hordes is just pure hilarity and fun. It does have a complex storyline that has yet for me to lose interest in and still following it and now just walking around and killing zombies.Read full review...

Awesome

Dead Island sparked the interest of gamers worldwide with a beautifully artistic trailer set to an emotional piano track. The game play videos promised a new and more realistic way to fight that would require the player to think more strategically about their attacks or die in a zombie swarm.

As an open world, zombie apocalypse first person perspective, melee fighter with multiplayer Dead Island provides a very unique combination of many game play elements, used in other games, but it looks like Techland may have bit off more than they could chew with this huge undertaking – as an abundance of bugs ruin a very fun, and visually stunning zombie killing game.

After choosing from one of the four stereotypical characters, who each specialize in a certain type of weapon, the player will find themselves waking up in the middle of the zombie apocalypse at an island resort. Each of the characters has their own customizable skill trees and ”Fury” abilities – which are improved as experience is gained by completing missions and killing enemies. The easily avoidable and boring plot involves the group of four survivors attempting to find a cure, escape the island, and help as many survivors as they can on their way.

The mission structure is pretty basic. Groups of survivors that have holed-up for safety on the island assign the player (or players) tasks such as gathering items, travelling to certain locations, or escorting a NPC to safety. The mediocre voice acting isn’t helped by the lack of depth in the story. Despite competent character designs, animations are jarringly robotic and flat out ugly at times. That said, the very large, open world of the island is gorgeous with beautiful landscapes and realistic road and building layouts.

Right from the start players are introduced to the post-apocalyptic necessity of scrounging for items and money in luggage and closets. Every day tools like hammers, paddles and bats are utilized as weapons while other found items can be appended to weaponry to change their properties and add damage, for example: a bat with nails or electrified machete. Weapon modifications require a work bench, money, a recipe (which can be found or earned by completing missions) and the necessary ingredients (i.e. items) – which can be found scattered around the island inside trash bins, computers and other nooks and crannies.

It’s similar to the weapon system in Dead Rising but lends to the feeling of realism as the player is desperate for anything to fight with – rather than grounded in a mall with a humorous selection of weaponry. Throughout the game the weapons and the modifications become more interesting which makes the effort put in to find money and items rewarding. That said, the speed at which weapons degrade is believably fast and, of course, requires money to repair. The game fails to introduce the player to the weapon degradation system and an uninformed player may fight with dulled blade or a broken bat for a long time before realizing that they need to change weapons. It’s a good thing that the inventory size allowed is large and switching weapons is fairly simple.

Dismembering zombies with home made weapons is extremely satisfying in Dead Island. The first person perspective, which requires targeting specific body parts, can feel awkward at first – but swinging a customized axe and removing a limb from an oncoming zombie is beautifully gory and so enjoyable thRead full review...

Good and varied if a little repetitive

This is a first person game that branches out to include a few different genres. Zombies, of course, are prominent and there are enough varieties to keep it entertaining for a while. There's also some other enemies including humans that help mix up gameplay a bit.

Combat is fast paced and exciting, but can become repetitive and frustrating at times. Characters are limited by "stamina" which helps somewhat to keep the game challenging, but it can be annoying to simply not have enough stamina to perform your actions. Getting stamina back is easy, just walk away from the slow zombies for a bit and let it come back, but that isn't very exhilarating. Shooting can be a little awkward as there is an uncontrollable wobble, but overall is is successful.

The game of course features good elements of exploration with varied environments, and enough roleplaying so that it is engaging but not overwhelming. Quests have enough guidance that you won't be at a loss for what to do, but you won't feel handheld.Read full review...

Fun, Free-Roam Zombie Slayer- A Must Have for L4D 1&2 fans!

I bought this product for the survival horror, zombie slasher it was supposed to be. Turns out I bought it for the right reasons, the level up schemes add something nice to what I would most compare this game to: a Left 4 Dead franchise update. Set in various island -- city -- arena-like locations it seems to up the difficulty with long range weapons once the character finally makes it through the 'Banoi' island slash-only start to the CITY. If you haven't thought about getting this game as a survival zombie free-roam hunter, [and over the age of 17] You Should!

I like the weapon availability and customization of pretty much everything, the co-op is probably the best thing it offers, would be nicer if it wasn't only single player though. This product gets 4 full stars for the depth and freedom of levels it creates with sometimes miserable zombie sequences being the only killer of the ratings for me.Read full review...

Zombies what more can I say about shoot and reload

I am a zombie fan love most movies and games so I use to have it before and liked it and had to get it back to bring back memories and to have it my collection again

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: decluttr_store

Horrifyingly overrated

I recently played this game from start to finish and I'm astonished at how Dead Island gets such positive word of mouth free from any criticism. Its an extremely flawed game and I will share the worst of them.

For me, my experience with Dead Island soured when I hit act 2. In act 2, you wind up in the city and there are zombies everywhere. The result is a lot of cheap deaths that will likely drive you nuts.

