Battlefield 3 beta thoughts

Battlefield 3 won’t be released proper until Oct. 25 here in America but EA Dice is giving gamers a small taste of the action with a multiplayer beta that was released today. The demo is free to Xbox 360 and PS3 owners and also technically free to PC owners - though those unfortunate souls did have to pre-order some awful Medal of Honor game to get access to it through EA’s online store, Origin.

The multiplayer beta only features one map – Operation Metro – and gives gamers a brief look at what the award-winning EA Dice series has in store for them when it hits shelves a little less than a month from now. Since this is just a beta I’ll only be giving a series of observations I’ve made about the game with the limited amount of time I’ve had to play it. DICE seems to have taken the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality with this game. The way the game handles is very, very similar to BF: Bad Company 2 and if you liked any of the previous Battlefield titles, you will definitely find an incredible deal of enjoyment with this title.

-First off – the demo (on 360) is about 1.3 gigs and features one map, Operation Metro, in the game mode Rush. Metro features four or five sets of objectives – two of which are set in an underground, subway station. The move indoors is a new setting for the series which traditionally features large, outdoor areas for players to destroy. The environmental damage seen on the indoor portion of the map is pretty impressive – tile and debris flies everywhere as bullets impact walls and columns.

-Just had a thought – I wonder if it’s possible to tunnel through walls with explosives the way Red Faction allowed? In Red Faction, me and my friends would routinely play local multiplayer just to try making different routes through a level using a combination of the game’s environmental damage and plenty of explosives. I’ll have to try that later.

-Operation Metro is an infantry focused map. The size and scale of the map feels just right – objectives aren’t too close to one another but not so far apart that you’ll spend more time getting to the fight than participating in it. Unfortunately, since Metro is focused on infantry, there aren’t any vehicles to play with. I was hoping for maybe a jeep or an APC but sadly there is nothing to drive in the beta.

-Probably the most noticeable change from BF:BC2 – outside of the overall improvement to the visuals – is the HUD. And it is not a change I am enjoying. Everything on the HUD – whether it’s the minimap, friendly soldiers’ names, the score, etc – seems to have this neon glare on it that was probably intended to be a cool, stylistic touch but actually just makes the HUD look like a blurry mess.

-I also noticed that spotting enemies doesn’t seem to work as well. Though I’m not sure if I was just misconstruing that feature not working with the fact that the little icon over a spotted enemy is much, much smaller – a visual change I’m not in favor of. Spotting enemies was a favorite tactic of mine in BF:BC2 and it seems to be nearly useless now.

-Little graphical touches like seeing a faint red glare on your screen if someone with a red-dot scope is aiming on you, the light from the tactical lights has already killed me once (I turned the corner and saw this bright light coming at me and I was like ‘What is tha…’ and then I got killed. By the guy with the tac light on his gun).The onscreen text in BF:BC2 was pretty flat and while not stylish or pretty, served very well – it was easy to read at a glance and that extra second or two you sometimes need to decipher the text in Battlefield 3 can spell your doom.

-Also noticed that it’s still very easy to get caught up on friendly soldiers as well as environmental pieces and debris. It’s most noticeable when more than a few soldiers are trying to get through a narrow opening but these kinds of collision detection shenanigans have already resulted in my death a handful of times.

-While on the subject of glitches, keep in mind that this is just a beta, there are plenty of graphical problems you’ll encounter. The most annoying one I’ve come across so far is that randomly the screen will flash white or green for a frame or two. While it doesn’t usually interrupt the action, it can sometimes happen very frequently and almost started giving me a headache at one point. Other glitches are pretty minor – some collision detection problems, some instances of people or items falling through the map, etc. I also noticed a lot of camera/character movement that seemed pretty unnecessary and annoying while moving around in the prone position that I hope will be rectified.

-Speaking of, players will finally now be able to lay prone on the ground – an addition that fans have been wanting for some time now. While playing BF:BC2 with some friends recently, I made the claim that prone really wouldn’t change the game much and really only serve to make snipers an even bigger pain to deal with. And while that claim is partly true - snipers are an even bigger pain now, but I’ll get to that later - I really feel stupid for making that earlier claim (and now even stupider for publishing it on the internet). Being able to go prone has already saved my life more times than I can remember and I’ve played the beta for maybe 2 hours.

