I'm loving this game. I haven't had any issues with the save system so that helps, if my save gets screwed I'd be frustrated enough to give up on it so I get that, but I'm 30 hours in and it's a blast.

I've been taking my time so I'm still in the city finishing up my last open side quest but smashing zombie skulls and dismembering zombie limbs is just a mindless good time. Been playing single player and the city has been a pretty cool escalation in challenge with enough safe spots to keep it fun. I just run from truck to truck to get to my destination. From on top I round up any zombies in sight with my pistol and then drop a deo-bomb on them, count to three, back up and watch the limbs fly. Then take out any stragglers with the old flying blade to the neck, kick to the chest, blunt to the skull combo. It's been fairly intense since I'm playing solo so it's easy to get mobbed and I spend all my cash on deodorant and duct tape (found some grenades for sale but at $600 a pop, no can do) so all my weapons are whatever crap I find laying around. I've been all over this city and haven't got bored yet.

This game is just so fun that it's hard to fret about the little stuff. I haven't seen limbs fly like this since Postal 2. I wish more games were this fun more often than I wish more games had CGI quality graphics. And I haven't even gone multi-player yet. Glad I found something to last me until Dark Souls.

I want to hear what people are doing up in here for fun. I want to hear more about what's to love than what's to hate. 'til I lose my save, then I'll be cursing the game too, I mean whoTF makes a game this big and doesn't let you have multiple save files? Anyway, lot is to love about all these dead peoples running around begging for an ax in the chest.

I find the game almost unplayable when I play it alone. However, playing with three friends, it's one of my favourite games of the year

There is lots to hate too, bro

I loved this game, I couldn't stop playing it then after hitting level 25 the difficulty curve shot through the roof. I don't mind dying but when you respawn with 4 blocks of health that is a single hit from a zombie at that level makes it an annoyance. Also it makes no sense for the cash penalty, where does it go?

 Also it makes no sense for the cash penalty, where does it go?

@TheHumanDove said:

I find the game almost unplayable when I play it alone. However, playing with three friends, it's one of my favourite games of the year

What a coincidence! According to the Giant Bomb staff (excluding Brad) they feel the exact same way!

Although, I still don't understand how having 3 other people with you would take the game from "unplayable" to favorite game of the year. That's a damn hard swing.

Edit: Also, I just bought it last night on PC and am Loving it.

What I love about it : it's the Borderlands template. I was not fully aware of that before it came out. It adds some things to the template and it also falls short of Borderlands in terms of some gameplay and polish. But I loved the hell out of Borderlands, so I love that it's a game of that style as opposed to a Left 4 Dead style - even though the 4 player co-op surely invokes that game as well.

@Extreme_Popcorn said:

I loved this game, I couldn't stop playing it then after hitting level 25 the difficulty curve shot through the roof. I don't mind dying but when you respawn with 4 blocks of health that is a single hit from a zombie at that level makes it an annoyance. Also it makes no sense for the cash penalty, where does it go?

@ApolloBob said:

What I love about it : it's the Borderlands template. I was not fully aware of that before it came out. It adds some things to the template and it also falls short of Borderlands in terms of some gameplay and polish. But I loved the hell out of Borderlands, so I love that it's a game of that style as opposed to a Left 4 Dead style - even though the 4 player co-op surely invokes that game as well.

Yeah, this game wouldn't be that great without the Borderlands aspects. If it was like a more standard shooter and you just played through the missions it wouldn't have that level of addiction with it. But I'm loving the difficulty spike Extreme_Popcorn mentioned. It's a lot of fun to have to figure out ways to deal with the difficulty. I loved Borderlands but it was a big problem for me when I started to get so over-leveled that I was just breezing through all of the available missions. Dead Island, and Borderlands before I got too over-leveled, require a surprising amount of tactics, and that adds a lot to the fun for me.

