Dead Island: Zombie mayhem across a destroyed paradise

Move over Left 4 Dead and Fallout.

Techland have invaded their territory and combined them to create one of the most immersive games I have played in a long time.

Of course, anyone who follows the video game industry or zombie related horror will have seen the trailer of a family fighting off waves of infected set in the beautiful fictional holiday paradise of Banoi.

It was a real tear-jerking effort and one of the finest promos I have ever seen, if not somewhat irrelevant to the game, which is more of a slash-fest than an emotion triggering affair – but who would honestly want a game with zombies to be like that?

Regardless, it’s safe to say that the finished product more than lives up to the pre-release hype.

A brief overview of the game is that for an unknown reason a zombie apocalypse has struck a previously peaceful resort island. You wake up after a drunken night out at the hotel as one of the survivors and with that comes one mission - continue to survive.

You meet fellow uninfected humans along the way, with whom you share the same common mission. With the world lying before you in ruins, alliances are formed with those who you wouldn’t make a second glance at before the crisis.

The four characters you can play as have the advantage of immunity to the infection and as a result it is you that is sent out to face the hordes. The playable heroes all have their different advantages and flaws, which really come into play in the multiplayer mode.

The game is made a series of quests, of which some are necessary to progress along the main story line, where as others are optional but can sometimes reap greater rewards – so be sure not to look past those.

They are mostly search and collect missions but there is also times where you have to help people stuck by the rampaging mobs of undead, amongst many other scenarios which adds a lot of variety to the missions.

Special mini-bosses infected also appear throughout the game, which require changes in tactics in order to fell. It’s also not only the infected that pose a challenge; you also have to square off with not so friendly humans.

Graphically it captures the situation very well, with the island fantastically constructed but saturated by destruction in the aftermath of the outbreak; the contrast in visuals really does add to the feeling of what has happened.

The combat is good, but nothing groundbreaking with you hacking, slashing and shooting your way to objectives through countless numbers of zombies.

One feature of the game I liked an awful lot was that I had to wait until I was a third of the way through the game until I got my hands on a firearm. Most games see you inexplicably inherit an arsenal a small army would be glad to own, but in Dead Island you have to rely on baseball bats, knifes and cleavers for a large chunk of the game.

This really adds to the realism, however little than means in a world overrun by zombies, as in a world where you’d struggle to find your next meal it’s unlikely that you’ll run into a room conveniently lined with assault rifles and shotguns.

The only major problem I had with this game was that at times it freezes midway through taking on a mass of enemies, which is more of an inconvenience than a serious issue.

Having been so engrossed in single player, I have yet to really touch on the multiplayer side of this title. What I have seen is really effective and seamless, with people able to drop in and out of your game world at will and help you progress and explore.

I will add a second mini-review focusing on the multiplayer in due course, but on the merits of the single player, this title is definitely worth buying if you are a fan of Fallout, Left 4 Dead, Dead Rising, or even zombies in general.