Dead Island

[Neon Ignition]

It's none too surprising, I'm a few issues behind on reading Edge and there are some epic fails in their reviews of late compared to the actual games. Time for a staff change rather than a paper quality change

[Garny]

I'm really struggling to get into this. I'm playing the PS3 version and the video is really jerky for me and i get sound stutters all the time. Anyone else getting this?

Had this happen to me a few times. All my other games are fine.

[Neon Ignition]

Rather than download the new patch I played this offline last night and a lot of the issues disappeared when doing so, so I reckon that's how I'll carry on. I'm starting to get the feeling this is a much bigger game than it first appeared to be too.

[Phar]

Same here, thought it was going to be a fairly small and short game, I'm around 14-15 hours into it now and only at 65%, just started the Jungle and that area on the map looks absolutely huge, still think there is another location even after that.

[Munkhee]

Finished the game last night with my two co-op buddies. Game clock says just over 38 hours, and my character was level 36 by the end. Excellent game overall - just had so much fun with it. Have to say that the last Act was a little lacklustre (and short) compared to the other three though, and the finale fight was pretty uninspired (and super frustrating if playing on your own I'd imagine). So, my intital gushing of 10/10 has dropped to a rock solid 9/10 overall ;-)

Playing this has only exacerbated my opinion that reviewers are increasingly out of touch with the interests of today's gamers... it's a little sad to be honest. It seems like every game needs to be a completely seminal experience to even warrant a second look these days. Poor old Techland. They should be justifiably proud of what they've acheived with this game, and it must have been heartbreaking to see some of those low review scores after so many long years of development. With the game at No.1 though, and actually sold out in all of my local stores, it seems they will reap the rewards despite this review snobbery, and us fans will do likewise when they get the green light for the inevitable sequel.

Now... time to start a New Game Plus, so that I can continue my climb to level 50 and hopefully lay my hands on that elusive legendary shotgun I've been after... :-)

[25.05.2005]

I haven't encountered any bugs whilst playing this. However, my impressions are not good.

When I first got into it, I immediately thought, "wow, this is quite good, why are people complaining"?

Half an hour later, I realise why.

Although the graphics are decent and the melee mechanic is fun; as a complete game, it is pretty awful.

All you do is fetch crap and repair weapons. That's all you do. So repetitive, lacks inspiration, tediously boring.

The voice acting is bad, and the tasks make you want to kill the people, not the zombies.

The weapon system is a frustration. Constantly having to repair your weapon IS the main focus of the game. Weapons become useless way to quick.

I'm about 60% and the lush environment has now been replaced by standard low quality FPS sewers and swamps. Urgh. At this stage, I really don't want to finish it, but I will.

Before this came out, I was imagining some kind of cross between Dead Rising and Fallout (ambitious, I know), but it doesn't come close to either.

To be honest, I'd rather just play Dead Rising again.

[dvdx2]

I haven't encountered any bugs whilst playing this. However, my impressions are not good.

When I first got into it, I immediately thought, "wow, this is quite good, why are people complaining"?

Half an hour later, I realise why.

Although the graphics are decent and the melee mechanic is fun; as a complete game, it is pretty awful.

All you do is fetch crap and repair weapons. That's all you do. So repetitive, lacks inspiration, tediously boring.

The voice acting is bad, and the tasks make you want to kill the people, not the zombies.

The weapon system is a frustration. Constantly having to repair your weapon IS the main focus of the game. Weapons become useless way to quick.

I'm about 60% and the lush environment has now been replaced by standard low quality FPS sewers and swamps. Urgh. At this stage, I really don't want to finish it, but I will.

Before this came out, I was imagining some kind of cross between Dead Rising and Fallout (ambitious, I know), but it doesn't come close to either.

To be honest, I'd rather just play Dead Rising again.

not really sure why you are putting so much time into a game you clearly dont like?

[Neon Ignition]

Yeah, to be 60% through you would have had to do tons of hours on it. I'm not getting some of the issues either, every issue you seem to have is a core issue of the two games you think are better... in fact they're better done in Dead Island than those games. As for weapon repairing, it only has to be done pretty infrequently. Replacement new weapons are everywhere so you only need to maintain favourites you've upgraded.

