by Taylor Garratt

In the last decade we have seen some incredible, and some not so incredible zombie games. These are games that speak directly to fans of the apocalyptic, undead world of tomorrow. I personally grew up loving the works of George Romero as well as the Evil Dead series, and have really embraced the newer wave of Zombie flicks like Zombieland and Dawn of the Dead as well as the new Walking Dead series, so when I see a new zombie game on the horizon I start getting either really excited or totally skeptical. With Dead Island it was the former. So letʼs pack our Tommy Bahama shirts, sunblock and a good book, and punch our tickets, weʼre going on a trip to paradise. Right?

So to begin I want to say that Techland has put out a really solid zombie game. From the moment you start the game, you are thrust into a frantic fight for survival; however if you are looking for the slow, stupid, lumbering zombies of the olden days, this is definitely not your game. These zombies want flesh, and are not afraid to run at Olympic gold medal speed to acquire said flesh. So what does this mean for you? Simple, it means that to survive you have to constantly be on the move, inventing new weapons, and most of all, upgrading your character in a way that supports your particular style of slaying.

The story takes place on a fictional island named Banoi just off the coast of Papua New Guinea. You get to choose from four different characters, all have their strengths and weaknesses. Itʼs a good idea to put some thought into these characters as all have their own badass Rage attacks and a custom upgrade tree that affects only that character. This allows the player to evolve the way they want to maximize the body count with minimal effort.

Dead Island (Xbox 360)

The environment immediately makes you feel like you are just exploring a beautiful tropical paradise; the water effects are gorgeous and the overall graphics and lighting effects are simply stunning. I found myself getting bitten on the neck more than once due to looking out over the calming ocean or checking out

a hyper-realistic structure off in the distance. The character and zombie models are also just as visually pleasing- the zombies are simply disgusting and when you are fighting one off using the context controls you get a nice view of their blood and chunk covered faces as they try to eat you brain first.

Paired with the great visuals is a solid soundtrack and ambiance created by Pawel Blaszczak of Shockwave-Sound that seems to adjust based on your charactersʼ current situation, so if you are just cruising around it sounds really calm; the chirp of birds, the roar of the beach and light musical melodies, where on the other hand if you are being chased by an enraged Ram you are suddenly listening to an exhilarating symphony of sounds. This, without a doubt, adds to the creepy factor, especially when enemies are attacking from behind.

There are definitely some things that Techland threw into the mix that keep you on your toes while exploring the island. One of these features was Stamina. On any zombie game I remember from the past several years you can just hack, punch, kick, slice and dice until your fingers bleed, but Dead Island takes a more realistic approach by adding a stamina bar that, frankly, drains rather quickly. I personally have never been in a zombie apocalypse but I imagine the shortage of food, sleep and water makes it fairly difficult to swing a sledgehammer through rotting flesh more than a few dozen times before you have to sit down, pop open a beer and regroup. But not to worry, you can upgrade your charactersʼ Stamina recharge rate as you go and once you start finding more guns itʼs not so bad.

Every once in a while I would run into an issue with hit mechanics where I would take a shot at a zombie face with a melee weapon and nothing would happen, but these moments seemed to be few and far between so I wasnʼt all that bothered. On the same note, there are many objects around Banoi that you can hit like beach balls and certain household objects, but for the most part the environment is unchanging. None of this was enough for me to not enjoy the game though, mostly because I feel like they had to compromise and sacrifice some of these smaller luxuries for the big picture; a huge open world zombie game with lots of fun and exciting scenarios to keep it interesting.

Dead Island (Xbox 360)

While playing, I stumbled onto a setting in the Pause menu options that changed the game entirely for me. So there are two different attack “modes” that you can use to slaughter the undead; there is Digital mode, where you just pull the right trigger and swing away as your heart desires, or thereʼs the mode that I discovered at random called Analog. Analog mode is (oddly enough) very similar to Fight Night controls, where you hold down the right trigger and use the joystick to control the direction that you swing your knives or blunt objects. At first I felt totally awkward as I was already used to the run and gun feel of Digital, and Analog mode requires you to stand still and decide what kind of blow you want to deal, but after a good thirty minutes of practice I was dismembering zombie legs, arms and heads at will as well as taking down some of the larger enemies with ease.

One of my favorite features of Dead Island was the drop-in drop-out Co-op. Iʼve always been a huge fan of games that I can hop right into and start playing with one of my many friends scattered around the country. This game did it right. As soon as I was on I saw that I had a few friends on my list playing, selected their names and immediately saw a “Join Game” option. I did just that and like magic I was in a friendsʼ game within about thirty seconds watching him and two other buddies hack up and defile a horribly disfigured zombie body. Sometimes co-op just isnʼt right for a game and I can absolutely understand that; but if youʼre going to do it, do it well or not at all. Techland did it well and hit a home-run with this 4 player campaign feature.

Overall I had a lot of fun playing Dead Island. It kept the hits coming and I found myself truly immersed in the frantic fight for survival. jumping in with lower level friends just to show off my upgraded charactersʼ prowess and help them work through the lengthy campaign and side missions. The player finds themselves repeatedly torn between the desire to step back and appreciate the aesthetics and atmosphere of the maps, and sprinting like a madman from safe house to safe house to stay alive. This one is well worth a try if you have the stomach for a thrilling zombie game and lust for some de-limbing; the fearful need not apply.

SCORE: 88

Dead Island (Xbox 360)