Dead Island

Dead Island
"Welcome to Paradise."
Introduction:
By far the first Zombie game that I liked that changed the entire Zombie genre for me. Before Dead Island, there were so many different Zombies games but none of them had long playability or longevity of any kind, as in you would play it once and then forget about it and maybe replay it in a few years if you get nostalgic enough.
But Dead Island was different from the beginning. I picked it up years ago on a sale for the Xbox 360 and the amount of fun I had was unlike any other for a zombie game. Now that I got to revisit it years later I can tell you that the game still holds up today. Sure there are better zombie games like Dying Light for an instance. (Made by the same developers.) But the game is still loads of fun if you pick it up for a cheap price.
The Story:
4 people from four different backgrounds find themselves on Banoi Island. An island country inspired by Papua New Guinea. When the outbreak begins by unknown methods those 4 people find themselves to be immune to the virus and they band together hoping for a way off the island. (I know this sounds really basic but trust me this game doesn't really have a good story, to begin with. It's the gameplay that defines it.)
Pros:
● Graphics (They still hold up today and even more so if you can get a ReShade on your hands.)
● Gameplay (It's not as great as Dying Light per se but it still holds up today and it is fun nonetheless)
● 4 unique player characters (Sam B, Logan, Xian Mei, and Purna.)
● 4 player CO-OP
● Loads of Zombies everywhere
● Unique zombies (Thug, Ram, and Butcher just to name a few, I will let you figure out what they do.)
● Gore & Ragdoll system (You can hack off limbs, break bones and send enemies flying with the awesome gore and ragdoll system Dead Island has.)
● Weapons (From the firearms to the melee weapons. Dead Island strived for having a really good melee system. There are tons of bladed, blunt, unarmed and other types of weapons featured.)
● Various locations (From the paradise island itself to the city slums to even the deep jungle island. There are many diverse locations featured.)
● Atmospheric and scary locations (Deep jungles, swamps, sewers, and other locations have a certain eeriness to it and I love it personally.)
● Decent optimization (Runs great and it has quite a bunch of options for the player. Although it misses basic features like FOV slider or AF. Although it can be easily fixed.)
● Steam trading cards
● Achievements
● Lite RPG mechanics
● Game time (It will take you quite some time to finish the game. 30+ or 50+ hours at the very least.)
● Excellent price (For £11.99 you will easily get loads of game time in this game if you like exploring and finishing side quests.)
Cons:
● Clunky movement (The movement is very clunky and old. As in you can't grab ledges or vault. The walking method is always rather awkward to handle and control. You get used to it after some time but that doesn't excuse the game. There should've been some update to this so-called "Definitive Edition.")
● Clunky vehicle controls (The driving itself isn't bad. It's the sensitivity when looking around. There is no way to change it anywhere so you're stuck with a PowerPoint level of speed when wanting to look around or behind you.)
● Melee range (The melee system is still good in this game, one problem though is the fact that you have to be right up in the zombies face in order to get a hit and this literally applies to every weapon no matter the type. Batons, axes, Kanabō will all require you to be in face range in order for you to get a successful hit. It sucks.)
● No blocking (There is no blocking with your weapons. You may only jump away from the enemies' blow but just like the movement, it is rather clunky. A block system even a basic one would have been so much better than this lackluster dodge system but alas we have to make do with what we got.)
● Melee weapon condition (I have no idea whose idea this was but literally EVERY single melee weapon. Doesn't matter if it's a common variant or a legendary variant will degrade faster than a piece of paper.)
● NPC escorts (They suck alright? I should be the one ensuring that the NPC I am escorting survives the trip. But these idiots will literally rush ahead of me and 99% of the time get themselves killed. I was escorting a Russian NPC and there was a huge zombie crowd ahead of him so I did what anyone else would do and threw a Molotov. Only for the re*ard to jump down into the fire and get himself killed. Seriously!?)
● Weapon blueprints (There is a LOT of weapon blueprints in the game. When you discover one and read the name of the blueprint you will get excited because it sounds like it could be a deadly weapon. That is when you learn that about 80% of the weapon blueprints are rehashed copies of one another.)
● Lip syncing (I know this game is old but the lip-syncing was awful back then and it still is awful today. There were many games that came out in 2011 with much much better lip-syncing than this. Clearly this game was made with a budget.)
● The story (The story is awful. The survivors in the cutscenes take so many unnecessary, stupid, and risky moves that you will be pulling the hair out of your head. The only survivors with some sense of intelligence are Sam B and Logan. But the rest of them especially the girls are just plain dumb. They think with emotions instead of their heads. They need to look out for themselves yet they think that everyone can be saved. In these situations, not everyone can be saved. Sam B and Logan know it yet the rest of them don't. Jin is by far the worst offender. She is told multiple times to not do this specific thing yet she does it anyway and it is up to the player, in the end, to save her from the trouble. She is dumb, annoying, naive, and inexperienced for the world ahead of you. The fact that you have to travel with her all the way to the end is another annoyance. If it was up to me I would have just left her with some group of survivors and let her be their problem.)
● Clunking shooting (The shooting is God awful. They seem to only be effective against human enemies. But zombies just seem to be bulletproof even if shot in the head. The shotgun which is obtained only at the end of the game is practically useless against the zombies. On top of that, the recoil and handling of it just feels strange and awkward.)
● Zombie throwable weapons (Normal zombies can sometimes be seen carrying weapons. If there was an enemy stronger than all of the zombies in the game then it would be those zombies. As they can literally throw a small piece of wood at you from the continent of Africa and directly impact you. These hits will literally kill you in one hit or reduce your health to nothing. For me, it was the latter 99% of the time. This death was the biggest loss of money for me almost the entire time. It is such a bullsh*t mechanic. Whoever implemented this deserves an African slap across the face.)
Conclusion:
Overall Dead Island is still a good game. Despite the numerous cons, the game was still a fun adventure. All zombie lovers should give this a go as it is very cheap even when not on a discount. The combat is bloody and gruesome, the zombie variants are impressive and the world is huge and expansive.
Overall rating 6.5/10
Follow our curator page Alexander's Club Curations, if you like and want to see more reviews like this one.