-The post-death screen, which shows your killer’s stats, also gives players a “you vs. that enemy” statistic which keeps track of how many times you’ve killed that player and vice versa. Nice little touch that lets you know just who to stay away from – or hunt down depending on your mood. Also on the post-death screen there is a large graphic that shows your killer’s dog tags – perhaps DICE will let players customize their dog tags the way COD lets players customize their icon and banner? Just a guess since the dog tag graphic (featuring that player’s gamertag) is rather large and otherwise only changes when you level up.

-The kits have changed slightly. There are still four classes but now they are assault, engineer, support and recon. Assault now has the capability to throw medkits and support throws ammunition – engineer and recon are basically the same. I haven’t unlocked many guns but did unlock a light MG for support so the medic class no longer also has the biggest gun on the field. Also, recon isn’t strictly confined to sniper rifles. I saw plenty of people using them but the class also now contains many high-powered, semi-automatic rifles in addition to the long-range death dealers. I’d assume motion tracking and mortar attacks are also still apart of the recon class but I don’t know for sure.

-I encountered a disturbingly high number of people playing as the recon class so far – and using it very effectively. With the addition of the prone stance and semi-automatic powerhouse rifles in addition to long range sniper rifles, the recon class seems to be the most prevalent so far. I’m not a big fan of it. Anyone who’s played with me knows I’ll generally be one of the first to complain about a sniper who’s doing nothing but sitting back, popping heads and calling mortar strikes literally everywhere. Battlefield is not a game about maintaining a high KDR (like some other FPS titles) – it’s about completing a set of objectives as a team, especially in the Rush mode. Playing against a 12-person team with, say, 3-4 really good snipers can turn a fun, intense match into a game of “lets see how far I get this time before I’m dropped by someone I’ll never see.” And giving these people guns that are almost as powerful as sniper rifles and fire much faster only exacerbates the problem.

-I’ve also noticed some recon/campers taking advantage of the glitches already. I’ve seen more than a few guys go prone and basically wedge themselves into small corners or just into pieces of the map itself that they really probably shouldn’t be able to.

-Where was I? I feel like I went off a little bit of a tangent. Umm…oh yeah, the kits! On the subject of kits, the deploy screen has changed slightly. In BF:BC2, spawning and changing kits took place on two separate screens and is now condensed into one. Moving up and down chooses your spawn point while left and right chooses your kit. Pressing X will bring you to the kit customization screen where you can outfit that kit with all sorts of nifty gadgets and enhancements, like barrels to upgrade damage, various scopes and a bipod that increases accuracy while prone. There is allegedly A LOT more customization options for kits in Battlefield 3 compared to BF:BC2 and unlocking them all is supposed to take much, much longer than in the previous title. Also, you are able to change weapons and your active gear (like ammo packs and medkits) in the main deploy screen as well so you don’t need to bring up the customization screen just to change weapons.

-Being revived by a medic (assault now, I guess?) is a little odd at first this time around. Instead of just being brought back to life right in that spot, you’re given the choice to hit A to accept the revive or hit B to re-deploy. I guess it’s a nice little feature when you think about it, so you aren’t just being killed over and over again if you’d rather respawn. Just that it was a little odd to experience at first.

-It would be nice if, when you spawned on a teammate, you spawned in the stance they were taking. A few times now I’ve spawned standing with a teammate who was prone behind cover and I get torn to shreds while they remain safe behind cover. It’s easy enough to drop into prone if you’re quick but sometimes that isn’t enough.

-Also on the subject of respawn, I hope it’s tightened up some before the full game launches. Right now there is a couple seconds of black screen between when you click on a teammate to spawn and when you actually spawn. And as anyone who’s played an FPS knows, a few seconds can be the difference between life and death. Just another annoying little beta glitch that I’m hoping gets fixed.

-Sometimes I feel like I play too many video games, that maybe I have a problem. Then there are other times when I’ve been playing the beta for a game (that hasn’t even been available for a day at this point) for a few hours and have only reached level 3 and I see guys that are level 17 and above that things are put in perspective and I don’t feel so bad about myself anymore. Yup, at about 10 a.m. this morning, I’d been playing Battlefield 3 for maybe an hour and a half and had only gained a level or two when I saw (and was killed by) someone who was level 17. And then I saw a different guy who was level 17. And I felt good that, at least somewhere in the world, there are people with even less of a life than me. Then after they killed me a bunch more times I felt less good, but still not bad overall.