[25.05.2005]

not really sure why you are putting so much time into a game you clearly dont like?

I always complete my games, that is the only way I can have a true, honest and thorough opinion on them.

[Sketcz]

I love it when games force you to repair weapons - seriously, it appeals to the ubergeek inside me, especially when I can tweak the weapon's parameters. Without playing it that alone makes me want this. Man up ladies, and roll with.

That actually reminds me of Pathologic, flat out one of my all-time favourite FPS games ever released on PC. For those saying they'd rather play Dead Rising, I am surprised at that - I found DR2 to be one of the slowest, most boring, most uninspired games in a long time, and totally without ambition. The weapon combo system didn't work because I couldn't combine anything with anything, only pre-approved stuff, and ploughing through zombies was like carving my way through a wall of cake with a rake. Just dull. There was no sense of desperate tension, too many power-ups, and it was more like a silly arcade brawler. More like a Capcom arcade brawler in 3D. Which is fine if that's what you want, but I wanted desperate survival horror. I wanted my back against the wall with little chance for survival. I wanted a lack of resources and pure terror, not a day in zombie funland.

So, questions about this then (since I've read this entire topic and not seen these points mentioned much).

1) To survive do you need to constantly eat, drink and sleep? (if someone says yes, it's an integral part, then it's a definite purchase for me)

2) Dead Rising never had any tension because the zombies weren't a threat until the SUPERZOMBIES came out. Are they scary here? Will I feel like John Maclane as I scramble backwards wondering whether to use my last bullet on a zombie or myself?

3) Connected to the above, what kind of gunplay does this feature? I know it's mainly melee, from previews, but are there any guns?

4) Can you trade supplies with people? Is there a bartering system?

5) The RPG trimmings intrigue me. How similar is it to games like Pathologic, STALKER, and System Shock 2?

[Neon Ignition]

1) To survive do you need to constantly eat, drink and sleep? (if someone says yes, it's an integral part, then it's a definite purchase for me)

There's energy drinks and bars with the odd medkit lying around which typically replenish 1 block of health. You have regenerating health but its very slow at regenerating so you go through a lot of snacks. They're consumed on pick up though so no inventory handling with them.

2) Dead Rising never had any tension because the zombies weren't a threat until the SUPERZOMBIES came out. Are they scary here? Will I feel like John Maclane as I scramble backwards wondering whether to use my last bullet on a zombie or myself?

Probably not, there's the occasion super zombie variant which requires careful approaching as guns are very rare so you have to risk yourself with timed hits. They can do 1/3 damage but restarts are local and quick so there's no tension as such. Interior locations tend to feel more forboding than the sun drenched beaches with the torch getting some use. Nothing too tensionable or hard though.

3) Connected to the above, what kind of gunplay does this feature? I know it's mainly melee, from previews, but are there any guns?

Very few, they've approached it from the view that in real life guns wouldn't be lying around. I'm 6hrs in and I've fired 1 bullet. Literally, I prefer the up close melee though.

4) Can you trade supplies with people? Is there a bartering system?
Not really, there are some traders where you can sell the things you find and buy high quality weapons and supplies for upgrading weapons. Fairly straight forward stuff.

5) The RPG trimmings intrigue me. How similar is it to games like Pathologic, STALKER, and System Shock 2?
I'd say not much, the RPG elements are pretty light. The structure of the game is near identical to Borderlands.

[Sketcz]

Ahh, thanks for the answer. So not my kind of game then.

[BIG EDD]

Why is this title so hard ti find asda and GAME were out of stock and there was 1 copy left in one of my argos out of 4 stores local to me now to put some hours into it:%

[Skull Commander]

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/dead-island-sells-out/084910

[dvdx2]

ok - 1st posible game breaking bug

part of the main quest; asked to get 2 cartons of juice from the 2 petrol stations - brought 2 back - no trigger to next scene. Siminoi just says ' did you check both the gas stations' - I then bring back another 4 - still the same response - I even brought two cartons of juice up to his feet! - still the same responce....buggered?