Dead Island - PlayStation 3

Dead Island breaths a bit of new life into the popular Zombie-game franchise by offering up plenty of exploration, intense combat, and seamless co-op that will keep you engaged for hours on end. The vacation from hell may be scary, but boy is it a lot of fun! For exploration, the Island of Banoi is full of many varied locales that feature plenty of survivors in need that you can aid. There are 72 unique locations throughout the game, and most are tied to the main quests, so you'll get a chance to explore them all at different times during the game. Most Zombie games take place during the night, Dead Island is bright and beautiful most of the time. This creates a stark contrast compared to other games when playing, and something the make Dead Island so unique. The exploration is pretty fun, and you'll have four characters to choose from while there. First up is Xian Mei, an undercover police officer who specializes in Sharp Weapons, Logan Carter, an ex-star quarterback of an Texas football team who is made for throwing projectiles, Purna, the bodyguard of the Island's riches tourist who excels in weaponry, and Sam B, the rapper whose hit song still gets him small gigs. Sam B is best used when wielding blunt objects. No matter who you choose, each character can level up through experience gained from killing zombies, and completing quests or challenges. The progression feels similar to Borderlands since you gain one point per level, which can then be used to increase your character's skills. The game also features hit points that pop up onscreen, so you can see how much increasing your skill does when upgrading your moves. What Dead Island also brings to the table is a more visceral way to take on the undead. It feels more Chronicles of Riddick than Left 4 Dead or Dead Rising in the sense that you can utilize your hands and feet, while also looking out for blunt, sharp, or special weapons tailored to the character you choose to play as. Guns are rare in the beginning, but later on you'll find plenty. With the exception of guns, the objects you use to fight with will all eventually degrade, so you'll need to repair and upgrade pretty consistently to keep the damage to the zombies flowing. As you upgrade, you'll find that repairing costs will increase, so picking and choosing your primary arsenal to repair will be critical as money in isn't easy to come by. There's stuff everywhere to sell, but you'll still need to repair wisely in order to be a step ahead of the infected. Co-op play in Dead Island allows you to play with three other players as you traverse Banoi. In order to keep the story from being spoiled for you, restrictions have been placed to ensure players on Chapter 3 can't join someone who is ahead of the game, say on Chapter 6 or something. The person on Chapter 6 could join the Ch. 3 game though, helping out the player with his or her quests. The game seems to scale a bit when playing co-op, but it was not really noticeable when I played. Dead Island isn't perfect however. No game is, but Dead Island has some issues that could have been fixed with a bit more polish. Character animations are not up to standards sometimes, and are more noticeable when playing with others. When I saw my co-op partners jump, their character only appeared to lift off the ground with both knees, and punches looked pretty weird too. There were also times where animations would stutter, and my character would freeze forcing me to restart to a previous checkpoint. Negative issues aside, Dead Island is a great game for Zombie or action fans. It took me about 22 hours to complete, and that was mostly completing the main quests, and with about 5 hours of playing around in co-op. You could sink some serious time in with the game, and even more when playing with friends. Overall, Dead Island is worth picking up in my opinion, and you should check it out if you want a new way to take on the undead.

The game alone Good * Co'Op is great * - Finding Co'oP players is a pain at times due to their latency - You can play on their current missions - Once they or you leave session they ask if you want to save theirs completion to yours or go back to your own check point. - Playing alone is just boring & there are times when you need others * Gameplay - Is like most 1st person zombie games (Gun,Swing,Run) Game - You gain exp all the time coOp / single - Its best to join a high level 40-50 if possible and knock a zombie of theirs down and punch the arm until it breaks then switch to Brass knucles (worn out) recommended so you do minimum damage and punch the hand you will receieve EXP for every hit and level up really fast. - Game once beat does have replay value but once beaten you can choose to continue NEW GAME+ with same character or simply make a new file with the other playable characters. *Weapons - You start with weak sticks and knives later on you get blades, swords, gun, etc upgrade them or even attachment upgrades of all sorts. * Characters Every character has its own abilities (recommend ) you choose them all and view the skills and choose wisely. - there are no respec for skill points so choose wisely in skills. Enjoy The game !!

Now that the patch is out for the multiplayer this game has been amazing. The game play is awesome with a great story line. You actually have to work for your survival. You can really get into the game depending on what character you choose to play with. The graphics where amazing and so was the audio. Yes you spend most of your time with melee fighting, but in my opinion it is fun. The RPG aspect of the game is great and with the tree build of the character it adds for some fun. The FPS part is ok. the game wasnt focused to much on that. I guess you could call it FPS (first person slash) that is what this game is about. And it is not like the other type of hack and slash zombie games because you will run out of stamina easy so you need to learn how to effectively play the class and use your surroundings.

I rented this at Redbox for $2 before deciding if I wanted to drop $60 for my PS3 system. What a pleasant surprise! I played for about 4 hours, did some quests and some simple exploring. Story, graphics, and gameplay were all excellent. I intend to buy this over the weekend. I'm a zombie fan, not a fanatic and found this a nice break from all the lousy games as of late. If your 'on the fence' about this title, I assure you, you won't be let down. Worth even the full cost!

The game is amazing! The only down side is that the game pauses every once in a while. The game is very scary especially if you're playing alone. Speaking of playing alone, it's hard when you play the game by yourself so I definitely recommend co-op. I only think that this game beats up Dead Rising in the sense that it has a very serious overtone and a better plot.

I'm a huge zombie fan. So, I was excited for this game since it was first announced. Within this enormous map, there are plenty of quests and side-quests to keep you going for hours and hours on end, which is an awesome touch. Also, this game is extremely addictive. I found myself playing for a week straight, without really focusing on anything else. The weapons range from a simple stick, to a deadly assault rifle, and everything in between. I know this game gets some stuff about how it's really repetitive and all that, but if you're a fan of zombies, FP games, and endless quests, I reccomend this game.

I have had this game since the day it came out im 82% complete with one character, you can play with more than one and there is a trophy for starting the game with all 4, i have never had a problem with saving it has never sent me back from where it didnt save, maybe the people that does have that problem dont know how to look for the saving icon in corner of screen? any way the game is pretty sick you have mulitply weapons at any given time, you can swap them out with other ones in your inventory at anytime, you can upgrade the damage add fire, shock, toxic damage to most weapons, ammo is limited so it forces you to do close hand to hand combat which is fun and gory. the story line is pretty long ive only done missions and side quest and i have over 24 hrs in gameplay, some missions are repetive but the lvl of zombies change and some take a bunch of damage compared to smaller weaker zombies, overall id recommend this game to anyone who likes zombies and likes games like fall out because you really need to look in every thing to find items that are helpful to building the best weapons.

Great game with a good story. Nice to have a zombie game that isn't just shooting the zombies.