Dead Island

[illdog]

I tend not to read or watch too much about a game after its peaked my interest so i had no real expectations of this.

I picked the big black dude who's speaciality is cracking heads like a mufucker with blunt weapons. Ive changed the fighting system from digital where you press R trigger to swing your weapon to analogue where you have to hold the L Trigger to initiate 'fight' and the flick the right stick from one direction to the opposite. This way you can target limbs, specifically heads, and im getting a few one or two hit kills now, as opposed to a flurry of four or five strikes before. The instruction booklet does a piss poor job of explaining analogue controls, i had to look it up online.

You level up by gaining exp. Exp is gained by competing quests and killing zombies. Each time you level up you get skill points to spend. You can improve your characters Fury (like a beserk mode), weapon ability and health management. Im going to concentrate on Fury as the dominant stat, its super handy when your backs against the wall. Its like Doom, you go all hazy and basically rip through enemies with one hit.

It feels like Farcry, whereas you move from place to place, talking to people, sneaking around, driving cars, just on an island full of zombies instead of Africa.

Fights like Oblivion/Fallout, you can move in all directions whilst swinging your weapon so you can start the swing, move in to an enemy for it to strike and then move out for defence. You can also mod weapons at workbenches (seen that somewhere before) but they weapon construction so far feels more like Dead Rising, like mixing a baseball bat and nails.

And last game comparison, but the collectibles are like Bioshock. They flash in the dark so you an see them and your collecting drinks, food and handy bits to make weapon mods. Also you collect audio diarys.

You have your main quest line but im only a couple of hours in and i have about 10 sidequests on the go. I have had one problem so far, i picked up a necklace somebody wanted with the intention of returning it to them later when i finished some other quests in the area. Didnt really think about it again, but i naturally came across the hut where i picked the necklace up in the first place and the mini map indicated there was something for me to collect inside. Sure enough, the necklace was back on the shelf i first collected it from. Thinking back, the woman who requested the necklace was back at base where i had been ten minutes before and an icon would have appeared on the woman reminding me to hand in her lost goods. Hope that sort of shit doesn't happen too many times.

Anyways, so far so good. Its suitably tense in places, scared the shit out of me a couple of times when zombies have come from seemingly nowhere and screamed in my ear before grabbing me. I also still approach fights with nervous caution.

On i play.

[wholehole]

Quite a ways through this now, just hit level 12 I think. It just gets better and better. I picked the big guy also as he had the best starting stats.

Picked up and created some sweet weapons, my favourite so far being a flaming stick of DOOM . Has a chance to set the zambies on fire which really fucks them up. I'd definitely recommend the analog controls to anyone playing this, they're so much more accurate than the digital. It's almost as if Techland wasn't confident in those controls by burying them in the options menu. They should have had a bit more faith and made them the default.

Quests are structured really well I think, despite mostly being fetch quests so far. They tend to send you quite far away which takes you well out of your comfort zone and it gets very tense when exploring new areas, especially now there's more variety in the enemies i'm facing. Sometimes it's not very clear where you're supposed to go and the ant trails on the mini-map have sent me into dead ends a few times, but it's so much fun just mooching around and exploring that it's difficult to hold it against the game.

[illdog]

I tried joining you but I couldn't :[

Sorry bro, ive got it set to Private as i didnt know how having randoms jump in would change the state of affairs. Im online all day and night!

[wholehole]

Feel like i've been playing this for ages, and the end is still nowhere in sight. It says i'm at 17% plot progress, which isn't even a quarter of the way through yet! Damn this game is big.

Figured out some cool combat tips I thought i'd share:

Thrown weapons don't take durability damage (or at least very little) so keep your distance with kicks and chuck a bunch of bladed weapons to weaken them, then go in for the kill with your main weapon. You can then pick up your blades off the corpse and your best weapons will last longer as well.

One from the loading screen was nice to find out: Apparently when you knock enemies down, the force stat is added to your damage stat! For great justice... and popped heads

Use your kick to finish off a downed enemy on very low health. Saves using a good weapon and taking a full hits durability loss on it when they only have a fraction of HP left.

Didn't find this out until last night but you can press A and a direction to quickly hop and avoid stuff. Especially useful when fighting those sumbitch Thugs.

If you guys have any tips i'd love to hear them.

