Just picked up Dead Island for $4. What have i gotten myself into?

Z

zamardii

2[H]4U
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Nov 22, 2004
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I have heard such a split down the middle in opinion about this game that I have no idea what to think. It feels like it's teetering right between being great and broken/bad for some people. I just wanted to get some first-hand comments from and opinions about the game. I'm asking about it because with my schedule I don't know when i'll get to it especially with my backlog of games too. What games would you compare it to? Is it interactive like Oblivion or more RPG action like Fallout 3? Is it slow zombies like Resident Evil or fast like in Left 4 Dead?

I couldn't resist the game for $4, but at that price even if it's bad I won't lose sleep over it.
 
I played it for a few hours with my wife. Our opinion was very poor. We felt it was more confusing than fun. After about 2-3 hours of play we never went back to it.
 
I highly enjoyed it. The beginning is kind of blaise. A couple things work against it. For one you start out in a beach community resort in which people you either don't care about or actively despise need your help. Its in a bright sunny un-intimidating beach. Its just not frightening in the way a zombie game should be. About an Hour or 2 in you reach the actual city with more relatable interesting folk and stories. You also begin to find blueprints for pretty insane weapon upgrades like the Venom kitana or the High voltage Butter knife(cuts through anything like butter). While the story never gets any deeper than you trying to escape the island the gameplay is always fun and can get quite challenging. The game is also incredibly pretty graphically speaking.

I played the game long after the bugs were fixed and never ran into anything game breaking. Someone here will inevitably post the dead island helper. Its a must have. Fixes some graphically annoyances held over from consoles and I believe had a raw mouse input mod that really helps. I hear this consistent complaint about there not being enough guns. There's not a single screen shot or video that leads you to believe that guns were ever supposed to be a big part of this game. Additionally with this kind of long term exploration game it actually functions better being primarily melee. (see Walking dead comic.)

If I had to give the game a score it'd be 7.5/10. The story is pretty nonexistent. Other than that I liked everything else about it. I won't be picking up the sequel until I see some reviews though.
 
@piscian18: the resounding vibe I get is that this game had huge potential and could have been epic in the hands of a better developer. good ideas poorly executed, downright amateurish at times. would that be fair to say?
 
odditory said:
@piscian18: the resounding vibe I get is that this game had huge potential and could have been epic in the hands of a better developer. would that be fair to say?
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I don't know. I'd been watching the development for about 7 years. It had been in development hell for 5 of that. Suddenly about 18 months before release Deep Silver became attached to it and then videos and screenshots began appearing that looked very much unlike what the concept started out as, but the trailer everyone was up in arms about looked exactly like the game I'd been following.

I started getting a funny feeling about the game and held off on my day one purchase. It turned out as I suspected.

I believe Techland had a core zombies on an island concept with a darker side of humanity story. I believe though I dont blame Deep silver is that whoever was in charge saw the work that had been done and said "Make Borderlands". Since borderlands was the media darling at the time.

I think what we saw was result of a good core concept that was streamlined for a mainstream age 13-18 console market. It should be also noted if you look hard enough you'll find stuff indicating Dead Island was originally only a PC release.

The gameplay is fun if you like borderlands. I can't comment on whether it belonged with another developer because frankly no ones come up with anything better yet. The story is a real mixed bag but I enjoyed most of it.

I'm watching riptide and I'd still recommend this specifically to someone who enjoys borderlands like gameplay with Zombie graphic violence. Pre and post development logos

DeadIslang_Logos.jpg
 
The biggest problem with it is how slow it starts. I've read several postings about people swearing it gets better, but it's honestly bad enough at the beginning that they probably lose most players in the first few hours. I paid full price for it and still dropped it after maybe 3 hours. I kept saying I'd go back to it, but I haven't yet.
 
piscian18 said:
Suddenly about 18 months before release Deep Silver became attached to it and then videos and screenshots began appearing that looked very much unlike what the concept started out as, but the trailer everyone was up in arms about looked exactly like the game I'd been following.
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If I had to bet I'd say the "suddenly" was due to the overnight Zombie Apocalypse craze that became trendy again and re-popularized by TV shows like The Walking Dead, etc. Sure there was L4D in 2008 but the bandwagon mentality in the videogame sector really didnt begin foaming at the mouth until the ZA tv shows became so pop culture to the extent even the Kardashian contagion was tweeting about them. Notwithstanding unabashed opportunistic and downright garbage efforts like War-Z, every lame shooter seems to have a zombie mode these days.

In any case, I love Borderlands so on that premise I'll check it out anyway.
 
I played it for like 3 hours. Then I stopped. Then I tried again and played for about 6 hours. I quit again. The game is just not fun. It gets old real fast. I am done with it
 
piscian18 said:
I hear this consistent complaint about there not being enough guns. There's not a single screen shot or video that leads you to believe that guns were ever supposed to be a big part of this game.
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Absolutely right. Oh, except for the fact that one of the characters' skill trees is entirely geared towards firearms. So, there's that. :eek:
 
Stiletto said:
Absolutely right. Oh, except for the fact that one of the characters' skill trees is entirely geared towards firearms. So, there's that. :eek:
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I think you are correct one of the characters had some gun benefits. Guns became fairly plentiful later on though none of them were amazing even after modding. I wonder of that was an afterthought?

