Dead Island: Zombie RPG fun

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I bought this game about a month ago when it was on sale on Steam.  I didn't care for it at first, but the more I played it, the more I liked it.

It's somewhat similar to a Fallout/Morrowind type RPG.  The story takes place at a tropical resort on Papua, New Guinea.  You choose one of four playable characters, each with a different combat specialization, and are then set loose in the middle of a zombie outbreak.   As you travel around the island, you run into NPC survivors who will give you missions which will advance the story or side quests that will give you experience and the possibility of some special equipment.

As you're initially stuck on a tropical holiday resort, firearms are very hard to come by.  In the beginning, you'll be scrambling around bungalos, trying to dodge undead hordes, and gather up improvised weapons such as oars, lead pipes, diving knives, kitchen knives, broomsticks, and the like.  The combat is mainly melee focussed and it's very well done.  You can target and damage specific body parts like heads, necks, arms, legs, knees, and elbows.  Weapons have many stats besides damage and things such as reach, swing and recovery speed, weight, durability, and accuracy all play a factor.   A big lead pipe has a lot of weight behind it and will knock a zombie back or down so you can sit on its chest and pummel it, but it takes a while to recover after a swing.  Mistime your swing or face two zombies at once and one will slip past the weapon and start gnawing your face off. Knives are fast and accurate, but you've got to get in close to hit with them and you'll likely take a lot of shots in return unless you can get around the zombies and stab them in the side or back.   

The weapons degrade with use and the devs spent a lot of time on the graphics showing the deterioration.  Axe handles start to splinter, blades get nicked and bent and the whole thing gets covered in gore.  It's a nice touch and lets you know that it might be time to switch weapons.  You can repair weapons if you find a work bench, but once they're broken, they're pretty much done.  You can also upgrade your weapons at benches and, once you find schematics, you can modify and specialize your weapons.  Some are quite simple (nails through a baseball bat), while others are quite complex (split a machete blade in two, build an insulated handle with a bunch of batteries in it, and electrify the blade).  In order to modify the weapons, you have to find extra equipment, so you'll need to spend time rummaging through bungalows, cars, suitcases, and shops.

As you level up, you gain skill points which you spend on three different skill trees (Character stats are cannot be improved).  Each character's three skill trees are unique.  For example, the the annoying black rapper guy is good with blunt weapons and gets access to skills like knock-back,  tackling, and drawing attention to himself.  The hot Asian chick is good with bladed weapons and gets skills like dismemberment, high heel head stomp, backstabbing, and stealth.

The zombies come in several different varieties.  Those who first get infected but are still alive are the 28 Days Later high speed sprinting types.  Easy to kill but damned fast and very dangerous in groups.  The newly dead are the traditional Night of the Living Dead shuffling types.  Slow but can take a lot of damage and  dangerous in close quarters.   Guys who were big dumb jocks in life become big dumb zombies in death and can dish out a tonne of damage as well as send you flying if you get too close.  There are several other variations that show up later in the game as well.  When the game first starts, you are given the option of having the zombies level up as you do, so they always present a roughly equal challenge in combat, or setting absolute levels so that some will become ridiculously easy to take out as you level up but others will be way beyond your capability to take on during the early stages of the game.


That's the good.  Unfortunately, there is some bad as well.

Graphically, the game definitely shows that it's designed for consoles.  The polygon counts are kind of low on the character models so shoulders look like dodecahedrons.  Bloom is overdone and everything has a shiny, plastic look to it.  Some zombie skin textures look kind of crappy.  What's supposed to look like rotten flesh often looks more like melted plastic, especially on black females.  AA isn't fully supported so you get some jaggies and there is a lot of pop up on open, outdoor levels.

