 Hardcore. You are on an tropical island paradise when a zombie infestation breaks out. Now you have to find a way off the island alive. Why can't zombies ever attack on a work day?
 Click the image to watch our video review! 1. Gameplay
There are a number of popular zombie-based shooters currently on the market. With games like Resident Evil and Left 4 Dead already claiming a firm stake, it often seems difficult for newer games to compete. Dead Island, however, decided to forgo the cheesy dialog and third-person perspective and offer players a more realistic, violent, gritty perspective on a zombie infestation.  Are those lines where the zombies invaded from the sea? Dead Island features an impressive number of melee weapons. Players will be able to wield weapons as innocuous as broomsticks and wooden paddles to as deadly as baseball bats modified with barbed wire. Weapons will wear down extremely quickly though, so players will have to cycle through different melee weapons often. Firearms like pistols and shotguns are included in the game, but ammunition is extremely scarce so these weapons are unreliable at best.  All this with a broomstick? There isn’t a particularly complex story. The player is one of a small group that happen to be immune to the virus. Since no other survivors on the island are immune, the player is charge with doing every possible task for the rest of the survivors. This can be as interesting as breaking prison inmates out of their cells to as mundane as finding bandages or bringing someone water. The majority of the tasks tend to fall along this second type, however. Don’t expect to find the quests particularly riveting. The game does include the ability to complete the campaign cooperatively. The cutscenes, regardless of how many people are actually playing, will always show the four immune survivors. This was slightly annoying since I played alone and the game doesn’t include the remaining immunes as cooperative AI. The other immunes simply appear for the cutscenes and then are gone for the actual gameplay. This game had some frustrating elements but was overall enjoyable. I doubt that I’d pick it up again for quite some time, but it was definitely worth attempting once.
The campaign for this game is decently long. My first playthrough lasted about 21 hours. I had completed all of the missions but the game allowed me to go back and replay the campaign with my inventory and statistics. If I wanted to replay the game completely, the zombies would level up with me so that I wouldn’t be a level 40 character fighting level 1 zombies. The game is also fully cooperative for up to four players. This would definitely increase play time, but I’m not exactly sure if the difficulty level increases with the number of cooperative players. If not, playing cooperatively could significantly shorten the amount of gameplay required. There are also arena-based horde matches for cooperative players. These could be fun to try for a group of four who are looking to increase their skill or test their abilities against increasingly difficult enemies. However, I never had much desire to play in the arena levels.
There were a few things that left me frustrated with this game. The first that I really noticed was the fact that firearms don’t come into the game until about halfway through, and even then most of the weapons are so underpowered that they’re useless against zombies. The mechanics are designed so that players that use firearms trade the safety of distance for the power of a melee weapon. However, considering the fact that my character was supposed to be a “firearms specialist” it seemed to defeat the point that I couldn’t take advantage of my specialty until I got pretty far into the game.  These guys are a pain until you get guns and ammunition. The other firearm-related problem that I ran into had to do with ammunition. Ammunition of all types is extremely rare in the game. While pistol ammunition can be found once the player enters the main city of Moresby, shotgun and rifle ammunition cannot be found until much later in the game, and even then they are extremely limited. While this may add to the realism of the game and keep the player from becoming overly reliant on firearms (which would make most melee weapons useless), I never felt like my specialty was developed enough. There were other problems that I ran into as well. Certain locations are informally designated “respawn points”. Basically, zombies in that region will spawn every few seconds. So by the time the player finishes killing the zombies in that area, more zombies have already spawned. This can easily overwhelm a single player and caused me to die a number of times. Enemies also have a tendency to deal an absurdly high amount of damage. It was fairly common to find enough health to bring myself back up to full strength, only to be near death again within a few seconds. Some of the stronger (yet still common) enemy types were able to take away more than half of my health in a single hit, even when I was an extremely high level.  I hate these guys. Under most circumstances, I was able to take the brunt of an enemy’s attack without stumbling or getting knocked down. However, there were a few times when a knockdown meant almost instant death. If I were trapped in a corner, which is sometimes permitted through the level design, fighting back out would be extremely difficult. However, against stronger enemies, it was literally impossible to get out. Some enemies are able to instantly knock a player down with a single hit, so even when I could get back up I would be knocked back down. It got extremely frustrating on certain occasions. 2. Parental Notices
