So many Zombie apocalypse games crowd our consoles begging for our undivided attention and hard earned dollars so when the preview for this one came along it looked like a bad Resident Evil knock off, fortunately our prediction was completely wrong and the team at Housemarque (Super Stardust HD) have created a rich and engaging environment that will see you spending endless hours at its mercy.
You choose your character from the main screen and set off as the island’s only immune member who cannot catch this virus so the onus is on you to do everything while everyone else just sits around and makes uncomfortable groaning noises.
The game is set out like Infamous, you have free reign of the island and speak to various survivors and carry out several missions for them all in an effort to get the power back on and get a signal happening so you can call for assistance, and if that wasn’t enough Oceanic flights are back to crash on the island and create some more missions that take this game to a whole other level.
It is quite graphically violent particularly when it comes to the blood factor (I know what do you expect in a zombie game!) but even for a MA rated game it is quite full on so those with a weak stomach would not do well to play this game. Part of effective gameplay is hitting the zombies in exposed body parts and open wounds to inflict more damage and this can get quite graphic at times.
The game play is great, the controls are easy to use and getting around the island is easy, you can pick up abandoned cars to drive between the two safe houses (both of which strangely do not attract any zombie of any kind) there are no guns in this game just paddle’s, butcher knives, blunt sticks and my personal favourite the Motlov cocktail *note this is dependant on the character you choose as to what kind of weapons you have, we played with the non gun slinging character. It is this added feature that makes the game so believable and enjoyable to play, not having to reload all the time and search for new guns. On the other hand though a big part of the game is collecting cash from dead bodies, random suitcases that have been thrown out of hotel rooms and you must trade cash when you pick up weapons, health, medikits and other items even though there is no-one selling them and they are just sitting on the ground in front of you. I mean where does the money actually go to?
That aside this game has a lot of hours and a lot of fun to be had! Dead Island is out now for PS3 and XBOX 360.
Buy it now!
