Ladies and gentlemen, the winter games deluge has begun. What started with Deus Ex a fortnight ago is going to last all the way through until early December, with wall to wall gaming awesomeness appearing on store shelves as far as the eye can see. Inevitably, things are going to get ugly. As a mere mortal who still has to, ya know, buy his games, I’m restricted by what’s commonly referred to as a “budget”. This “budget” is no doubt going to end up in tatters and trodden into the dirt come mid-November, but for now I’m trying to stick to it as best I can. The result is that even for Tap’s resident Zombie enthusiast, a game such as Dead Island that would have been an insta-purchase at any other time of the year is now relegated to Steam sale fodder.
Nevertheless, today’s lifting of the official review embargo yielded some mixed reviews and differing responses. Although the less than stellar technical performance proved too steep a hurdle for many to overcome, others praised the RPG elements, the most “realistic” depiction of a Zombie apocalypse to date and the simple fact that they just had fun with the game. Either way, Dead Island has turned out to be absolutely nothing like that trailer, so the real winner here is the Department for Misleading Marketing. Check out the best of the aggregated scores and comments after the jump.
Game Informer: My time on Banoi Island was filled with more memorable moments than I could’ve imagined. I raced down a city street and was intercepted by a pack of flaming zombies that instantly gave chase. I decided to turn tail and run, allowing the scathing flames to gradually destroy my pursuers. I hurled sickles, scythes, and knives into a hulking undead beast, retrieved them from its rotting frame, and threw them again. I sprinted at a zombie, jump-kicked it to the ground, and smashed its brain in with my foot. I severed a brute’s flailing arms while my friends distracted him. These amazing moments were made possible by the freedom the game bestows upon creative players. [8.50/10]
GamesTM: However, despite some mechanical issues, its fair share of technical limitations and a few inconsistent design choices, it’s undeniable that Techland’s open-world, four-player zombie slayathon surpasses the highest hopes anyone had for it. [7/10]
Destructoid: This all sounds rather negative, but I must stress that Dead Island is a fun game — it’s just fun in the most frustrating way possible. [7/10]
Joystiq: While throwing weapons is cool yet too expensive, the melee combat that will be your stock-in-trade is just annoying. Encounters with single zombies are pleasant enough for a while, especially when you’re lopping off limbs and heads. But the far, far more common scenario is getting attacked by several zombies at once and dying — a lot. No matter what number you’re facing, the strategy is always the same: Hammer on the right trigger. Just keep swinging, for hours. There’s a “kick”, but it only works on one enemy at a time and frequently misses, so it’s not a reasonable way to buy yourself some space. The melee system is desperately in need of some depth or flow. A block button, for instance, would have gone a long way. [3/5]
Eurogamer: It’s in the opening sections where the immediate desire to mash zombies to bits grinds most awkwardly against the restrictions of the RPG framework. Playing as a cop-trained firearms expert, only to be told you can’t actually shoot a pistol because you’re not level 10, is about as immersion-breaking as you can get. It also gets tiresome, constantly foraging around for pipes, planks and kitchen knives with which to defend yourself as you jog from poolside bar to lifeguard tower to gas station. [6/10]
Email the author of this post at matc@tap-repeatedly.com
As I haven’t heard of some of those web sites, I’m not the least bit concerned about their reviews. And if dying a lot was a sign of a bad game, Demon’s Souls would be a shattered, shiny circle on the dust heap of history.
The reviewer from Eurogamer will get a shock should the zombie apocalypse actually happen. I should imagine we’d be quite grateful for kitchen knives and the fact that we keep finding more in random buildings where had they had any sense the owners would have used said knives to prevent themselves becoming zombies in the first place?!
“A block button … would have gone a long way.”
Playing pat-a-cake with the undead seems like A Bad Idea to me.
I think Dead Island will be a co-op purchase for me at some point in the future. It is co-op right?
