Dead Island: Our Resident Islander Gives You a Tour
If you live in a vacation destination like me, then I am sure you’ve experienced the situation of having to stop dead in your tracks due to overweight, fanny pack wearing tourists obstructing the sidewalk so that they can snap a photo of a dirty beach pigeon. Living in Waikiki, the most overly saturated vacation spot in the state of Hawaii, I have to deal with this on a daily basis. I must admit that after the 1000th time this happens, it becomes frustrating. From time to time I fantasize about how great it would be to plow through these sloppy herds with an electrified pickaxe. However, the law frowns upon activities of this nature and I had no outlet for my pent up aggression. That is, until I discovered the newly undead beachgoers of Moresby Resort and Hotel in Dead Island.
Would Double Tap That?
This game brings survival horror out of the darkness of dreary, rundown mansions or ravaged shopping malls and gives the genre a one way ticket to paradise. The “sun & fun” aspect is a much needed facelift to the zombie extermination games of recent years that have become increasingly dull and predictable. Now you might be saying to yourself, “But Resident Evil 5 was set in the blazing African daylight.” This is true but, there is a huge difference between the two games. RE5 sucks a big bag of misshapen dildos and Dead Island rocks harder than Slayer playing at your graduation party, and here’s why.
The narrative takes a backseat to the on-screen mayhem and your main focus as a player is to scrounge up whatever you can in order to survive. But in all fairness, after the first time you blow the fake tits off of a bikini clad zombie with a pipe bomb made out of deodorant, the story becomes kind of irrelevant. The weapon modification system is every wannabe outbreak survivalists dream and it is much more involved than games with similar systems such as Dead Rising. You want a flaming baseball bat? No problem. Need a machete covered in toxic waste? You got it pal! And for the firearm enthusiasts, there are shotguns and AK-47s that turn up later in the game.
Just point and click.
There are 4 different character options that range from an ex-pro quarterback that has a knack for long range weapons, to a failed rap artist whose primary attribute is smashing skulls in with a rusty pipe. Depending on your preference, whomever you choose will have an upper hand in his/her own specialty.
Scenery on the resort and in the jungle is gorgeous and the dilapidated slums are realistically portrayed. For anyone who has been on vacation and actually managed to explore outside the premises of the resort, they are aware that these poverty stricken local towns are all too common and I applaud the games creators for not shying away from this aspect. There is however, an actual place named Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea. Knowing how easily people try to crucify violent videogames these days, it’s only a matter of time before some disgruntled homemaker from that region files a bullshit lawsuit. But I digress.
The sound design takes from the notion that a little can go a long way. It is refreshing to know that someone figured out that you do not need gut-busting stripper metal polluting your ears in order to add to the carnage which, if done right, can support itself. Often while exploring different areas you will find that the lack of constant music is necessary so that you are better able to hear the heavy breathing of an unseen ghoul that is hauling ass at you with a meat cleaver. But for the most part the sound presents itself in a more ambient fashion that adds to the tension between confrontations.
Now let’s get down to the things that go bump in the light. Of course you have your standard “walking dead” that every survival horror game would be stupid NOT to include. And then you have your Left 4 Dead inspired rabid baddies with a little more pep in their step. As the game progresses and your character levels up, so does the opposition, and they do this in more ways than one. Soon you will be facing “Thugs” who throw Mike Tyson-esque haymakers that will surely knock you face first into the white sand beach. I picture thugs being the bonehead muscle apes who wore Ed Hardy t-shirts when they were alive and it makes me laugh. Further down the line you will encounter exploding baddies where keeping your distance is crucial, to another type of creature that I can only describe as a rhinoceros strapped into a reinforced straightjacket. Luckily, each enemy has its own weakness that can be figured out and exploited to your liking. Or you can just set them on fire because apparently the zombies in DI are made of newspaper.
He has no idea how to get down from there.
For as much praise that I embellish upon DI, I have to admit there are some monotonous side missions and riDONKulous glitches that can take you right out of the zone and make you punt a leg off of your coffee table. For instance, on a few occasions I was entering a vehicle to drive to my next destination and then suddenly I was on the exterior of the truck with my ass glued to the roof. Sometimes this was remedied by a bout of maniacal button mashing, but other times I was forced to reload the game from my last checkpoint. As far as the bunk side missions, there are two that come to mind. The first type of mission is a request from one person to check on a loved one of theirs and make sure they are alright. Even though you have seen the person they are speaking of and you KNOW they are safe, you have to slog 10 miles roundtrip so that the program recognizes the quest objective. The second unnecessary mission is where you must locate a teddy bear for a woman in her twenties so that she can take a nap. Seriously?
Sometimes the interaction with the scenery is a little TOO involved and can become tedious as you can sometimes spend countless minutes rummaging through deserted luggage. Partaking in this action certainly has its rewards, but mostly you will find superfluous objects or small amounts of cash that only add up over time. If you are the type of gamer who enjoys grinding it out little by little, then finding a bottle of water and selling it for 3 dollars on numerous occasions will be right up your alley.
“This one’s for breaking my favorite chair!”
Even with some dumb quests and frustrating glitches, DI is an incredibly fun game that you can play solo of with 4 player co-op that works well, but still may need an update patch and allow more level diversity to be considered optimal. This game is by no means a spark of innovation nor is it a story driven masterpiece. However, what DI lacks in the aforementioned areas, it makes up for in the impressive art design and of course the multitude of ways to unleash fury on the infected population.
In closing, I have to give Dead Island the coveted “Islander Stamp of Approval” for everything it does right and especially due to the fact that all of the annoying tourists are featured as fair game because 5 minutes after the breakout, they became zombie room service. Which is exactly how it would go down on this beach, Brah.