-Also speaking on levels, I noticed that some people who were at the same level as me, and maybe even below, had different equipment than I had access to. As far as I know there wasn’t any pre-beta way to access different weaponry so I’m kinda confused as to how its happening. Unless I’m just completely wrong - which is possible, just not probable.

-One more thing real quick - when I quit out of the game for the first time, it basically froze on me. I quit out of the game and it went to a loading screen before presumably bringing me back to the main menu and telling me to preorder now. Well instead of taking me anywhere, the game was content to leave me sitting at that loading screen for an indefinite period of time. I eventually had to quit to the dashboard and I'm really hoping it saved my progress during that last match.

Wow this turned out to be pretty long. Kudos to you if you’ve made it this far – I barely remember what I wrote about at the beginning. If you haven’t played or even downloaded the Battlefield 3 beta yet – what are you waiting for? The beta ends Oct. 10 so get your fill as the full version won’t be out until Oct. 25.

Need to Know Basis

While writing a piece for this blog, I realized that I often throw around video game terms and industry buzz words that the average reader, and maybe even average gamer, might not be aware of. I had originally intended to just cover one term but quickly realized that that probably wouldn’t offer enough content to warrant a whole new post. That and I kinda got caught up while trying to differentiate between “open world” games and “sandbox” games – and coming to the conclusion that there really isn’t much of a difference in those terms. (‘Open world” can be used to describe any game that features a large, open map that can be explored at leisure and “sandbox” games are generally open world and have features that allow gamers to experiment with the gameplay to create outcomes not necessarily intended by the designers. Grand Theft Auto, Saint’s Row and Just Cause are some of the best examples of open world, sandbox games.)

FPS – First-person shooter

If you’ve ever read any of my reviews you’ve seen this term before. An FPS puts you, as the player, in the shoes of the main character. In Halo, you’re Master Chief. In Duke Nukem, you’re Duke Nukem. In COD, you’re whatever random soldier who seemingly has to win the war by himself (I’m sure some of you have seen the internet meme “Ramirez, do everything!” by now). Though not all FPS games are necessarily shooters (for example, Mirrors Edge and the very underrated Criminal Origin series) a game played from the first-person point-of-view is generally called an FPS.

A scene from a multiplayer match of Call of Duty 4, but

could be a scene from literally any COD game.

RPG – Role-Playing Game

In the traditional sense, the term RPG was used only to describe games with heavy emphasis on inventory management, character progression, dialogue and turn-based combat like Final Fantasy or Chrono Trigger. Today, you’ll often see the term RPG pop up to describe many different kinds of games, as many titles today incorporate elements of the traditional RPG genre into action titles or FPS titles – such as earning experience points to level up a character or elements of dialogue.

Final Fantasy VII - what nearly any gamer will imagine when they hear the term "RPG"

For instance, the game Borderlands would most likely be described as an “open-world FPS” because it is played in the first-person shooter format and features a large game-world to explore. However its deep character progression and extensive amounts of items to be found, bought and sold also places it squarely in the realm of RPGs. The same goes for the recent title Dead Island. On the surface it seems like it’s only a game about chopping up zombies but when you actually get into it, there are unique skills that each character can earn as well as numerous items and weapons to find and upgrade. Even shooters like Bioshock contain RPG elements. Through the use of plasmids you can upgrade your characters health/eve(mana) as well as upgrade your weapons with unique enhancements. Basically, any game that has elements of character progression or item management can be, at least partly, considered an RPG today.

MMORPG – Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game

MMOs are a new breed of the RPG genre that have exploded in popularity in the past decade. While numerous MMOs exist in many different formats (for instance, the FPS MMO Planetside) the most popular in the genre is undoubtedly World of Warcraft. Most MMOs do away with the turn-based combat of traditional RPGs but keep the heavy character development and abundance of loot that the genre is known for. The main draw of this sub-genre is the emphasis on playing in a large, persistent world with hundreds, if not thousands, of other human players where dividing into guilds and organizing large parties to go on quests (or raids to WoW players) together is not uncommon.

