Dead Island = Land of the Living Frustration? Again its a little on the nose for a title, and I admit it doesn’t make complete sense grammatically speaking but it is the most accurate opening I could come up with since the game itself and my experiences with where all over the map. And I mean that both literally and metaphorically so were all clear. I really wanted to like this game; I should have liked this game I’m as close to its target audience as you’re likely to find. I enjoy zombies as a concept, I’ve seen dozens of Zombie films from all over the world and the original Romero trilogy(Night, Dawn and Day) are high on my list of all time favourites, I,ve read Zombie Survival Guide and I’ve spent many an hour playing zombie modded servers on Counter Strike Source. Hell I even bought and read the games Novelization, I found it to be all right though the fact it had to advertise the game constrained it, having to have four main characters at all times is quite a cross to bare for a writer. But the game itself just seem not in the mood for my affection, its almost as if the game were a survivor holed up in a boarded up shack and I’m the zombie clawing at the door trying to get in and munch on the fleshy centre of enjoyment…… But enough about my fevered dreams there’s work to do.
Dead Island is one game in an increasingly common trend in our times, a game where multiplayer -in this case four player Co-op- is the main direction of the design and yet the game is still structured like a single player adventure. Now I live in an area infamous for its spotty internet coverage, so getting three of my friends (of whom I assure you I have many) online for a prolonged session is difficult to say the least so much of my time playing the game was on my lonesome, so maybe my enjoyment would have been enhanced by the presence of a friend or two but that wouldn’t say anything about the game just my mates so the review shouldn’t be affected. In fact playing alone gave the game a somewhat comedic subtext as the cut scenes involve all four characters making it look like you’ve hooked up with a bunch of cowardly jerks who’ll hide while you battle the dead, then pop up to share credit. Now each of the four characters (Two Male, Two Female) all of whom are immune to the disease -which explains why you’ve suddenly become errand boy/girl to the entire remaining population- have there own special traits (strength, endurance etc.) fighting style (Blades, Blunt, Firearms etc.) and upgradeable perks. The idea being that four players can combine there skills to secure victory. However all characters can use all types of weapons and the most usefull perks are open to all (maximise life insurance early on to cut the costs of respawning) and there are no noticeable penalties for say picking up a shotgun when you’re the blade expert, so the design comes across as a little to shallow and gimmicky, so choosing who should be which character isn’t a big deal.
Your frequent treks through the Zombie apocalypse take place appropriately enough on an Island, Banoi to be exact an island in the Archipelago chain of Papua New Guinea (PNG), and is completly fictional should feel the urge to look it up or book a holiday. Though the attention to detail is quite impressive. I probably should point out that I’ve not been to PNG the furthest I’ve been is Egypt, but I have flicked through plenty of travel brochures and National Geographic’s, as well as watched plenty of nature documentaries and what I’ve seen tallies closely with the games look. Banoi is one of those “tropical paradises” whose economy is dependent upon tourism. As result the game has a rare multicultural cast the player characters are Logan (an ex American football star) Sam B (an African American and faded Rap star) Purna (an Australian former cop and current bodyguard)as an aside its nice to have a mixed race playable character too, her parents where white Australian and Aboriginal, apparently she took a lot of abuse from her colleagues on the force for this, sadly from what my Australian relatives tell me such attitudes do still exist down under. And Xian Mei (Chinese, specifically Hong Kong, undercover cop) guess whose the Martial arts expert on the team? Its Sam B, only joking its the Chinese girl. Now yes in all fairness Chinese police do have to undergo extensive hand to hand combat training, but I personally getting tired of the “every Asian has a black belt in X style”. Now in all fairness whilst the characterisations the game gives don’t amount to much beyond a few lines of dialogue in cut scenes I do genuinely appreciate the effort taken with them, I mean the game could easily have given us this as a character selection “Logan: Football star and tough guy. Sam B: Rap Star and gangsta. Purna: Aussie, G.I. Jane. Xian Mei: Knows Kung Fu.” Again appreciate the effort taken, in the end its all the little things can raise a game above the crowd.
This diversity is extended to the other npc survivors, most a mix of tourist (mostly American and Russian) native Banoi’s and regional migrants (mostly Australian and New Zealanders) which according to the internet is a pretty accurate demographic make up of a PNG tourist island, so well done researchers. The geography of the island is also pretty realistic the opening area is the coastal area and is dominated by sandy beaches hotels, bungalows and those little round wooden bars that look like there made out of palm trees and are never far from a swimming pool. The Zombies here were mostly swimming trunks, brightly coloured shirts or skimpy bikini’s though the dried blood and gaping wounds on display should kill any sex appeal (hopefully). Then we move into town (Moresby) the place where the Natives reside, and where “culture tourists” and get a guide to take a group to the local market for an hour. The place was clearly run down and crippled by poverty before the dead rose from the grave sadly this is another case of good research as many nations dependent on tourism for one reason or another (seasonal incomes, turbulent revenue streams, corruption etc.) have well lets just say insufficient infrastructure and opportunities for the populace. You then move into the jungles and after that a prison I’d honestly like to tell you more about those levels but for reasons which shall be made clear further down I was unable to enjoy them.
