Dead Island: Single & Multi-player

So, a few days ago myself and Peter finally finished a multi-player game of 2011’s Dead Island. I’d played it a few times already in single-player first, but we only recently got ahold of a second PS3 to play it multi-player, as unfortunately a lot of games have online multi-player only – which I always think is a real shame. Playing a game with your friend or boyfriend can be great fun. But anyway, the game!

First and foremost I’ll cover the single-player experience. I played though the game as Xian, then as Sam B. Out of the two I have to admit it is easier and more fun as Same B. He has more health and stamina – but more importantly, he has the vital health regeneration ability (and the thing that goes bump in the night). I briefly tried the other two characters, but quickly found them both not practical. You can’t really get the most out of Purna as a character until you are at least in the city, where there is a more regular supply of guns and ammo. And Logan just did not do enough damage as a throwing character, with you throwing all of his weapons, not getting most of them back, and then having to do a ‘don’t eat me’ dance around the zombies trying to get your weapons back.

The game itself, however, I enjoyed a lot more than I thought I would. With its wide open areas that you can explore for the most part as you like, and a nice variety of side quests, it felt like there was a lot to do. It stayed fun and different a lot of the time and for the most part it didn’t drag. The first location, the resort, I do think is probably the best. It’s very pretty, very open and has a lot of things to do in it. The game probably shouldn’t have started in the resort to be honest, as it makes all the other areas after it seem not as good in comparison. As Peter has said to me before, maybe it would have been better to start with the jungle or city.

This would also help, I think, with the location that did drag for me. After having finished the jungle, you have to get through the prison – which isn’t very open…or pretty…nor does it have much variety. At that point in the game you are racing towards the end through more and more hard zombies and too many Ram zombies just to stretch out the area. It got so tedious.

Gameplay-wise I really enjoyed the combat. I like the great variety of weapons and finding new awesome unique ones, modding them to look crazy with fire or electricity, and murdering some zombies to death with them. It might have been fun if it was a little more customisable, such as being able to change their clothes as they become more ragged. Other than weapons, the only choice you really have is in how you level your character.

The game isn’t without its flaws, obviously. Story-wise, I found it quite annoying that everyone complained about needing food, or tins, or juice, or water – when the whole place was littered with snacks. There was really no sense of the time actually passing for people to have eaten all the food anyway. It is a zombie game – it does get tiring to do the same thing over and over – kill zombies. Some characters do die a lot easier than others. I certainly died a lot more as Xian than Sam B or Purna. And the game does play better in multi-player than single-player we found in the end – so it should have had split screen. And the sequel unfortunately still doesn’t have split screen.

On that note, the multi-player! I played through as Xian, and Peter for a large portion of the game was Logan, though he found towards the end of the game that he needed to swap to Purna to really continue both being effective and having fun. The number of zombies between multi-player and single-player did seem the same, which does make it easier to play through with a friend. Money is shared between all players, and all players also get their own rewards for quests. However, items you pick up in the world are not duplicated for both of you.

I did like that we could both complete a different side quest to move the game along quicker. Or you could complete different parts of the same quest, like one of you going to fetch an item and the other handing it straight in, as quest items are ‘shared’, I guess, across your inventories.

So, it was very definitely better, more fun and easier in multi-player – with the added bonus of being able to play with someone you know rather than some random stranger on the internet. The game should have had split screen however – there’s no reason for it other than selling multiple copies of the game. An added bonus would would maybe be re-ordering the levels.

Now that we have finished with Dead Island, we’re now going to be playing multi-player together through Dead Island Riptide. As I’ve already said, I’m disappointed it has no split screen, but look out for a further post for my full thoughts on the sequel.

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