February 14th, 2012

Dead Island

An ideal holiday would be one with lots of partying, fun and frolic. But imagine if your holiday is crashed in by zombies uninvited, eating almost everyone around you including all the beautiful women. Would you get mad and start hitting all of them or would you lock yourself up in out of fear? Dead Island is all about the former after those zombies blast up your holiday at a swanky resort in a fictional island called ‘Banoi’.

Unlike other action games where you are handed guns, pistols or shotguns at the outset, Dead Island encourages its players to get close and personal with the undead by restricting you to combat objects throughout the first task. Weapons used for smashing up the heads of these zombies can get worn out over a period of time and therefore, there is a workshop where you can repair or upgrade these weapons.

Similar to the game Dead Rising 2, in Dead Island you can forge your own weapons only if you have a blueprint of it. You will ultimately get your grubby paws on some serious firepower, but don’t expect boxes of ammunition lying around. The lack of ammunitions and focus on clashing combat adds another level of intensity that is not found in most first-person titles.

Travelling and exploring the island of Banoi can be a terrifying experience as you could face a horde of zombies in the blink of an eye. The hordes come in different sizes and shapes. You will end spending a lot of your time in slaughtering these zombies and from time to time you will be attacked by special bile spitting dudes or tanks that can withstand a huge amount of damage and some suicidal zombies that explode upon contact. But you can easily bring them down with the large arsenal present at your disposal. If you wish, you can also sneak out from a group of zombies or try and outrun them.

When playing in a group, it will take away a lot of the stressed atmosphere, but it also destroys the fun by tenfold. Dead Island can be played by a maximum of four players and it is the best way to play the game. Every player can choose their character reflecting their play style, but who are also complimentary to the team. So, if one player is good with firearms, then the other partner can choose to be a character that is good with blunt combat weapons.

Even the game sounds very interesting; it comes with its set of problems. Firstly, controlling your character will never feel fluid or responsive and it feels clunky. Even acquiring weapons is a long and tedious process that requires multiple clicks instead of a simple drag and drop.

In terms of visuals, the game doesn’t look that great either. The visuals aren’t that ugly but then given its gorgeous tropical setting, it could have been better. Dead Island may suffer from a few glitches but once you get used to the game, you will get hitched to it until and unless you figure out the cause of the outbreak on the lovely island ‘Banoi’.