I’ve never gotten into MMOs personally, but not because I’m not attracted to the genre – quite the opposite actually. Being the kind of gamer who insists on utter domination of a certain game before moving onto the next title, I knew that if I ever became seriously addicted to an MMO (most likely WoW) that I’d literally never stop playing. You remember that episode of South Park where the boys had to team up and train for months to stop one rampaging player? Yeah, I would easily turn into that dude if I ever started playing WoW.

Above, another reason why I can't get into WoW. Seriously, what the hell is going on?

RTS – Real Time Strategy

Real-time strategy games generally focus on two things – base building and conquest. Players will have a top-down view of the game board/map and at the beginning of a mission are tasked with starting a base – by placing structures – and then gathering resources. In Command and Conquer, there was only one resource to gather (Tiberium, or Ore if you’re playing a C&C: Red Alert title) but other titles like Starcraft and Warcraft up the number of resources needed. With your base under construction you can then begin to build units to protect your base, explore the map and attack your foe. More recent RTSes, like Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War, eschew the concept of resources gathering in favor of holding strategic points which translates into more requisition points that can be put toward new units, buildings and upgrades. It’s a subtle change but alters the dynamic of the genre as the focus of attacks may not necessarily be another player’s base but their strategic points, which limits their combat ability.

The strategy genre is probably one of the earliest genres I was introduced to as a kid that I identified as different from the usual beat-em-ups I’d play on NES or Genesis. My dad, who was/is an avid table-top gamer, got me hooked on games like Panzer General, Steel Panthers, Colonization and Civilization and from there my love for the genre radiated outward until I was playing games like Command and Conquer, Starcraft, Warcraft and Heroes of Might and Magic (though HoMM isn’t really an RTS, more a turn-based strategy game).

A scene from "Command and Conquer Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge."

And yes, those are UFOs flying around a pyramid.

Though you’ll get a different answer depending on who you ask, I am firmly in the camp of believing that the RTS genre really only belongs on the PC. Many attempts have been made at producing worth-while RTSes on consoles, I’ve never found using a controller to be quite the same as a mouse and keyboard when trying to build a base and build/direct units simultaneously. One of the only RTSes I’ve played on the consoles that really seemed to work was Civilization Revolution. And I still didn’t end up putting much time into it – just felt too much like a “Civilization-Lite” game that just could never match up to its PC counterpart.

QTE – Quick Time Event

This one isn’t a genre – though some would argue that there are games that rely a little too heavily on Quick Time Events. A QTE is what some would call a button-pressing minigame, an instance in a game where players a required to enter a sequence of buttons or mash a particular button. Games like Resident Evil 4 popularized the use of QTEs and in games today you’ll often find them in action/adventure titles where QTEs will make up a long action sequence. For example, gamers will often have to engage in long QTEs as God of War antihero, Kratos, as he tears the wings off a Pegasus or gouges out the eye of a Cyclops.

I could've found a scene from God of War to illustrate my point but I feel like this one serves just as well.

Yeah, I know it was a little weird to do a bunch of genre acronyms and then throw in QTE at the end but it was another acronym that popped into my head as I was doing this so I figured what the hell.

How’d I do in these explanations? Did I screw anything up? Does anything need clarifying? Let me know in the comments! I’ve already got a few terms for the next installment of “Need to Know Basis” so be on the lookout for that.

Dead Island afterthoughts - The zombie apocalypse you were looking for?

So now that I’ve had some time to put into really exploring Techland’s “Dead Island” I wanted to share with you some of my thoughts on the game since writing my initial review. My feelings on it overall haven’t changed – I still think it’s a great game overall that anyone can get into and those who enjoy loot grinding will get a huge kick out of it. Still though, after more hands on time with the game there are plenty of things I’ve noticed about the game that I thought I’d share. It’s basically spoiler free – though can you really spoil a game that has literally no discernable plot? Read on to find out!

-Let me elaborate – there’s a plot, just a paper thin one. I’m, what, about 50% done the main story and still have no more information about my character, the cause of the outbreak or just how I’m going to escape Banoi than I did when I started. The plot mainly seems to grow out of the events happening at that time (needing to get food for survivors, helping others find safe havens, etc.) and the main plot (finding the source of an ambiguous radio transmission that promised help) doesn’t seem like it will be resolved – even discussed – until much later.

