Dead Island (XB360): See? Told you we weren't Left 4 Dead.

I, like every other 18-32 year old and their brother in this country, love zombies. And because of this, by proxy I usually love anything that contains zombies. Tv shows, comics, movies, and of course video games. I usually have a rule of thumb that if it contains zombies, it must be good and history in the gaming world tends to back this theory. Here's a brief list of games that contain zombies:

-Disgaea

-Call of Duty

-Resident Evil
-Saints Row 2

-Castlevania

-Left 4 Dead
-Red Dead Redemption

-Silent Hill (if you could call them that.... maybe)

-Dead Rising

Different styles of games, all proven to be successful. I don't play maybe one of these games but as you can see, that's some company that produces money. So because of this theory, I don't research zombie games like I do others and this was the case with this weeks review.

DEAD ISLAND:(XB360)

Although perhaps in this case maybe I should have done a little research. I blindly reserved and purchased my special edition from my local LameStop and quickly unwrapped it. Initial views seemed very positive as it starts with a first person view of you getting blackout drunk at the Island Resort and waking up to zombie infestation. I picked the usual girl character like my custom from the racially stereotyped pick and mix  (and they are unabashedly stereotyped) and was treated to a cut scene of shit going haywire and started running through my tutorial. I was surprised that there was so much story right out the gate. It pretty much let me know right off that this game was not trying to be Left 4 Dead. I plugged my way through the hotel and tried to find my way to my first house full of survivors where the guy from The Hangover explained to me we need to help these people and get everyone to the Lifeguard Tower because its safer there. Sounds great. I wandered around the house and got me some side quests, grabbed a boat paddle and jumped out of the house to crack some skulls.

I had remembered hearing when I was looking at the initial reviews of this game that is primarily melee focused, and that is certainly the case. But for some reason, it does feel a little sloppy to me. First person games and I never get along as it is for the most part, but I understand the logic of lining up the reticule and pulling the trigger. But these are melee weapons, if I swing a baseball bat I'm going to hit the things I'm sweeping to the sides on. This is something that Dead Island doesn't exactly execute properly. For example, I use the Asian assassin who is proficient with bladed weapons (such as katana's if the stereotype wasn't bad enough yet). One of the earlier headaches you meet in the game are larger zombies called thugs. They are slow and lumbering but if you take a hit from them, they send you flying. They do have a fairly simple weakness though. Your kick move can hit them but keeps you just out of the range of their swing. You can usually land 3 or 4 of them before they yell and flail. At this point you can take some swings with bladed or blunt weapons to cut off or break the arms so they have use a less effective lunging headbutt. The problem is despite the huge swinging arc I am swinging with my machete, I only am scoring damage on the chest. Many of the early blades do not have all that great of durability and usually go down after a zombie or 2. So if you aren't moving your aim way over and scoring your arm attacks on the thugs you are in for some big hits.

God that's another massive complaint of mine in this game. How many games have you played where you thought to yourself: "Oh my weapon broke. That was pretty cool." Let me answer for you, NONE. I understand you are trying to go for realism in these games but its friggen annoying and it just frustrates a player especially in the middle of a tough fight the last thing you want is your character announce the beefed up bat with a saw blade sticking out of it is broken. They make up for this by having the kick move drain no stamina and a rage ability for a few seconds of high damage, but it doesn't balance it. You can repair and upgrade you weapons for a nominal fee, but you only get you money from completing quests or looting and usually you never have enough to repair all your favorites and will almost be left in a tight situation without a decent tool. Its friggen annoying.

Here's a quick tip to gain money fast. Whenever you need scratch, jump into a friends who game who is a much lower level than you. All the baddies are leveled with whoever hosts the game, but the rewards you get are to your level. So a simple level 3 fetch quest may only reward your friend with like 97 dollars but you might get up to a couple thou plus experience. A few missions and you can easily rack up some cash to repair or level up your favorite stuff.

Be careful in the water. Zombies can take drowning damage if you knock them over under water, and you can usually cut through beaches if you want avoid a scuffle. But if the water seems too deep, don't try. Its crystal clear over the surface but if you wander a little to deep the screen blurs badly and turns near black. Its VERY difficult to get yourself turned around the right way to get yourself back to land before you health depletes to zero. Apparently island resort beaches are just tar that looks really nice from above.

The kick is really broken by the way. As I eluded to, it doesn't use your stamina, it stuns your enemies and sometimes knocks them down, and if they start to get up another kick will keep them down. Later you will learn a head stomp move for stupid damage. In one on one situations you typically won't even need your weapon. But in group situations neither of these moves are great because you'll take a beating as you do it. By the 2nd act of the game its almost not worth it to you. As I have played through the game, I have collected some handguns so far, but for the most part they have been completely piss weak and not worth using the inventory slot on unless I'm fighting other survivors who have guns and can't close the gap to use my knives.

The Kick. The most useful tool in Dead Island

Here is my major gripe. While I was running around the island looking to complete the side quests I had taken, I found myself wondering "god where is a zombie so I can fight it already.". After minutes of walking I would beat one down and be like "That didnt last long enough to be fun, where the hell is the next one?" And after a few of these I realized I had these feelings before. It was like the time when I tried Borderlands and in that same fashion, I got bored as hell walking around looking for something to shoot or putting down the same type of skag or whatever. That was the major flaw for me. I was getting bored. I also have this problem when I play a game like Fallout 3 or Elder Scrolls. If I can walk around a field for 40 minutes and have nothing happen its not a game I am going to play for very long. And if that wasn't bad enough, the game hammers you with like 25 side quests right out the gate. So it is very easy to get distracted from the main campaign if you are like me and like to the get side stuff out of the way for you to be beefed up for the actual story missions. But this can be terribly exhausting to do and can slow the pace of the game to a legless zombie's crawl.

I was just about ready give up on the game and take it back but I had to opportunity to jump into the game with a couple of friends. Suddenly I wasn't just waiting to kill zombies. I was yelling at one friends bad driving, or tried to explain to them that electricity conducts through a car, or trying to get the lead out to save them from a thug or something. I was enjoying the game a lot more. I was having fun with it. I was starting to think that I should maybe Borderlands another try, but then my friends who I played with kinda dropped off.

I was back to playing the game alone. I was further along in the game now so I didn't have the problem of only having one zombie to fight every 500 steps but now everything was so high level I was just getting wiped out every few steps because when zombies get that many you need an effective gun, not a broken stick. Now I am skipping past zombies to get to objectives. I'm just running around the town now. I was getting bored.

Handy weapon against zombies but that many AND dealing with a ram? Yeah, you're eff'd.

I have never been the type of person to play games online because video game online communities are the anal wart of human society, and if I wanted to hear 7 year old's spit venomous racism at the top of their lungs, I could just go to the teen room of the library I work at. The bottom line is that this game is designed for you to play online with people. And since my friends don't play it that often and I don't like random assholes dropping in on my game, I figure I will not be getting much in the way of mulitplayer play. Which is not favorable for the longevity of this title. I'm already thinking of going on to the next game instead of finishing this one. But I'm going to try to plug it away at it so I can at least see how it ends. But really, had I known what I know now about this game when I first reserved this title? I probably wouldn't have.