I beat the game a few hours ago and just took a bit of time to let it all sink in. Now I think I'm ready to complain about the everything now.
First, everything is very pretty. Except for the original four survivors, who seem to have notably lower quality models for unknown reasons. Recycled resources, maybe? I can't imagine.
The random loot system means that you can literally go through most of the game before getting a few 'common' components needed to upgrade your party's junk, as I did. First playthrough? Didn't find a single Stingray Tail. Second playthrough? Got five without even realizing it before the end of chapter 4. So there's that.
The 'Dead Zones' (Basically mini-dungeons with a boss zombie and rare loot) are copy-pasted DA2 style. There are basically four types (pool, I-shape, bungalow, cave), and none are particularly large or interesting. Except for possibly the abandoned horror movie set, because it was actually somewhat different.
Edit: I forgot about the 'hotel' and 'hook' Dead Zones from the city. So that's six.
Your character is the biggest bipolar dick in the world. They're moral enough to give glucose to a cocaine addict instead of the real deal to keep him from killing himself, but you extort a guy with back problems out of $1000+ for a $5 bottle of painkillers. And I say it's $5 because the game explicitly tells you that's how much it's worth. It did give me an idea for an interesting mechanic, though; have quests change slightly based on the character's personality (Like a more moral character might swap it for the glucose while another more apathetic character might just say 'Fuck it' and take the actual cocaine instead).
Purna still kind of gets the short end of the stick. Guns are more plentiful and going rambo is definitely waaaay more viable than in the original, but gun mods don't show up until near the very end of the game, so about a third of her skilltree is either useless or weakened until that point.
The new guy, Morgan, is pretty overpowered. Probably. I haven't had a chance to play through the game with anyone else fully yet, but I basically just sold all my weapons and beat the game going barehanded. Since the focus of the game is on crafting and scavenging, I consider Morgan's kit to be gamebreaking. He can kick zombies twenty feet into the air and uppercut people in the jaw hard enough to knock their legs off. Also his uppercut electrocutes people on a crit for some reason. Is he Thor?
During 'siege' scenarios, none of your party can die or else you get a game over. It kind of takes away from the tension, knowing that you can't lose your weapon salesmen and such. Also, they're super worthless, doing 1-33 damage to enemies that have thousands of health even with upgraded weapons. Teammates who pretend to be helping but actually aren't is a MAJOR pet peeve of mine.
Morgan has the worst short-term memory loss ever. For instance, on entering an underground bunker, he expresses amazement that such a place exists and how he's never seen anything like it. Not two minutes later, you find an audio recording from him that reveals he's been there before. Pretty much all of his audio logs have that same dissonance, revealing that he is obviously suffering from some sort of amnesia and should probably get that looked at.
Everyone is simultaneously retarded and psychic. 'Here, this bark will help your brother!' 'Bark? No medicine?' 'No, no mate. It's a natural remedy.' 'My son needs antibotics! If I wanted bark, there's plenty of trees here for me to take it from.' 'Just trust me on this!' How hard would it have been to explain 'Hey, he has malaria. This bark will cure malaria if you chew it. Chew the damn bark.'? Then there's a point where you're supposed to hunt down a certain person in order to learn a location. The person literally tells you nothing except how much of an asshole another character is, and the PC magically divines the target's location from that alone. It's really rather incredible.
And now for spoilers for those who either don't care about the game, don't care about spoilers, or also beat the game.
Now for the good parts! Despite how overpowered Morgan is, playing as him is incredibly fun. Somehow they managed to make Drowners incredibly creepy when they latch onto your boat and slowly crawl up onto it, then tackle you off into the water while you can do nothing but watch the first time it happens. (Then you realize 'E' knocks them off and Shift kills them outright).
There is one quest where you're looking for a man's family and unlike all of the other quests, this one actually gives you some hints that they're actually alive (unlike everyone else you look for in any zombie game ever). When you track them down to the last area, an incredibly touching and somber song starts playing. It's the only area in the game with no enemies (Well, there is one but it dies on it's own before being able to do anything to you) and it's just...beautiful. It's like the original Dead Island's trailer. Just completely detached from the actual game in terms of tone and...
Well, I'm too tired to continue for now (Considering it's 1 AM). So feel free to ask questions, or add your own complaints/comments/commendations/whatevs.
First, everything is very pretty. Except for the original four survivors, who seem to have notably lower quality models for unknown reasons. Recycled resources, maybe? I can't imagine.
The random loot system means that you can literally go through most of the game before getting a few 'common' components needed to upgrade your party's junk, as I did. First playthrough? Didn't find a single Stingray Tail. Second playthrough? Got five without even realizing it before the end of chapter 4. So there's that.
The 'Dead Zones' (Basically mini-dungeons with a boss zombie and rare loot) are copy-pasted DA2 style. There are basically four types (pool, I-shape, bungalow, cave), and none are particularly large or interesting. Except for possibly the abandoned horror movie set, because it was actually somewhat different.