-Playing solo is pretty annoying. You’ll die very often (especially as the game progresses) and you won’t have anyone who can revive you if you’re downed. Maybe I’m just getting the worst of it trying to play on my own as Xian (the blade expert who seems pretty weak compared to my Sam B. character) but zombies seem to do more damage as the game progresses, making their increased numbers even more unmanageable when going solo.

-Speaking of getting downed, I didn’t even realize you could pick people up for a long time. The game does a very poor job of pointing out this little fact and lots of my own and my friends’ money could’ve been saved had we known about this ability earlier.

-And speaking of teammates, I find it kinda strange that – even if you are playing solo – when there is a cutscene, every playable character is shown. For instance, after I cleared out a supermarket of looters to get food and supplies for other survivors, a short cutscene played showing each character helping load up the food, despite the fact that I was playing by myself. If there is stronger evidence to support the idea that Dead Island is meant to be played co-op, I haven’t found it.

-What’s that, Dead Island? There are other people playing who are at the same spot I am? And I can join their game with just the press of a button? Thanks! Now I know not to press that button. I guess setting all my public slots to ‘0’ wasn’t enough indication that I’d rather not have randoms jumping into my game whenever they wanted to.

-The gore and enemy deformation is really impressive, probably the most impressive visual aspect of the game. Whether it’s hacking off or breaking limbs, setting them on fire or whatever, enemies look suitably and realistically deformed after you’re done hacking away at them with machetes and sledgehammers.

-The most unfortunate thing I’ve noticed about Dead Island is just how repetitive the combat becomes over time. All encounters go something like this - jam on the right trigger and occasionally throw a kick in there to get some space. Continue to jam on the right trigger and maybe stomp on a zombie head or two (if you’re in the clear, god knows those animations take forever and leave you completely vulnerable). Stop when all zombies are dead. Even the additional “Analog” control scheme (using the right stick to swing your weapon in an almost Fight Night-esque manner) doesn’t add anything to the formula and is more trouble than it’s worth when you get to the city and you’re fighting off 5-7 zombies at a time as compared to 2-3 in the resort.

-The sound effects and sound design are probably some of the most incredible aspects of this game. The mood and atmosphere of literally every environment is drenched in spectacular sound design – from the horribly unsettling moans of walkers, the guttural yells of thugs and incredibly chilling shrieks of infected to the stark, relative silence of other sections of the game, the sound is one of the most well-executed aspects of Dead Island.

-Why is it that most tourists seem to only have packed small amounts of money, bits of wire or glue in their luggage? What the hell kind of resort was Banoi?

-Energy drinks, snack bars, and fruit are the only healing items you find outside of medkits. Fruit does next to nothing, though. And since you’re apparently immune to the zombie virus (or whatever it is turning people into zombies), I’d think that all the energy drinks/caffeine your character imbibes is worse for their health than the zombies. Really, how can anyone drink, like, 7 energy drinks in a row without their heart exploding?

-Dead Island throws a lot more RPG aspects at you than some may be ready to accept from a game that’s mainly about zombie killing. Sometimes I feel like Dead Island isn’t really a game about a zombie outbreak so much as it is a game about inventory management with zombie killing/fetch quests to break up the time you spend in menus, comparing stats, repairing items and weighing the pros and cons of upgrading weapons or creating new ones with found parts.

-There are almost too many options when it comes to mods/creating weapons. As you play through Dead Island you come across hundreds, if not thousands, of seemingly inconsequential items that may or may not be used in making some kind of weapon. Batteries, lemon juice, wires, rags, even diamonds plus countless other items that are lying all over the island of Banoi just waiting to be pilfered. Are they all important? Hell if I know. I kinda hate this aspect of the game as it makes me very nervous about selling off any of it to make some spare scratch, knowing that I may very well need those parts down the line for some new outlandish mod.

-I honestly still can’t tell just how I feel about this game. On one hand, it’s probably the best depiction of a zombie outbreak/apocalypse that I’ve played yet in a video game. Left 4 Dead is fun but its linearity (linearness?) and pace make it only accessible to those who like first-person shooters. Dead Rising is neat but its goofiness and its insistence on forcing you to strictly adhere to a time-frame really takes the fun out of it. At its best, Dead Island is pretty much an example of what I would do in a zombie apocalypse – gather together a bunch of cobbled together, homemade weapons, amass a treasure trove of (seemingly) worthless trinkets and just hang out, exploring the extents of our ruined world.