---{Graphics}---
☐ You forget what reality is
☐ Beautiful
☑ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ Paint.exe
---{Gameplay}---
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ It‘s just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Starring at walls is better
☐ Just don‘t
---{Audio}---
☐ Eargasm
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ Earrape
---{Audience}---
☐ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☐ Humans
---{PC Requirements}---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☑ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boiiiiii
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer
---{Difficulty}---
☐ Just press ‚A‘
☑ Easy
☐ Significant brain usage
☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls
---{Grind}---
☑ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isnt necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You‘ll need a second life for grinding
---{Game Time}---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☑ Average
☐ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond
---{Price}---
☐ It’s free!
☑ Worth the price
☐ 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
☐ Fallout 76

It's old now, it's really old now but it's good, it's really good.
Probably not much need for new reviews at this stage. Still, I've sunk over a hundred hours into this, so that must be worth a few words.
For a TL;DR I would describe this as "Far Cry set on the Lost island during The Dawn of the Dead". Take my money!
There is mystery, horror, suspense, comedy and loads of violence. The violence is cool though because they're all zombies and smashing a woman's head in with a sledgehammer is fine when she's a zombie.
Misogynistic undertones aside, this is a very well constructed open world adventure that feels much bigger than the sum of it's parts. Larger than life player characters, huge maps to explore freely, plenty of side quests and loads of ridiculous NPCs, situations and dialogue to make the whole thing play out like a great horror comedy zombie movie.
This was the game I was playing back when my PS3 gasped it's last breath and literally puffed out a sad little cloud of smoke before it's green light turned yellow. Only managed to get as far as Act II, but now after all these years I finished the blighter. I loved it. I don't know what it is that makes me love it so much but I think it's just the silly fun of it all.
This was one of the original 'surviving the undead horde' games, taking more than a few cues from Dead Rising but sticking you in a first person perspective and making the whole thing much more immediate and visceral.
The Definitive Edition comes with a few more bells and whistles than the original, a little extra layer of polish that really helps keep the dust off after all these years. There are times it is a beautiful game, lovely vistas, nice weapon models and decent draw distances. There are times it is clearly a nine year old game with janky textures, pop-in galore, brain dead AI and whacked out physics. It manages to dodge all it's problems with a playful sidestep, and just keeps throwing gleeful wicked fun in your face.
On a side note I must make mention of the voice acting. For the most part it's great. The player characters are all decent and most of the main NPCs. Occasionally however you will bump into a side character that is just absolutely hilarious. Unintentionally so of course. It's like the voice actor never heard an English (or Spanish, French, Australian etc.) accent before, and just kinda let what they imagined it to be like flow through them. If you're pedantic you will definitely find much to irritate, but if you go in with the right attitude, there's just so much to enjoy.
I bought Dying Light shortly after completing this, and I look forward to playing that in the future, but for now I have another hundred hours ready to try some co-op and keep the beaches of Banoi safe from the undead menace.
Ten reanimated corpses out of ten.