Edit: I forgot about the 'hotel' and 'hook' Dead Zones from the city. So that's six.
Your character is the biggest bipolar dick in the world. They're moral enough to give glucose to a cocaine addict instead of the real deal to keep him from killing himself, but you extort a guy with back problems out of $1000+ for a $5 bottle of painkillers. And I say it's $5 because the game explicitly tells you that's how much it's worth. It did give me an idea for an interesting mechanic, though; have quests change slightly based on the character's personality (Like a more moral character might swap it for the glucose while another more apathetic character might just say 'Fuck it' and take the actual cocaine instead).
Purna still kind of gets the short end of the stick. Guns are more plentiful and going rambo is definitely waaaay more viable than in the original, but gun mods don't show up until near the very end of the game, so about a third of her skilltree is either useless or weakened until that point.
The new guy, Morgan, is pretty overpowered. Probably. I haven't had a chance to play through the game with anyone else fully yet, but I basically just sold all my weapons and beat the game going barehanded. Since the focus of the game is on crafting and scavenging, I consider Morgan's kit to be gamebreaking. He can kick zombies twenty feet into the air and uppercut people in the jaw hard enough to knock their legs off. Also his uppercut electrocutes people on a crit for some reason. Is he Thor?
During 'siege' scenarios, none of your party can die or else you get a game over. It kind of takes away from the tension, knowing that you can't lose your weapon salesmen and such. Also, they're super worthless, doing 1-33 damage to enemies that have thousands of health even with upgraded weapons. Teammates who pretend to be helping but actually aren't is a MAJOR pet peeve of mine.
Morgan has the worst short-term memory loss ever. For instance, on entering an underground bunker, he expresses amazement that such a place exists and how he's never seen anything like it. Not two minutes later, you find an audio recording from him that reveals he's been there before. Pretty much all of his audio logs have that same dissonance, revealing that he is obviously suffering from some sort of amnesia and should probably get that looked at.
Everyone is simultaneously retarded and psychic. 'Here, this bark will help your brother!' 'Bark? No medicine?' 'No, no mate. It's a natural remedy.' 'My son needs antibotics! If I wanted bark, there's plenty of trees here for me to take it from.' 'Just trust me on this!' How hard would it have been to explain 'Hey, he has malaria. This bark will cure malaria if you chew it. Chew the damn bark.'? Then there's a point where you're supposed to hunt down a certain person in order to learn a location. The person literally tells you nothing except how much of an asshole another character is, and the PC magically divines the target's location from that alone. It's really rather incredible.
And now for spoilers for those who either don't care about the game, don't care about spoilers, or also beat the game.
The plot got super generic and retarded. Naturally mutated virus that spread from the locals of Banoi? HA, NOPE. GOVERNMENT BIO-WEAPON. Also, 'Fury'? Apparently that's a superhuman power related to the virus. Which would actually have been a cool reveal if not for the fact that it seems kind of forced (Everyone keeps mentioning it after you learn of it, even though they have no idea that you know), and that it's the result of the virus reacting with the 'mutagen'...that you weren't exposed to until Riptide. So why did you have Fury in DI1? The final boss fight was fuckin' ridiculous considering that you're fighting against a 'normal' human that's armed with a chainsaw. Just...the final boss fight. Just...I don't know. At least Serpo dies like a punk shortly afterward. Also, how gullible are the survivors? That's the second time they've fallen for the 'Listen to me or the island gets nuked!' line. People keep saying it, and it keeps turning out to be a lie. You think they'd learn.
And that ending? Fuck that ending. It heavily implies that everyone either died or turned into super-zombies as a result of the mutagen. Of course they're going to be a-okay in time for DI3, but seriously. What happened to Charon and the native girl anyway? They never get mentioned again outside of the opening cinemtic, despite both being important characters.)
And that ending? Fuck that ending. It heavily implies that everyone either died or turned into super-zombies as a result of the mutagen. Of course they're going to be a-okay in time for DI3, but seriously. What happened to Charon and the native girl anyway? They never get mentioned again outside of the opening cinemtic, despite both being important characters.)
Now for the good parts! Despite how overpowered Morgan is, playing as him is incredibly fun. Somehow they managed to make Drowners incredibly creepy when they latch onto your boat and slowly crawl up onto it, then tackle you off into the water while you can do nothing but watch the first time it happens. (Then you realize 'E' knocks them off and Shift kills them outright).
There is one quest where you're looking for a man's family and unlike all of the other quests, this one actually gives you some hints that they're actually alive (unlike everyone else you look for in any zombie game ever). When you track them down to the last area, an incredibly touching and somber song starts playing. It's the only area in the game with no enemies (Well, there is one but it dies on it's own before being able to do anything to you) and it's just...beautiful. It's like the original Dead Island's trailer. Just completely detached from the actual game in terms of tone and...
Well, I'm too tired to continue for now (Considering it's 1 AM). So feel free to ask questions, or add your own complaints/comments/commendations/whatevs.