One final note on the setting, the game has two backstory collectible sets, one the usual audio logs this time by one man a journalist (named Roger Howard if you’re interested) whom went into the jungle (lucky him) to cover a story on illegal logging only to find Zombies! the second is a series of scraps that interestingly tell you bits of trivia about PNG history. For example did you know that Kuru a neurological disease was spread through some tribes due to there cannibalistic practices of eating the brains of other humans? or that the Islands of Papua contain more languages (not including tourists or recent immigrants) then any other nation on earth? Well actually I did but I am a massive nerd and I appreciate the thought Dead Island, its nice to see a game about bashing dead peoples skulls open take some time to teach the public about an oft overlooked and misunderstood nation. Education is important and any way to aide that without making the game boring is welcome in my book.
And unfortunately I’ve run out of good things to say about the game, here comes the lists of frustration and choked back tears. I have many problems with this game but they all seem to stem from one rotten source, Dead Island is buggy as all hell. Seriously the game glitches almost every minute in some way. Way points sometimes don’t appear on the minimap, at first I thought this was by design since the way points seem to disappear when I had to find an item or switch or something, so I thought it was showing me were to go like say a petrol station but then expected me to search the area for a working pump or jug of petrol, nope there were times when it wouldn’t show me where I was supposed to go at al. Even worse this then affected the main map screen making it impossible to know where to go or stagger your quests by area to get them done in the same time (an efficient way given the number of side quests you’ll be bogged down with just entering a safe area) this would only resolve itself either after an unspecified time period sometimes over an hour, or in rare case after the Zombie horde overpowered me and a re spawn fixed it. Worse then path finding issues is the spotty hit detection. Its all over place in this game, some fights will be ridiculously easy and others will have the zombie functionally immortal. Again at first I thought the problem was intentional since you’re starting weapons stats aren’t very good, but it just doesn’t add up. The most galling example that comes to mind was a side quest to clear out a cabin, its pretty easy until you see a miniboss mutant zombie this one is dubbed “the suicider” because it walks up to you and explodes, making guns and molotov cocktails the only way to kill them without dying too. Guess what decided to take a nap, that’s right hit detection, none of my guns would hit, and my Molotov’s despite burning everything around him to a crisp didn’t even scratch it. Finally I bit the bullet and charged it and died, respawned and to my horror found it did too with the same problem, eventually this was corrected. In addition to all the guns, machetes and shuffles you can strap to your back the game has the novel idea of letting your characters give the dead walkers a good kicking. I liked this addition it made sense what better way to keep a zombie away while you’re preoccupied? and its the best way to stop a zombie charge (these are the fast runner Zombies, seen in 28 Days Later, and the Dawn of the Dead remake) that is if the game registers it. The games so buggy it ruins one of its cleverest selling points.
Despite these constant setbacks I persevered with the game and was still able to enjoy the experience overall. I got quite far into both the Storyline and the perk system by grinding side quests. I did every side quest I could find in the town and came back to the Life Guard Station (your first port in this stormy necrotic sea) the next quest was to be an escort mission using a car and to journey into the jungle. The NPC that needed the escort was already in the car which was parked in the safe zone. I had a couple of side quests left in this area so I went into the quest screen deactivated the main quest (or so I thought) selected on of the sides and went for a sprint. Then a mysterious icon I’d not seen before flashed on the screen telling me to get back to the car in ten seconds. I didn’t make it and apparently even though the NPC was safe and sound in an armoured car in a locked compound I failed the mission and the game. This annoyed me but I had saved just before I left the car so no big deal. I hit the load last save option (the only other option was just to quit the game) and something really strange happened I appeared 300 meters away from the Life Guard Station at a hotel, I was confused but then horrified as that icon came back telling me I had ten seconds to make 300 meters, no chance. I failed and each time I loaded the game took me right back to the hotel with a ten second deadline, it was like ground hog day reduced to mini recap. And that was my main save too, hours of gameplay gone. It turns out that I’d fallen foul of a bug that corrupts you’re save games after you’ve collected a certain number of items, which is easy to trigger given that there’s no carry limits, the game makes it necessary to hoard and you can have perks to increase capacity. Better yet this bug is somewhere in the core of the gaming meaning that it affects every version not just my PS3 copy. Even better it appears that despite several patches the fault still occurs (I had the latest version available to PS3). Now I can accept minor bugs (the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games are favourites of mine for example) I don’t mind an NPC, falling through a rock or floor, or the odd spelling mistake in text, but this really does take a liberty. Either techland didn’t care about the game which is unlikely given the amount of effort they put into other areas, or play testing wasn’t a priority and they missed the big bugs like this, (note to all game developers it is a priority, no one is going to slog through your artistic “vision” if it doesn’t work) or they knew about these problems and decided they were going to shove it on the shelves anyway. If its the latter then Not Cool, that makes the game an unfinished product, hurry up and patch it so these breakdowns don’t happen again.
I put up with a lot of rubbish from Dead Island while playing it, and before the above mentioned breaking of my entire experience, I was still on the whole enjoying it. To me that says something positive, that even with those large warts on its face I still liked it and no matter how many times it knocked me down I kept getting back up again. I guess in conclusion I’ll say this if you’re interested in a co-op experience that’s more than just four different cross hairs killing Russian soldiers, or if you really like Zombie games, in particular the Left 4 Dead ones then you should give it a try. Though I strongly recommend you pay attention to the patches and what they fix and haven’t fixed, especially anything related to items, I’m serious if they haven’t fixed that on your console of choice or for PC then just look elsewhere until they do.