[illdog]

A nice little tactic in Act 2 whilst in the City is to run past zombies and get on top of cars or ambulances. On a car you can crouch down on the roof and use downward strikes to knock down their health.

Can't stress enough how important kick is, I forgot about it at first and was getting really frustrated with the combat. I use ut all the time, especially usefull against small groups of zombies. Knock em to the floor with kick and then bash them when they're down.

[illdog]

Double post, i typed that last shit on my phone whilst waiting for the misses to get off the boat.

I was starting to get a bit bored of the gameplay by the end of Act 1, which frankly seemed to go on forever. It started to feel a bit samey, go here, fight that bunch of zombies, go back from where i just came from. Do it again. It did mix it up a little, i enjoyed

the food and drink run and having to turn the 3 electric supplies off at the power station

but finishing the mission was extremely unclear, i had to look it up on the net. You'll see what i mean (hopefully). But yea, other than that i was getting a bit tired of wondering around killing endless zombies.

Then i finished Act 1 and Act 2 has so far kicked all sorts of ass. It moves in to the city and all the tension and edge comes rushing back. Human enemies are introduced and gunplay comes in to its own. Its really well done, its easy to aim, shoot and reload and you can take the humans out easily with well placed headshots, It all just came at the right time, the game felt like it needed a kick up the ass and it gone one. I also found a fucking great big axe which is hacking off all sorts of limbs.

Also, zombies that are on fire and run fast at you are scary.

There are quite a few weapons to choose from and you can not only find superior versions of each but you can uprgrade them up to four times each (it increases there power and durabilty and the likes) and as i mentioned earlier you can make custom weapons if you have the blue print. I had a sickle which was cool anyway, but add to that some wires and summink else snazzy and BOOM, its was an electric sickle. Brap a brizzap!

[wholehole]

Not been bored at all since I started playing, I keep wanting more if anything. Not had any trouble finishing any of the missions so far, they've all been clearly labelled on the map. Sometimes the routes get a little screwy but as it's all open it's not tough to find an alternative route. Tell a lie actually, getting the alcohol for Stanley wasn't 100% clear on how many bottles he wanted, turns out it was 15, but I just kept collecting and going back until the quest ended, no massive issue really. Really enjoyed the food and gas run iit was very cool driving around all over the place.

I think it's the combat that keeps me wanting more, it's so tactile and strategic. Every hit you make really feels as though it's connecting and placing your hits to disable and slow down your opponents is like a mini-game in itself. It's also a lot of fun toying with them when you get a couple on their own. My favourite thing so far though is waiting for the fast Infected to charge at you and just spanking them when they get close. Their momentum usually makes for an interesting death. Using the molotovs and explosive canisters in inventive ways is also great fun.

Will be on this for the rest of the day I think, once the F1 is finished. Looking forward to getting my hands on some guns this afternoon

[illdog]

Not been bored at all since I started playing

My problem was two fold.

1. It was the back end of a 9 hour stint.

2. I think i over side-quested it.

3. Profit.

[wholehole]

9 hours? Epic!

The women in the city do wear clothes, no more necrotic bikini action

I've noticed it's fucked up one of my quests, A Voice From Above The Sky where you have to grab the sat-phone for the Russian dude. It's skipped over and greyed out actually getting the phone and moved itself onto the next step. Same with the downed plane one. Hopefully they aren't completely broken and I can still do them.

Constantly forget to use Fury, think i've popped it about twice or so myself. It seems to charge up pretty quickly though so I should really get into the habit of using it I guess.

[illdog]

Ive just had a bit of a fuck up the arse from this game.

Im in the sewers. Come across a room with about 5 infected (really fast zombies) and a big fat fucker thats basically a Boomer from L4D. I happened to be carrying a gas canister, it seemed odd that one was just sat there so i picked it up and sure enough, round the corner is this room full of zombies. So i throw the canister in, try to throw a weapon at it but whilst aiming in decided to switch to aiming at a zombie intead. Im panicking now, throwing weapons like crazy and im just not being allowed to aim at the gas canister. Sure enough im beaten to death. I re-spawn and am instantly re-beaten to death. Repeat x 2. Next re-spawn i manage to run away, turn around and throw my second to last weapon at the canister, get killed in the explosion but at least everybodys dead. Every time you do you loose cash, so by now ive lost like 2,000 precious dollars. I compose my myself, go look for my weapons and i cant find them. Look everywhere, even backtack for about a minute. Nothing.