Here you will face big groups of zombies. Typically you'll swing your weapon 4-5 times, run out of stamina, and die since you can't fight back. Other times you'll engage a managable group only to have zombies magically spawn right behind you and punch you to death. Its hard not to notice how wimpy your character is. There's also no mechanism for defense. What winds up happening this early in the game is you get overwhelmed and die a lot. Usually because of the lame stamina system and how it runs out on you.

After dying a ton, I decided on avoiding all conflict sprinting everywhere stopping to jump on a car as I ran out of stamina. This came with a new problem: clumsy physics. Somehow jumping on a car's hood is a challenge without running and jumping straight at it. Somehow its really easy to slip off and get killed by the horde following you around.

Cheap deaths like this make Dead Island very not fun. And this is despite the fact you usually respawn right where you die the only penalty being losing money.

My next major issue deals with Dead Island's bugs. This game has been given its final patch and there are tons of them STILL. The most obvious is the inventory system which ought to anger everyone. I've had weapons I just modded vanish on me. There is also a bug that makes you drop guns if you mod more ammo than you can hold. I lost 2 myself. I've had inventory spaces wasted from carrying 2 groups of molis or med kits the game was too stupid to add together. I had a lot of problems with my equipped weapon where it would switch to another for no reason. Usually it switches to fists. In the middle of a fight. Its absurd to know these bugs are still there. Its even more insulting to know the game originally shipped with worse bugs and had a $60 price tag.

My third major issue with Dead Island is the on-line. The game's default lets anyone join your game. I hope you have friends, because the on-line community (on the 360 at least) sucks. Its rare to have someone to actually cooperate with you. Most of the people I encountered were either young children or griefers who would intentionally kill you or try to corrupt your game. The co-op is also buggy in that it can mess up your in game story progress.

These are my major grievances with Dead Island. If I had more space, I'd comment more on the flimsy RPG aspect. About how crude and tacked on the RPG elements are. How cliched it is (most quests are fetch quests). About how lame and cliched the story is and how the characters are mostly racist stereotypes (the black guy is a thug gangsta whose specialty is blunt weapons. HAHA! GET IT? BLUNT? HE CRITS FOR 420 DAMAGE). Lots more stuff, but covering the broken stuff took up all my review space.

Dead Island is painfully average at its very best, but very amateur overall. The game has poor design choices that work against it. Then there's the horrid programming. It honestly confuses me how the internet keeps insisting Dead Island is good when its extremely mediocre and weak. Its undeserving of the crazy praise it gets.Read full review...

Good, but some considerable drawbacks.

This is a good game, but it isn't quite as good as I thought it would be. For one, this game is extremely difficult, in my opinion, as one progresses through it. In addition, the free-roam aspect of the game, and its entertaining zombie killing, is great fun, yet once you level up the zombies become too powerful to really have fun killing. The melee combat system is superb, as is the scenery. It's a beautiful game, but it is extremely...brutal. So I wouldn't buy it if you're adverse to violence, obviously. The biggest problem with this game is its lack of plot. Seriously, the plot is nearly non-existent. Kind of like Left for Dead...Read full review...

The perfect zombie survival game! Very fun and addicting!

I'm going to be straight to the point with this game.
Pro's- customizable weapons, character talent trees, great multiplayer, oh yea i almost forgot.... THE ZOMBIES ARE FREAKING AWESOME! If there is such a thing as a perfect zombie, I believe they made it in is game. The combat mechanics in this game are very in depth: if you whack a zombie in the leg with enough force, it breaks, hindering its ability to walk. Same goes with sharp objects, take a machete for example. With proper aim and skill, you can chop off an arm, leg, pretty much anything that zombie has hanging from it can be broken and cut off. That's about it for the pro's section.
Con's- Honestly, in my own opinion, i found very few flaws with this game. The controls were easy to use, combat is very straight-forward, the environment is beautiful even though it' crawling with flesh eating zombies. I will say this, if you are playing by yourself and made it to the city part of the island and didn't quit(like i did for awhile then finally got through it) when you realize HOLY S**T THAT'S ALOT OF ZOMBIES COMING AFTER ME, trust what I say, that's the hardest yet funnest part of the whole game. That's it for my review of Dead Island, hope you enjoy the game as much as I do. It's a must-have for any gamer.Read full review...

good

I got this game and I don't know how to play it I've been trying to play it everyday and I just don't understand how to get to the island to kill zombies I'm in this house and I have to pick up some kind of objects and I don't know how to do that or how to exit the house I don't understand this game at all Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: mikeag60

Dead Island is FUN!

It really comes alive though when you're allowed to explore at you're leisure. Taking on side quests can be a bit If anyone has seen zombie flesh eaters (1979) then you would agree Dead island has similar qualities, most likely due to the fact they both include a tropical island and zombies.I love the realistic touches and the added difficulty some of it presents and I for one will be having fun with this game for a long time.Read full review...