This game has hit a lot of the right buttons for me. But I did try to back up my save to USB on PS3 and the option isn't there, the only option is to back it up with a PS+ cloud save, which is BS for a game that is supposed to be such high risk for corrupted saves. It's BS for any game really, Deus Ex is the same with not allowing you to back up your save to USB...unless someone can tell me I'm wrong, but the USB option is there for most of my other games so I'm not seeing it.

There's a lot to like about this game but there's also a good amount of things to not like (launch issues/glitches aside)

Likes:

-I love how the driving and the gunplay feel considering the bulk of this game revolves around melee combat. Both handle very well

- the fact that money generally feels like it always has a purpose which is probably due to the fact that the enemies level up with you. In most games, as you advance and level up the idea of spending money becomes useless.

-The damage model on the zombies is excellent especially considering the open world nature of everything.

-The fact that fast traveling within the same territory/area is seamless. Very impressive

-Stamina doesn't act as much of a hinderance as i was expecting.

Hate:

-I hate the graphics on pretty much anything that isn't part of the environment or a zombie. I met a woman yesterday in the jungle who's hair didn't come down over the front of her forehead and instead went thru it

-The only thing worse then some of the graphics is the voice acting

-The fact that you can fast travel to/from certain places but not vice versa.

-I also hate the fact that when fast traveling, that they don't give you some kind of screenshot or map indication when you highlight different destinations so you have a better understanding where you're going. I've fast traveled to destinations in the middle of nowhere with no way back other than to hoof it because i couldn't figure out where the destination was based on name.

-Doesn't happen often but i hate when i do a mission that's all the way on the other side of the map and then give in the quest and new sidequests open up right after and someone wants me to go all the way back across the map from the same location i just came from. This was particularly annoying in Act II >_>

-I wish some of the quest rewards were other practical benefits besides money, weapons and mods. Like if there was a quest for you to go to a guys house to get him a specific item, that upon completing the quest, his house would act as a fast travel destination or something. Things like that.

-I could be wrong but critical hits seem random as oppose to something like borderlands where each creature type had a specific weak point that was always a critical hit. In about 20hrs of gameplay i could probably count on 1 hand the amount of critical hits i've gotten

As it turns out, Dead Island is a game about love.

I'm teetering right in the middle of liking it a little bit and hating it a little bit. Is there anyway to lock onto an enemy? The combat can be fun when it's one on one but I'm finding that fights where there are more than 2 enemies can be extremely confusing and frustrating.

@yakov456: No specific enemy lock on. Just gotta try to keep them at bay with kicks and weapon swipes.

Assuming you haven't reached it yet, you'll be in a for real treat once you hit Act II

I just unlocked the city and I am slowly worming up to it. I hope that the mission will change soon, I am getting tiered of fetch quests.

It's my new favorite zombie game. Fuck Left 4 Dead, fuck Dead Rising 2, Dead Island is where it's all at. Note: Each title has dead in it.

Also, I'd like to add that the game is less fun and can be really difficult if you're playing alone.

I decided to play through the game single player before I do much MP because I'm worried about my save. I just finished the city and started in the jungle, and I think the single player is a blast, it's just a completely different game in terms of how you play. I loved the difficulty of the city, though a couple times I lost my best weapon by throwing it at somebody and then dying before I could go get it. Here's all I can say about surviving in the city since the resort doesn't really prepare you for this:

- Learn to run, you can't kill everything on your own.

- There are less large mobs in the alleys and backways than in the streets.

- Learn to run and jump onto the hoods of cars and delivery trucks, it's pretty safe up there.

- Use the weapons you find (don't buy), collect every alcohol you see, and spend every penny on deodorant and duct tape - deo-bombs & molotovs are the answer to mobs in single player.

- Use your pistol to get zombie's attention and gather mobs to where you want them so you aren't wasting deo-bombs, but don't waste ammo actually trying to kill zombies with it, just get them to swarm to you on a delivery truck where you can deo-bomb the whole group. (all you have to do to get more ammo is find any human thugs area, cap a few dudes and done/full ammo).

