ZOMBIES ARE THE BEST
I'm not sure many of you know, but I am a big fan of the zombie genre. I watch the movies, play videogames, and read up on some of the literature and research behind the whole concept. Recently I had purchased Dead Island for the Xbox360. At first, I was a littl skeptical about the purchase, but after playing through the whole game I am glad I bought the last copy they had at Gamestop. This game, by far, is one of the best zombie experiences I have ever had.
Now you have to ask yourself, what makes for a good zombie experience. Well, from what I've seen throughout the years, a good zombie piece will either take itself too seriously, or will go in the complete opposite direction and not take itself seriously at all.
A majority of zombie pieces try to take itself seriously, which can make for an excellent zombie piece. What it means to take itself seriously is that the zombie piece covers all the bases of how a zombie outbreak should develop. Some of these bases involve the two types of questions:
-How should the zombies act?
-How should the survivors act?
Some great zombie pieces have successfully portrayed this kind of tone. Some of these include:
-Night of the Living Dead
-Dawn of the Dead (First one, and remake)
-28 Days Later
-28 Weeks Later
-Quarantine
-Zombie Survival Guide (book)
-High School of the Dead*
-Dead Rising 1 & 2*
-Dead Island
*Can also count in zombie pieces that also don't take itself seriously. I will explain later.
These pieces cover how zombies act, the possible source of the infection, and how survivors act accordingly. What these pieces also tend to do is that for the duration of the piece it portrays a reset in society where survival of the fittest becomes the number one rule again. In these pieces the separation between the zombie and the survivor is clearly defined, and neither of the two are blended together. Zombies become midnless and rely on the basics of animalistic needs and senses (to a lesser degree). Survivors do any and all things to live, whether it be holing yourself up in a mall, arming a fortress of solitude, or going from place to place ransacking everything you come across in nomadic terms.
Then there are the zombie pieces that don't take themselves seriously at all - sometimes. These ones point out the idiosyncrasies prevalent in most zombie pieces and put an ironic twist on the whole thing. They tend to end up being comical, and usually cannot be taken seriously because it ends up becoming a horror-comedy piece. Some of these include:
-High School of the Dead*
-Dead Rising 1 & 2*
-Shaun of the Dead
I placed "High School of the Dead" and "Dead Rising" on both lists because even though they both have the general formula for a good zombie piece there are certain aspects where you can't really say that it is realistic of it happening. "High School of the Dead" is up on both lists because the plot and the tone of the anime is just right for a zombie piece that happens in a generic anime subplot. What makes it unrealistic is the fact that the anime/manga puts a lot of emphasis on ecchi, which is, how I see it, as the creators way of showing how Hollywood horror movies emphasize sexual innuendos for filler in "bad horror movies." Hence that one sexually frustrating episode, and the Matrix moving boobs. "Dead Rising 1 & 2" also has an excellent plot and scenario suitable for a videogame. The only reason why it also doesn't take itself seriously at times is because of gameplay being ludicrous at times. For example:
-You are able to try on ALL the clothes in the mall/casino (I MEAN ALL)
-You fight a clown that has 2 chainsaws
-You can make a ridiculous new weapon by duct taping it together (Like a flaemthrower made by duct taping a gas tank to a super soaker, or a double ended chainsaw kayak paddle)
-In Dead Rising 2 you can give a 400-pound live tiger as a gift to your daughter.
-There is a secret place in each game where you can dress up as Megaman
Those two pieces are both serious and hilarious at the same time; they are also one of the few times that it actually works. Shaun of the Dead is, in and of itself, a comedy taking place in a zombie outbreak. It is a parody of the zombie genre, and it works pretty well in the setting it is established in.