-But on the other hand, Dead Island is incredibly frustrating at times and, for the most part, incredibly repetitive. The lack of a strong, overarching narrative and the very nature of an open-world game means its pacing is very uneven. You complete quest after quest, earning money, XP and weapons – but for what? Without a strong story driving the events, you’re basically completing quests and earning XP so you can complete more quests and earn more XP. There comes a point (usually around the 8^th or 9^th time you die in the city from being overwhelmed by 4 or 5 infected who utterly destroy you before you even realize what’s happening) when you find yourself asking, “What is the point, Dead Island? Why am I still subjecting myself to this?” And it’s usually just after I ask myself this question that I lop off an infected’s head in one, fell move like a ninja or find a sweet, new weapon that I can’t wait to use/mod and I forget all my quarrels with the game.

-I read a bit about the future of Dead Island’s DLC. With the Special Edition of the game came a code to redeem the first DLC, called “Bloodbath Arena” or something. Techland recently stated that their focus right now isn’t on the release of DLC but fixing the bugs and problems many have complained of – basically meaning that DLC will be out sometime but probably not any time soon.

Just a few more, why not:

-Though fighting zombies becomes a little tiresome by the middle of the game, the number of encounters with humans increases around this time too, mixing up the gameplay nicely. Though humans are relatively weak compared to the zombies, they make up for it by keeping their distance and using firearms. Firefights with humans (usually with a local gang called the Raskols) are a great change of pace from cracking zombie skulls. I was actually pretty surprised with how well the gunplay works in Dead Island. Though I don't know how many guns there are to be found outside of pistols, auto rifles and shotguns, fights with humans are spaced out enough that it stops mattering that you only have a few guns. On top of that, it keeps with the tropical island paradise aesthetic - how many guns do you really think you'd be able to find on a resort island? Though I've mostly only found humans in the city (looting and whatnot) there have been instances where a large group have taken over a critical building and these lengthy encounters almost make Dead Island feel more like Far Cry.

-A funny thing happened to me while I was playing the other day. I was in the city and sprinting toward my next mission (I was alone and therefore ill-equipped to take on the large packs that roam the city streets) when I slipped between a barricade only to come face to face with a Ram (large enemies in straight jackets who charge when they catch sight of you and can only be hurt from the back) that was blocking the street. He noticed me and let out a yell which prompted me to turn and maybe find another way around. I went back through the barricade and tried to quickly cut the corner into a market area to lose him - only to be stopped by a simple street sign. And not even one that was cemented into the ground - a fold-up sign that, in real life, could be knocked over by a stiff breeze let alone a terrified person trying to run over it. Yet there it stood - defiant to the laws of physics and reality, laughing in my face as I sidestepped a few times to walk around it. It's just an unfortunate reminder that this game may have been pushed out the door a little too quickly and lacks a certain amount of polish.

-Despite death not really having much meaning, besides losing money, I still found myself doing all I could to stay alive. Outside of the percentage amount of money deducted every time you die, it can also be incredibly annoying to try and find your way back to the spot where you fell, as you’re often respawned a good distance away. It’s basically the reason I never throw my weapons (despite the fact that throwing does a good bit of damage and doesn’t seem to degrade it at all), I don’t want to get killed cheaply only to spawn somewhere else, never to see my prized weapon again.

-Apparently there are a ton of glitches still in the game that allow players to dupe (duplicate) weapons or crafting items. I’ve mostly just read of people duping tons and tons of diamonds to be sold at $1,500 a pop, but friends of mine have also shown me ways to dupe weapons as well. I won’t be posting any of the methods I’ve heard of, though, because it’s basically cheating. The most difficult part of the game is staying alive to conserve cash to keep your weapons nice and upgraded so taking away the need to earn money by duping tons and tons of diamonds kinda defeats the point of playing.