Half-Baked Co-Op Zombie Game...
If you can forgive the bad, there's actually something quite decent underneath..
+ Decent fun if you play together with friends
+ There's a lot of content. Expect about 20 hours if you really slug through the entire game.
+ The combat is quite good. Your attacks feel meaty, weapon handling is good, and overall its fun.
+ The gore and zombie designs are fantastic. Love chopping their arms and heads off, or just smashing their skulls in.
+ Large-scale maps that encourage exploration
+ Good variety of weapons
- Trying to tab out or do anything else on my PC besides play the game results in a crash... not just a crash, but it'll lock up my PC to the point where I'll have to force-shutdown
- This game is FULL of bugs and glitches
- All enemies in the game scale on your level, which is somewhat a downside as you never feel like you are really improving, and if someone in your game is lower level, they will not have fun.
- The driving in this game is awful
- The graphic effects are BEYOND awful, so much so that you'll get sick if you don't disable all the effects. (motion blur, ambient occlusion, depth of field, etc.) They are all a mess.
- The story and characters, everything about it, is awful
- Very "grindy" especially if you play solo with far too many fetch quests and incredibly boring side quests

Dead Island Definitive Edition
GenreZombies/Open-World
CampaignYes + CO-OP
Game length19 - 51 hours
Difficulty modesN/A
Based on"Dead Island Series"
- The short version of what Dead Island is exactly would be an open-world adventure filled with zombies, where the danger lies around every corner making your main objective in the entire game, not a matter of advancing forward or completing a certain errand but surviving. In fact, survival is what Dead Island does best and different from other zombie games, making the entire experience feel like there are truly lives depending on your actions and there's plenty of action around the island to prove that. As each one of the characters is immune, they can get bit without turning, however, that doesn't mean they're invincible to the virus as each attack will damage you, lowering your health.
Story
The action starts with the four characters located in Banoi, a lush, tropical resort destination located off the coast of Papua New Guinea, the night after a high-profile party when everyone's having their hangovers; suddenly you are awakened by a voice over the emergency intercom system directing them to evacuate the hotel. As any zombie apocalypse begins, the moment you leave the hotel for the first time you realize that most of the island's population has been infected with the disease, turning them into flesh-eating corpses. From that moment your main quest becomes escaping the island in one piece, making your journey from a point to another of the island a matter of survival that isn't only centered around you, but also the people that you meet along the way and interact with and also your partners since the entire campaign can be played online in a four-player CO-OP mode.
Playing alone has its own unique feeling, as it'll often make you switch strategies and avoid zombies or use stealthier approaches since your ammo is limited and your health is precious, making the singleplayer experience a matter of survival, but one that is fun and enjoyable. Playing in multiplayer, however, the entire experience changes into a bloody massacre of zombies and leveling up along with your friends, where things like the story are no longer important since the entire adventure is simply brilliant when you're enjoying it with your friends cooperatively and help each other upgrade the weapons that you find along the way.
Gameplay
As I've mentioned before what this game does best is survival and teaching you that not everything that moves towards you can or should be killed, avoiding hordes of zombies usually ending up to be the smarter way out of a problem, but when you do kill them, the entire gameplay transforms into an addictive routine that you simply cannot get enough of. While you can use a gun to kill zombies at any given time, the game makes it clear that the ammo is limited and sometimes even absent, making melee combat the only way to survive and make your way through the hundreds of zombies populating the island of Banoi.
