Dead Island

It might be a terrible game from the early 2010s, but it's MY awful game from the early 2010s, I remember coming home from school and booting this up, and the nostalgia still hits good

Obviously, I love this game. Used to play it on the 360 all night growing up, ran through the campaign sometimes two times a night. Met some of my closest friends playing this game. Nostalgia from back in the day mixed with some absolutely awesome upgrades from the original make this a timeless classic for me.

A Constructive Review of Dead Island – Mercilessly Compared to the Gold Standard: Plant Vs Zombies: GOTY Edition

Let’s get this out of the way: Dead Island had a trailer that made people weep. It promised emotion, depth, and a serious take on the zombie apocalypse set on a tropical island. And then the game came out… and gave us kickboxing zombies in bikinis, fetch quests, and more weapon repairs than actual survival horror. It’s a decent open-world action-RPG with some strong co-op moments.

But, alas — it’s still not Plant Vs Zombies: GOTY Edition.

Melee Combat vs Tactical Gardening

In Dead Island, your main method of survival is hitting zombies with broomsticks, oars, and electrified machetes that somehow break after three swings. You get stamina bars, clunky swings, and physics-driven combat that’s entertaining until it isn’t. Meanwhile, Plant Vs Zombies: GOTY Edition hands you snow peas, spikeweeds, and doom-shrooms, and trusts you to think, not button-mash. One is strategy with personality. The other is hitting a zombie with a wrench while groaning about weapon durability.

Open World vs Perfect Pacing

Dead Island gives you a lush island to explore, sure — but half of it is spent running between NPCs with the charisma of a damp towel, asking for engine parts or bottles of water. In contrast, Plant Vs Zombies: GOTY Edition wastes zero seconds of your time. It delivers new mechanics every level, clever enemy types, and constant variety. While Dead Island makes you trek across a jungle to repair a boat, Plant Vs Zombies: GOTY Edition hands you a new seed packet and says: “Good luck, genius.”

Co-op vs Core Loop

Yes, Dead Island is fun with friends. You can stomp zombies together, get swarmed together, and laugh at broken ragdoll physics together. But when you strip it down, it’s still a repetitive slog without strong mission design. Plant Vs Zombies: GOTY Edition, on the other hand, doesn’t need friends to be fun. It’s designed so tightly that every click feels satisfying. It’s a solo experience with more polish and precision than a four-player zombie brawler set in paradise.

Tone and Style: Confused vs Cohesive

Dead Island tries to be gritty and emotional, then throws you into sidequests where you’re retrieving champagne for a party girl in a zombie-infested hotel. It’s tonal whiplash. Meanwhile, Plant Vs Zombies: GOTY Edition knows exactly what it is — playful, quirky, smart, and consistent. There’s no identity crisis. Crazy Dave may wear a pot on his head, but he has more vision than every NPC in Dead Island combined.

Progression and Customization

Leveling up in Dead Island means skill trees, weapon mods, and lots of backtracking. But none of that progression feels as tight or rewarding as unlocking a simple kernel-pult in Plant Vs Zombies: GOTY Edition. Every plant you earn is meaningful, every zombie variant requires a new tactic. Meanwhile, in Dead Island, your best strategy remains “kick them repeatedly until they stop moving.”

Dead Island is a decent zombie-smashing RPG with flashes of creativity and a killer soundtrack. But if you're looking for the real pinnacle of zombie game design — the perfect blend of charm, strategy, creativity, and depth — there's only one name that deserves to be etched in granite:

Plant Vs Zombies: GOTY Edition.

Because why fight to survive on an island when you can simply plant a row of sunflowers... and win the war from your lawn?