The fun of it is that you can't survive in the city without a little planning - no more just waltzing around chopping off zombie parts without a care. I suppose if you're just trying to breeze through the game and be done that could be a problem, but just for fun it's about right.

I am having fun with my friend and randoms playing it.

But if there are any stories or quests I should care about, well, the other players tend to skip that cutscene or quest scene w/e.

So basically it feels that the 15 first levels are about killing the same zombies over and over again.

And to experiment with the game, weapons, upgrades.

I do like the game, but it such a weird game, it feels like a clusterfuck of ideas to be honest :o

One way, it could be a scary experience, the other way, it could be an mmo, or a "borderlands" style mmo.

It has lots of loot, but slow at picking them up.

Its fun though, for all its rough edges.

Even though they are not the same type of game, I would say left 4 dead series are better all around, even though that is much repetive, and not fun at all without playing with your friends.

@plaintomato said:

I decided to play through the game single player before I do much MP because I'm worried about my save. I just finished the city and started in the jungle, and I think the single player is a blast, it's just a completely different game in terms of how you play. I loved the difficulty of the city, though a couple times I lost my best weapon by throwing it at somebody and then dying before I could go get it. Here's all I can say about surviving in the city since the resort doesn't really prepare you for this:

- Learn to run, you can't kill everything on your own.

- There are less large mobs in the alleys and backways than in the streets.

- Learn to run and jump onto the hoods of cars and delivery trucks, it's pretty safe up there.

- Use the weapons you find (don't buy), collect every alcohol you see, and spend every penny on deodorant and duct tape - deo-bombs & molotovs are the answer to mobs in single player.

- Use your pistol to get zombie's attention and gather mobs to where you want them so you aren't wasting deo-bombs, but don't waste ammo actually trying to kill zombies with it, just get them to swarm to you on a delivery truck where you can deo-bomb the whole group. (all you have to do to get more ammo is find any human thugs area, cap a few dudes and done/full ammo).

The fun of it is that you can't survive in the city without a little planning - no more just waltzing around chopping off zombie parts without a care. I suppose if you're just trying to breeze through the game and be done that could be a problem, but just for fun it's about right.

All valuable tips being that, as you said, the resort doesn't really prep you for the city at all. But as valuable as those tips are i just hate goin into the city and im so glad that i'm done with it. Primarily because of two words: THE INFECTED. These things are just freakin relentless it's unreal. I'm almost level 30 at this point so my stamina lasts a pretty good while (assuming stamina levels up with you like your health bar) and i constantly find myself in situations where i run non stop as far as a can with an infected on my ass screaming the whole way and when i run out of breath i have just enough time to turn around and kick it and try to take him out and hope i don't get mobbed in the process.

Another thing, i hate how kicking an infected doesn't offer up the same stopping power as to walkers. It takes a while to even kick an infected to the ground.

I'm just ranting but i absolutely hate the infected, but its for all the right reasons, namely because it requires you to think on your toes and change up your play style a bit. Damn these devs >_<

I am actually really happy to hear someone not tearing this game apart, I really want to get it but with everyone shitting on it the past week I have been very apprehensive. Good to hear that its not like that for everyone, I will probably pick it up soon.

How's the online Co-op? I wouldn't really want to play it unless I am playing with other people.

@hbkdx12: Jump + Kick will save your ass several times when playing alone. It always knocks a zombie over (except the larger ones). And yes I agree, the Infected are the biggest threat in this game. I'm at the end of the jungle, and an Infected can easily kill me in ~2 seconds if I get ambushed.

@Cincaid: hmm really? Didn't know this. Does it have to be a running jump kick or can i just jump straight up and then kick? Cuz if it's the former, i rather not run towards an infected if i can help it

@matthias2437: i haven't tried it but i hear it's great, when it works. However, a lot of the glitches and save issues that a lot of people have been having seem to be tied to playing online. So if you don't plan on going at it alone, i'd say wait until they work all the issues out

@hbkdx12: You can stand in one spot and jump straight up + kick, and it will send zombies flying to the ground. It can be tricky to pull off when an Infected is running screaming towards you, but after some practice you'll find it's an awesome life-saving move.