So now im fucked. Ive got a really shit hammer and ive lost about 6 weapons that ive spend a couple of thousand dollars upgrading. And it took all my spare money in the process. Really dont want to play ths anymore at the moment. [/toys]

[wholehole]

Sounds shite. Heard nasty things about the sewers, not looking forward to that.

The sound in this game is fappin exceptional. I'm constantly on edge around the city as there's groans and screams coming from every direction. Never know where they're gonna come from next. The day/night and weather cycle within the city is sweet as well. It gets very spooky when it starts chucking it down and gets all dark, especially with all the noises.

Just found out that B is for a quick medkit, could've done with that eariler doh

[illdog]

Sounds shite. Heard nasty things about the sewers, not looking forward to that.

I've just emerged from there after a long time spent, only to be sent down again for the next quest.

[Sambob]

Hate when games fuck you over like that, deus ex has done it to me twice, loaded me up in an area where all hackable doors are open and all guards therefore hostile, I get a face full of bullets then when it loads that autosave again all is sorted out but I've got none of my spare praxis or weapons, sorted it by loading an old file but lost a bit of progress in the process.

[Bob]

Amazon finally gave me this and I got all up in its business yesterday for some amount of hours that I didn't keep track of (Raptr say 3). I love it, if it was more urban and relied a bit more on resource gathering it would be the open world Zombie game I have wanted ever since I was a creepy little child. I went the jock asshole in the end. The chicks had the typical, "I'm a tough bitch but it's only because I have been the victim of men!" type attitude which I hate since I'm pretty sure women can just be tough without being all pissy or an ex-victim. The rapper guy didn't really appeal to me because rappers are all a bunch of nobs (although if I had realised he was voiced by Phil LaMarr I may have changed my mind) so I was kind of stuck with the jock asshole. Thankfully his Fury mode is awesome and he starts throwing knives all over the shop like a crazy mother. He's still an asshole though.

I was hoping for a bit more of the human element in the story but so far there has just been a bunch of people with funny accents telling me to go grab stuff. I could happily watch any of them get eaten. The room right at the start with the family from the depressing trailer was a nice touch though. Although my very own personal Australian said that the accents are pretty good. Like Australians that have been living on an Island for a really long time. Although apparently the Australian chick doesn't sound like she is from Sydney. Then I think she went on a rant about how annoying people from Sydney are at which point I stopped listening and smashed in some heads.

The game gives me a headache as well which hasn't happened with an FPS for ages. Thankfully it's not so bad where I can't push through the pain like a boss. Melee combat is really satisfying but I think I will switch to the other mode since you chaps spoke so highly of it. See what it's all about. The ability to damage limbs is what interests me the most, I read about it in a loading screen but using the current method it doesn't seem possible. I came across a Thug and tried smacking him in his tiny little bone leg and he died before he fell over. Most disappointing. He almost killed me as well, the shit.

So far the highlight of the game has been the start. Rushing out of that shack and killing your first Zombie was a real Zombie Movie moment and felt very satisfying. I assume there will be better bits but so far I have just been exploring the island all random like and doing side quests. Only up to the second story mission outside of the prologue where you need to go to the life guard place. It's been a very tense experience so far and I would even go so far to say it scared me a little bit which is very rare.

[illdog]

It's been a very tense experience so far and I would even go so far to say it scared me a little bit which is very rare.

Yea, it gets tense as fuck. Later in the game it gets with the 'light trickery' which messes your mind up a little.

Wholehole mentioned the sound, which i agree is pretty good but my only problem with it is that the screams always seem to be very close to you, despite sometimes the Zombies being a fair distance away. I do like the fact that if there is a Thug near by it just keeps roaring, it really puts you on edge, making you think the bugger could be round any corner.

Ive managed to regain most of my weapons. Thanking God i upraded my Fury as its helped alot. I think i struck gold early in the game, i found a Feeble Magnum halfway through Act 1 and have upgraded it to the max. Now at the end of Act 2 ive still yet to come across a gun that can better it. Getting some good one hit kill headshots with it. Ive added electricity to a Morning Star that i found and that kicks all sorts of ass. Also got a Cleaver that ive added a paralysing ability too that is hacking off limbs at an alarming rate. An achievement counter popped up telling me that i had 90 out of 100 needed limbs chopped off. Good times.

