Dead Island review: Zombie game doesn't live up to the trailer
Techland
(CBS) - What happens when you take Far Cry 2 and throw experience points and infected cannibalistic maniacs into the mix? You get Techland's new open-world zombie role-playing game, Dead Island (out today).
The concept of an open-world zombie RPG is a fascinating one. The character depth, customization and interactive plots that have come to define the modern RPG would lend themselves well to an emotionally explorative and harrowing zombie apocalypse. No doubt this game will inspire an entire genre of video games to follow. Unfortunately, Dead Island never delivers on this potential.
The game tries to take itself seriously, but never explores the psychological trauma of waking up to find your favorite tropical island resort overrun by zombies. Characters feel hollow and the plot is uninspired and never successfully strikes emotional chords.
These shortcomings alone aren't what bring Dead Island to the land of mediocrity. After all, the star attraction here is the exciting and visceral zombie killing, right? No.
None of the zombies in Dead Island are particularly intimidating. Most are content to sit and munch on their manwiches without paying you much notice. Those that do take an interest in you are so slow that they can be easily out-run or just kicked to the ground. Sticking to classic horror canon, zombies also can't climb obstacles or open doors.
While surviving in the zombie apocalypse, never forget rule number one: cardio. You'll spend plenty of time managing your stamina meter that drains whenever you run, jump or swing your weapon. Engaging more than one foe at a time will drain this meter rapidly, often leaving a speedy retreat as your best option.
Should you find yourself out of stamina, your weapon degraded to the point of uselessness and an empty rage meter - don't worry - you still have one more trick up your sleeve. Enter, the "zombie kick." It's like the Spartan kick, but you kick zombies.
Not only does your "zombie kick" pack more stopping power than punching, it also doesn't require any of your precious stamina. This presents the player with one absolutely repetitive strategy: kick, kick, bash in skull, retreat and repeat. This unimaginative game play is ultimately what makes Dead Island a complete bore to play.
Techland relies heavily on gamers' inherent love of zombies, but even an island full of them isn't enough to make this game anything more than frustrating. Even with its open-world environment, the experience here never matches the excitement and cooperative fun in Left 4 Dead.
"Dead Island" is available now for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. It is rated M for Mature by the ESRB.
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SIDE NOTE:::
It says "Wired for Women" By topics. Figures. Some Lonely Chicks have to find Random things to Nag about and be stingy towards.
Again, ****. No one wants to read reviews like this.
Who the hell wrote this review? They start off by saying it's like Far Cry 2, which TOOK PLACE IN AFRICA. Obviously no one bothered with facts here, first off.
Also, "these games do nothing but cause people to become violent and lawless." Really? Like all the video games Hitler and Genghis Khan played, right? Why do stupid people exist?
Wait a sec... why is CBS NEWS writing VIDEO GAME REVIEWS?! Aren't their viewers nothing but grandparents? The answer is yes, by the way. If you really want an education, watch this...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Q6kJ1xftIc. You're welcome.
Again, Far Cry. Not Far Cry 2. But then again you play video games and totally know what you're saying. Right CBS NEWS?! lol
When I saw the first trailer I was really excited, but as time passed and they producers decided to not release any video, but only screenshots I thought they might be hiding something. As a fan of the hack-n-slash genre I wasn't too sure about the combat system which reminded me of Oblivion 4, which i hated. However, Dead island uses this combat skill to show the panicked reactions when swinging a baseball at a nightmarish monster. The graphics are purely amazing, no complaints there. Also, the kick after level 5 does absolutely nothing unless 4 people are kicking a zombie all at the same time, which is hard to do when a horde of 8 or 9 zombies have you and your friends surrounded. Again, after level 5 zombies become faster, as well as that other zombie classes (such as the infected, which you can't really outrun) begin to show up. This review says that the game has only small if none emotional impact. However, after seeing a man sitting in a pool filled with blood rather than water, apologizing to his dead family, that is floating around him for killing them when they tried to attack him is apparently (according to CBS news) a non-emotional scene, that can be found every day (*note*my reaction: O___O). I did not expect this game to be any good really, just a fun game to play for a few hours but after playing it I couldn't put down the controller for 7 hours straight, and played it with 3 of my best friends. The game really delivers not what it promises when watching the trailers, but rather it offers something that people don't really imagine when they see the trailers. It's more of something you can't see through cut-scene videos but something you actually need to get your hands on and actually play for a few hours, before bashing on the game. Every game is boring and easy at the beginning, and I would expect the game-reviewer of a company like CBS to actually understand that.