The Zombie Game of Our Dreams has Been Recognized, Respected, but Not Perfected
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| Dead Island explores a sweet concept... but gets violently consumed by Peter's criticism |
When the Dead Island theatrical trailer was released, the video gamer/zombie enthusiast world thought that their messiah was on its way: the ultimate open-world zombie Apocalypse survival experience. For long we have gotten games that have gone so close to the concept, but have never explored it. Games the likes of Fallout 3, Dead Rising, Left 4 Dead and Borderlands, have used zombie survival elements, but hungry fans wanted the mix of these perfect games coming together in perfect harmony to get the experience they have seen on the big screen. So when underdog Icelandic/Australian developer Techland stepped up to the plate and showed off their recognition of this concept, zombie fans hearts melted, as they eagerly awaited the games debut. Now the game is out, and my fair share of hours in this hell hole called Dead Island have been spent, and some words from the wise have been prepared.
The game plops you in a tropical island resort on the imaginary island "Banoi" with little to no plotting. Well, aside from you getting f**ked up one night, passing out, and waking up to undead snacking on that annoying lady proposing the idea of a timeshare. And from the first ten minutes of game-play, the average gamer would have no damn clue whats going on. The game has end up looking for glue for and unspecified reason, loot luggage for money (which is still against the law, due to the fact that the world has come to an end has not been specified yet), and talk to some lollygagging islanders with bad attitudes. You soon meet some lifeguard who acts as the administer of missions for the first part of the game, and almost instinctively fall asleep due to the severity of the poor voice acting. From the beginning the game tries to develop a feeling of urgency, yet every time it seems to screw this simple concept up so badly that you only end up having a chuckle at some whining Australians. Something about "you were bitten and cant get infected!", "only hope!", "go rescue my poor teddy bear from my bungalow!", you immediately lose all faith in caring about plot. But on the bright side from then on out, the game world is yours to discover.
Exploration is the games high-point. With a massive, gorgeous world to explore, this aspect is the most polished in the whole game. You run around merking zombies, looting cash, creating custom weapons, accepting quests, and guzzling energy drinks (which are mysteriously some sort of healing remedy) for hours. This honeymoon is so unexpectedly fun that you try to play just this instead of the dry plot-line, but as you keep playing, you notice the zombies get extremely strong. This ends up being so wildly frustrating as you keep trying to slay, that you simply cannot go on any longer, and are forced into the main story.
It goes without saying that this game is buggy. Buggier than a certain 1998 Pixar film. You will notice a slough of zombies stuck in walls, graphical glitches, people turned the opposite direction while talking to you, and worst of all: missions being impossible to complete. There was a moment where some textbook p*ssy hides in a Tiki bar whilst demanding you to bring him five bottles of Jack Daniels. I did the deed, and when I gave him his precious whiskey, he didnt even acknowledge it. The GAME didnt even acknowledge it. Immediately questioning my motives for persisting with this game, I took out Dead Island, popped in Titanic, and sobbed while eating a tub of fudge ice cream.
Sadly, while playing the story of Dead Island, you notice elements of that perfect zombie survival game show through. Browsing the isles of a thug overridden supermarket for rations made me realize that this is one of the things you would have to routinely do in the zombie Apocalypse. As I sat there wishing the game wasn't so flawed, I thought deeply while carrying out the mindless tasks assigned by the game. I took my conscious to a video game where you had a group of survivors to look after, survival and creativity were key, each character was fleshed out, zombies were fun to kill, story was emotionally gripping, and you could converse with your survivors and build relationships, similar to Mass Effect. In realizing this was not a reality, I took a big sigh, and went back to killing thugs and looking for Cookie Crisp. I know Techland tried, they made a fun game with an idea that has not yet been explored. Maybe one day my dream will come true. I'm looking at you Bethesda.
*sniff* *sniff*
6.5 / 10
some classic pDro humor there at the end with the cookie crisp....!!!!
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