I'm thinking of doing a review of a different game each week. The game will be any that I have played before. For Week1 I shall be reviewing Dead Island.

Game Title: Dead Island
Platform(s): Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360 & PlayStation 3
Release Date(s): September 6 2011 (NA)
Genre(s): First Person / Role Playing / Open World / Survival
Publisher: Deep Silver (Koch Media)
Developer: Techland
ESRB/PEGI Rating: PEGI 18 ESRB 17+
(Original) New Price: $59.99 (Amazon.com) [Currently 58% off @ $25]


Official Trailer (Both trailers do contain high amounts of gore)




About the game: Dead Island is an open world survival horror role playing game. The game is set on a fictional island called Banoi, located somewhere off the coast of Papa New Guinea. The player is able to choose between one of four characters to play as. Each character gets a boost with different weapon types. There are four different weapon types, Blunt objects (things such as hammers & baseball bats) Sharp Objects(Knives and blades) Thrown objects (All objects are throw-able however some gain special bonuses) and Firearms (Guns). Each of the four playable characters receive a boost with one of these types. Every weapon can be upgraded 4 times and modded once. The Upgrades will add to the weapons stats in such was as durability to the objects meaning it will take longer for the weapon to wear down, damage is increased, stamina used is decreased and many more. Upgrading the weapon is done by acquiring blueprints, upgrades increase weapon damage and can give it a special ability. Things Such as Nails can be added to blunt objects, upgraded weapons can also electrify/burn/poison the infected. The stamina bar determines how long the player can run, jump and swing their weapon. Once the stamina bar is depleted, the players only attack is a kick. The kick starts off strong but grows weaker as the game goes on until it ends up as nothing more than means to push infected back or to the ground. Killing infected and completing missions for other survivors will reward you with XP & money. With the XP you can level up and spend 'skill points' on a 'skill tree' and the money you can buy energy drinks which replenish your health.

Gameplay, Graphics and Sound/Effects: I clocked up just over eleven hours on the game and made it nearly halfway through. It's been a while since I've played a good Open world slayer game. I found the gameplay to be overall entertaining how ever I found myself getting lost quite a bit of the time, especially towards the end of my playing time, however it was an enjoyable experience. I did not play the game on the best screen (I was on a 19" screen the whole time and the colors were a little off) but watching it on my friends 46 inch TV was very nice, for a game such as Dead Island I think the graphics were well above acceptable. My Screen also lacked sound but again, watching it on my friends TV provided me with the missing information. The sound/effects fitted perfectly with the game. It wasn't dead space horror but the dark rooms lit by my flashlight combined with the sound effects made for some enthralling gameplay. If you have the time & money, I would definitely check this game out. If you only buy three or four games a year, give this a skip but maybe rent it out for the weekend or something.

Pros and Cons:
 The Openness of the world. I love free roam games and you able to explore every part of this resort island.
Sound effects keep you alert and focused on the game
Graphics were above acceptable for a giant open world game
Campaign at least 15 hours of Zombie killing action!
The 4 player Co-op is not available split screen which a big con for a console game
The minimap was not up to standards and I found myself getting lost and unsure of what I was doing in a few places
The biggest con of all was that it didn't live up to the amazing trailer, this left me incredibly disappointed.


Score:
Presentation: 9.0
Gameplay: 9.0
Graphics: 9.0
Sound: 9.5
Lasting Appeal: 8
Overall Score: 8.9/10

In my opinion, the areas that let the game down really brought it down. I gave up after 11 hours, the last 30-50 minutes I was just walking around in the sewers trying to find the way out. The map was not bad above ground, but in the sewers the game deteriorated to a point where it was no longer fun to play.

 
Images





Additional feedback about my structure etc is appreciated