One of my biggest complaints is the fact that the levels reset every time you get to a safe zone.  I wouldn't mind if they just randomly placed new zombies around the map as that would kind of make sense, but it's always the exact same zombies in the exact same locations.  (There was a porno being made in one bungalo and when you stumble in, there's a zombie chick chained up to the bed, snapping at you as you move around.  Doesn't matter how many times you kill her, when you come back, she'll be there again.  Even worse, the loot replenishes.  I actually like the idea of the looting system where you get to rummage around in people's discarded suitcases to grab batteries, aerosol sprays, cash, and whatnot.  It's a shame that it all gets reset as it ruins the suspension of disbelief.  It's like there's some OCD zombie goblin running around the map, carefully putting cash back in wallets and zipping up suitcases.

Another problem is the weapon system.  While each character has a specialization (Asian chick is good with blades, rapper guy is good with blunt weapons, Abo cop is good with guns, white trash is good with thrown weapons), any character can pick up and use any weapon, they just won't be as good with it.  (Rapper guy can pick up a meat cleaver and hack away, but he's not going to be able to target wrists and elbows like Asian chick can.)  However, each weapon has a minimum level required in order to be able to use it which doesn't make a lot of sense.  You might have been running around with a level 5 machete, gleefully cutting arms of the undead when you find a slightly better level 6 machete and the game won't even let you pick it up until you reach level 6.

Cut scenes are a bit messed up as well.  The game supports 4 player co-op, so all the cut scenes feature all four playable characters regardless of how many are playing.

Another problem is the inventory system.  You have a certain number of active inventory slots available to you depending on your level and the skills you picked.  You can switch between weapons, medkits, etc using a radial wheel system, so if you have 4 weapon slots available, you can just hold down the middle mouse button and switch between weapons on the fly.  It's a nice system and easy to control.  However, I think the game must've been designed by a bunch of drunks because every time you pick up a bottle of booze, they game throws that into your active weapon slot and kicks the weapon that was there back into your backpack.  In order to get your weapon back into a slot, you have to open the inventory screen, remove the booze from your active slot, then select the weapon and put it back into the active inventory slot.  Nothing quite so annoying as to be in the middle of a fight with 4-5 undead when you accidentally pick up a bottle of JD from a shelf and, not realizing what you've done, you hit the attack button and your character instead downs a slug of whiskey.

Finally, when you die, you are taken back to the last checkpoint and docked 10% of your goodies.  Not that big of a deal but if you like to throw weapons, it can be really frustrating.  There are some very cool unique weapons available within the game.  If you throw one at a baddie and then die before you can retrieve it, it's gone for good. 


At any rate, the game is a lot of fun despite the flaws.  The single player game takes a good 30-40 hours to play though.  It's on sale at GG and GameFly for ~$12 now, so go buy it and let's get a 4 player Groghead co-op game going!


     

[jomni]

Nice sales pitch  ;)

[tgb]

I bought it on sale at Greenman gaming a couple of weeks ago, played for an hour, and uninstalled.  I hated all the console conventions, the inconsistent interface (why are some weapons in my inventory not showing up on the quick equip wheel? I don't know.  How come walking over a med pack puts it into inventory for later use, but walking over an "energy drink" uses it immediately, whether or not I need it?  I don't know that either.), the fact that restoring a game reset everything in the level except inventory, the dumb dialogue and the headache-inducing "music".

I hate, hate, hate this game and wish I had my $11 back.

[LongBlade]

Great write up, SDR!

I almost bought this when it first came out, but didn't see anyone talking about it and soon forgot about it.

You might want to consider writing for us - you hit the main ideas and had a good sense of humor. The OCD comment was great.

[Nefaro]

That's a good rundown SDR, and I had always wondered about this game.

Unfortunately the Conshole-ation of it would likely make me ragequit.   :(  It may be worth it on sale, but I've just made 3 purchases in as many days so it looks like I'll be waiting for an even bigger sale on this one.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I bought it on sale at Greenman gaming a couple of weeks ago, played for an hour, and uninstalled.  I hated all the console conventions, the inconsistent interface (why are some weapons in my inventory not showing up on the quick equip wheel? I don't know.  How come walking over a med pack puts it into inventory for later use, but walking over an "energy drink" uses it immediately, whether or not I need it?  I don't know that either.), the fact that restoring a game reset everything in the level except inventory, the dumb dialogue and the headache-inducing "music".