You had a melee specialist a throwing specialist and a gun specialist. I forget what the other guy was.

I went with the throwing specialist as he had the least atrocious voice and storyline. Was not that interested in playing as a GANGSTAAAA, an asian caricature or some weird english black lady obsessed with the word C**T(the british term dont flip out, people.) So I went with the alcoholic ex-footballer kid murderer(thats literally his intro). I found him the most ...relatable?? I really don't know how much meth was involved in storyboarding this game. I feel like they had a xenophobic PSTD vietnam vet write these characters. No matter which one you choose somewhere someone out there wants you to get off their porch. Savages.
 
It's not great but it's worth $4 IMO. It's good for at least a few hours of fun, so it's a pretty good deal. If you can get people to play co-op, so much the better.
 
I loved the game when I played it in January. Well worth the $5 I spent on it. I do know at launch a friend of mine bought it for PS3 and the game was almost unplayable to some extent. The only real issue I had on my play through was getting stuck between a wall and car when helping out the people in town. I thoroughly enjoyed it though and would recommend playing it. I spent like 25 hours playing it and the DLC. If you like the game, make sure to play the Ryder White DLC because that explains quite a bit of the missing pieces, and it involves more gunplay.

Melee weapons dominate the early portion of the game. Even if you have a gun, ammo isn't plentiful until you get off the beach/lifeguard station.
 
I think you either love it or hate it. I had fun, I used the black melee dude.
 
If you read the Riptide thread you will see where myself and a few others pointed out the issues with the first game. Hopefully that helps your purchasing decision.
 
Do you guys remember how much buzz this game had going after that first reverse-slo-mo trailer. My click of L4D buddies were going crazy on an email chain, then when this game came out it, a few people bought it and it went silent and no one ever talked about it again.

Edit: This one. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZqrG1bdGtg
 
It is a co-op rpg with loot and talent trees.

If you have a friend down, what do you need to know to spend 8 bucks for some co-op?
 
I thought it was a good game, I enjoyed it single player because I have no friends that play video games.
 
I enjoyed it for what it is, I had low expectations going in and I'll say in some ways it was disappointing, but in others it was kinda fun. Playing it coop with a friend I think was a huge plus and probably the only reason we played it until we beat it. I'll pick up riptide on the cheap later this year or next.

Pretty much everything about the game is a little wonky, but after a while I got used to the quirks and found the melee combat to be pretty fun. Annoying as hell how quickly your weapons degrade, how much money you sink into upgrading them only 15 minutes later having to switch it out for something vanilla.
 
odditory said:
Do you guys remember how much buzz this game had going after that first reverse-slo-mo trailer. My click of L4D buddies were going crazy on an email chain, then when this game came out it, a few people bought it and it went silent and no one ever talked about it again.

Edit: This one. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZqrG1bdGtg
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That trailer made me pre-buy it. Hell, for a few minutes it seems kind of neat and it runs well...and then you realize what a boring game it is.
I wish their marketing team designed the game itself.
 
Great idea, terrible execution. I only played it a few hours before I got frustrated to the point of stopping. The controls were bad, the inventory/upgrade system was confusing, etc. The controls were especially what annoyed me. I felt like I was ice skating.
 
I played through entirely with a buddy, and we even thought about going through with the Riptide Expansion, we still may. With a buddy or two, it was awesome.

The car controls were bar none, the worst in any game, ever. It's as if there's ZERO power steering to the steering wheel, I guess they don't believe in that down under. That and the fact that the car wouldn't really turn AT ALL unless there was some momentum, made for some hilariously (bad) ridiculous swerving into zombies/walls/cones/everything.
 
It's a buggy mess but for $4 dollars I think it's a fair deal.
 
BiH115 said:
I played through entirely with a buddy, and we even thought about going through with the Riptide Expansion, we still may. With a buddy or two, it was awesome.

The car controls were bar none, the worst in any game, ever. It's as if there's ZERO power steering to the steering wheel, I guess they don't believe in that down under. That and the fact that the car wouldn't really turn AT ALL unless there was some momentum, made for some hilariously (bad) ridiculous swerving into zombies/walls/cones/everything.
Click to expand...

Not only that, but unless it opens up more later (I didn't make it that far), there is barely any room to drive the car around in other than some extremely linear stretches of road.
 
it's fine for 4 bucks, but it's about as rewarding as far cry 2, if not less so.. at least there you upgrade your weapons and get to keep them for the entire game... I don't like how fast enemies respawn in dead island 2 so you go back through the same areas to kill the same foes a minute later.. no sense of accomplishment. I like to clear areas and have them stay clear for a while, repopulating slowly and intelligently...

More consolitis. Clumsy controls and the like.. no quicksave.. the usual rushed together pc port.
 
I played long after the bugs were fixed too. Played nice and smoothly too. I can imagine you get discouraged if you want to be a gun user. But for melee, it's great fun. Maybe a little on the repetitive side, but what zombie game isn't? They at least try not to make it too repetitive.
 
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