Regardless if you're a zombie fan, if you want to experience the best first person melee combat, this game is a must.

User Rating: 9 | Dead Island (Platinum Hits) X360
Ah, zombies. Lately, it seems to be an overdone theme not only in movies, but in video games as well. Some people can't get enough of them, but personally, I'm not a huge fan. Now don't get me wrong, I don't mind zombie themed films or games, but they have to be rather exceptional for me to truly enjoy them.

I hadn't even heard of Dead Island until its actual release date. When I caught wind of it, I figured it was just another zombie game, that is of course, until I read that it was part RPG. A first person zombie themed RPG! Now you have my full attention! After having finished it, the best way I can describe it is part Condemned (shame on you if you haven't played it), part Borderlands and of course, part Dead Rising. So in other words, expect some really entertaining first person melee combat along with plenty of quests, leveling up and loot, not to mention weapon upkeep (upgrading, modding, repairing) and some light buying / selling at vendors.

I want to make it clear that I believe that Dead Island is one of the best zombie games ever conceived. At the moment, it's also my favourite game of 2011. It also has the best first person melee combat system I've ever played. This isn't an overly difficult thing to achieve, since it's not very common, but still... Condemned had a really fun melee system, but this is far better; it has significantly raised the bar.

You can almost feel the blows you deliver to zombie heads and limbs. You'll hear the blood gush, the skulls crack, the bones break. It's got a fairly unique system, meaning if you break an arm, it will become limp and useless, exposing bone and sinew. If you keep hacking away at the same spot in a tough zombie torso, it will break down, exposing bones and flesh beneath. There's a particularly tough type of zombie, that if you break or cut off both arms, it will just lunge at you with its head, trying to bite you.

I'm sure by now you've realized that this game is an absolute visceral gorefest, but man, is it ever fun! I never got tired of killing those zombies. You can get really creative on how you choose to dispatch the undead. My favorite method involves being at the top of stairs or on a vehicle, jumping and drop kicking them, knocking them down hard, and then finishing them off. Sam B for example can unlock moves that involve jumping on zombie heads for instant kills.

Dead Island is most likely the biggest surprise of 2011, because it was barely marketed and is developed by a developer I hadn't heard of before (although they are responsible for the Call of Juarez series, which I haven't played). The game sold out everywhere and hit #1 on several popularity and sales charts. Granted, it is a smaller release by a smaller publisher, and I don't think they were thinking it would move so many units so quickly... But still, it just goes to show that gamers are connected these days, and word of mouth is a powerful thing.

Moving on, let me tell you what makes this game so exceptional. As previously mentioned, it's combined several ideas and made itself into a Frankenstein freak. In my opinion, when these recipes work, they break boundaries, and this is no exception. Dead Island is an open world first-person zombie brawling role-playing action/adventure, complete with scaling monsters, quests and loot, even including a decent, non-convoluted crafting system.

If you're one of those obsessed gamers who scavenge every container, and explore every nook and cranny, be prepared to set aside at least 30-40 hours exploring the massive maps, and that's only one playthrough with one character! The game adopts an open world concept, but isn't all contained in one huge map, which I don't mind at all. Instead, it has several different areas that are separated in chapters and acts, which keeps the focus fairly tight and still allows for plenty of exploration. The enemies and their loot will scale, so you can come back anytime to old areas to level up and gather goodies.

To add even more replay, the game has a New Game+ mode, allowing you to restart the game with your existing character and gear, but with leveled up enemies and drops. It also has four playable classes. You have your sharp side, your blunt side, your throwing expert and firearms guru.

Each class has its own (fairly) unique skill tree. I chose Sam B, the blunt expert, because bashing zombies with pipes, shovels, sledgehammers, police batons, paddles, tire irons, nail hammers, sticks, baseball bats, crowbars, maces, wrenches, cudgels, hanbos, mauls, pickaxes, and tonfas sounded like the most fun I could have legally.

Keep in mind that those weapons mentioned are only the blunt types in the game, and also come in several varieties and rarities. You can also mod any weapon, providing you have the components and recipe. A nice touch is that your inventory only counts for weapons and certain other things like medpacks. You can store unlimited amounts of other components for crafting purposes, and believe me, you're going to be gathering up a tonload of them.

You also have firearms in the game, although you only start to find them about halfway through the game. They come in handy, but melee is the clear focus of Dead Island. As far as throwing weapons, you can throw anything you want, and retrieve it afterwards. The throwing class has some nice skills such as automatically recovering thrown weapons and so forth.

Speaking of class skills, one of the trees unlocks most special melee attacks, I highly recommend you choose these. For Sam B, it allows him to run and tackle zombies in his way, break through doors, and jump on heads for instant kills. You also have a tree that focuses on the active skill, which is triggered after acquiring enough rage. Sam B's skill reminds me of Brick from Borderlands, where he enters a stupor that allows him to punch with incredible strength for a brief period of time. It can be a life saver.

Most of the game will have you doing quests, with plenty of side quests (where you'll acquire most of your mod recipies btw) that have you running around while killing zombies, leveling up and gathering up goodies, new weapons and cash. Weapons are colour-coded based on quality (white, green, blue, orange, purple) and degrade fairly quickly, so be sure to have several of them on hand, and of course, making sure to repair them whenever it's beneficial. The more you use a weapon, the higher the repair cost. If you're diligent and repair when weapon use is over 75%, it won't be that expensive. Furthermore, sometime it's best to just use up a weapon until it's worn down, and after several hours, you'll start to get good at managing your cash and knowing what to keep and what to toss.

Death only takes it's toll on your wallet, taking a percentage of your total cash carried. It stings, but it's never a deal breaker. It encourages you not to hoard all your cash, because you'll lose sizable chunks if die whilst carrying a fortune, and trust me, you're going to die a lot in this game. It's not as crazy hectic as Left 4 Dead, but if you get a few infected on you (crazy fast zombies that rush you), you can go down quick. Luckily, if you use your head, you can get out of sticky situations.

There will often be propane tanks you can toss in a pack of zombies, step away from and then explode (by shooting it or throwing a weapon at it) causing massive splash damage / damage over time. You can jump on a vehicle and switch to a longer two-handed weapon and take out all the vertically challenged zombies who've surrounded you. You get the picture. Be warned as well, you will get occasionally startled. Zombies are really good at playing dead (no pun intended). You'll want to get in the habit of kicking them to make sure they're really dead, otherwise expect to get surprised often!

Speaking of difficulty, I played the game entirely solo (pre-patch), and while I've heard some people complain about certain areas being quasi-impossible to do alone, I never had any big problems, but I did die regularly, and more in certain spots. It never got overly frustrating, and I don't consider myself a hardcore gamer either, so overall the difficulty was just right for me. There are also two control methods, one is digital (mash RT to hack and slash) and the other is analog (hold LT and use the right stick to carefully aim). The analog requires some getting used to, but if you want to be a precision fighter, breaking arms and legs for more XP, then this is your path.

In conclusion, there's so much to say about this amazing game, and as much as I'd like to go and on about it, I'm going to have to wrap it up with these wise words of wisdom: Buy the game. Seriously, it's that good. I cannot wait to play it co-op with my friends, but at the moment the game is sold out everywhere. Apparently, publisher Deep Silver is trying their best to restock shelves, so it shouldn't be too long.

Honestly, even though I've completed the game, I'm already looking forward to playing with the other classes and going through it all over again, specially in the co-op mode. Dead Island is a fun game with lots of replay, and I find it rather easy to score it 9/10.