Dead Island Review - The Rageaholic 

"Can you have fun playing Dead Island? Maybe. Kids in Uganda have fun with fucking rocks, anythings possible." Razorfist, I love you.

*Razorfist:* The kind of guy that uses Dethklok for intros and gives honest rage takes. *Jim Sterling:* The kind of guy that helps a feminist gamer rip of other gamers and remains completely silent about it.

Thank you Razorfist, not only for sharing your honest opinion, (and making me laugh while you were sharing it.) but for helping me find my new profile pic.

Something tells me you don't like Jim Sterling all that much ...

A sack of oranges as a weapon would be hilarious, and I would use it often!

Dead Island is one of those games you either love or hate, I think. For me, it's much like the 2nd Deus Ex games is for you. I know it's buggy. I know it has tears of boredom inducing fetch quests. I know it got shoved out before it was done. I know it didn't remotely live up to its marketing. However, it scratched an itch that I'd wanted, an open world game with zombies and RPG elements, along with crafting. If they'd give it more development time and attached some better writers to design the plot and sidequests, I think it would have deserved those high scores it got. As it stands right now, I'd give a 6.5 of 10 on release and probably a 7.5 after buying the complete version.

B-b-but that trailer theme!

I remember having real trouble getting a rental copy of this. Going back to the days of blockbuster, this was always being rented, coming back, and going straight back out the door again. Weeks upon weeks I tried to rent it. The hype train really was in full motion with this one.

I enjoyed this game. I took it for what it is, a first person zombie hack and slash.

I had a passing liking for this game until listening to this breakdown ... made me realize it was the crafting system I liked, because the rest of the game truly sucked donkey balls when I look back and think on it. Likely why I bought the sequel and didn't even make it 20% of the way through the game before I said "meh ..." and shut it down. Never fired it back up since.

This review was EPIC! Keep it up man! One of the most under rated game reviewers on the internet, as we speak. I wonder why?.... OH YEAH! Because you ACTUALLY review the fuckin game.

Dethklok intro :D EPIC!

i think the reason people shit on this game is because of the hype that it failed to deliver on. (just that trailer alone made gamers jizz themselves in anticipation) sadly even though i enjoy the game i have to agree the lack of a real story the retarded bugs that could of been easily fixed (or even avoided in the first place) the stereotyped characters. the at times laughable voice acting (this includes the game models lip flaps as if it was a 1980's kung fu movie) the invisible walls (i know most games have this due to limitations but for a sandbox game it's rather pathetic) also the idea for fast moving zombies is as tired and synonymous with 28 days later as bullet time is with the matrix. people guess the slow shambling zombie is not much of a threat and by itself it's not but if you have a whole horde of them stumbling at you then it tends to make you nervous a bit. (as shown with examples like the walking dead TV show where a whole "heard" of slow moving, mindless zombies can be a overwhelming thing causing people to hide rather then fight) video game journalism and "professional" reviewers seem to have about as much integrity now days as news journalism. (which in most cases is none) publishers and developers can curry favorable reviews and scores with things like free swag, games and even paid trips to events. this has been pointed out before but was silenced with threats of leagle action and such. it's sad when you can't trust people who's job it is to tell you there honest unbiased opinion on if a game is good or not. then again maybe people should just judge for themselves and get rid of the idea of a "reviewer" altogether. would solve a few issues.

i played this game ... almost died true story ... avoid

Your incorrigible beef with James Stanton goes back a lot farther than I thought, anywho I'll have to agree on Dead Island not having good staying power in my game rotation. It's a very stale zombie-killing package with little to motivate slicing heads off beyond the first hour of gameplay, it's like Finn Balor vs Shinsuke Nakamura in NXT. Just very underwhelming, safe, and wonky in its construction.

It has been ages since I've played this game, but the one thing I remember being disappointed about the most was how downright miserable every NPC was. These people make Steven Wright look like Dane Cook. No emotion to be had but resigned depression in a zombie outbreak.

"I want to keep my money...and give away absolutely nothing...."

Guess I gotta ask the inevitable question: Were you playing the console one or the PC one? Because yeah the version on Steam was actually the Beta and they had to patch it up real quick. (not that the console one couldn't also have bugs I just have heard so little about the console version's bugs)

Its 4:35am, i cant sleep. Its time to get yelled at by razorfist

The final version of Dead Island is one of the reasons I never get my hopes up for any game regardless of its hype. Granted, I enjoyed it and I know people were expecting a lot more, but I could name a number of even crappier zombie titles than this game. Shellshock 2, anyone?

