Quick Look: Dead Island: Ryder White & Arena DLC

Guys complaining about spoilers for Dead Island are cracking me up. The story is barely even there and the game really isn't that good. It has also been out for a while now, so spoilers shouldn't be a surprise for DLC Quick Looks.

Sounds like the patch took out the few things that made the game bearable anyway. I have zero interest in going back to Dead Island.

I agree with something Patrick said, it does feel like Techland doesn't seem to understand what people like about their games when they do like something about the game. So, when it's time for DLC or a sequel they use the worst of the game to get everyone to hate it. This DLC looks horrible. And why would they turn the kick into a stamina draining move? It was the only thing that helped you survive when being swamped by enemies. Has everything they have done since the game came out been to ruin what people did enjoy about the game? Let's remove the power the kick gives you. Let's remove co-op. Let's not even add achievement points in.

But the Arena DLC looks so much better.

And the Arena DLC was for preorders only, so hearing Brad mention how it came free with new copies of the game over and over is frustrating.

When this was announced, like I don't know, when the game came out. It always sounded like garbage to me, so no surprise that it actually is. Techland went and boned their own game more ways than one, they barely even knew the strengths of their own game the first time round, so it shouldn't come as a shock that the DLC is fucked. Edit: looks like Patrick said more or less the exact thing, well there you go.

Also making kicks take stamina is perhaps the worst thing they could have ever done. Not respawning is also stupid.

It saddens me because the main game, bar the end, was an unforgettable experience, even with the problems and design choices it had. Pleasantly surprised by the arena stuff though, that cave looked very nice

Oh Brad, why are you so bad at games.

Man, fuck that Ryder White DLC. What the hell were they thinking?

Wow. I was reconsidering grabbing Dead Island off of Steam as this QL started but man, I think I'm good w/o it.

Brad is awesome. I enjoy his banter... but man does he suck at playing video games while talking. lol

I'm sure he's good when the camera is off, but I suppose it takes a special skill set to play well when trying to describe concepts.

Pathetic how some bash this game for its difficulty but praise something like Dark Souls which only achieves difficulty through obscurity and artificiality. Also, i've lost most respect i had for Giantbomb after watching stuff like the Ninja Gaiden QL and now this, for NG they chose easy difficulty and then they bashed the game for being too easy and now that they play a challenging game they trash it for being too harsh *sigh*...

@cav86: Oh completely. The main reason I was intrigued in this DLC was to see what Ryder's skill tree looked like and how you could min-max him. Removing that makes zero sense to me.

Dead Island was one of my favorite games from last year.

I generally love Brad and the quicklooks he does, but I don't understand the spoiler. Yeah, perhaps the games story wasn't good, but it remains and unneeded spoiler. Even if it is announched. The DLC does look horrible. I always hated the respawning infected as well. Al though Brad also just isn't playing that well. The exploding enemies can for example be ran past as they take a second orso to explode. His panic was unnessery. I used to run past them to blow up groups of zombies without using ammo. Also this dlc seems to focus much more on gunplay, so why not use the guns more? In the end however, its al not that important as Brad shows that its primarly the worst section of the original game compressed into a single piece of DLC. I really did not like the city at all.

@dprabon said:

Brad is awesome. I enjoy his banter... but man does he suck at playing video games while talking. lol

I'm sure he's good when the camera is off, but I suppose it takes a special skill set to play well when trying to describe concepts.

Shadow of the Colussus HD quicklook... case and point

btw, where's mah Neverdead quicklook?! Me wants mah Neverdead! Dats ah phenomicas game

:( When you said "no co-op" I was like "b-b-b-but he only reason I played...."

Glad I skipped this game. I'll wait for Borderlands 2.

This looks look like they took the worst parts of the game and made it into DLC.

I have to say this is a great quicklook. I had a bit of interest in this DLC, and seeing how shitty this looks, I am now glad that I won't be getting it. Thank you Brad, for playing a shitty game (the DLC, I love the main) so that I don't have to.

My word, part of the GB community has gone sour as a lemon. Sure, he shouldn't have spoiled the ending of the original, but people make mistakes. Live with it. Send a PM asking nicely if he could refrain from doing so in the future, that'll get the message across, but don't go wining on an internet forum.

I like Brad, I like Patrick, I like this QL.

Brad is now feeling the same emotions that I did while playing all of Dead Island. Just constant deaths and no way to control what's going on.

Is this the most times Brad has died in a quicklook? 

Oh no, Brad spoiling the mind blowing story twist of dead island.

