Posted by Pascal Tekaia on Monday, September 19, 2011 ? Leave a Comment?
(Un)Holy Union
Deep Silver?s action take on the zom?bie game?sub-genre?received many raised eye?brows with its unique and emo?tional reverse-timeline trailer ear?lier this year. Imme?di?ately, fans of the undead ?began eagerly antic?i?pat?ing the game, sweaty-palmed and sali?vat?ing, while those who had had their fill of shuffling/sprinting corpses shook their heads in quiet (and some?times not-so-quiet) capit?u?la?tion. Regard?less of which camp you have sworn alle?giance to, Dead Island comes through with fly?ing col?ors, deliv?er?ing an intense expe?ri?ence that?s as gritty and fran?tic as it is beau?ti?ful to behold.
Dead Island gives play?ers a choice of four main char?ac?ters to con?trol: the under?cover Hong Kong cop Xiang Mei, the washed-up rap?per Sam B, has-been NFL foot?ball player Logan, or police-office-turned-bodyguard Purna. The char?ac?ters effec?tively func?tion like quasi-classes, with each indi?vid?ual hav?ing slightly altered base stats and each spe?cial?iz?ing in a cer?tain weapon type (blunt, sharp, firearms, etc) with match?ing skill?trees.
Stats and skill trees are two exam?ples in how Dead Island com?bines RPG ele?ments into its action-driven game?play. The core game?play revolves around pick?ing up and com?plet?ing quests, which are typ?i?cally cen?tered around either sur?vival on the island or escape from it. Com?plet?ing quests, killing ene?mies (or maim?ing them in cre?ative ways) net expe?ri?ence points, which serve to level your char?ac?ter. Along the way, a wide vari?ety of weapons and items used for trad?ing or cre?at?ing new items can be found; weapons come in dif?fer?ent tiers famil?iar to the RPG crowd (stan?dard whites, greens, blues, and pur?ples) and can be upgraded at spe?cial work?benches to receive even higher stat boosts. In short, the game design shares many sim?i?lar?i?ties with 2009?s acclaimed Bor?der?lands. This is an impor?tant point to stress; if you?re not com?fort?able with play?ing Bor?der?lands set on an island par?adise with zom?bies, then you may want to look else?where for your undead fix.
Postcard-Perfect
On the graph?i?cal front, Dead Island sim?ply looks amaz?ing. The fic?tional resort island of Banoi lends itself beau?ti?fully for lush and vibrant vis?tas. Dur?ing the early stages of the game that take place on the hotel grounds with its tiki bars, beaches, secluded bays and swim?ming pools, the color palette fre?quently alter?nates between two extremes. On one hand, the lux?u?ri?ant greens and blues of an island par?adise, drenched with the deep and vivid reds of blood and gore. On the other, the game has, at times, a kind of washed-out, sun-bleached effect. Even dur?ing later parts of the game, when you leave the beach-side jun?gles behind and head all over the island, the graph?ics remain admirable, even if for no other rea?son than the atten?tion to detail in the environments.
The per?fect place for a relax?ing zom?bie infestation!
As impres?sive as the out?doors look in Dead Island (dur?ing Act I, there is a dis?tant storm often vis?i?bly and some?times audi?bly brew?ing; dur?ing Act II the weather actu?ally intro?duces a rain cycle with abrupt starts and stops ? very trop?i?cal!), it?s a shame that the same can?not be said for the (once)/ human denizens of the island. You?d expect zom?bies to have a pal?lid, gray and gen?er?ally unhealthy glow to them, but even those with?out a hunger for flesh and brains often sport a mot?tled, plas?tic com?plex?ion, and in some cut-scene close-ups are just hor?rid to look?at.