Gregg, it supports upto 4 players, yes. The Destructoid review even made a point of comparing it to Borderlands. I’m glad you’ve mentioned this as I do want to play it at some point, but not for £30, not on single player and not with strangers.
Some of the reviews have been pretty odd. Justin McElroy literally mentioned nothing of positive value in his review yet gave the game 3 out of 5. Eurogamers Dan Whitehead was pretty scathing about the games technical flaws but signed off by saying how he still had fun and enjoyed playing it. Seems to be one of “those” games that’s pretty rewarding if you don’t mind immersion breaks or the odd bug. Guess that’s where the frequent comparisons to Fallout 3 come in..
Of course it’s really more a “when” than an “if;” armed struggle against the undead is a certainty in our time. The real question is this: are we going to be facing the George Romero “slow” zombies that shamble about and are chiefly dangerous in packs, or the Zack Snyder/Valve Software “fast” zombies that run and snarl?
Either way I think it’s just another reason to never visit an island. Or have children! ‘Cause they’ll bite you and you’ll have to throw them out a window in slow motion.
If you’re smart, Mr. Sakey, you’ll plan for both..
I think they’ll be slow. Either way my zombie plan will remain applicable. I was having a discussion with my boyfriend last week and both of us were concerned at our lack of suitable zombie killing weaponry. Hopefully Dead Island will provide the necessary training on how to defeat zombies without machine guns and pipe bombs.
You could have children just to throw at the zombies and distract them from yourself, although that would be needlessly cruel.
I’ve told numerous friends if they’re bitten during the zombie apocalypse I will put them down with extreme prejudice. It’s what kitchen knives are truly meant for… either that or I’ll have to sacrifice my meagre vinyl collection when I use them for frisbees of death.
For the love of all that is good and decent, no, Toger! Don’t sacrifice any vinyl!
Unless it’s the Eagles. In that case: frisbee at will.
Children sound good to me beck. I’m sure Steerpike would help you lift the heavy ones.
Hahaha just what I need to read first thing in a morning. Throwing children at zombies as distraction tools, haha 🙂
This is now a motivational thread… 😀
The Dead Island launch, of course, has been a fiasco. I ordered a DVD, installed it, played it some, and now can’t get it to run, as I keep getting the message that it’s unavailable and I should try again later.
This all by itself is example #1 of why I hate Steam, and no one can convince me it’s any good. If I install a game to play in solo mode, I shouldn’t have to depend on a cloud to get to play it.
That might not be Steam, it could be Dead Island borking up and not connecting properly. I’m no expert though!
Have you tried playing it in Steam’s offline mode Ernest? I don’t even know whether it can be played offline but it might work if it’s trying to connect to the cloud and failing.
Yep didn’t work offline. Been out of town all weekend though.
Amazing whatever the cause. This game was a surefire hit–IF it just had launched properly.
Hey Ernest, if you want to play a Steam game offline, I read somewhere that it has to start once in online mode first – if you haven’t tried that, it could be your culprit.
Dead Island has had a bit of an unusual launch. But don’t hate Steam! We love Steam!
Played trough the game. Not sure how exactly its “not like the trailer” – its pretty much exactly like the trailer – you are spending the game losing your melee weapons while being mowed down by mobs of ambushing zombies that are about 3 times faster in death then they ever were in life.
You can forget about guns during the first 1/3rd of the game, because there are none (fun times if you are a “gun specialist” btw).
While the game did whip my brand new 1k$ gaming pc a fair deal I could still run it on maxed settings and with all eye candy working just fine – even if Bloom effect was incredibly annoying. Some flickering here and there – no big deal.
One thing worth mentioning – playing this alone – you character’s level levels up all the zombies around you – after a while you just can not have enough bullets in your inventory to get trough stages that do not feature enemies with firearms – using guns alone (again – extremely fun if you are a Gun specialist).
Just like Borderlands – this is a game that you must either play with 3 friends or not at all.