Hey Razor, would you believe me if I told you that you could buy DA2 and ME3 brand new and Dead Island would still cost more than both combined in my local store?

I had to stop this review several times I was laughing so hard...

Playing this again on PS Now; still frustrating af at times but when it works it's hella good.

Shoutouts to Dethklok finally making it into a Rageaholic vid! I especially liked the choice of the last song "Blood Ocean", because I agree with you that games and movies alike are unoriginal in their titles like "Dead Island" and "Baby Sitter". It turned me off when I saw the title for this game, and luckly it was a good thing I didn't find any reason to play it after you gave it a proper review. Made me sick seeing these other sites give it great scores when it looked so generally unfinished.

I agree with every word of your critique and I still LOVE this game!

It's weird that I still want to play this game, despite all of the glitches it holds. It's just that we're close to November and I'll be busy playing a 3DS when I get one. That and my PS3 is still broken. And now that you mentioned SA's new site design, I have noticed that I haven't seen any user's blogs/video on the top of the front page. Truth be told, seeing people's videos/blogs being featured was the best part of the site.

just a curious question: where did the sudden assault at Jim sterling and destructoid began? Not that I mind the bombardment it does go very well with the review and criticism at other the game reviewers, just want to know.

Man... I became a big fan of Razorfist recently in 2019, and I was 11 when this video was posted, how time flies... wwwwweeeeeiiiiirrrrrd.

The thing is, why does this game need a story, I know that sounds crazy but it's a game about random people trapped on a zombie infested island, why does that need to be elaborated on. If you were trapped in a zombie apocalypse situation what story line would become of that other than you shitting your pants and eating snickers from a broken vending machine, it's not shakespeare but it doesn't have to be. I think the sub-narrative and the contextual stuff really pulls it off to create an atmospheric game and I found some parts to be genuinely scary unlike dead rising which is just too tongue in cheek.

I played this game recently with no bugs and without paying attention to the story past the first hour. The default controls suck yes, but ANALOG controls ate fucking great. You decide the exact angle and amount of force to the blow. Nothing is quite like swinging my sticks just the right way so my electrified fire axe kills a ghoul in one meaty swing to the neck.

Well that parallax correction is MOST NEEDED in close quarters! Just imagine there is a laser beam coming from where the weapon is held (down and to the right relative to eyeball) it is aimed off to infinity convergence with the centre of your line of sight, your targeting reticule moves in the same way to the point of the laser but always appearing the same size.

i really liked that game. played it with a friend and we really had a blast. we were high all the time.

Nice use of the Howard Dean scream lol.

I was skeptical and uninterested when I originally heard about it (oh great, another zombie game... but now with a sandbox and RPG elements!! That should defeat the monotony of zombie-killing) but hearing an unbiased review (unbiased meaning not paid to give a solid score), I'm not even considering it even on a Steam sale. Great review as always.

Did you get a new microphone? The audio sounds vastly improved. Anyway, this was a good review. I wasn't even marginally excited for this game.

Surprisingly, I agree 100% with this review. The game just doesn't offer anything to be desired, or that's new to the market. The small things that make it interesting are marred by it's many flaws, and I found the only reason I'd have to buy this game was to play with friends I knew who had it; not a justifiable purchase.

So true. I always liken it to an ice cream shop selling us a half melted cone. Then, when we return that half melted cone and demand a fresh one, they dump the ice cream, cone and all, into a bowl and hand it back... Without a spoon.

Nice going, man, The industry has way too many zombie games, and it's a shame to see good ideas wasted on them and then left unpolished. That being said, are you going to review El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron at any point in the future?

I've played about four hours into this game and so far this review states how I feel about this game.

I enjoy the game a bit, but that could be because I play with my best friend. The most broken thing we've found with the game isn't about the charachers shift oddly. I enjoy the reticle, it allows you to zero in on limbs of the head. I like the game, but I respect the Rageaholic's opinion because people don't realize he doesn't have to agree with everyone.

@xRazorFistx may i ask well u be doing one 4 dark soul?

@xRazorFistx At around 2:35-3:06 of the video, what happend to the videos audio? Also, I never knew you're a fan of Dethklok? If so, SWEET, my respect to you has grown even more! :D

I'm digging the new camera, man. At least now we can see you in more than 10 frames per second. Great review, as always.

