Zero Punctuation: Dead Island
- Thread starter Yahtzee Croshaw
- Start date
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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.
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.
A pretty funny review, honestly I found the game fun, playing it with a group of friends is really how you should do it.
"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.
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.
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.coldalarm said:
OT: This was refreshing, he really has been too nice to games lately. It's nice to see him tear a popular one apart.
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.sravankb said:
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!)
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!)
Yahtzee Croshaw said:
There was a lot that wasn't mentioned at all and, my word, the amount of glitches my South African friend and I had experienced was utterly ridiculous. While we were in the sewers, at least two zombies had jumped into the water and just vanished. ?Did you see that?? he asked me. ?Yeah, that was? weird? we kept saying. ?Creepy!? It wasn?t even the poisonous water that had the green gaseous substance emanating from it. I saw the same thing happening to another infected running up behind my mate; he (the infected) fell into the water and was gone. It was almost as if there was a hole there but there most definitely was not.jakko12345 said:
Another somewhat major glitch that we encountered was whenever we had undertaken the fire hydrant quest to turn them all off. I turned off the second one, ran over to the nearest car to jump on top of to kill any approaching zombies with ease but once I did, the four or five ordinary/infected zombies and a suicider just stood where they were. ?That?s weird; why aren?t they coming after me?? I thought. Suddenly, they fell to the ground as if they?d been struck down by an invisible force then completely out of the blue, the screen began to go absolutely ballistic; it went partially grey, briefly went back to normal, grey again, we lost control of our avatars and their life just went straight down but we could do bugger all about it. Our characters cried out in virtualised agony as they continuously re-spawned so I thought the only thing that I could do is to just go back to the dashboard and restart the game. Seemed to work just fine as my buddy endured the exact same thing but it was fine after I came back. Luckily, we didn?t have to start the quest again but I won?t lie; I was afraid it was going to happen again! Metaphorically speaking, the screen had basically taken a seizure.
Speaking of zombies just standing around doing nothing; Greg, my South African buddy whom I was playing co-op with, easily killed a Ram as he just stood there. He wasn?t alerted to my mate?s avatar whatsoever.
This isn?t really a glitch per sé but more about me taking absolute advantage of the free roam feature of the game, and that was getting myself stuck between various environment objects. I?m not going to lie though; I do this all the time in most games though I found it was much more persistent and therefore incredibly bothersome in this game. You see, because I?m such a pansy (though I am a girl after all so perhaps I can get away with it (!)) I loved to test the boundaries with my car. ?Ooh, I don?t want to get swarmed by all the zombies so I?ll just run ?em over with my car if any infected charge at me or if I run into any thugs!?. There was one instance when I had to clear the thug out of Marlon?s shack so I tried to drive up over the rocks (?shut up) really just to see if I could. Suddenly, no matter how much I tried to accelerate or made any attempts at backing up, the car profoundly refused to do a thing, so I got out. No joke; the car was bouncing away on the spot like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IX8krpGA_Y&feature=related
It was stuck in a bush. I had to sprint to the lighthouse. It also did it again when I got stuck in a rock. Don?t ask.
Speaking of environment objects, you couldn?t really interact with much of them besides the beach balls. I was running about on the beach and saw a bunch of sand castles. My initial thought? I wanted to jump on them to see if it did anything. Nope. It was like a stone; though completely rooted to the ground. That being said, back to me being a complete pansy and testing all the boundaries with my car, ?Ooh, I wonder if I can fit through here!? Well, naturally I started driving about on the beach which, to say the very least, was quite the challenge as I kept crashing into things. Primarily sand castles and collapsible chairs... what. As a matter of fact, I almost got stuck between a few of the latter. It made me realise that I?d probably be ideal to test videogames for a living. Especially ones with the free roam feature. In saying that, I got myself stuck between environment objects and really silly places in "Brütal Legend" as well. With my car a lot too of course. Mind you, if I was able to actually jump, I?d have been able to get myself out of that ditch. Either that, or it should have been ?Anya-proof?, so to speak, heh.
I noticed a few things with the NPCs. One was glitched. He kept standing up suddenly then sat down again just as quickly. This kept going on in sequence. The following isn?t a glitch but it distracted me all the same and that was to do with Sinamoi, the lifeguard when he sent me on a quest to get the juice from the garages. When I walked up to him before I?d completed the task, he'd ask, "Did you check both gas stations?" and for some peculiar reason, he had lost his Australian accent and had more of a Canadian dialect; as if a completely different voice actor had recorded just that one line. Eh? I?m confused?
One last thing about NPCs. Something that got my inner feminist wanting to burst out and that was the fact that every single female NPC on the resort was wearing the same kind of string bikini and necklace ? including the zombies. Alright, it?s a resort so of course they?re going to be wearing the appropriate attire but I mean, they were all wearing the same thing, the pattern on said bikinis being the only exception and the exact style of their bobs of hair. Anyroad, what I noticed was how all the male NPCs had a much bigger degree of individuality. Some had swimming trunks, some had stereotypical American tourist outfits on, some had full safari gear going on but all the females were the same for the most part. I wouldn?t be caught dead in a g-string bikini. Nah, not even as a zombie featured in Dead Island (maybe with a shawl though, like the little character picture for the infected description in the wee booklet). Though, I did make a huge point of it whenever we found Jin for the first time then onward.
