Dead Island is an action role-playing game developed by Techland and published by Deep Silver. It released for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 in North America on September 6th, 2011 and was released in other regions on September 9th, 2011. The game was later ported to the Mac OS X on April 28th, 2014. A remaster of the game called Dead Island: Definitive Edition was released on May 31st, 2016 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Microsoft Windows. This version of the game was also bundled with a remaster of Dead Island: Riptide in the Dead Island Definitive Collection.
Overview[]
It is an open-world game centered on surviving on a zombie-infested Banoi Island. The game uses a first-person perspective; however, the developers are claiming that the game should not be labelled a first-person shooter because it has a bigger emphasis on melee combat and ammunition conservation, rather than a shoot 'em up. Dead Island runs on Techland's in-house Chrome Engine 5, the same which powers Call of Juarez: The Cartel video game.
The island of Banoi, just off the coast of Papua New Guinea, is a wild and untamed paradise, virtually untouched by modern civilizations. From the lush rain forests to the mountain highlands to the white sandy beaches, Banoi is considered the pearl in the necklace of the Oceania Archipelago. For many, it is Heaven on Earth — a place of peace and pristine beauty where travellers can leave the worries and cares of the workday world behind. But something evil has arrived in paradise, spreading chaos, madness, and death. Heaven has become Hell, and for those who still cling to life, there is only one thing left to do: survive.
Main Plot[]
The game begins with the opening cutscene, following an unnamed drunken guest as he stumbles around the Hotel on his way to Sam B's party. On the way, he meets the playable Heroes of the game, in order of Logan Carter, Sam B, Purna Jackson and Xian Mei. After passing out in his room, we are taken to one of the rooms of the heroes, who also made their way to their rooms after the party. Upon awakening, the heroes find the Hotel deserted and overrun by strange people, the infected. They manage to escape a group of them while being guided by a voice via the Hotel speaker system before being knocked out by a zombie.
They awaken in a beach hut with a group of survivors, and after helping defend the hut from zombies, they assist the survivors moving to the more secure Lifeguard Tower. From here, they assist the survivors by getting supplies, gas, food and drink to sustain them, as well as a more powerful radio receiver to try and reach a voice who has been contacting them via the radio. However, it's not enough and they will eventually need to go to the main city on the island to find more food, the City of Moresby. To this end, they return to the Hotel and, with the assistance of a security guard, they manage to make their way to the Hotel parking garage and recover an armoured truck. After escaping the Hotel with it, they take it to a mechanic to be armoured up to be an unstoppable tank. After defending the workshop, the mechanic makes them promise to take his daughter, Jin, with them to protect her, as he's been bitten and will soon turn. After finally agreeing, they leave with Jin to travel to Moresby.
Upon arrival in Moresby, they follow church bells to reach a Church of survivors that are under attack by zombies. After killing them and getting through to the Church, they aid the survivors by turning on their water supply, which was cut off when a group of punks took over the Pump Station. After taking it back and closing open hydrants, they are informed by the kindly leader of the Church, Mother Helen, that they have no supplies they can spare but if they take the Sewers to the rich side of Moresby they may find more food, since the bridge was blown to try and stem the infection.
After lowering the water levels of the Sewers and traversing them, they manage to reach the Town Hall, where the mayor informs them that they also can't provide any food, as they need it all for themselves. Almost giving up, Jin persuades them to keep on and one of the members of the Town Hall tells them to try the nearby Supermarket. It has been taken over by looters but it has tons of food and supplies left in it. Travelling through the Sewers again, they reach the Supermarket and after fighting through the large gang of looters, they reach the storeroom and take as much as they can. With Jin taking it in the truck, the Heroes travel back to the Town Hall via the Sewers to find it overrun by zombies.
Leaving it behind, they return to the Church where Mother Helen informs them that Jin has been captured trying to supply the Police Station, which has been taken over by a cut throat Raskol gang. Despite being told not to, she went there anyway and the Heroes have to rescue her. After fighting through the thugs, they reach her and take her back to the Church. With her now in tow, they supply the Church and Lifeguard Tower before returning to the Hotel, where two of the members of the Lifeguard Tower went to try and use the more powerful radio mounted on the Hotel roof to contact the voice. They eventually get through and learn that the voice is actually Ryder White, a colonel in the Banoi Island Defence Force. He tells them that he's on the Prison island in the middle of the bay. Despite their scepticism of his promise of rescue, the Heroes finally agree to follow his directions to travel into the Mingende Jungle inland to search for a man named Mowen, who can take them to a Laboratory in the jungle which can make a cure for the infection, which White desperately wants to save his infected wife.