Dead Island is extremely violent, possibly the most violent game I have played so far. Players will use a wide variety of melee and ranged weapons to attack and kill an endless horde of zombies. For at least the first half of the game, players will be restricted to only using melee weapons. These weapons are by far the most graphically violent in the game, especially the edged weapons.  But I don't want to take the key now. Edged weapons, like swords and knives, will cut into enemies. This can lead to dismemberment or decapitation. If a limb, usually an arm, is severed, the zombie will stumble but continue to attack. The joint where the limb was severed from will bleed profusely.  You can't hit me if you don't have arms. Zombies can also be decapitated to a similar effect.  A clean slice! Blunt weapons can cause the skull to be crushed in, but this is somewhat difficult unless the zombie is on the ground. What happens more commonly is that the zombie’s limb will break. If an arm breaks, it will hang limply on the side and flail around when the zombie moves or tries to attack.  STOP! I have never been able to keep a zombie alive with a broken or severed leg. Explosions can cause body parts, such as legs, to disconnect, but zombies always die in the process. My character was also able to gain an ability that allowed me to stomp on a downed zombie’s head in order to kill it instantly. At first I would curbstomp the zombie’s head with my boot, but eventually I managed to upgrade that ability so that I simply jumped on their head to smash it in one hit.  In heels? Really? Ranged weapons hardly ever cause dismemberment or decapitation. The only exception is when using high-powered shotguns at close range. If a shotgun is used against a zombie at close range, it has a high chance of blowing the enemy’s head off. What’s left is a bloody, bleeding stump while the zombie shuffles around for a bit before falling over.  BOOM! Headshot! Players are also able to attack “elemental” damages to their weapons. Basically this means you can add fire, electricity, or poison damage to a weapon in order to cause continuous damage to zombies. Electricity and poison weapons are fairly straightforward. For example, sometimes, when a player uses an electrified weapon, the zombie will get electrocuted. Bolts of electricity will shoot around the zombie, who will be left flailing in a seizure-like form until the electricity wears off.  I don't think electricity works like this. Fire damage is much more violent. Players can use Molotov cocktails and other fire-based weapons to light zombies on fire. Zombies on fire will react only in very small ways to the damage they are receiving. While the behavior of the zombie may be almost completely unaffected, the visual aspect will be extremely graphic. Zombies who have been burned are charred black except for their exposed organs or brain matter. It’s a rather horrifying sight.  Cocktail, anyone? Dead and decomposing corpses can also be found littered throughout the game.  Does anyone have a mop?
While it isn’t obvious at first since it blends in with the environment, I did notice one basic trend. In the resort area, men would be found in a variety of clothing types. Some men would be wearing a shirt, others might not. The women, however, would always be wearing bikinis. No matter what age or size the women were, they would always be in a bikini. The size of the bikini might vary (some revealed more side-boob than others), but every female character that I encountered was wearing some sort of bikini.  Didn't they pack real clothes? There was one bungalow in the resort area where evidently a pornographic movie was being filmed. One woman, zombified, is tied to the bed while wearing lingerie. Cameras are placed around the bed and the lighting is clearly meant to be semi-amorous. I’m not sure whether she was zombified after she was tied up or tied up after she was zombified, but the implications for both are awkward at best.  She also doesn't have any visible bite marks... There were also a number of billboards picturing women in lingerie. I believe these were for a real product, but further research can't 100% verify that possibility.  In a zombie-filled tropical paradise, it's the pictures of women in underwear that don't fit with the scenery. Rape is mentioned or implied at least two times during the course of the game. The specific examples are discussed in more detail in the “Miscellaneous” section below.
The player will find and/or use various substances throughout the course of the game. The most common will be those that are used to regain health. The player will commonly eat fruit, snack bars, and drink energy drinks in order to regain health. The number of energy drinks found around the island is a bit absurd.  I should probably drink this more slowly. There are other substances that regenerate the player’s health as well. Health kits can be picked up or bought in various areas of the game. While the kits may seem innocuous (they look like first aid kits), using them results in the player injecting himself with some sort of clear fluid. The specific nature of the fluid is never discussed.  I have always wondered if something like this is possible. Surprisingly enough, “alcohol” is also a form of health. The player can find bottles of what look like Jack Daniels (it’s not specified) and drink it. This will instantly heal a large portion of the players health, but also instantly get the player drunk. Players controlling drunken characters will have to deal with a very fuzzy screen and exaggerated, clumsy movement controls for about 30 seconds. This can make fighting zombies extremely difficult. Other drugs, from morphine to what looks like cocaine, can be found throughout the island. The specifically named substances, like insulin and morphine, are mission-related but cannot be consumed by the player. Unspecified “drugs” are not mission related and can only be sold (or potentially used in homemade weaponry).  Getting high during a zombie apocalypse is usually a bad idea. Towards the end of the game, one of the antagonists injects himself with a “vaccine” that he thinks will cure him of the virus. Unfortunately, it simply turns him into a horrible monstrous zombie thing.