-Really like the variety of the enemies as the game goes on. There really isn’t any strategy to fighting the standard zombie types at the beginning of the game but as you move on, you run into numerous special kinds of zombies that require some strategy to defeat. The variety of the game environments also really helps keeping the game feel fresh even after putting 10, 15, 20 hours into it. From the sunny bungalows and beach resort to the cramped, depressing, zombie-filled streets of the city to the overgrown jungle, each environment almost feels like it could be featured in their own game.

Dead Island review – I want to go to there

“Dead Island,” the latest release from developer Techland, created a firestorm of buzz on the internet last spring when it released a haunting trailer full of tension and emotion. The trailer, which depicted a family being overwhelmed by the undead on the fictional island destination Banoi, seemed to promise a different kind of zombie game, one with a heavy emphasis on story and strong relationships with other characters – well, that’s what most people believed the trailer was suggesting anyway.

“Dead Island” succeeded in creating a second wave of internet buzz after it was discovered that it would not in fact play on people’s emotions so much as it would let people obliterate zombies in a massive, beautiful open world. For some reason, this discovery prompted many a net-nerd to accuse the original trailer of being intentionally misleading and other such nonsense. I myself didn’t immediately jump on the game’s bandwagon but instead decided to keep tabs from afar.

Of course “Dead Island” interested me immensely. Throw zombies into pretty much any game and you’ll have my attention. And the revelations that “Dead Island” was allegedly going to be one part “Left 4 Dead,” one part “Fallout” and one part “Borderlands” were more than enough to keep my attention. But still, I wasn’t entirely sure how the whole package would ultimately pan out. I mean, we all saw how hardcore I was campaigning for “Brink” before its release and how it ultimately flopped harder than “The Green Lantern” movie.

What concerned me most about “Dead Island” wasn’t the subject matter, setting or its first-person melee-based combat. No, what concerned me most about “Dead Island” was its developer, Techland. Though the studio has been around for some time, its biggest credit before “Dead Island” was “Call of Juarez”– not exactly a stellar series. Despite my concerns, I decided to pick up “Dead Island” on the day of its release and honestly, it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made – this game is really, really fun.

Remember that equation from above? L4D+Fallout+Borderlands? Turns out that couldn’t be more accurate. “Dead Island” combines the open world/RPG elements of Fallout, the endless amount of loot of Borderlands and the zombie, melee combat of L4D (only so much better) so perfectly, I found myself feeling immediately familiar with the world and game mechanics.

For the most part, the story in “Dead Island” is forgettable. At the start of the game you’re give the choice of four characters (just like Borderlands) who all have a different weapon specialization and are all (somehow) immune to the zombie virus. After that you play through a short prologue chapter which really serves as nothing more than a short intro to the game’s mechanics. After that you find your first weapon, a handful of quests and told to get to smashing some zombie skulls. Make no mistake, “Dead Island” isn’t breaking any sort of mold. If anything it’s taking the molds established by other titles and mashes them together to create a product that is greater than the sum of its parts.

While it doesn’t really innovate the first-person genre, the action/RPG genre or the open-world genre, it more than competently blends those elements together to create a zombie game that I’m frankly surprised took this long to become a thing. A zombie apocalypse is nothing new in the realm of video games but no game to date has so closely captured the feeling of being completely isolated and only moments away from being zombie food. On the island of Banoi, you need to rely on melee weapons as firearms are few and far between. You don’t really know fear until a swarm of zombies starts bearing down on you and all you’re armed with is an old pipe and an oar.

Honestly, it’s gonna be hard for me to pick out “Dead Island’s” flaws. I’m a sucker for the grinding/loot-heavy gameplay that titles like “Diablo,” “Torchlight” and “Borderlands” employed – the idea that there could be another great weapon or item just around the corner will keep me saying, “Ok, just a few more minutes then I turn it off” for hours and hours. Combine that with zombies and you’ve just created a game that I’ll definitely return to over and over and over again. Despite how much I love “Dead Island” it’s anything but perfect and while these flaws aren’t enough to turn me off, they very well could be deal-breakers for others.

