Zero Punctuation: Dead Island

[Iron Lightning]

I thought combat in Zeno Clash was pretty good

Oh fuck yeah, Zeno Clash has some excellent combat.

For some reason Yahtzee doesn't like melee combat games with enemies that surround the player (this is also evidenced by his review of The Witcher 2.) I, on the other hand, love the frantic and exciting combat in that sort of game. I frankly don't understand Yahtzee's objection to that style of melee combat. After all, he likes that sort of thing when it's done in a shooter (see: Serious Sam, Painkiller.) Maybe it's a psychological thing.

 

[Zack84]

Play Versus, that's a whole 'nother ballgame. Also, you can't deny that, mechanically, it works really well.

Okay, I have heard that the versus mode is more compelling. Yes, mechanically-speaking the game plays very fluidly. That doesn't change the fact that it's boring as hell. Guns are boring, melee has no real kinetic feel to it...I dunno, as far as I'm concerned, zombie games are a fucking copout for AI programmers...let's see, single-minded behavior: run directly at player-character.

Team Fortress 2 is still my fps of choice--balance issues, stupid hats, F2P noobs, and microtransactions aside. I wanted to like BF:BC2 and I bought it just after release, but I quickly got sick of the god-awful hit detection (yes, I did change the lag compensation), bugs, glitches, and generally sluggish performance over my (admittedly awful) 3.0 Mb DSL connection. I also just never got the hang of the way weapons handle in BC2. I just suck at it. And I used to pretty much own everyone in any public BF 2142 server. Rorsch sniping, mmm.

 

[Jesse Billingsley]

Oh ,its good to know that i can trust Yahtzee to rip pieces of shit like this a new one.
Why did the general public overlook so much flaws is beyond me.

Denial perhaps?

 

[DarkhoIlow]

Funny review,though I don't agree fully with it.

I enjoyed it and haven't found any glitches throughout my playthrough when I started solo.No problems also whatsoever when trying to play co-op.I'm surprised Yahtzee hasn't touched on that,this is a game with a co-op play in mind.This whole thing was on the PC,wether I've heard that the console versions are more buggy/glitchy.

So there's that.

 

[Klagermeister]

I thoroughly enjoyed it, and consider it my favorite zombie game ever.
In what other game can you do something like this?
Though you are right about the sewer sections. They can go fornicate a garbage disposal.

 

[teh_Canape]

I thought combat in Zeno Clash was pretty good

Oh fuck yeah, Zeno Clash has some excellent combat.

For some reason Yahtzee doesn't like melee combat games with enemies that surround the player (this is also evidenced by his review of The Witcher 2.) I, on the other hand, love the frantic and exciting combat in that sort of game. I frankly don't understand Yahtzee's objection to that style of melee combat. After all, he likes that sort of thing when it's done in a shooter (see: Serious Sam, Painkiller.) Maybe it's a psychological thing.

maybe it's that when it's in a shooter, you can keep the mobs at bay, but when it's melee, you gotta take them upfront, where they do most damage =P

 

[The3rdEye]

I enjoyed Borderland's MMORPG styled mechanics and range of environments but didn't feel any progression of the game other than finding and killing the next boss critter. I enjoyed Dead Rising 2's survival atmosphere, story and characters but hated having everything I did based on timers and an overall lack of depth in the gameplay. Dead Island sounds like it could take the strengths of those two games so my interest is piqued.

There's no _____ apocalypse games because nothing spreads more virulently and ruthlessly than well... a virus. Werewolves kind of work, but lycanthropy suggests that you turn back into a person at some point and are back in control. A virus that you can't see and can't treat that reanimates your body or infects you and corrupts your mind before sending you to maul and infect every other living person seems a little more "End of the World"-ly than having to spend the remainder of your nights in the dog house and taking flea baths. Mummies, as far as I can recall, don't actually threaten you with anything unique to them aside from a potential curse. There's also the entire question of ceremony behind making a mummy and that they're typically notable persons, which you would need to ditch entirely in order to make an army of them, at which point they're just zombies wrapped in toilet paper.

Although, as far as end of the world events go...
www.bearmageddon.com

As an aside: I once heard an interesting theory regarding trends in the monster genres.

When there's a depression/recession the world focuses on vampires. Beautiful (not in the Twilight way, in the deadly night stalker way) refined creatures who have a laundry list of weaknesses (Crosses, sunlight, crossing moving bodies of water, no reflection etc) showing great potential and power but always a step away from destruction.

When the world is in surplus it's Frankenstein (or man-made monsters). Man wants for nothing and takes the power of creation into his own hands.

They didn't reference zombies, but a dogged determination to continue surviving despite unexpected and life altering events, indicating a struggle to right the economy makes sense to me.

 

[Mangue Surfer]

I thoroughly enjoyed it, and consider it my favorite zombie game ever.
In what other game can you do something like this?

LUZ! You are already dead.

 

[warfjm]

Loved the animation at the end. Bread Island......NOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooo...... Not the Whole wheat! Anything but the Whole wheat! Run away!

