I may not have finished Dead Island, but I'm feel as if I'm able to do a review from what time I've had in it.
Dead Island... This game was developed by Techland, the same studio that made Call of Juarez and CoJ: The Cartel. But we're not here to talk about those games.
Story
Dead Island is another zombie apocalypse game in a sea of zombie apocalypses. The "plot" of the game is as follows: You're drunk in a hotel, zombies attack, now survive.
Okay, it's a lot more than that, but that's basically what it boils down too. They try to give back story to each of the playable characters, but these back stories just don't matter. Why should we care that Blunt Weapons Guy is a one-hit wonder Rapper, or that Sharp Weapons Girl's father was cop or something? What difference does it make to the game and what's the point? These characters are just shells that the players use to play the game. We really don't care about these people, their pasts, or what's they're going through. It seems these back stories are just phoned in, and I wouldn't doubt it. A zombie game doesn't need the greatest plot in the world, or even a plot at all (Like L4D), as long as the game play is good enough to support the lack of story. Which brings me to my next point...
Game Play
I bought the game on PC, so I can't speak for 360 and PS3 users, but I swear the mouse controls are just horrid. Even putting the sensitivity up all the way doesn't make it any better. Whenever you move your mouse, the cursor will move about half that, if you're lucky. You can tell this wasn't made with PC in mind. Everything about the controls on PC are just bad.
For one, 'E' isn't use like it is in every other game on PC. No, that's given to the 'F' key. 'E' is your kick. While that's good for combat, whenever I try to drink an Energy Drink or open a chest, I instinctively press 'E' and kick whatever I'm looking at. While it's a bitch to get used too, I can manage it. But one thing that's just utter shit no matter how you look at it is how you choose which weapon you want to use.
I'll give you a chance to guess how you pick equipped weapons. So go on, guess... Done guessing? Well if you said "You have to press in the scroll button and move it in the direction of the weapon you want", then you're right. Yes, you have to PRESS the SCROLL WHEEL and move your mouse to the weapon you want. Now mix that in wit bad mouse controls and you got a combination for shit. It just makes me wonder why Techland is so afraid of the number buttons. It would have been a better than to do than having it being completely consolified.
Attacking uses a Stamina bar. Each click of the mouse will take a preset amount of Stamina and when it's gone, you have to wait for it to regenerate. Which is does really fast, making you wonder why it even exists. If you run out of Stam, all you have to do is walk backwards for five seconds and you're Stam bar is full again.
Moving in game feels really stiff. It feels like you're stepping out of quicksand when you move after you've been standing around. Again, mix that with horrible mouse controls. Not to mention the huge amount of motion blur when you look from left to right. Even though it's accurate to how it would be in real life, no one plays games to have it be like real life. Worst part is, you can't turn if off. You're stuck with motion blur when look around and there's nothing you can do about it.
Because of that, attacking multiple zombies is annoying and almost sickening to do.
The controls are probably perfect on 360 and PS3, but I wouldn't know.
Graphics and Ascetics
The graphics for this game are pretty bad. One reason is because it runs on the Chrome Engine, which is notorious for being pretty bad to begin with. I don't know how to explain it, but screen shots of the game are a complete lie. The in game graphic will not look as good at that.
And the bloom effects, don't even get my started on the bloom. The bloom in Dead Island IS FUCKING HORRIBLE! It's a classic case of Bloom Horror Stories. Techland used WAY too much bloom. It hurts the eyes and gives everything, and I mean everything, a bad fuzziness to it.
The zombies have alright graphics. It's nice to see ribs hanging out and black gums with decaying teeth, even though this infection hasn't been going on for that long.
The Human NCPs have the same graphics, but they just look bland. They're pretty boring looking compared to the zombies.
While the graphics aren't the best or even "good", but ascetic is makes up for it. It's a beautiful island with palm trees, coasts, water, sand, and as my character said, "Looks just like a postcard". Everything in this game seems like it belongs there. Nothing is out of place, nothing is really missing, it just looks pretty nice as a whole. \
Final Thoughts
I'm pretty disappointed with this game. I can see so much in this game, but because of it's bad controls, piss poor story and mediocre graphics, it falls so short that even the Special Ed games are going past it. Even though it's $10 cheaper on PC than it is on consoles, it's still not enough for me to fully recommend this game. Maybe if Techland fixes some of the major controls problems, and gives us more video setting options, then I'd be able to say "go and buy this now". As it stands right now, I'd recommend not buying this game. Save you money and buy L4D2, it's cheaper and way more fun.
Yeah, I know this may not be the best review, but this is my first review of a major game and I didn't look at any other reviews before making this. Hopefully I'll get some CONSTRUCTIVE criticism and be able to improve reviews for future games.