The only reason this game got the "it's shitty" treatment by the internet is because it got WAY to much hype than it could possibly live up to, why? because everyone who has an internet connection saw that damn trailer. And I'll bet you my left bollock that none of them knew this game was announced back in 2006 and then vanished off the face of the earth for 5 years. When you consider the game had THAT hanging over the development, a few bugs isn't exactly lynch mob worthy.

i enjoyed the game, but then i enjoy most serious (or at least serious looking) zombie related media, it is horribly broken but i did find interest with the story and the premise of such. what i enjoyed infinitely more however was the next zombie game techland made: dying light.

I tried to beat Dead Island multiple times but I always give up because the game was finicky and boring. The weapons degradation system was also annoying.

2:30 Are you sure that is auto-aiming, rather than Parallax Correction? Serious Sam had that, you can see the same thing with a laser pointer the point seems to move relative to the frame because of the parallax between the line of sight and line of attack. Look it up.

"A lot of these are jokes" :DDD

Finally, someone who agreed with me on this game. I can enjoy zombie games, but I just didn't care about anything or anyone in this game to keep playing.

And another has joined our cause.

At least the game industry did well in NOT cancelling games like Magicka and Bastion

i dunno if I'm in my right here, but i like to say i liked vanquish this, or was it last year. a third person shooter that didn't feel like one. everything in a genre alleyways has whats standard for that genre instead of whats best for the game.

I know that Mr. First certainly isn't a fan of Final Fantasy. But was I the only one who noticed that he chose Final Fantasy XIII Versus when he said "ultra-serious plausible works of art". Is this a vague hint that he, like me (and I'm sure some of you), see a microscopic glimmer of hope in Versus? Or am I breathing to much into it? Personally, depending on how good it is, Versus will probably be the last Final Fantasy game I will ever buy if it isn't ecstatically good.

Personally I didn't hear any of the hype, because I didn't give a shit, my dad just purchased the GOTYE for for my B-day, and I loved it. Not the story, but the fact that someone finally decided to bring Zombies into an RPG. My favorite genre. Yes it has flaws, but it's by no means a bad game. I'm sure on release it blew dick, as from what I hear it was filled to the brim with glitches, but now it's patched up and runs great. The combat is just simply a blast, it's worth a rent at least.

What's the music that plays in the very opening of this vid?

I have read some comments around the web about Dead Island being unplayable upon release. I think I bought it (if not pre-ordered even) almost immediately when it was released and didn't suffer from unplayability. And I was playing it in coop with a friend. Sure, some design choices might have needed a bit more time to be refined but we didn't experience too much problems with the game. Could it have been a problem with a certain platform or was it across all major platforms (we played on PC)?

Dethklok? DETHKLOK YES, U HAVE GAINED MY RESPECT ONCE AGAIN RAZORFIST

I believe he mentioned that one of the reasons he doesn't like Final Fantasy (SNES days) compared to others such as Breath of Fire II, was because FF games had this pretentious feel to them, but I can't be 100% sure. Either way, Razorfist has an incredible taste for games, which unfortunately can't be said for every gamer.

I admit that when this game first came out it was unplayable but now that it is all patched up its pretty fun. Plus the game of the year addition is only 30$.

Comic book artist by the name of Frank Quitely. The joke was a play on words.

@IMnotRALPH1 Uh, Dead Island is an RPG too. And Fallout and Rage have zombies in them. How is there "an to many of zombie games?" Here's a list for ya: Call of Duty, Mass Effect, Resident Evil, Dead Space, Left 4 Dead, Fallout, Doom, Quake, Rage, Red Dead Redemption, Borderlands, Half Life, Halo, Silent Hill, Gears of War, World of Warcraft, Dragon Age...and those are just franchises, they all have multiple games. Just because it's not called a "zombie" doesn't mean it's not a freakin zombie.

How fucking dare you say there's no plot in this game? I was on the edge of my seat wondering if I'd be able to retrieve a box of apples for Diego back at the lifeguard hut.

I stopped taking the game seriously as soon as I got a close up of Sam B's t-rex arms and fly eyes.

Awesome review, you never disappoint me.

Hey Razorfist,are you going to review Sonic Generations?

what does /v/ mean, and what does \m/ mean too?

This is something I don't see a lot of these days. Somebody disliking a game.... and gives reasons that are sound and fair. Subbing cus I really enjoyed this!

Just out of curiosity, what games does this guy like?

He's not wrong, but it was a hell of a time in co-op multiplayer.

