Finished Dead Island (Definitive edition)
Dead island got some good reviews back in the day it was released in 2011. I didn't get it that time so my only experience is Definitive edition.
Game is Sandbox Zombie adventure / survival game with adventure and role playing aspects. Fictional island somewhere near Australia in case is some sort of tourist trap where Zombie outbreak happens. In the beginning player can choose from 4 different characters which have (very) slight game play variations, namely one special ability which appears in their skill tree. My chosen character special ability was healing ability and melee combat while being drunk. I never used it once, though now about 4000 eliminated zombies later I think using those might have made some parts of the game easier.
Game is pretty self conscious about cliches of the genre and culture (of the time) in general and but which has some influence in characters. I suppose there are people who prefer more serious approach but my general advice is that way Dead Island developers took isn't anything to get stuck on. Games focus is really heavily on game play aspects like combat, weapons (which are upgradable), exploration and character progression.
Even Dead Island is older game, it's scope is actually pretty impressive. There are 4 areas, each divided in different chapters. Since players who like exploration may like this game I won't go to detail but areas are large enough and player can freely move within 3 first areas after they unlock, only 4th. area is one way with no way to return to other parts of the island. First three areas are bit enough that car comes handy. One minus aspect of area 2 is that car is not that usable there, though. Design wise variety of different areas, visually, buildings, environments, enemies, etc is actually pretty impressive. Which is a very good thing because quest (or rather mission) design is repetitive if one thinks of core design, however it's easy to forget because of new environments etc. game somehow feels it's gives you something new.
Controls may get some time to get used to, they feel a tad floaty at the beginning, character actions are slow (much slower than in Left 4 Dead for example) but it actually works. Big plus for heavy melee items like heavy morningstar actually being slow and heavy. Characters also have stamina which is important to take in account in melee, because using heavy melee weapons actually drains stamina faster than using lighter weapons, say machete for example. Weapons can also be thrown at enemies which comes handy and is also necessary. Being attacked by 4-5 zombies simultaneously in melee range can be quite difficult situation in this game. Weapons also behave according to their real life aspects. Bladed weapons can be used to cut (like slicing hands off) or decapitation. Blunt weapons are more of general purpose damage dealers but may stun, etc.
Firearms (pistols, shotguns, rifles, automatic rifles) were a bit of disappointment but are good in certain situations. I didn't felt game needed machine pistols, but guns could had carry a bit more punch. Ammo is also very scarce.
I'v read that controls were more responsible in original but I don't have a way to confirm or deny that. I'd say that controls are responsible enough but player needs to think a bit about encounters. There were couple of situations which were pretty sure instant deaths without knowing what was ahead. One was an ambush which is survivable if you have right weapons at hand, so eh...
Soundtrack was kind of surprise. There were things here and there that bothered me but it hit me when I listened to it during ending credits. There aren't like zillion of tracks but what they put in works very well! Which rises a question if smaller studios could use the same trick, not quantity but quality, but vision and producer needs to be up to task.
Voice acting was mainly actually very good.
Game took me something like bit over 40 hours to finish. It's about six months since I started this. If you are into genre but on busy schedule this is a difficult pick. Design sucks player in the journey (working as intended, can't fault a game for that) but it's one more quest, one more area to explore, one more level to get aspect that can easily make this a time sink. Pro tip, play only few chapters at time, though this isn't anywhere near Resident Evil Revelations series of modularity.
Developers note: Area design, end game balance (part 4) which I can't fully cover here because of spoilers, but how to make this better? What might work way better in shorter game?
Recommended for few euros for fans of the genre.
Steam note: I bought this from Steam few euros I don't remember when. However it looks like game isn't available any more as separate purchase but as part of bundle. I'm in ironical situation where I can't buy semi sequel, Riptide because of this but perhaps through third party key. So be conscious what key you buy if you use third party sites.
