I have finally done it. It took 2 months of waiting but on Black Friday I got my own copy of Dead Island from via Steam download. They always are having some kind of deal on video games by the way, so if you are hard up for cash like me, check them out. The download for me too 24 + hours. I don’t know why, it should have only been like 3. But I finally got it running on my computer. So here’s what I think of it.
This is kinda how I felt after getting Dead Island
Can I say that it’s everything anyone could want out of a zombie game? This game is not like Left 4 Dead like I thought it would be. It’s an in your face, real time zombie survival game. Not a zombie shoot em up, if you want that go play Call of Duty: Black Ops. No this is a survival game. Let me explain. You can go anywhere, you can hide anywhere, and there is no level to stop you. Think of this as the Grand Theft Auto for zombie games. Sure you have quests to complete, and basic things you must do to progress the story, but once you hit that free range portion of the game, the island is your oyster!
Now I normally don’t like Sandbox games myself. I love games like Left 4 Dead where you have a level, and objective and it clear cut where you need to go and what you need to do. Maybe I’m just bitter that I never beat Super Mario Brothers as a kid so I never grew out of that start to finish type of play. These kinds of games are fun to me until you get to the free range portion. I usually loose interest fast and move on to the next game, never finishing the first one. As I have not progressed far from Sunday (when it finally finished downloading, I can’t tell you about that part. What I can tell you is that at least the first 5% of story mode is really entertaining. You don’t get loaded up with a shot gun and a bunch of ammo. No you start with your bare fists and work your way up from there. You find a paddle, and beat those walkers like their momma never spanked them. When that breaks, use that stick that’s sticking out of the chest of that zombie laying on the ground… make sure he doesn’t get up first though. You’ll find a led pipe that won’t last you nearly as long as you think it should, and finally find yourself a hunting knife. From there I suppose the weapons you will find will get better and better but one thing is clear, use them wisely.
If you don’t you may find your brains the appetizer of a group of undead. This game may start you out with plenty, but that won’t last. At least you can repair your weapons, and upgrade them too. I look forward to making some of the custom weapons. This whole aspect reminds me a lot of playing Fallout 3 where I would relentlessly search for more components to make better weapons. That was half of the fun for me anyway.I will say that combat in the game takes some getting used to. You may think your aiming at a head, but because those suckers jump and move around a lot, it takes some skill getting head shots. When you do however you feel as if you’ve accomplished something and the display it makes is rather satisfying. Once I learned all of the basics and started deploying advanced fighting technique the game got more manageable, so don’t get frustrated if you don’t pick up on it right away.
This defiantly isn’t any FPS you are probably used to. Much of the combat is melee so start getting comfortable fighting up close, otherwise pick a distance fighter and carry lots of extra sticks to throw around. Use your environment to your advantage as well. If you can trap a zombie behind some obstacles, or make them fall off a cliff, it will work to your advantage. I was able to take down the game’s version of a Tank solo by blowing up some nearby gas canisters.
What I really like about this game is that you can solo it, or play with multiple friends. As I have only played solo as of yet I can’t speak about multi player mode. I’ve heard that it’s tougher than solo because the game scales your opponent’s difficulty by your levels, it will be interesting to try out.
Unfortunately with this game there have been a series of complaints about the PC version. The game was extremely glitch ridden in it’s first few months out and the developer has patched it since then to fix some of the errors I myself have been having some trouble with the game even 2 months after release. Entering dark areas has turned my screen black and the only thing visible are lights and the help icons that show you there is something to pick up or open. The funny thing is that if you stand in a lit area, you can see the entire room just fine as if it was all lit perfectly, but once you pass that threshold where the sun no longer shines through, not even the flashlight will bring clarity to the screen check out the video below to see what I mean.
Luckily the same video gave me the answer to my qusetion on how to fix it. I usualy don’t like installing 3rd party software to fix games, but the Dead Island Helper was a very easy way to fix the problem. If you have an NVIDIA card like me, you can just disable the SSAO and turn on simple shadows. Then launch the game and you can see in dark areas again. Go to the actual youtube video to get a free download of Dead Island Helper.
My other glitches I ran into were less disabling but still annoying. everywhere I look, there is a cloud of dust. I’m also seeing smoke and fire in walls. See the picture below.
On the next episode of Ghost Hunters, the TAPS crew will investigate a zombie ridden island complaining of strange lights and dust clouds.
If anyone has a fix for this please let me know by commenting below or emailing me at penguinprince@grimcrew.com. I have found no fixes for this through my many searches in many different forums. Best I can hope for at this point is another patch.
All in all, this game is worth playing in my book. It’s challenging, and fun and everything you can hope for in a zombie game. Even with it’s defects and bugs, the game play is excelent and the graphics are great.
Let me know what you thought of the game by agian emailing me in at the address above, or just commenting below. You should also follow Dead Future on Facebook, and me via Twitter and Google +.