@matthias2437 said:

I am actually really happy to hear someone not tearing this game apart, I really want to get it but with everyone shitting on it the past week I have been very apprehensive. Good to hear that its not like that for everyone, I will probably pick it up soon.

How's the online Co-op? I wouldn't really want to play it unless I am playing with other people.

If you like fun games you'd be doing yourself a major disservice not to get this one. Of course, I haven't had any save issues yet (PS3) and when/if I do I'll be totally pissed and trade it in ASAP (maybe not), but anyway I get that. Still ticks me off that you can't back up your save without PS+, but this game is one of the most fun I've played in awhile.

@Cincaid said:

@hbkdx12: Jump + Kick will save your ass several times when playing alone. It always knocks a zombie over (except the larger ones). And yes I agree, the Infected are the biggest threat in this game. I'm at the end of the jungle, and an Infected can easily kill me in ~2 seconds if I get ambushed.

WTF, I've been playing this a lot and I never even thought of a jump kick...I'll have to try that out tonight to see if it hits with a little more knockdown power...but I've got the blunt skill maxed so hitting the two shoulder buttons at the same time is a guaranteed knock down, and followed with a jumping head smash I can two-hit-kill anything I can knock down, so I guess I missed much use for a jump kick.

At first I was disappointed to have to use the blunt guy (wanted blade specialty but couldn't stand seeing my kicking foot in little pointy toed high heeled shoe for some reason), but really I get to use blades as much as I want for a change up anyway so Sam B was the way to go for me.

@plaintomato: Hehe yeah, I sort of discovered it by accident. Xian (blade-lady I used for single playthrough) have a skill which increases her damage when doing the jump + kick. So after I leveled up I was curious what was so fantastic about the jump + kick, and just discovered that it knocks down Walkers and Infected. It even makes Thugs, Butchers and Floaters to sort of stagger, leaving them open to attacks.

And this is not limited to Xian. I play the gun-lady (Purma?) in co-op with a friend who's Sam B, and both of us use that move like there's no tomorrow.

Yep. Instant knockdown in exchange for a butt-ton of stamina. This game has a really good variety of attacks, especially after you level your combat skillz. And like somebody somewhere said, the gunplay is really good (if only against non-zoms), which is surprising for a melee focused game. I keep finding more to like, I really don't get all the hate, I can't really think of a game with more combat variety.

Dead Island is the only game coming close to my idea of a zombie RPG. It's banned here in Germany, but I bought it with my credit card on Amazon.co.uk. I hope my PS3 can read it, but banned games should be region-free... at least it worked with Prototype.

I'm pretty excited :)

Is the shitty combat one of the things?

What a weird thing to necro.

Anyway, I have no idea if I originally responded to this (edit: 2 pages.. quick scan and... nope) but ya... Dead Island is alright. My only problem with it was how quickly stuff breaks. But that ends up not really being that big of a deal.

The game is flawed, but it has it's moments.

first person melee is the most nauseating thing ever

@phrali said:

first person melee is the most nauseating thing ever

I wonder, what's so bad about it?

Dead Island is the only game coming close to my idea of a zombie RPG.

@Marokai said:

@Morrow said:

Dead Island is the only game coming close to my idea of a zombie RPG.

A kindred spirit! Zombie games are always played for jokes in a Dead Rising style or turned into all-out action games, and I always wished someone would play it straight and serious, with RPG tropes. Dead Island totally does that, and if that's what you're into, you'll love it.

Yeah, I'm looking forward to it :) I can't believe it arrived today already, I ordered it on Sunday as an Import from the UK. I just got home from work :]

@bighat_logan said:

Is the shitty combat one of the things?

The combat is only shitty when there are shitty players