Name: Dead Island Definitive Edition
Plattform: PS4, Xbox One, PC
Reviewed on PS4
Developer: Techland
Publisher: Deep Silver
The original Dead Island game came out in 2011 on last generation of consoles and PC. I’ve played Dead Island on the Playstation 3 system, and I would probably give it a score around seven or eight out of ten.
But it isn’t the the game released in 2011 that I’m reviewing right now, Deep Silver has published a remastered version of all the games. Including all the DLC’s as “One Punch Mode”, “Ryker” and more. Even a retro version of the Dead Island universe.
The Story
To sum things up, you are stuck on an island full of zombies and need to escape. If you are familiar with the story, you could easily say that it isn’t changed. You are still in trouble with a bunch of zombies.
If you’re not familiar with the Dead Island story, let me try to summon it up for you. You are on paradise island Banoi for holiday and having a blast with drinks and parties. Suddenly a infection spreads around the island and starts turning people into the living dead. You wake up in the middle of the s*** and will try to survive on the island, help others and maybe escape.
The Graphics
Overall the games have been beautifully remastered for this generation. You can see that the developers have been focusing on textures, lighting and small details. There was many moments I’ve just had to stop and watch as the sunset went down. But that is pretty much it, the characters are still in “2011 mode” and haven’t got that much attention.
The Gameplay
Back in 2011 Dead Island suffered from bugs and glitches that went on to the gameplay experience. But in the remastered version, all that is gone. Yes maybe not all the bugs, but the few ones that was there weren’t that noticeable.
Crafting different weapons for bashing the heads of zombies in bikini is still fun, it is repetitive but still fun as hell. You got your main storyline of course and side quest like bringing water to survivors, and finding lost teddy bears. The side quests can be qutie boring in the length, but that’s not new to the game.
The only big problem I got with the remastered version of Dead Island is the frame rate. It’s on 30FPS, and today’s standard should be 60FPS.
I didn’t notice the frame rate problem to be a huge problem on Dead Island, but on Riptide I felt it was unplayable. And that’s a shame, since I think it is a very good game.
Slaying zombies with friends on Banoi makes Dead Island and Riptide much more interesting and more fun.
I actually had more fun playing the “Jack Black” look a like retro version of Dead Island in Dead Island Retro Revenge that followed the Definitive edition, when I was playing alone.
The Verdict
Dead Island and Dead Island Riptide does look good in the remastered version from Deep Silver’s new engine that also developed Dying Light.
But unfortunately the gameplay does not satisfy for this generation of consoles with up to 30FPS and with a huge frame rate problem on the Riptide version. But Dead Island is fun to play with friends, and the retro version is also fun to play as stand alone game.
7/10
+ Graphics (its a must on a remastered version)
+ A lot of content
+ Fun to play with friends
+ Fun Retro version
– Frame Rate
– A little repetitive side quests
– Not appealing to veterans of the series
