I USUALLY avoid reading other reviews until I’ve tried a game myself and formulated my own opinions, after all it’s easy to have your opinions shaded and that’s no use where writing reviews is concerned.
However, Dead Island arrived a little after it hit the shelves and I’d been intrigued about it for long enough to want to check out if it lived up to the ridiculous hype generated by one teaser trailer some months ago.
So I was disappointed to read what was a pretty underwhelming set of reviews with criticisms ranging from the visuals to the gameplay.
Thankfully, when it came down to sitting down and trying it for myself I was pleasantly surprised by my findings.
Firstly to explain what Dead Island actually is, it’s a first person adventure game set on the fictional holiday Island of Banoi.
Fortunately, for the sake of those playing the game, Banoi is infested with zombies rather than holiday makers.
You have a selection of melee weapons and firearms to combat said zombies and for the story mode there are a whole hosts of tasks to complete for those who have not yet been affected by the zombie plague.
There are both online and co-op modes and both are entertaining enough - particularly the co-op.
On the whole I can’t understand why it’s not been done before, a zombie role playing game in a tropical holiday resort - perfect.
As with all role playing titles you can level up and add new skills to your armoury as well as earning rewards such as new weapons which you can construct at work benches with items you find dotted about the area (not the most original but good nonetheless).