So many fucking bugs and on top of that whoever came up with the idea of losing money when you die i HATE YOU. It would have been fine if i didn't die to countless of bugs, but anyway. Story is go from here to there with barely any character improvement the whole way through.

I like the combat (sometimes) but the zombie gore is pretty shit, humans don't have the same gore as the zombies (I think it was too controversial back when this game first released) And my favorite part was definitely the locations, which were very pretty. My favorite being the resort and the jungle.


Edit (About 3 hours later?) After writing this review i began playing the Ryder Campaign DLC, which i completed in 2 hours and 32 minutes, on the same day as i completed the base game (April 25th). I was hoping Backloggd had a section for the definitive edition of this DLC instead of just the original one, which i won't review because it's not the same game in terms of bugs/graphics and even player models! (same story though). But honestly, this might have been one of the most frustatingly chore filled borefest DLC i've ever played? It's just even worse story telling where you do the same shit as the base game but some how WORSE. With dumb fucking zombies running at you so many of the times its genuinely impossible to focus on what some of the characters are saying or whats even happening on screen. But, i did like when it showed the survivors from the base game and having that small bit of continuity. So the Ryder White's Campaign DLC gets a 1.5/5 stars.

This is not a great game, but it is a very funny game. The pre-menu cinematic is legendary. 'Who do You Voodoo, Bitch?' is a bop and it gets stuck in my head every time I play this. The character select has inexplicably-long, DICTATED character bios, so OF COURSE, I chose the one-hit wonder rapper whose mom was a crackhead in "N'awlins". Listening to him read all that had me howling. Throughout the game they really seemed to attempt some pathos in the writing, but it was just goofy. I'd receive a questline from an NPC like, "oh my god, I just watched my family get ripped apart, can you retrieve this highly sentimental item for me" and your character would voice a random affirmation like "COPACETIC". It robs the game of any attempts to move you, but it did make me laugh a lot.

The gameplay loop gets really old after three or four hours, but those first few are really fun and hilarious. All the weapons you find at the beginning are worthless and abundant, so I had a blast throwing them at every zombie I came across. Taking a boat oar and hurling it full-speed at a shambling corpse that would then either ragdoll or explode truly never got old to me. The melee combat is pretty good. It's definitely better than say, Skyrim, but gunplay is terrible. I'd say it somehow managed to be on par with Fallout 3. The only reason that's worth anything at all was because of VATS, but Dead Island has no such compensation. I can't speak for 2011 anymore, but for 2024, the quest variety is inexcusable. It's the worst of the worst. It's either a fetch quest, an escort mission, kill these monsters, or just run all over the map for one reason or another. They definitely went for quantity over quality and it's to the overall detriment of the experience.

The character models are hideous. The faces are hard to look at it and the way they move is something else. I kinda just stared in awe at the NPC I was following on every escort mission. Old man, young woman, tribal man or scientist, they all run hunched and waddling like they just shit themselves. Human emotions and animations are completely stiff and lifeless but, ironically, the undead are far more vibrant and expressive. Decent variety of them too and lots of skin variations on each. I appreciated it.

Some technical problems as well. Caught an Infected T-pose for a second, nbd, but there was a crash that corrupted some save data. The navigation could be spotty as hell and there was some enemy pop-in. A zombie would lunge at the bottom of a ladder and somehow grab me at the top of it.

There were a couple of minor things that annoyed the absolute shit out of me. For some reason, they'll give you cars or trucks to drive where 80% of the windshield is obscured by the sun visor. I wish I could post a picture, it's absolutely ludicrous. The weapon mods were exciting but, again, annoying. An early electric mod would constantly emit this monotone drone over the other effects and music and it made me wonder why they would do that. Why not just a quick crackling sound every once in a while? Why "bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz"?

Dead Island is the definition of a "mid video game". The fact that the Definitive edition is still buggy and ugly should tell you something. That being said, you can find it fairly frequently on sale for like, $3. It's definitely worth that and I definitely had fun, I'm not gonna lie. I wish the platinum wasn't locked behind online multiplayer and the lack of couch co-op was a huge missed opportunity. I can easily picture my buddy and I doing some mindless shit like this for a while and beating eachother senseless with planks.

The most 2011 game of all time. A dark, gritty zombie game packed to the brim with dated immersive mechanics to give a sense of “realism.”

The controls are clunky; you get used to them but it’s like saying you mastered walking in shoes 5 sizes too big. You’re constantly bodyblocked by teammates and are forced to fight tons of enemies in close-quarter hallways. Forced aim-assist makes gunplay near impossible, along with no steady source to find bullets until 2/3rds the way through finishing. The neatest thing to the controls was a dodge jump that isn’t really told to you, it’s super useful for dealing with all the special zombies and different than every other game from the era giving you a little bitch push move just for a little wiggle room.

My biggest issue with this game has always been the RPG-elements, specifically with the weapons. Any time I tried to optimize my loadout, I would get frustrated from investing all my money and resources into my cool baseball bat, only to find the shop just rotated and there’s a new baseball bat that’s way stronger and sinking my money into that, but then 10 minutes of walking outside I found a new baseball bat even stronger. I had to basically put on a blindfold any time I looked at my weapons and throw all my money into a fire pit just to hope I do enough damage to the next zombie I encounter. I’ve always been told “just ignore it” and if that’s really the best response for a game about getting weapons to kill zombies with, then I think there’s a problem. 99% of quests are “go here, grab this, but zombies are in the way” and if finding the way to most optimally kill zombies should be “ignored” then what do you even have left? A mediocre looter-shooter? After a while, our group did missions by running past the zombies and I just thought to myself what’s the point of doing them if the reward is just more resources to kill the zombies that we are skipping? I didn’t complain out loud though, it got the game over with quicker 😎

I feel like most people have fond memories of this game because they could kick the shit out of a zombie with friends; it’s really this games biggest blessing because playing alone will just bore the hell out of you since your only friend is the baseball bat that you’re gonna replace in the next 10 minutes.