THE DEAD TIMES

RATING:

ZOMBIE RATING:

DESCRIPTION:

Escape Dead Island is a spin-off from Dead Island - a game, developed by Techland, that sees a localised Zombie Apocalypse on the tropical island of Banoi. Turns out that Banoi is only one island in an island chain and its neighbouring island, Narapela, may hold the secret as to what happened to cause the Zombie outbreak. Playing as reporter Cliff Calo, it is your job to uncover this story and unravel the mystery, braving both the horrors of the undead and insane hallucinations.

MY VERDICT:

The first thing that strikes you about this game, is the "moving comic book" graphical-style - a quality effect that immediately drew me in (though I see how it could alienate players who prefer realistic aesthetics). Unfortunately though, this game has more than enough niggles to make for a lacklustre experience. For example, the main reason fans of Dead Island would want to play this much-shorter and far less polished spin off, is to learn Banoi's backstory - to dive into the lore of its universe. The game, for reasons best known to the developers, hides the story in collectible chunks dotted around the map in areas you wouldn't normally go. You don't need to worry too much about finding those story nuggets in the wrong order - this game is extremely linear and the map it provides is next to useless. Another major disappointment is the huge lack of variation in Zombie models - different types of Zombie look noticeably different and it is fun to be able to identify the different 'species' by what they look like, adjusting your tactics accordingly (if minorly, restricted by the linearity of the environments) - but a little more difference in the look of Zombies within each type would have been a massive improvement. Despite all these flaws however - and there are more than listed here - I enjoy Escape Dead Island, I'm just not entirely sure why. Maybe it's the graphical style or simple 'hit them more than they hit you' combat, or maybe it is the fact that you can die oh so easily - even the weakest Zombies only taking around three swipes to spell your doom.