There has been a space of a few months since Dead Island has been announced with a lot of hype and fanfare. The main emphasis on this game based on the zombie genre is one of action. It involves a huge open world infested by zombies that you need to explore and discover.
You get to choose from four playable characters. Your world is infested by zombies and these four characters are the only ones that are immune to infection from the zombies. There is very little in terms of character development with the main emphasis being on combat and exploring the huge open world.
Gameplay of Dead island
The action is very satisfying : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2xFFRgl-oM . You get to use melee weapons and get to beat up hordes of zombies as they charge at you. In the process you get to chop off the heads and limbs. The use of sound is particularly excelent. You get to hear the head chop off and at some stages you get to hear the zombies scream. This makes the game very captivating as you immerse in the world of zombies. You also get to respawn after 5 seconds of dying.
Online play is limited to a co-operative multiplayer with 3 players on the PSN network. Players can drop in and drop out. It would be beneficial to use a headset for communication. Your energy is limited and you have to find energy drinks to top up your stamina bar. The longer you use a weapon the more ineffective it becomes. So you have to keep on looking for new weapons. At some stages you can hop into a vehicle and go on a smashing zombie darby.
Dead Island is very rough around the edges and I doubt it will receive any critical acclaim. It also takes a while to get use to the melee combat system as instinctively you would expect to use guns in a first person shooter type of game. Later on you get to use guns, but this is limited. There is about 25 hours of gameplay and it is very entertaing exploring the beautiful island bashing zombies.
kill that cheer leader 