First of all, “Dead Island” has more than its fair share of glitches. There was allegedly a day-one patch for “Dead Island” (usually a sign of a game rushed out the door) and an older, non-functioning PC version of the game was released on Steam (which may or may not have been remedied by now. I don’t know. I don’t play PC games). On top of that, there are some serious issues with texture pop-in (even when installed, I hear) and I ran into an almost game-breaking glitch a mere hour or two into the game. On a mission called “Exodus” I was tasked with clearing out a lifeguard tower for a group of survivors. After killing them all, there is a radio at the top of the building you interact with to call the group to tell them it’s safe. Except when I came to the mission in my first play-through, I’d clear out the building but couldn’t interact with the radio and therefore couldn’t advance the story. I must’ve reloaded the mission four or five times before turning it off and resigning to have to start another character. Luckily, I decided to give it one more shot the next time I played and it worked no problem. I haven’t run into any other problems like that so far and hope that nothing similar happens deeper into the game.

Most other problems are relatively minor, though, but could still be too annoying for some to deal with. The inventory system is rather bulky and forces you to scroll through a huge list to find anything. The voice-overs are also pretty weak and border on very annoying. I hope you like Australian accents because practically everyone you meet has one. On top of the voice-overs being lame, the NPC characters that sport these voices are stiff and robotic looking – not to mention their dead eyes that just stare off into space while you talk to them are a little off-putting.

This next set of flaws mainly pertains to the combat system. The melee combat, for the most part, works really, really well. Finding your range is easier than expected and you’ll have no problem fending off zombies from the get-go. However, there are plenty of times where you’ll be overwhelmed and despite your wild swings, nothing seems to connect and you’re dead before you know it. There’s also no way to block attacks – a rather odd omission for a game with melee-based combat. On top of that, zombies have grab maneuver that forces you into a button-pressing sequence to break their grasp. More often than not, you’ll find yourself in the grasp of zombie without even realizing any were nearby.

Remember a minute ago when I talked about being overwhelmed and dead before you know it? Well, if you’re the kind of gamer who hates dying you may want to look elsewhere because you will die in “Dead Island.” And if you play solo, you will die fairly often. The penalty for death is pretty small, though – just a nice chunk of your money and you’ll be respawned close to where you fell. While it doesn’t seem like much, money is incredibly important in “Dead Island.” You need money to repair and upgrade your weapons and you’ll be repairing them quite often as pretty much every weapon degrades very quickly. I don’t really know why you need money to repair stuff, either. You don’t take your weapons to a person to get them fixed, you stand at a workbench and fix them yourself. I don’t understand it but I usually seem to have more than enough money so it hasn’t been an issue for me (it’s all about switching weapons frequently to keep from ruining a one, or many, completely).

What I’ve noticed about “Dead Island” is that the difficulty drops significantly when playing with even just one other person. By that I don’t mean the game drops the difficulty itself, just that tackling quests and groups of zombies is much easier when there is more than one person for enemies to target. Overall I found myself dying with much less frequency when playing with others opposed to playing alone. Co-op works great overall, though. Minimal lag, everything loads up as quickly as it does when playing solo and exploring the island of Banoi is just more fun with more people. Definitely more of a creepy, atmospheric feeling of dread and isolation while playing solo and more of a having fun, hanging out and bashing a few zombie brains experience when playing with friends.

But while on the subject of co-op I feel compelled to mention that the default co-op setting in “Dead Island” is “open to anyone” who happens to be at about the same spot in the game as you. Meaning that unless you set your co-op option to private, random people will be able to jump into your game at any time. I guess some people might not have a problem with that but, for me, unless I’m playing with people I know, I’d rather be playing solo.

So there you have it. While not without its flaws and definitely not perfect, “Dead Island” succeeds in more ways than it fails. Its huge, open, colorful environment is packed full of secrets and the story alone (not counting sidequests) is said to be 20-30 hours long. Taking on quests and zombies is incredibly easy and fun for gamers unfamiliar with the open-world/action/RPG genre and those who decide to stay in Banoi will enjoy countless hours of zombie bashing and comparing the stats of your upgraded Naild Baseball Bat to the Debilitating Homemade Machete that you just found. Obviously, wading through stats, keeping track of money and running back to workbenches to spend said money repairing hammers and crowbars in a zombie game won’t appeal to some gamers. I, on the other hand, will gladly enjoy the zombified tropical vacation of “Dead Island” for some time to come. At least until “Batman: Arkham City” comes out. Or “Rage.” Or “Battlefield 3.” Or “Skyrim.”

Man. This is going to be one tough fall.