FORMATS: Xbox 360, PS3, PC
Firstly, I LOVE zombie games. The drama, context, gameplay and concept of a survival horror against the horde of the undead fascinates me. So, naturally, when I saw the first trailer for Dead Island I was very excited. A zombie game on an island defined as a holidaying paradise was against what most zombie games are, and the teaser trailer was more than enough to convey the emotions of the footage used.
I bought the special edition of the game on release day and began to play it. This is certainly not what was shown in the teaser trailer. Far from it. Hell, I wouldn’t even go as far as to say that this resort is a family holiday destination as suggested in the teaser. You also do not play as any one of the characters featured in the teaser.
You can play as 1 of 4 characters and I selected the first guy, an ex-football player with a chip on his shoulder, a la The Longest Yard. You begin the game waking up in the characters hotel room (but based upon other peoples playthroughs so far, this is the same intro), and progress through the hallways on the floor of the hotel you are in. It’s a rather nice touch that near enough everything is interactive – although stealing cash from other people’s luggage is not very obvious at the beginning, and nor is anything else.
I went in without reading the instructions and paid for it, as nothing is obviously told to the player to begin with. The controls seem a little oddly placed – as I am playing this on PS3, R1 is to fire weapons, and R2 is to cycle through your arsenal. It’s rather strange not having the fire button on a trigger. This is the whole reason Sony made those buttons that shape to begin with.
Eventually you are guided by “The Voice”, escaping the hotel and being found by a group of people who need your help to get to a nearby lifeguard hut. You do this task and move everyone to there, each member of the group offering something – a doctor, a mechanic, and so on. There’s even a workbench to fix and upgrade your weaponry, at the cost of the cash you find in the luggage bags...although how cash has any worth in a world where zombies are a threat is beyond me.
So, approximately two hours into the game I am asking the question: “Why is the player all by themselves?” – You rescue this small group of people, but not one of them is capable of helping you with the tasks they offer? Having read ‘The Zombie Survival Guide’, a concept based on if a zombie apocalypse did really happen, I understand the idea of having more than one person doing a task; a group is so more formidable then one versus many zombie...And this is where the game lacks within the first 2 hours. It doesn’t feel like survival, it’s laborious. On top of this is the essence of realism to the game. Yes, in real life you have stamina and can only carry so many things, while also unable to carry and climb, but this hinders you in tasks later on - tasks which will indeed require more than one of you.
In summary, this game looked incredibly promising. It had a hard impacting teaser which got the game company making it into a bit of trouble. However the game falls flat when playing it. It’s not fast paced, it lacks that sense of survival and the fact near enough the whole team you rescue are practically too cowardly to leave the safe point to help gather supplies, it cheapens the experience. Couple that with slightly not-so-slick control layout and it seems to make it feel a touch worse. I wouldn’t say skip buying it as it may pick up later on, but be prepared to play like it’s a chore for 2-3 hours.
SCORE: 6.5/10
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