 

[RandomHer0]

This game was far less polished than I expected and hoped it would be, but this review seems a bit too harsh, even for Yahtzee.

My major gripes out of the way first. Graphically (especially on the PS3) Dead Island can be eye gouging at parts, and 'pop in' is almost constant. Kinda like a powerpoint running on the horizon. The story is stale and super forgettable, major characters are brought up then (especially your own) neglected entirely.

Now on to Yahtzee's negatives, most of which I disagree with below.

Firstly, his complaint about the 'Boot' attack being over powered. In the beginning of the campaign this may be true, but by the time you get to the second map, you'll be dealing with too many special zombies as well as the "infected" type zombie that likes to zig and zag right beside you instead of in your line of fire, not to mention that the stamina of the zombies reaches a state that it takes upwards of 4 to 5 kicks to stagger one.

And if your having trouble spamming kick to kill a pile of grounded zombies, just take a whack at the head with your melee tool. Costs a bit of repair, but zombies bleed money, and quests pay obtusely well. You'll never have to decide between repairing, buying or upgrading after a few minutes of play. And I need to mention that these benches are everywhere, so if your shit breaks its really poor planning and management on your part. The game even hints in 5 paraphrased lines that you should repair early so its less expensive.

Targeting in FPM games has always been spotty, and this game i agree is no different. But keeping attention to the cross-hairs solves this. It locks onto limbs pretty decently meaning you can target shoulders, elbows, and heads effectively to deal with those thugs that you had oh so much trouble with. After a few minutes you'll me dodging and dipping away from attacks and decapitating in no time.

But I have no excuses for the escort mission A.I. and the design choice to respawn the enemies in only these cases, as in rare occasions (again due to poor planning) can lead to a cycle where you run down your weapons, but this should never happen. You have inventory spaces for days, and new weapons are always in reach.

Overall, Yahtzee's hate for the zombie genre I think made him hate a game that although had its fair share of flaws and bugs was enjoyable and in my opinion addictive.
If you like Fallout, or Dead Rising get this now, tons of content. But dont deny this game entirely because of one mostly irrational opinion.

 

[Wireframefool]

A pretty funny review, honestly I found the game fun, playing it with a group of friends is really how you should do it.

 

[beetrain]

People keep saying zombie games are overdone, but apart from Dead Rising I haven't seen hat many that really look worthwhile.
I don't play online games, so L4D's out of the question.

 

[Dfskelleton]

"A comic book spreading awareness of tourettes syndrome."
I honestly laughed out lound at that one. Good review, I don't plan on getting Dead Rising, considering I have to finish:
Serious Sam (TFE and TSE, I have the Xbox version)
Deadly Premonition
I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream

And I have RAGE preordered, so that's another one.

 

[LobsterFeng]

I found L4D2 very unimpressive and I never tried another zombie game after that.

Left 4 Dead 2 is a prime example of "If it isn't broken, don't fix it". Valve made a poor set of choices with L4D2. L4D is much better.

Hey I like L4D2. I bought it on Steam for $5, plus it came with most of the levels from L4D with the added Special Infected and melee weapons. I don't see why everyone is always hating on that game.

OT: This was refreshing, he really has been too nice to games lately. It's nice to see him tear a popular one apart.

 

[RelexCryo]

At one point, Yatzhee showed three games in the video. One was Aliens Vs. Predator, one was Dead Island, And one was a game I don't recognize for the PC. What was that P.C. game? The cover art looks vaguely interesting.

 

[TheDooD]

Escort missions - how much of the game do they make up?

Because if they comprise even a quarter (hell, even 10% will be enough) of the campaign's missions, I'm not gonna buy this game. I cannot stand escort quests, no exception. They have almost never been done well, and if you lose all your used items and ammo for their stupidity, screw that. I've got no patience for that.

That isn't difficulty. That's just terrible game design.

Same here they always seem to make the escort AI annoyingly bad in games like why WHY do they have the ability to run faster then you and have the knack to run right into trouble. If they don't do that the stand WAY back and wait until you go back to them after you killed the zombies to do anything. Please, oh please don't use anything with fire knowing these dumbasses they'll set themselves on fire and of course their HP count is so low they can't strug it off like you can. that's bad design and when they die from them being stupid you get punished I guess the only reason why I can see its justified is why in the hell you took this mission in the first place.

 

[6SteW6]

God how I love Dead Island. Don't get me wrong everything yahtzee says is completely true its harrowing in parts, hilarious in others. It can look absolutely stunning at some points and completly ugly at others! For everything it does right it does something wrong and I love it!

The combat is so satisfying and the game has a kind of charm like a cheesy B-horror Zombie flick that I, as a zombie lover just can't ignore!

(Although I wish they would hurry and patch the bloody ps3 multiplayer already!)

 

[Darks63]

Awesome was on the fence about this one but your description firmly put me in the not to buy catagory, now ill save my money for the DR 2 frank west reskin instead.