Zero Punctuation: Dead Island

[UnravThreads]

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.

The new special infected weren't fun, they were stupid and irritating. The new weapons added too much confusion and weren't really necessary. The levels lost a lot of L4D's atmosphere and instead were all a bit long winded and annoying. The survivors, bar Ellis, were annoying, a pain in the arse and about as charismatic as a heavily soiled dishcloth. As for melée weapons? Think about it - You've got a great big horde of rather violent zombies who would quite like to kill you and eat your brains. What should you do? Stay at a distance and pick them off, or should you run into the middle of them with a guitar and bash them over the head? Do you see where I'm going with that?

Basically, aside from Ellis, there was nothing better about L4D2. L4D was much better.

 

[GraveeKing]

I was telling everyone this before the game even game out - He's right about the trailer - unless it shows off ACTUAL gameplay you know 'oh boy here it comes'. I hadn't even bought the game but I saw enough gameplay to realize that some idiot thought it'd be a good idea to put borderlands in a zombie game.

Well at least this confirms everything I say, because as soon as Yahtzee says it's official of course.

 

[devotedsniper]

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.

There aren't many escort mission and there not that bad (other than the failure to recognise vehicles), on some of them they'll just run straight past the zombies and you can too, off the top of my head i would say there's about 5, maybe 10 at maximum from the mission's i did, i did the majority of side missions.

 

[GLo Jones]

Killing zombies should not be the point of a zombie game. It hurts me a little inside every time a title like this is released.

 

[669]

Glad to see a negative review of this piece of shit of a game, so sick of everyone praising it.

 

[JasonKaotic]

I just "love" it how Tourette's Syndrome is referenced for comedy. As if anybody who does that actually knows what it is. Who else has their neurological disorders laughed at?

I have tourettes and I don't really care...

 

[BlueJoneleth]

This game has a lot of flaws, but I still have fun playing it.

 

[chadachada123]

So..... I can just play my copy of Left 4 Dead 2 and don't have to play this, brilliant.

*shrug* Eh, agree to disagree, I suppose.

LOW CONTENT? HA! NOT WITH MY MAGICAL BLOCKING SENTENCES!

Its like Borderlands, it adds to much of one thing *quests* then drops the uniquness of the area on its head while laughing at it and calling it a bloody tosser. While then heading downstairs to go troll of 4Chan. Lack of content is presciently shown when you have a sewer level.... Multiple times.
I blame their first trailer, it cost them ALL of their money.

Again, its just like Borderlands problems, it has way to much of one thing, and not enough of another to actually come out on top.

I'd say that there is a damn-lot of content, especially compared to other games. I kept being surprised at the HUGE size of each area, then floored once more when I got to the next one. The sewers aren't exactly empty, either, even if they are a little, uh, maze-y. The only two places that I thought were lacking were the jungle and the prison, but only because the jungle was quite devoid of zombies AND humans for much of the time.

 

[chadachada123]

For the escort missions, I had only 1 time when the idiot-NPC actually caused his own death. This NPC, who seems to be a giant freaking badass, stops on a cliff to warn of the zombies at the bottom. "No problem," I say, and toss a molotov down there, incinerating the zom-bitches. Before the flames go out, though, Mr. Smarty jumps right in and burns to death. Dammit.

 

[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.

There aren't many escort mission and there not that bad (other than the failure to recognise vehicles), on some of them they'll just run straight past the zombies and you can too, off the top of my head i would say there's about 5, maybe 10 at maximum from the mission's i did, i did the majority of side missions.

Having limited escort missions doesn't excuse that fact they're poorly done. They should have been play tested better because they're bad and you really can't run past the zombies when the person your escorting is bitching about you need to kill'em off.

 

[Preacher zer0]

mmmm, I don't know.

The combat can get pretty good, I can handle a fairly large mob of infected on my own.
Don't forget to dodge, use the jump kick, chop multiple heads off with single swipes of a blade (I play as the sharp expert).

The game gives you all you need, analogue melee, crowd control, insta-kills, elemental attacks, weapon customisation and specialisation.

Driving is fun, the island is HUGE, the missions are varied and relevant (fuel runs in a pickup truck are a blast with 4 people).

People also ***** that the difficulty in the city is too hard, the streets are often flooded with raving howling infected... but y'know, I just took to the rooftops.
I love the city, the groans of walkers, the screams of infected and the distant disturbing roar of something... big.