I was thoroughly disappointed over the graphics, more specifically the layer damage mechanism as I was so hyped up over it. Honestly, it was pretty boring. It was good, don?t get me wrong, but the hype just ruined it by far. The way their ribs stick out just looked like the work of a make-up artist on the set of a low-budget film. I saw this about a month or so before the game's release:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJMdPwnAY28
It didn?t look quite as good as that, however, I haven?t even reached the jungle just yet so I?ll keep my mind open for a wee bit longer in this regard. The skinned bodies scattered all over the map just get a bit repetitive but it doesn?t change the fact they?re still a bit gross. Which is a good thing, I suppose.
I saved the, ahem, ?best? thing for last and that?s the game?s general technical mechanisms and features such as the auto save & checkpoint feature and the online co-op. I don?t mind the actual auto save feature but the checkpoint?s pretty annoying and, personally, I feel it should have been made clearer where all your checkpoints are and as well as that, make sure they?re in decent places! I.e. I do NOT want to go on my Xbox for the first time all day to load up the game to find that it has planted me RIGHT in the middle of one of the garage stations and AS the screen fades in from black, I have upteen infected charging at me. With no car close enough to jump on, drive away in or whatever because they were already closed in on me. This happened twice and the first time was because I had to reload from playing co-op with strangers and I had expected to be dropped off at the one of the safe zones. The second time it was simply loading the game from the day before and I was lucky this time because the zombies were preoccupied with their dinner (or lunch. I mean, it?s pretty bright like) so I was able to sprint away before they noticed me [Phew].
The co-op. Good Lordy. I can?t stand how it bloody well works. Don?t get me wrong, I mean, I don?t mind playing with people online provided they aren?t overly competitive nuts, but they can hop in and out of your game willy-nilly even when you?ve paused the bloody thing. I had it paused to chat to a fellow escapist pal and I suddenly got two achievements completely out of the blue. It was pretty funny at first because it was my first day of playing it but it?s very easy not to notice that people have joined your game and I found that it disrupts the general game a quare bit. For example, I had a few quests that I wanted to do. Other players joined in my game automatically and did a ton of my side quests. Sounds like it saves labour, yeah, fair enough but I bought the game so I want to actually play it, thanks. Oh, sure, I can always change it to single player or make all the slots private. Oh, alright. Pity I can?t change that around while I?m IN the actual game; I have to restart the whole thing to change that. As I said, sometimes I like others joining my game but I?d prefer more control over it. For example, in Fable 2 and 3, I was able to adjust how I saw other players and how they saw me at any time I wanted which was good. However, with this, I can?t even pause it to go make my dinner and come back without finding half my quests completed. Not only that but I?ve missed quite a lot of cut scenes from the main quest and the fact that other players can skip NPCs dialogue when I?m the one trying to talk to them. There?s no fun in that whatsoever. This is also a wee bit nitpicky but when other players have joined my game and I want to kick them out, I pause it and it has the cheek to say ?Drop out?. Uh, it?s my game.
Anyroad, don?t get me wrong; I?m really enjoying the game right now and I?ve been playing it a quare bit. I tend to really enjoy playing free roam, melee-based RPGs with my buddies so it?s going well enough. I?ll just have to try to look past the glitches and I?m sweet.
x
EDIT: Oh aye, about the escort missions. I loathe them as well because of how stupid the escortee is but at least in this they run on ahead. They hadn't died once. We never bothered with the car primarily because it was just too bloody awkward to drive around the slums, seemingly to my sheer disappointment according to my mate who also stated how he's never going to get into a car with me if I'm the one driving.
N.B. I haven't the foggiest what's going on with the italics S:
I think I'll wait. To me there are far better and more interesting games out right now, so Im just gonna spend my time with those instead.
Wow, he's totally never gotten that comment before. Yoink! http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/37-Mailbag-Showdownjpoon said:
It is good to know that even NPC in games want to stay fit and detest motorized transportation.
Ending that never seems to come? I must of beaten this game 4 times in the last week, and I don't say that to brag, it's just too many of my friends request my assistance in their games. Completely ignoring the side-quests and enemies you don't need to kill, the game is far too short. Though, it was a bit satisfying smashing through countless heads when I was having fun.
I'm surprised that Yahtzee never tackled the biggest pain-in-the-ass the game has to offer: getting stuck in the environment! Seriously, what seems as a harmless shortcut becomes a ten minute struggle to escape a bush, or a reloaded checkpoint.
Now if you excuse me, I've got a parasite to deal with. -And, then a virus. -And, then I'm going to do some light gambling. -And, then I'm going to check out a cold stream.
Too many zombie games..
I'm surprised that Yahtzee never tackled the biggest pain-in-the-ass the game has to offer: getting stuck in the environment! Seriously, what seems as a harmless shortcut becomes a ten minute struggle to escape a bush, or a reloaded checkpoint.
Now if you excuse me, I've got a parasite to deal with. -And, then a virus. -And, then I'm going to do some light gambling. -And, then I'm going to check out a cold stream.
Too many zombie games..