Killing zombies rewards you with XP, money, items, or weapons, making each kill feel like an advancement towards your goal and a celebration when you find a better weapon that you can upgrade with the money you collected from the other zombies. Leveling up allows you to invest in new skills that improve things like your lockpicking skill, allowing you to open more advanced chests and find better items, upgrade your health or stamina, and even the experience that you earn from killing more zombies. Items can be found either by looting zombies or objects around the island, like travel bags or trash cans; they can later be used to craft improvements for your weapons, bullets, or survival items like medical kits.
There are dozens of melee weapons that you can find across the island and upgrade to your liking and the game does an amazing job keeping that mechanic addictive and fun, as you'll always find a new weapon more powerful than your current one or a new mod that you can add to your existing weapons, making them more powerful and fun to use. Even after I finished the campaign, I still wanted to get back out there, level up and upgrade my weapon collection even further, simply because there is so much to do and play around with the tools that the game offers you. The game can be unfair at times, as zombies later on in the game will use melee weapons as well, which in big hordes can easily kill you without you even realizing what has happened, but once you do get the hang of the core survival idea behind the game, you'll start saving bullets especially for such encounters, making it easier to survive huge groups of zombies. by ignoring some bugs it's easy to get over all that when you have such an enjoyable combat and upgrade mechanic that will keep you around the island long after you've finished the campaign.
Graphics
Dead Island Definitive Vs Original Pc Graphics ComparisonThe island looks nice and each location is detailed and filled with objects that you can interact with, making even the non-significant part of the island worth taking a look around just to see what else you can find there. The zombies look nice and the characters that you'll interact with along the way each has their unique look and story behind their face; the playable characters are nicely detailed and filled with unique personalities, making a playthrough with another character feel different from the previous one. There are some serious texture loading issues that can be disturbing at times, but once you get over that, there's a beautiful island spiced up with nice weather effects, unique characters, nicely designed zombies, and beautifully crafted environments to enjoy.
Soundtrack/Audio
Dead Island | Full Original Soundtrack Phil LaMarr provides the voice of Sam B, Kim Mai Guest has been cast as Xian Mei, David Kaye as Logan Carter and Peta Johnson as Purna, all of them already being well-known actors in the video games acting career. The soundtrack is amazing and always fit to whatever it's happening on the screen, sometimes even pointing you towards your objective simply by lowering the tone; the sound effects are even more useful as they'll often alert you when a zombie is about to sneak up on you from behind, making you feel like the ultimate badass when you turn around and cut his throat without looking.
- This rating system is my personal opinion and not to be intended to replace a professional rating system in any way!
Rating (% * X / 100, sum of all as final rating X/10)
Story/Campaign (30%) 7
Gameplay/Controls (25%) 8
Graphics (20%) 7
Sound/Music (10%) 8
Replayability (10%) 9
Achievements (5%) 8
My personal rating is
7.6/10
Conclusion
Dead Island doesn't come without its problems, but once you do get over them or start embracing them in a way or another, you've got yourself a fun and addictive experience that will last you for days and probably even more if you're willing to replay the entire campaign with some friends online. Even without that, playing Dead Island alone isn't about the story or the plot development, but instead, about the fun you can have in an open-world survival in which each one of your actions is rewarded with experience, money, and items that you'll use along the way to improve your playtime and enjoy the game even more.

I got a zombie army and you can't harm me
Who do you voodoo, Bitch?
Drink blood like a vampire without warning
Who do you voodoo, Bitch?
GOOD
+Graphics(has many improvements over the original version)
+Zombies
+Open World
+Atmosphere
BAD
-It has some bugs around here, but otherwise it works very well.
Dead Island Definitive Edition brings some improvements over the original version.
Must Play! 8.5/10

If you're here for the summer sale.. stop reading and buy it. Really fun playing by yourself and much more enjoyable with friends.