If you were thinking about buying this and you let that review (if you can call it that, bit slack imo) put you off you're foolish, at least rent it and see for yourself.

This game is fun.
There are plenty of negative reviews, but just as many peeps saying they're having a blast.

The only way you'll know for sure is if you give it a shot.

Oh and as for the "big guys who knock you on your ass"?
Yeah... you duck.

Tactics see?
The game does not spoonfeed you, it takes time and practice to get really good at dispatching large groups of the undead, if you lose concentration, if you panic, if you flail around with your weapon blindly mashing buttons... you're meat... I guess that concept is lost in todays gaming world. :/

Edit: ...and I've never lost a single escort mission, I don't get what the problem is there tbh, they always go smooth for me.

 

[The Hungry Samurai]

Funny enough none of the escorts ever attacked anything on my end, they just kinda did what they suppose to do. I.E they just stayed back once the zombies attacked 0_o

Agreed, before I saw this article I was just thinking "escort missions suck but these ones are not nearly as horrible as most. They stay out of the way and don't die easy."

They do run like crazy at a few points but Ive noticed that if you stick with them most of the time they lead you on a smart path to evading whatever they aggroed.

Perhaps the developers didn't intend for us to stop and fight every zombie we meet on the street. A tactic that would make a bit of sense in a real zombie scenario if you think about it.

 

[The Hungry Samurai]

For the escort missions, I had only 1 time when the idiot-NPC actually caused his own death. This NPC, who seems to be a giant freaking badass, stops on a cliff to warn of the zombies at the bottom. "No problem," I say, and toss a molotov down there, incinerating the zom-bitches. Before the flames go out, though, Mr. Smarty jumps right in and burns to death. Dammit.

I had the same problem! The helicopter pilot right?

 

[GLo Jones]

Killing zombies should not be the point of a zombie game. It hurts me a little inside every time a title like this is released.

I agree completely with this statement.

I would love a good zombie survival game in the form of an evil genius type layout. Have a group of survivors that have to try to live through everything.

But then again FPS games are apparently the only thing people want to make anymore because they are whats popular.

Hell there hasnt been a AAA zombie game that has really captured what makes the Zombie genre awesome. I would love to see someone make a proper zombie based game before they move on with the genre.

Well, there's been something [http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/08/25/a-blood-red-state-dead-state-revealed/] in production [http://www.deadstate.doublebearproductions.com/] for a while now. Though I doubt it'll be a AAA title.

 

[Ghadente]

I enjoy the game more than i thought i would. I wasn't actually planning to get it at first but i am glad i did. Yes it has bugs and glitches, but nothing that makes me want to stop playing.

I'm not saying its the best game ever or anything, but its simply fun.
I love the multiplayer system of joining people at any time with just one button.
I play with analog combat and i think that makes it more interesting since you have control your swings more precisely. Plus, aren't you suppose to have a tough time fighting off hoards of zombies at once? that's not a flaw to me, it causes you to be more careful and strategic.

Until now, i have only heard good things about the game (besides bugs/glitches). I do agree the story and characters are pretty dull and repetitive but the main point is zombie killing and survival. I find myself not caring too much about the quests and story, instead focus more loot hunting, zombie slaying, and exploring.

Overall this game is just plain fun, especially playing on co-op. If you just play on single player, you are missing out, in my opinion.

 

[cymonsgames]

What sort of OCD does Yahtzee have? This thing he does with alphabetizing his reviews so he keeps track of where in the alphabet they fall, how many peers they have in that letter, and which letters are underrepresented.

Ah well, at least he's not counting the number of words he speaks. Which this week was 1264 by the way.

 

[Mangue Surfer]

Escort missions...

Really : does anyone actually enjoy this concept ?

The natural answer is "hell! Fucking NO!" But then ICO is a cult classic so, who knows?

 

[KiKiweaky]

Great review haha, seriously dont know where you come up with all the varied insults haha

 

[DragonManRen]

I just "love" it how Tourette's Syndrome is referenced for comedy. As if anybody who does that actually knows what it is. Who else has their neurological disorders laughed at?

I have tourettes and I don't really care...

So do I, and the jokes don't keep me up at night, but it gets a little irritating.