I received Dead Island for Christmas, but I’ve spent my time with Batman:Arkham City since then so only just got around to having a go on it. Just over two hours worth of time on it and I think I’ve got a pretty good feel for what it’s all about. It’s not quite the first-person Resident Evil type game I expected; it’s actually more like Fallout 3 fused with Dead Rising 2 (both of which are games I don’t particularly like!).
Dead Island has just about kept my interest, so far. Of course it originally had a lot of hype because of that awesome promo featuring the holidaying family battling zombies that had already attacked their little girl. The game starts after that moment (though very early on there is a reference to it as you can go into the room where it took place and see their bodies lying on the floor).
From the selection of four characters I went with a black guy whose name I can’t remember, mainly because it stated he was good with blunt instruments. I figured there would be a lot of use for using blunt instruments and I was right, so in that respect he was good choice. His voice is really irritating, though.
So from the situation of being on the holiday island of Banoi I’ve basically been roaming around the beach and the pools and the holiday homes, battering zombies with whatever blunt instrument comes to hand. Figuring out that items I’ve picked up get stored in an inventory and can be accessed and armed took a bit of detective work but it’s not exactly in-depth. The levelling up system is in place, with the annoyance that the enemies level up as I level up.
Why? Part of the fun in levelling up is becoming stronger so that enemies are weaker. As I level up I expect to progress through the game and meet tougher enemies in harder areas – not have every enemy I meet evenly matched. Probably that’s a preference thing since I know other games of this ilk operate in the same manner. Personally, I’m not a fan.
Something that did look interesting, that I didn’t get into on this first session, was the co-op element of the game that appeared to take the form of a drop in, drop out aspect. Potentially this makes more sense of pitching the enemies to your particular level, to balance things no matter what level of person you are joining a game with. I don’t know how well the co-op mode will work, or how it will manage in terms of completing missions (I guess if people joined my game they could do my missions and vice versa) but it’s got my interest piqued.
I basically reached the point where I secured a lifeguard headquarters so survivors could rally there with better supplies. The moment that scene ended my mission map lit up with stacks of potential missions to do so, in the face of such overwhelming choice, I switched the game off and went to bed.
Dead Island does a good job in generating some tension from its zombie attacks. The sounds they make are animalistic and unnerving and whilst combat with them sometimes literally feels hit and miss, it’s got a satisfying and bloody quality about it that can surely only get better as I get better weapons.
I did also admire the freedom the game afforded. I went right off the beaten track of my mission and found myself near some power station, and got in a truck and drove it around a bit. I was hopelessly lost, mind, but that only added to that sense of getting into a bad situation and being unsure if I was going to be able to get out of it.
The voice-acting is a bit lame and the graphics are nice without being amazing, but so far Dead Island isn’t quite what I expected but is turning out to be an intriguing proposition.
Dead Island has just about kept my interest, so far. Of course it originally had a lot of hype because of that awesome promo featuring the holidaying family battling zombies that had already attacked their little girl. The game starts after that moment (though very early on there is a reference to it as you can go into the room where it took place and see their bodies lying on the floor).
From the selection of four characters I went with a black guy whose name I can’t remember, mainly because it stated he was good with blunt instruments. I figured there would be a lot of use for using blunt instruments and I was right, so in that respect he was good choice. His voice is really irritating, though.
So from the situation of being on the holiday island of Banoi I’ve basically been roaming around the beach and the pools and the holiday homes, battering zombies with whatever blunt instrument comes to hand. Figuring out that items I’ve picked up get stored in an inventory and can be accessed and armed took a bit of detective work but it’s not exactly in-depth. The levelling up system is in place, with the annoyance that the enemies level up as I level up.
Why? Part of the fun in levelling up is becoming stronger so that enemies are weaker. As I level up I expect to progress through the game and meet tougher enemies in harder areas – not have every enemy I meet evenly matched. Probably that’s a preference thing since I know other games of this ilk operate in the same manner. Personally, I’m not a fan.
Something that did look interesting, that I didn’t get into on this first session, was the co-op element of the game that appeared to take the form of a drop in, drop out aspect. Potentially this makes more sense of pitching the enemies to your particular level, to balance things no matter what level of person you are joining a game with. I don’t know how well the co-op mode will work, or how it will manage in terms of completing missions (I guess if people joined my game they could do my missions and vice versa) but it’s got my interest piqued.
I basically reached the point where I secured a lifeguard headquarters so survivors could rally there with better supplies. The moment that scene ended my mission map lit up with stacks of potential missions to do so, in the face of such overwhelming choice, I switched the game off and went to bed.
Dead Island does a good job in generating some tension from its zombie attacks. The sounds they make are animalistic and unnerving and whilst combat with them sometimes literally feels hit and miss, it’s got a satisfying and bloody quality about it that can surely only get better as I get better weapons.
I did also admire the freedom the game afforded. I went right off the beaten track of my mission and found myself near some power station, and got in a truck and drove it around a bit. I was hopelessly lost, mind, but that only added to that sense of getting into a bad situation and being unsure if I was going to be able to get out of it.
The voice-acting is a bit lame and the graphics are nice without being amazing, but so far Dead Island isn’t quite what I expected but is turning out to be an intriguing proposition.
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