Keep on rockin' RazorFist, your videos get better every time!

I always had a dream as a kid to make a sandbox survival horror based on my favourite movie (Aliens). I wanted it to put you in a colony infested with xeno's and try and survive for as long as possible through whatever means necessary. Five years later the sandbox craze killed my dream :< Damn zombies! Now we will never see legitimately good sandboxes or zombie games for a good decade.

How can a game be generally considered good(or get awards) if not many people know about it or have played it? I don't think anyone really plays a game just because it's popular, there must be some enjoyment out of playing it. The example of a "good" game varies from person to person aswell.

@ThePrinceOfMoose Oh so true. I've developed a massive hatred for Sterling for that junkyard equivalent to his girth that he calls a review of Bloodrayne Betrayal. Betrayal is seriously underrated. Just don't try using a 3d analog stick for movement for a 2d platformer that requires precision.

You sir are correct.

Great review as always Razorfist completely agree with you about screwattack though about how they care more about competing with ign of gamefailers instead of caring about the community and then once the site is released they ask for people to pay them money for an advantage program that makes the escapist's publisher' club look like the deal of the century

Yes, they can but you could make a case for false advertising over this. It didn't actually win any GOTY awards nor was it even nominated for one.

@ootdega I agree that we need more veirty when it come to the other monsters, but when it comes to zombies i don't feel like i'm being sufficated like with the first person shooters.

I don't really care for the story in this game, but it's funny as hell playing it co-op with some friends.

You don't need a GOTY award to have a GOTY version.

@xRazorFistx i didn't know you were apart of SA!? did something bad happen?

The fundamental problem with this game… Where the fuck am I taking damage from?

I thought the game was fun, but frustrating 9 times out of 10, the plot, it has a plot but not a story, is beyond amateur hour. This game could be a lot better if they toned down the difficulty, made everything more about survival, and didn't pull stuff out of their ass. Would someone seriously explain why there are Rams? What did someone inject someone with a straight jacket full of the T-Virus and said "go my son! Go and kill" Where the fuck did those things come from??

and that is why waiting to buy things is right 9/10 times right there.

@indaborderlands I played this game, I played two play throughs and both was very short do to the game fucking up. First one...ALL my weapons got deleted, I mean my good weapons. second one....after I reached level 25 and gotten my weapons back my save dated was unable to be played anymore. I sent a message to the people that made the game, they told me Oh you have to wait for the patch to come out...after two days I asked them when is they going to fix this problem. I never heard back from them

well not sure bout other consouls but on ps3 u can control the aimer. its called " south paw " its a pain to use for me since i dont like the moving once its set. but you can use melee weapons with ease, and control what liimbs to cut off.

DEATHKLOK Y U NO BE IN GUITAR HERO?

I hate this game. The level scaling BS is more than enough for my anger

If there was a Mexican character that had a sack of oranges for a weapon I'd buy this game right now

Singleplayer-SHIT(boring) Multiplayer-2 players- GREAT (especially if you play with same buddy) Multiplayer-3 or 4 players- SHIT (too easy, the amount of zombies doesnt increase with number of players so its always a number of zombies as if you were playing alone)

who the hell is the guy at 5:52?

This review is unfair and does the game no justice, this is honestly a great game more than worthy of a 8/10 review.

You had DETHKLOK in your opening and ending credits!!!! Awesome!!!!! Also, the review was pretty good too.

Games should be "playable" upon RELEASE. Don't give me none of that "like omg but it's so good naooo that they patched it!!". FUCK THAT. If THEY expect us to pay for a game, then WE should expect them to deliver a FUCKING GAME/caps.

I agree with this review. Dead Island Bored the crap out of me! I thought it would be a legitimate Zombie survival game. If you're on a fucking island you wont run around collecting beer bottles and drinking energy drinks. stabbing a zombie with a little fucking knife in the face.

Dead Island is not bad, certainly not an "AAA" game though. Fun coop though, worth picking up if its on sale.

Great review dude. I love your reviews because even if I don't agree with your opinion of the game, I'm still greatly entertained. Keep it up. :)

Also i've live in Lausiana for 4 year and black people do in fact call it No' leans.

I knew this game was gonna be a giant eyesore. Which is why I didn't fucking buy it when the Gamestop manager told me it was gonna be the hottest game of 2011. He kept telling me shit trying to hype it to me but I'm smarter than that.

This game was fun for about a day.

It's always funny when a game seems like it was rushed when it's apparently been in development since at least 2007