One thing that is pissing me off is that despite clearing out a room or corridor of zombies, a new one still occasionally just appears behind me when im finishin off another. Minor gripe but health is precious.

Act 2 has been excellent so far (apart from the sewers, but to be fair they are really scary, just too long).

[Tomahawk Rob]

Been playing this since Tuesday... I also ended up picking the rapper dude and started out swinging random bats & paddles, but have since evolved into a knife & cleaver throwing maniac! It's janky as fuck, but killing aberrations of nature has never been this satisfying before!

Haven't got massively far into the campaign (currently doing side missions for both the lifeguard tower & lighthouse crews), but am seriously loving it. Don't mind the all the fetch-type quests at the mo...

One thing I haven't figured out is how your weapons are queued up for throwing... I like to have a bunch of sharp objects ready to chuck from afar and then swing the nail-bat if they still aren't kissing the pavement by the time they reach me, but it's suddenly decided to start giving me the bat as weapon no2, which leads to frequent mishaps!

Also what is with all the different 'grades' that are given to most of the weapons? For example, I swear I've picked up both a puny stick & a frightening stick and got rid of the inferior puny one... then along comes both a puny knife & a frightening knife, and the puny one turns out to be better... huh!?!?

I played it for a bit this morning before work... Walking back to one of the 'bases', I came across some guy trapped on a stage on the beach, surrounded by 2 or 3 zombies... I thought I'd help him out, so chucked a bunch of knives at one of the freaks... who then died and slid under the stage... taking all my fully upgraded & high quality kitchen utensils with him! I could crawl under the stage, and see them all there waiting for me to grab them, but would the game let me? Of course not... And by then an auto-checkpoint had occured so they're gone for good... plus I also wasted a Deo-Bomb trying to blow the fucker out from under the stage...

Finally, as much as I like the auto-checkpoint system for kind of injecting some extra realism into how the game plays out, I don't like how when you load it up, you're nowhere near where the auto-save occured!?

[illdog]

Been playing this since Tuesday... I also ended up picking the rapper dude and started out swinging random bats & paddles, but have since evolved into a knife & cleaver throwing maniac!

Your doing yourself a misjustice there mate. His special ability tree will be for all blunt objects, keep it maces and hammers. It will allow you exp bonuses for killing with blunt objects, bone breaking bonuses, it even allows you to fill you Fury meter up quicker i think. If you have the rapper, try to stick with blunt objects at least untill your leveled up a little.

Finally, as much as I like the auto-checkpoint system for kind of injecting some extra realism into how the game plays out, I don't like how when you load it up, you're nowhere near where the auto-save occured!?

Ive had that, and its re-spawned a Thug and some enemies that ive already killed. Ive also had times ive loaded up my save only to found myself instantly surrounded by enemies that werent there before. They have a few bugs to fix. I also hear the 'Explore the whole island' achievement is glitched which must be a massive pain in the ass to those its glitched on.

Im on Act 3 in the Jungle now, this game is huge butten it feels even more like Farcry now im in amongst the trees. Its getting tougher too.

[wholehole]

I think the weapons are queued in order of strength. I usually throw a few blades to kick things off and it always defaults to my next strongest weapon I have equipped. Bit annoying, but I suppose it makes sense.

The weapon prefixes are relevant to a specific stat (or stats). There's a forum post somewhere that explains it all, or at least a best guess from the guy that's written it.

Don't trust the auto-saves. Not ever. When you quit always make sure you pause the game and select Quit (I think it's the Y button actually). It moans about unsaved progress but then kicks off a save anyway. You should start from exactly where you were standing doing it that way. I've not had a problem so far doing it that way.

[Tomahawk Rob]

Cheers for the tips guys... I'm pretty sure I'd read that the special ability skill tree makes practically zero difference, but I'll give it a go... though I'm not sure I can tear myself away from the visceral joy of dissecting limbs from afar with throwing knives

[wholehole]

You get small percentage bonuses to damage/crit with blunt/modified blunt weapons further down the tree, but overall it doesn't really make a whole lot of difference. I'm currently using a big two-handed axe with the high-voltage mod, which is classed as a bladed weapon, and it's ripping stuff apart quicker than anything else i've found so far.

I'm sure i'll find a better blunt weapon further down the line but it's best just to use whatever weapon is killing stuff the quickest.