Banoi is a huge, decay?ing play?ground rav?aged by an unnat?ural cat?a?stro?phe, and signs of human strug?gle are evi?dent every?where. Dur?ing your explo?ration of the island?s nooks and cran?nies, you may stum?ble upon a secluded and fenced-off shack that served some unlucky soul as a last stand, or a hastily con?structed scaf?fold that leads to a few aban?doned pic?nic chairs and stacks of bricks where some poor bas?tard had a few rounds of undead tar?get prac?tice not too long ago. As a true sand?box game, Dead Island encom?passes miles upon miles of ter?rain, and large tracts of it are avail?able right at the game?s out?set. Load?ing times are few and far between; for the most part, you?re free to just go where you wish with?out has?sle. But be warned: the zom?bie hordes are every?where, and a mis?cal?cu?lated step around the wrong cor?ner can and will land you in a world of trouble.
What You Can?t?See?
Chances are, your day?s about to get a lit?tle bit more?ugly.
It?s hard to say much about the music in the game, because there is (wisely) so lit?tle of it. Gen?er?ally, unless near a radio, you?ll spend your time lis?ten?ing for the shuf?fling and groan?ing of walk?ing corpses, or the sound of a few of the poor dev?ils who are mak?ing lunch out of a fresh kill. This ramps up quickly, how?ever, in Act II, when the low grunts are and growls are shat?tered at con?stant inter?vals by rage-filled screams that echo off the walls and fill your world for a few heart-stopping moments. It?s times like these when you real?ize that this isn?t just your aver?age, run-of-the-mill zom?bie infes?ta?tion; there is real men?ace here, and it starts to sat?u?rate the game, turn?ing it into a more and more unset?tling and uneasy expe?ri?ence. There were a few par?tic?u?larly ter?ri?fy?ing moments where my char?ac?ter, run?ning at full speed and pant?ing heav?ily, was try?ing in vain to sum?mon the strength to clam?ber up a cou?ple of dump?sters and over a brick wall to safety, all the while hear?ing the pierc?ing shrieks of an approach?ing swarm of zom?bies hot on my tail and scrab?bling at my heels (and some, like the newly-turned Infected, do move fast as?hell!).
The voice act?ing in the game, on the other hand, is a bit of a mixed bag. Being an inter?na?tional resort, the sur?vivors on Banoi speak in all man?ner of accents and dialects. This some?times leads to some unin?ten?tion?ally over-the-top moments, par?tic?u?larly from the game?s four playable pro?tag?o?nists. For exam?ple, Sam B?s urban take on the south?ern drawl can be a bit much to stom?ach, to say noth?ing of the for?eign accents of some of the oth?ers. A wel?come coun?ter?point to this are the (very few and far between) audio record?ings you stum?ble across, fea?tur?ing the unmis?tak?able tones of Cam Clarke as a reporter who was on the trail of some mys?te?ri?ous (pos?si?bly related to the zom?bie out?break) hap?pen?ings on Banoi, and ends up caught up in the early stages of the out?break itself. It?s well-produced moments of hor?ror like these where you can really see how much fun the team at Deep Sil?ver had with the?game!
Friends? Who Needs Friends?
I would be amiss to not give a men?tion to the game?s mul?ti?player sys?tem. Mov?ing away from mul?ti?player game modes and spe?cial?ized maps, the game instead lets you team up with oth?ers in your cur?rent cam?paign. Remov?ing the need for a sep?a?rate match-finding lobby screen, the design?ers have opted instead for a mes?sage dis?played on-screen any?time another player with sim?i?lar story progress as you is nearby, giv?ing you the option to join their game with a sim?ple but?ton tap. While a stream?lined and incred?i?bly sim?ple sys?tem, I found get?ting into mul?ti?player groups to be dis?ad?van?ta?geous for my enjoy?ment of the game. On mul?ti?ple occa?sions, after exit?ing a co-op group, I found my quest log to have changed with?out my knowl?edge, either adding a quest or two I didn?t pick up, or fast-forwarding me through another quest that one of my part?ners had appar?ently already fin?ished. Even worse, you do not get a say in whether another player joins you or not; at one point, being in a safe place away from any pos?si?ble harm, I left my spot on the couch to visit the facil?i?ties for a few min?utes. When I returned, I found that in my absence some?one had joined my game, com?pleted the quest I had been about to embark upon, and left again, leav?ing my char?ac?ter stand?ing in a com?pletely dif?fer?ent place, and me hav?ing not a clue as to what plots points I had just missed out?on.