I hate, hate, hate this game and wish I had my $11 back.

That was pretty much how I felt at first (if you replace hate with kinda peeved) but I kept playing it.  Once I got used to the system and the weird inventory swap outs, I found that I was able to overlook them and enjoy the game for what it is.   I never experienced the auto pick up, auto use thing that you're talking about though.  I wonder if they fixed that in a patch?  For me, apart from firearms ammo, I had to actively click an item to pick it up and use it so I could choose when I wanted to down a sports drink.

[tgb]

Now that I think about it, I think I did click on the sports drink before using it.  But considering that clicking on a med pack just adds it to your inventory and that using everything else required a specific key (E, I think), I still stand by that as an example of how fubared the interface is.

[Toonces]

The thing with the Level 6 machetes and such killed this for me.  I read a review that absolutely hammered this game for its ridiculous weapons conventions and I decided to pass.  Too bad, too, because the trailer was amazing and I was really expecting much more.

DayZ is a very good alternative that does a lot right.

[airboy]

Thanks for the informative review.  Not my cup of tea - but your review provides clear indication of the game mechanics and your opinion of the fun factor.

[Nefaro]

I think it's something I could work my way into - just not right now.  Sounds like some fun even despite the terrible interface.   

The item conventions don't sound too bad as they seem more like an Action RPG style, which I don't mind since preferring RPG features in these games.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Now that I think about it, I think I did click on the sports drink before using it.  But considering that clicking on a med pack just adds it to your inventory and that using everything else required a specific key (E, I think), I still stand by that as an example of how fubared the interface is.

I agree that the interface is a mess but adding the medkits to your inventory rather than using them instantly makes sense to me.  They're small and portable, so why not carry them around rather than lugging a 24-pack of Red Bull?  I also like that you can bind a quick key to use them rather than taking up one of your active inventory slots to use them from the radial wheel.  I don't like the fact that the game tries to decide which weapons are best for you and will automatically swap them into an active inventory slot whether you want them there or not.  (for me, I usually relied on one or two weapons so it was aggrivating to constantly have my favoured weapon thrown into my backpack because the game thought the new weapon was better.  Damn thing once swapped out my fire axe for a hat stand!  It was kinda funny though.  I dunno why, but bludgeoning zombies on the head with a hat stand had me giggling like an idiot.)

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

The thing with the Level 6 machetes and such killed this for me.  I read a review that absolutely hammered this game for its ridiculous weapons conventions and I decided to pass.  Too bad, too, because the trailer was amazing and I was really expecting much more.

DayZ is a very good alternative that does a lot right.

Honestly, it's not too bad.  There are a lot of items lying around that can be used as weapons so you don't get too bothered by it most of the time, unless you find a rare or unique weapon and then it can be frustrating as hell because you can't even pick the thing up.  Also, I've only played as the blunt and bladed weapons characters and they definitely have the easiest time of it finding available weapons.  I think playing as the firearms specialist would be a nightmare in the beginning as it takes a looong time before you find your first gun.  (I'd never play her though.  Got to be the most detestable playable character I've ever seen in a game.  She's a half aboriginie hotel security officer who used to be a cop in Oz.  Hates whitey, hates men, hates people with more money than her, and whines about it constantly.)

[Fighting Farmer]

Its on sale today at Impulse/Gamestop today for $11.99 (it is one of their "flash sales" - only 500 are sold. There were still some left when I looked a few hours ago).

http://impulsedriven.com/id/flashsales/spotlight/?AFFID=Twit&cid=soc_iTW292

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

They've also got a Dead Island weekend sale on at Gamersgate.  60% off.  If you buy the 4-pack and get the 15% IGN discount, it works out to $7.64/copy.

http://www.gamersgate.com/games?prio=relevance&q=deadislandweekend

[tgb]

Maybe I'll reinstall and give it another shot.