Dead Island
Death takes a holiday
Review Sweaty locals and voodoo always remind me of Angel Heart and I was as confused as Mickey Rourke after watching Dead Island's appalling intro. Seriously, who says "git" these days? Must be all those red pills and JD. This may explain the reverse time trailer I saw a few months back, which mislead me into thinking there might be some semblance of a plot to get to grips with here.
Circle of death
With weapons creation and four-person multi player Dead Island is a dead ringer for a couple of recent zombie game franchises I am sure you’ll recognise. Stuck on the Tiki-style resort island of Banoi, somewhere in the pacific, getting my face munched off could have been a grind but some epic environments, neat character development and a bucketful of quests kept me kicking ass – yup, this game is all about kicking zombies while they're down.
I figure I’ll need a gun but be warned they turn out to be few and far between. So out of the four characters available I chose Purna a self-proclaimed, gun-wielding bitch with a chip on her shoulder. Surely, a better bet than cheeky Xian Mei, the sharp weapons specialist; Logan ex-NFL celebrity and throwing master or Sam B, a second-rate rapper who gets off on blunt objects.
Now that's what I call a brow-bar
I really enjoyed the voice acting, even though it was badly sync’d, probably due to it being a couple of steps up from your average Neighbours episode. My character Purna is an ex-aussie policewoman and VIP bodyguard. This Sheila is as hard as nails. Yay, for some uncouth girlie RPG action.
So whaddya know? After choosing my character it’s off to tackle the multitude of walking dead. I managed to rack up about 30 hours due to the massive maps, literally crowds of zombies and some bonzer addictive side quests.
War in the ward
Yet throughout, the graphics are constantly triggering my gag reflex. All I could think was, if you’re going send me a promo copy of your hot new game why send a console version? This game looks so rough around the edges it’s almost serrated. With such stunning tropical vistas to behold, why are the textures heavy and jumpy. Hey guys, there are a lot of zombies heading my way but I keep being distracted by wishing I playing the PC version.
Next page: Bay of the dead
COMMENTS
"this game is all about kicking zombies while there down"
Really? REALLY?
Perhaps they wanted fresh water
"Having someone complain they still need water after you have supplied enough bottled water to refill the atlantic ocean comes to mind"
Perhaps they wanted freshwater not seawater.
I say still say git
you git !
(but then I am plus 40 :) )
Dead Calm
For anyone wanting a fast paced gore fest or a deep moving experience investigating the fragility of humanity when faced with overwhelming prevalance of death and horror, then this isn't the game for you. It is neither L4D action of Silent Hill horror but more a borderlands jaunt without the humour.
It's fun finding new weapons to mash decaying holiday makers to a pulp (though no Judith Chalmers look-a-like unfortunately) and in co-op with suitable mates it has it's moments (as long as being molatov'd by your friend's incompetent manipulation of the game's clunky inventory mechanic is considered entertainment). But the graphics on the PC are disappointing and frequently look dated up close (think half life source not even as good as L4D one or 2) nice vistas shame about the objects.
The game also suffers from random glitches for object placement and your character will find at times an edge of a paving stone impassable - frustrating almost as much as the random zombie grab distance.Really needed a bit more play testing time on the PC as the console mechanics are a distraction from what isn't a really bad game just one that has too many rough edges.
Not worth the £29.99 (especially as a four pack of Game of the year edition Borderlands was on steam for £14.99 the other week) but come the Christmas sale it will be worth picking up as a budget title (if you can drag yourself away from BF3 that is).
Impressive backstory?? Really?? you mean the page of blurb on the character select screen surely.
Playing PS3 version and I've not had any of these bugs appear to ruin my fun yet.
Biggest annoyance is the Zombies level with you... did techland not see the grief Bethesda got over oblivions autoleveling baddies? Oh and the screen tear for a minute after fast travel.