Seriously? What is going on here?

Edit: JesusChrist

This looks terrible! Make fun of Brad dying as much as you like but he stood no chance against a neverending flood of the worst enemies in DI

No nerd tears I think (?), but I wouldn't mind seeing some QL's without Patrick again, for variety sake.

"im going to spoil the ending of dead island" AAAH MUTE MUTE MUTE-too late.

Well, I didn't care about the story at all anyway.

Brad even explicitly warned I AM ABOUT TO SPOIL THE ENDING OF DEAD ISLAND in a loud voice before he said anything else. I don't get the big issue here.

in my dead island kicking does not cost stamina. 

This looks bad to play alone, the only reason I played dead island was for the co op.

@iPliskin: You're wrong about why Dark Souls is hard. Artificiality? What the hell are you going on about? Dark Souls is hard because it forces you to go at a very measured pace and play conservatively. Defeat in Dark Souls is only met when you're rushing or not paying enough attention. Also, dying is just a part of the game in DS.

They were bashing the new NG game because the controls were not as tight as they were in previous entries.

@MAD_JIHAD said:

Brad is so bad at video games LOL.

He really is...

Trucks!

Uh...Wow. I already knew GB had its fair share of whiny folk, but these comments are pretty bad. Try to tone it down, 'kay?

Getting back to the point of this QL, I think it did its job well. It was informative, featured people that enjoyed the base game, and had lots of Brad deaths. Keep it up, GB.

Combat looks so clunky and slow with a controller.

@BSw said:

I like Brad, I like Patrick, I like this QL.

Yet another quick look with Patrick. Hmm..

" Oh My good fucking WOW!" Brad's reponse to being mobbed.

Brad's my hero, that cracked me up big-time.

When I saw this and read what it was all about I was thinking about heading back into a game that, toward the end of my 25 hour run, was sadly despising. Thanks to that quick look I have avoided that horror.

UH OH GUYS! Patrick is in another quick look! Start bitching go go go!

Yeah, I agree that Brad spoils shit for no reason, but a lot of those deaths weren't really his fault.

Also, Dead Island really fucking sucks.

@Brodehouse said:

Brad is now feeling the same emotions that I did while playing all of Dead Island. Just constant deaths and no way to control what's going on.

Yeah this is where I'm coming from too... Brad seems to have turned on this game now, when his review and initial impressions seemed to indicate he liked the whole thing. The idea of Dead Island was always cool, it looks great, and plays well, but halfway through that game it just started to feel like torture. I probably would have died a lot here too..

But Brad, just run past some zombies...

JUST RUN RUUUUN

And I too hate infinitely spawning infected....

Love the Brad and Patrick QLs. Hilarious as always.

And yeah...this looks BRUTAL.

Just further confirmation that the second act of dead island was fuckin terrible and ruins the awesome opening act

My exact frustrations with dead island and the reason i stopped playing

Oh my god I felt so bad for Brad in this quick look, the game was really relentless with the runners, and I know how difficult they are to deal with especially in such cramped quarters. I can't even imagine playing Dead Island again with the kick now using stamina, as Brad said, it really was your only form of crowd control in some situations.
 
Safe to say I'll be avoiding this one. Not like I wanted to find out anything else out White anyway, really didn't care for that character, and there's no way they can justify his actions in the endgame in this or any other DLC, it just made so little sense.
 
Edit: Just saw the Arena portion of the quick look, and that looked good. Much more interesting, I may go back to play that, after all.

No levelling and player progression? That's a bit of a missed opportunity to say the least.

Over half if this Quick Look is just Brad getting fucking worked over and over and none of it is because he's pulling a Brad. That DLC looks fucking terrible. Why would anyone want to play Dead Island with all the RPG elements and co-op removed?

This looks execrable. A pointed case of a developer having no damn idea what made their game fun.

trucks

Ryder's model is frozen on the character selection screen. He doesn't move, but his eyes do occasionally dart back and forth (sometimes directly at you).

Pretty broken, and accidentally creepy.

fuck this DLC. This is a decent game releasing DLC focused on what every one hated

Wow, this looks so bad I wouldn't download it for free. I put up with the crazy infected swarms late in the original because I figured "well, I'm playing solo and these were probably balanced for co-op"....and then in this they remove the co-op option and make the swarms worse. Yikes.

@MrGtD said:

So far, this looks like exactly everything I hated about Dead Island. Great!

Fucking infected, those almost ruined the game for me, absolutely hated everything about them.