Gambling is not a factor in this game. 3. Other Factors
While there are mods available for the game, the vast majority seem to simply tweak the mechanics of the game to make it more realistic, more in line with other zombie media (i.e. Dawn of the Dead), or just plain easier.
Towards the middle of the game the player gets dropped off in front of a church. After saving the church, the player meets a nun who gives the player some missions. The nun will mention “Our Lord” and “God” numerous times. There is also one mission that the player can complete where the player sets a number of loudspeakers around the city to play a pre-recorded message from the nun to the surviving population. The message does have some religious references.  Forgive me, sister, for I have sinned. One of the characters is some sort of tribal elder. In one escort mission, he will explain to the player what his people believe. It’s a decently long religious-based monologue about how his people believe that the universe and humans were created. It’s ultimately meaningless talk that’s just used to fill in the space between zombie attacks.  There's no need to listen to him. He dies anyway.
Since law enforcement has been completely eliminated from the island, the idea of “anti-law” is a bit vague. The island is more of an “every man for himself” free-for-all. Most people will remain decent and try to help each other (or at the very least not hurt each other). However, the player will run into a number of humans who will almost instantly try to kill the player. Late in the game the player will also end up in what was once a maximum security prison for international terrorists and other seriously bad people. This prison is supposed to be housing the worst of the worst. The problem is that, with the zombie apocalypse, the prisoners have all broken out and have taken over. The few guards that are still alive are more concerned about their own welfare than keeping the prisoners in line.  Bringing women into a prison with the convicts on the loose was not a good idea.
For the most part, the online game mode actually seemed rather disjointed. It was similar to the feel of a MMO in that gamers were playing in the same space but hardly ever interacting. I quickly grew bored of the true online experience because gamers spent more time giving each other weapons than attempting to complete quests. The few gamers that interacted with me were very friendly and helpful, though. Since there is no “player vs. player” ability, there was little chance for any gamers to become too annoying or hostile.  Meh. If this game were to be played cooperatively, it would make more sense to play it with gamers that the player already knows. This ensures that their goals and communication are already worked out before they begin the game.
The only thing that could even remotely qualify as an extreme sport in this game is the driving. Players are able to drive a small number of pickup trucks around the island. If zombies happen to get in the way of the player’s vehicle, the player can simply run them over. After a few hard hits, the windshield will splinter and the player will hit it out. There aren’t many places to drive, though. Even when the player can drive, the speed and length are severely limited.  Beep beep!
Magic is not a factor in this game.
Rape Rape is mentioned at least twice in the game. The most obvious example is a man who is looking for information on a criminal who raped and murdered the man’s wife. The player has to go and find items and information necessary for the man to find and kill the criminal. The game does not show whether or not the man found the criminal. Jin, one of the friendly characters in the game, ends up getting kidnapped by a gang of thugs who are hiding in the police headquarters. It is implied that she was raped by the thugs, but is never explicitly mentioned.  At least she still has her clothes on. Human Experimentation I always had the sinking suspicion that the scientists on the island were actually manufacturing and testing the virus on people, which resulted in the outbreak. This seemed to be debunked by the fact that the local tribal populations were immune to the virus having been exposed to it for generations, but I never was able to 100% confirm that the scientists’ motives were pure. Human Disfigurement Since this game is about a zombie infestation, the “human disfigurement” aspect is going to be particularly high. The average zombie will probably have chunks of skin and muscle tissue missing. Some even had bones exposed.  Anyone up for ribs? There are other zombie types as well, each based on some sort of human stereotype. Their size, shape, and abilities vary.  Do the truffle shuffle! In the final combat sequence, the antagonist injects himself with what he believes is a vaccine. It turns out that something is horribly wrong with the substance, and instead it turns him into a gigantic monster. He then proceeds to attack the player. Weapons of Mass Destruction It is mentioned at least once that the military (presumably the US military) is planning on detonating a nuclear missile to clean the island of infections. The game never shows this and never mentions if it was actually destroyed. It is also hinted that the virus may actually be part of a terrorist plot. This isn’t explored in great detail, but sets up the game for a sequel. Language
While harsh language would be the least of anyone’s concerns during a zombie apocalypse, it’s completely unavoidable in Dead Island. Characters will constantly throw out expletives, usually in high-stress situations. While the language wasn’t the worst I have ever heard in a game, it was definitely noticeable.
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