Dead Island is a total guilty pleasure of mine. It's janky, the story's nonsense, and the characters are forgettable... but smashing zombies on a tropical island is just mindless fun! There's a goofy charm to the whole experience, and the co-op is a blast with friends. If you're looking for a deep and polished zombie experience, this ain't it. But if you wanna turn your brain off and just wreck some undead with your buddies, Dead Island is worth checking out.
The trailer fiasco has been done to death. Dead island is a game of clashing tones and identities. There are moments and side quests that match what that trailer set out to do. Running into broken people who were forced to make horrible decisions or being asked yourself to make those decisions on the behalf of others. These moments come rarely and are often sandwiched between the main meat of the game. That being fairly usual zombie game fair of killing masses of the undead with the occasional mission of dealing with rogue human factions. Creating over the top weapons is another bright spot in this game. Overall fun in short bursts but grows very repetitive over time