This review is based on 100% completion and 38.6 hours of gameplay on steam with many more on Xbox. This review will also apply to the original version of this game for the most part.
Recommendation:
Would I recommend this game? Yes, it's not a bad zombie game, and one of the first I ever played, so I do have a nostalgic attachment to it. Don’t go in with massive expectations—while back in its day this was an exceptional game, by today’s standards, it would be considered an "okay" or "good" game, it’s more of a good classic. If you're looking for another solid game to add to your collection, this is a good pick-up. But if you're after something more fleshed out, I’d recommend looking at something like Dying Light.
The main differences with this Definitive Edition compared to the original are the improved graphics and the inclusion of the DLC. Other than that, you’re basically getting the same experience as the original, so it will feel a bit dated in some areas since it’s an older game. Still, it's good for what it is and will keep you busy for a good few hours.
One thing I’ll point out, which I’m not 100% sure about, is that this game seems to make my PC run a lot harder compared to other games with higher requirements. So, keep that in mind. The only real issues I had were with dynamic lighting, like in the prologue when you first see the infected and have to run away—my game would drop frames and stutter extremely hard. The only fixes were either loading into another area or restarting the game. I also ran into a few bugs: I’d randomly get killed by being thrown into the air by the map, touching an object, or even just getting out of the car. I also had frequent "survivor killed" pop-ups, forcing me to reload a checkpoint or exit the game. This bug occurred when survivors fell through the map and died, even if you’re not near them or have already saved them. Despite these bugs, the game ran surprisingly well overall.
As for gameplay, it can feel clunky and unintuitive at times, which can be frustrating. Some weapons, like two-handed hammers, don’t feel viable because the actions move your screen too much, making me feel nauseous—lots of weapons do this. Combat can also be annoying with zombies pushing you back while still running at you, which can make you get stuck in the wrong animations. The driving is okay—nothing special—but it’s useful for clearing out zombies before getting out.
The co-op/multiplayer runs well, even when connecting with people across the world, which was a pleasant surprise. The only letdown is progression tracking for the person joining the host, as only character progress like levels and loot are kept—story progression is not. You do get a warning about this before joining someone’s game, though.
The Definitive Edition does offer some nice enhanced graphics, which I think still look good by today’s standards. The lighting especially makes the game look more modern, though some models and elements do still look a bit scuffed. Overall, it does a good job visually.
Lastly, the game’s arena mode isn’t bad, especially in co-op. It’s pretty standard, but it’s a good source of money once you get far enough for special enemies to spawn more frequently.
While I do recommend the game, it goes on sale regularly due to its age, so I’d suggest waiting for a good deal before picking it up.
Achievements:
There are a few multiplayer/co-op achievements you’ll need to do, one RNG achievement, and one that requires waiting 28 days. To my knowledge, you’ll also need a controller for one of the achievements. (There actually seems to be a workaround for this if you don’t have one, but I can't 100% confirm myself.)
The achievements are fairly easy in this game. The main ones to watch out for are the multiplayer/co-op achievements, such as needing to play with 10 different individuals and two others that require a full squad (3 other players). Since this is an older game, finding people to play with might be tricky, but making a post and waiting for people to reach out over time will be the way to go.
There’s also one achievement for using the analogue control settings in the arena, which, to my knowledge, only works with a controller. The controls feel clunky, but it’s not too bad if you do this with another person at a decent level—you can just use jump kicks to get it done quickly. Once you’ve got it, you can switch back to the normal controls. (There seems to be a workaround for this where you can select a controller in the settings and then set it to analogue and then switch back to keyboard and mouse, and it will still be in the analogue settings even without a controller, but I personally can't confirm this 100% works though.)
The arena is a good way to grind out some of the miscellaneous achievements, like specific kills, if you’re cleaning up before moving on to Act 4 or just want to get them done quickly.
For the achievement that requires exploring all areas, I recommend following a guide. There’s a great guide by Xeinok and Ralf in the Steam guides you can check out here. ( It's on the original Dead Islands community guides, so it may be a bit hard to find through Steam itself, but it will come up easily on Google if you just want to find it later on.)
Some achievements can be a bit tricky to get to pop, but none were too much of an issue for me. If you meet the requirements for an achievement and it unlocks in-game but not on Steam, sometimes you just need to give it a minute, load into another area, unlock another achievement, or simply exit to the main menu and load back in.
Other than that, all the achievements in this game are fairly easy.
For more in-depth yet straight-to-the-point reviews, feel free to check out my curator page here.

Pros:
- Visual Improvements: The game has received a significant graphical upgrade, with enhanced textures, environmental objects, and lighting effects that make the world feel more immersive.

- Content: The Definitive Edition includes both Dead Island and Dead Island: Riptide, along with all the DLC, offering a lot of content for players.

- Quality of Life Improvements: The game features several quality-of-life improvements, such as better inventory management and additional gameplay tweaks that make the experience smoother.

Cons:
- Performance Issues: Despite the visual improvements, the game still struggles with performance, particularly with frame rate drops and occasional bugs.

- Outdated Mechanics: Some of the core gameplay mechanics feel dated and repetitive, which might not appeal to everyone.

- Mixed Reactions to Changes: While many improvements were made, some changes, like altered weapon models and textures, have received mixed feedback from players who were nostalgic about the original versions.

Overall, Dead Island: Definitive Edition offers a lot of content and visual enhancements, but it still has some performance and gameplay issues that might not be for everyone.

Game's still the same as the original one, but still it's fun to play with friends, playing it solo gets very easily boring

Playing this in 2025 in co op with a friend, works flawlessly, still beautiful, great gameplay. Brings back memories <3