So why does "Dead Island" become one of the best zombie experiences I've ever played? Well Dead Island is set up like a sandbox style RPG game. It adds some sense of realism to the whole game by only providing weapons as stuff you might occasionally find wherever you are:wooden paddles, sticks, knives, baseball bats, are just some to name a few that you'd be able to find when you are first starting. Guns are scarce to come by. They use a life bar system with consumables to refill health. Much of the quests are compiled of fetch, rescue, or escort missions because, quite frankly, that's all you can really do. The combat is composed of a fatigue and stagger system where you are able to knock down certain zombies with enough blows, but if you run out of energy your blows become ineffective. Weapons also degrade from constant use, but they can be repaired, upgraded, and modified through work benches and using money - you have to spend money that you recover from abandoned luggage and dead zombies. Some of the modifications make sense in terms of feasibility, and aren't over the top. Zombies aren't necessarily constantly in massive numbers, but it's when you arrive in narrow pathways does that sense of claustrophobia and fear overtake gameplay especially if it is dark and your flashlight is about to run out. The game also has several types of zombies for diversity. There are the stagger zombies, and then the runners. Then there are the specially designed ones: Thug (slow tank), Ram (Rhino, cna only be damaged from behind), Floater (fat, slow, projectile shooter), Suicider (walking proximity mine), and the Butcher (Baraka from Mortal Kombat?). Much of these additional special zombies add a lot to the choices you make in the game. One on one they are manageable, but that's almost never the case. You tend to get a hoard of zombies rushing behind these special ones, which forces the choice of a fight or flight response. This game does force people into fight or flight situations; you can only manage attacking so many zombies with a view span of 120 degrees.
There are some obvious few kinks in the game. There have been bugs in terms of loading check points, and sometimes the graphics take time to render. If you die, there is no real punishment for losing except losing 10% of your money and restarting from the last checkpoint. I have also heard that the stroy polt is too generic, and there is no real character development for the four available characters. Quite frankly, I'm not sure of all the defects because I've only encountered few I can ignore. It is all about the experience. This is why its comparable to Elder Scrolls or Fallout 3; the protagonist has a generic plot path. Nothing is ever really distinguished beyond the first profile synopsis of each character.
I love this game because everything you would probably do in a zombie outbreak. Guns aren't littered throughout the streets available for pick up with infinite bullets scattered throughout. Buildings aren't kept in tact. People aren't necessarily civilized. All you have are weapons that you can manage to make out of tools, and whatever weapons you can find off of the undead. Guns are scarce, and bullets are even harder to come by compared to guns; your ammo storage is also severely limited to a max of 80 bullets per gun type and it takes about 7 bullets to take out one zombie (unless your using a shotgun).
The setting of the whole outbreak is on an island resort in Papua New Guinea seperated into four different areas that require loading into each area. These areas include the beach resort, the inner city, the jungle, and the island prison. The whole story you are bing led by a prison seargent to find your way to the prison island because all four main characters are immune to the infection. This leads you from the beach resort to the inner city because you are trying to restock food and supplies with all the survivors that have holed themselves up in their respective strongholds. You eventually make your way to the jungle in an attempt to find the research facility that may be the cause of, or the solution to, the disease. Throughout the notes you collect in the game you find out that the natives of Papua New Guinea are already familiar with the disease, and that the disease origiates from the plants indigenous to the island. The notes then point out that the natives consume these plants as a means of becoming "immortal", but the effects of zombification do not occur until 15-20 years after constant ingestion. Even then, the natives have built a tolerance to the effects so no real zombification occurs while they are alive, only when they die. The outbreak on the island is due to the same plant, but the contagion has been modified to have accelerated effects - in other words, classic zombie storyline for the 21st century.
The scenery, atmosphere, and lighting of each area progresses the scare factor of the game fairly well as you progress. Being on the beach resort is obviously going to be bright, but as you progress to the city you have dark alleys, even darker sewers, and random rain showers that darken the light and decrease visibility. Then when you get to the jungle it becomes even more eerie because when you move through the dense flora the zombies tend to be camouflaged by the shadows of the trees. Sound also plays a big role in the fear factor of the game. Zombies are constantly howling in random intervals whether or not they are around you, but it can still be heard. These howls can also be used as a warning that they are running towards you. Thus, you are always on alert otherwise you risk dying.
Now I can understand that you can't use everything as a weapon, but considering that the maps are expansive that some aspects were left unattended. I've heard people complain about not being able to pick up every single thing to use as a weapon, but it really didn't bother me. Realistically, the weapons provided in the game are probably one's you would use. Have you ever tried to fend off an attacker with something like a chair or a trash can? You're more likely to be attacked. Of course, they should be allowed to take some liberties in terms of creativity versus reality. After all, the zombie genre is fantasy horror.
I would like to explain the definition of a horrible zombie movie, but there are way too many things to point out. I'll save that for another time.
Too bad Gears of War 3 is coming out in 3 days. I won't have enough time to appreciate
Dead Island more.