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

Back when games were about having fun and not paying for loot boxes and cosmetics... I wish we would go back but I'm afraid its far too late.

After a trailer that many still see as one of the best ever, Dead Island's release did not meet the same praise and a lot of people, disappointed, forgot about the game. I never did. Several aspects of the game are clunky and there are bugs aplenty, but it offered such a fun mix of genres that it defined my taste in gaming for years.

I couldn't tell you how long I've spent at that paradisiacal resort in the first act. At the same time the best part of the game and a perfect exemple of what's to come, this first act will determine whether or not you like the experience.
Once you've picked your character among the four available and survived the hectic intro that immediately throws you into the action... It's up to you to decide what to do in this zombie infested open-world ! Follow the story missions and discover what happened to the island, complete silly and more serious side missions for characters not always aware of the zombie situation, or explore at your leisure the fancy places this resort houses.

"At your leisure" may be a bit of an exaggeration, as there are quite a few zombies roaming around and they really want to hold on to their loot. So you'll have to use the many weapons and items lying around, or craft your very own at workbenches. Adding nails, electricity, setting them on fire... It's a lot of fun and they become that much more effective.
The better they are, the easier it will be to dismember the various zombies. Especially useful against special enemies like Thugs, it's always fun to aim for the limbs and watch them fly away as blood flows everywhere (... I swear, there's nothing wrong with me).
Then it's time to loot, and you'll realize that... It's everywhere ! Piles of luggage, shelves, lockers, corpses... It's a looter's paradise. You'll find money, materials, weapons... They have different rarities, so every drop is another chance for a legendary, which makes scavenging always exciting.
But that's for the practical side of exploring. I've spent so much time just wandering aimlessly around the beaches, the pools or the hotel while playing with the only inhabitants left, the zombies. Throwing beachballs and watching them tumble never gets old, and neither does kicking them repeatedly into the pools, until they run out of air and blub blub to death (... Again, I assure you, I'm perfectly normal).

The second, third and fourth act, which respectively take place in a city, a jungle and a prison, are unfortunately not as good. There are several reasons for this : those places are obviously not as fancy and the feeling of discovery is gone, the driving that was well implemented and felt satisfying around the resort isn't as useful anymore, and escort missions become more and more frequent. It almost feels like those later acts were a little... rushed.
They do, however, provide a nice change of scenery and allow the game to introduce new special enemies. You'll run into the Ram for the first time in the streets of the city, with its scaffoldings and dirty back alleys it's easy to get cornered in. The jungle brings that little touch of mystery and mysticism that's very fitting for such a place, away from prying eyes and home of forbidden experiments. It's also the place you'll meet the Butcher, who is, hands down, a real threat.
Both of them formidable enemies, they're proof that simple designs can be effective and bring some variety to the bestiary. The prison is uh... Well it's just a prison, but it's the shortest act so you won't really have time to get bored with it.
You can visit all those places and complete every mission in coop as well. Wether you're meeting with friends or dropping in with randoms, joining games is easy and everyone is free to either do their own thing, or work together for fun zombie slaying.

As alluded to earlier, the game still comes with its fair share of bugs. Very few are game-breaking, and most of them are collision bugs : doors refusing to open, invisible walls, items stuck in the world... This is particularly true when you throw weapons at zombies, as those get lost easily (Sorry about that, Logan...).
There are also some clunky mechanics (ladders, platforming, and once you get your hands on your first firearm, it becomes clear that the game was mostly designed around melee combat), as well as places less exciting than others (the sewers or even the prison are not the most exotic locations...).
Still, the game works and offers one of the first open-world zombie bashing experiences, and will be fun all the way to the end if you enjoy the amazing first act.
As such, the comparison with its unofficial sequel, Dying Light, is impossible to avoid. Improved gameplay, parkour elements, refined mechanics... It's easy to see it as the better game, but as much as I love Dying Light, it never had the soul that Dead Island has.

It's worth noting that this Definitive Edition brings a few quality of life improvements, enhanced graphics, and allows you to find the weapons you throw way more reliably. In return, some cool little details (like picking up missions on sheets of paper) are gone, the guns models have changed, and you can't kick beach balls or drown zombies anymore (Imagine my dismay...). Both versions have their advantages, but the graphical improvements may be worth it.

Fun zombie killing, tons of loot, crafting, exploration of abandoned places that were left in a hurry... Dead Island had it all in my eyes. There's no denying it's a little rough around the edges, and suffers from a second half that's not as interesting as the first... But it was a game like no other.
If we're going by its actual qualities and take into account its flaws and numerous bugs, it's probably worth a 7. But as one of my all-time favorites, it has always been a 9 to me.
With a Dead Island 2 that tried to stray away from the formula and a Dead Island 3 on the horizon, here's hoping the next sequel is given the time and resources it needs to be as fun as the original was ! Until then, who do you voodoo... Sir ?

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?

The Voodoo is good but not great.

This review will be a little biased, as I am very nostalgic about this game; it pretty much got me into the RPG action genre, and I really loved the original version, even with its flaws. But coming to this version after so many years, it holds up in most places but fails miserably in others.

The game is mindless zombie killing, the story is boring, the animation can be janky, and the pacing can be slow and repetitive, but it has good weapons and enemy feedback. The graphics, even though a mixed bag in the definitive edition, still look good, and the weapon variety and build are solid.

If you get this on sale and are looking for something like an AA game by today's standard, then the game is a good zombie-killing game. You can even see the precursor of Dying Light physics in some zombies. But don't expect too much from this game, and you'll have a good time.

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

---{ Graphics }---
☐ You forget what reality is( for its time)
☑ Beautiful
☐ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS
---{ Gameplay }---
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't
---{ Audio }---
☐ Eargasm
☐ Very good
☐ Good
☑ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf
---{ Audience }---
☐ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☐ Grandma
---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☑ Potato
☐ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer
---{ Game Size }---
☐ Floppy Disk
☑ Old Fashioned
☐ Workable
☐ Big
☐ Will eat 15% of your 1TB hard drive
☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it
☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data
---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls
---{ Grind }---
☐ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☑ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding
---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☑ Some lore
☐ Average
☐ Good
☐ Lovely
☐ It'll replace your life
---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☑Average
☐ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond
---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☑ Worth the price
☐ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money
---{ Bugs }---
☐ Never heard of
☑ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs
---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☐ 7
☑ 8
☐ 9
☐ 10
Its just fun First person zomie game, story very mid to no exist, same with characher build and NPCS, but its supper fun, looks and plays well for its age