With the help of someone at the Lifeguard Tower, the Heroes go with Jin through a network of old Japanese WWII bunkers to reach the jungle. They travel to a village which has been raided by a dangerous warlord named Afran. The leader of the village, Matutero, knows of Mowen but won't take them until the Heroes help him and the village. After recovering their stolen weapons, Matutero informs them that they'll need a boat to reach Mowen, but Afran took it. After raiding Afran's base and killing him, they recover the boat and Matutero delivers on his promise and takes them to Mowen, who reluctantly agrees to take them to the Lab.
Upon arriving at the Lab, the Heroes set about helping the scientists there, restoring power, securing a food supply and bringing them research items so they can continue to work on a cure. After recovering a blood sample from some natives nearby who are immune to the infection, the head scientist, Dr. Robert West, tells them he'll need a tissue sample from one of the native mummies. Going with the native leader and witch doctor, Koritoia Ope, the Heroes go to the Tomb of Natives and save a native girl named Yerema, killing Ope in the process. They return to the boat and save Mowen who was under attack by zombies.
Taking Yerema to the Lab, Mowen is thankful to the heroes for saving his life at the Tomb of Natives and finally reveals that he knows a way to reach the Prison island, which was the other reason the Heroes had to find him, as without him they couldn't navigate the sea minefield that's around the high security Prison. Leaving Yerema with Dr. West, the Heroes go with Mowen back to Moresby to get a bribe for one of the prisoners, Titus Kabui, so he'll let them in, as well as more gas for the boat. From here, they briefly go to the Resort to collect some poles to push away any mines which get close before Ryder White contacts them on the radio hurriedly explaining that he heard screams at the Lab.
They return to the Lab to find it overrun and all the scientists dead. Luckily, Yerema survived due to being locked in a cage and a cure is safely in a fridge. Taking the cure and Yerema, they all make their way to the Prison. After being let in by the prisoners, they strike a deal with Titus to let them through to Cell Block C where White is. After helping get food for the prisoners and failing to get weapons for them as well, they are doing another task for Titus when White contacts them on a radio and tells them a different way to him, through the Prison sewers. Taking this route, they emerge in the Prison showers where they find Jin and Yerema, who tell them that a riot happened in the Canteen when some prisoners rose up against Titus. This caused zombies to attack and wipe out the prisoners in the Canteen. With no choice, they take an elevator to White where they are gassed unconscious.
Awaking to one of the prisoners, a man named Kevin, he informs them that White gassed them and stole the cure. However, they can still catch him before he makes it to a helicopter on the roof. To speed them up, he also reveals that White plans to nuke the island to wipe out the undead, as well as any survivors with it. Making their way through the highly overrun but faster Prison Hospital, they manage to catch up to White on the roof. After fighting through his soldiers and zombies, they find the colonel on a helipad with his undead wife in tow, who is now completely turned. Keeping them under gunpoint, he tells them that he plans to give the cure to scientists in Australia who can mass produce a vaccine. However, Jin releases the colonels wife who bites him, forcing him to shoot her. In anger, he also shoots Jin who falls off the roof to her death before injecting himself with the vaccine. However, it has the opposite effect and turns him into a mutated monster, forcing the Heroes to battle and finally kill him. Kevin flies them all away in the helicopter towards a naval fleet off shore while a news program plays in the background, reporting on the outbreak on Banoi.
Gameplay[]
- The game features a beautifully designed open-world environment which is played in first-person perspective and set on the fictional tropical island of Banoi. The island is staggering in size and includes an expansive Resort area, a city and a jungle region.
- The game also features a multi-layer damage system, meaning that the player can see physical damage effects on enemy characters as they unleash havoc on them. The damage system is structured to show when there are injuries varying in type and degree depending on which weapon is used to cause it.
- There are many survivalist strongholds such as a protected Lighthouse and a Church that the player can join. They will also encounter hostile territories protected by bandits.
- The common zombies are slow walking zombies, but there are many more dangerous types of zombies known as Infected, along with special zombies such as Rams and Thugs.
- Unlike games involving similar post apocalyptic themes, Dead Island focuses more on melee combat than firearms and as such, melee weapons are more abundant in the game. There are firearms in Dead Island which can be found in metal chests, bought from merchants or rewarded by completing quests.
- Weapons can be upgraded and modified from their original state to boost their stats.
- The game uses a "level up" interface that helps the player build their character's attributes and abilities. Experience Points (XP) earned can be used to enhance Fury, Combat, and Survival skills. Each Hero has his or her own dynamic set of upgrades. Experience points are earned for just about everything the player does on Dead Island such as dispatching enemies, finding collectables and completing tasks.
- The open-world environment of Dead Island allows the player to complete missions at their leisure. There are many collectables and weapons to be found as well as random people to save. The player can walk, run, drive vehicles, climb ladders, enter/exit buildings and more.
Glitches/Bugs[]
- See Glitches
Graphic Tweaks, Fixes, Crashes[]
See Graphic Tweaks, Fixes, Crashes