Death Ain?t Pretty
Xiang Mei likes to slice ?em and dice??em
Dead Island does offer up a seedy under?belly beneath the beau?ti?ful gloss of its envi?ron?ments and its fran?tic fight-for-survival com?bat. One offender is its respawn?ing sys?tem. Should you fall in bat?tle (and you will!), a few sec?onds will see you placed back near the spot where you expired. Unfor?tu?nately, this isn?t always reli?able, as a few times I was made to trek for quite a while to get back to the site of my demise, and other times I was dumped uncer?e?mo?ni?ously at the exact same spot, right amid the same gnash?ing and claw?ing horde that had just torn me to shreds sec?onds ear?lier. Need?less to say, within a mat?ter of moments I was once again ripped to rib?bons, and this cycle repeated a few more times until I was finally able to run far enough away to escape.
Another, more unfor?giv?able, flaw is the design of some of the game?s side mis?sions, espe?cially early on in the game. The main story mis?sions are usu?ally inter?est?ing and revolve fur?ther?ing the cause of Banoi?s sur?vivors in some mean?ing?ful way. But it was laugh?able to get mis?sion after mis?sion early on in the game that revolved around find?ing a mis?placed neck?lace or fetch?ing some alco?hol to treat a hang?over. One mis?sion went so far as to send me all over the place to retrieve a lost teddy bear! I?m sorry, but aren?t we in a fuck?ing zom?bie apoc?a?lypse?here?!
Finally, the game has very lim?ited legs to stand on once it?s com?pleted. As men?tioned before, the four playable char?ac?ters have dif?fer?ent weapon affini?ties, stats, and skill trees, but apart from what weapon each prefers to use they play essen?tially the same. The story does not change one bit depend?ing on who you choose to play as; in fact, in many of the game?s cutscenes, all four char?ac?ters show up, and it is implied that, while you con?trol one, they travel together as a group. Even the game?s intro?duc?tion, when your char?ac?ter wakes up in his or her hotel room, is exactly the same no mat?ter who you?ve cho?sen to play as. It really seems that this was a lost oppor?tu?nity on the part of the developers.
Final Ver?dict
Dead Island proves to be an incred?i?bly enter?tain?ing title full of gor?geous scenery and intense action. While it treats some zombie-outbreak tropes with a tongue-in-cheek men?tal?ity, like a lack of any rhyme or rea?son to why the dead have sud?denly begun to rean?i?mate for much of the game, it instead suc?cumbs to other equally com?mon com?plaints with the genre, like many sur?vivors want?ing to stay alone in their shel?ters instead of join?ing the larger group and some facepalm moments in mis?sion design. How?ever, it pro?vides a large open play?ground, and offers a world that I look for?ward to revis?it?ing again and again, much more than Bor?der?lands ever did (kick?ing a zom?bie to the bot?tom of a swim?ming pool and watch?ing it drown because it?s too stu?pid to hold its breath under?wa?ter and too slow to get back up quickly never gets old!). Despite a rocky start on the PC with the wrong ver?sion being released, reports of some ques?tion?able devel?oper atti?tudes, and a mul?ti?player sys?tem that I?ve learned to avoid, the single-player cam?paign is well worth a visit to the island of?Banoi.
Filed under Featured Articles, PC, Playstation 3, Reviews, Xbox 360 ? Tagged with Banoi, dead island, Deep Silver, gaming, news, PC, ps3, Review, xbox 360
Source: http://bnbgaming.com/2011/09/19/review-dead-island-360-ps3-pc/
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