I'm so tired of these rushed console to PC ports. It's bad enough when you just toss it over to PC...but to toss it over AND not even take the time to make sure you have a playable product at launch? It's unacceptable.
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/09/dead-island-is-fun-needs-a-little-more-time-in-the-oven.ars
I love that in the 2nd to last paragraph he calls it "Dead Rising"...oops.
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/09/dead-island-is-fun-needs-a-little-more-time-in-the-oven.ars
Dead Island is a first-person action-RPG that places you on a beautiful island and then surrounds you with zombies. The story can feel threadbare, and the characters are often little more than cartoons, but the struggle to stay alive gives you more than enough reason to keep playing. As Robert Kirkman loves to point out in the Walking Dead comic series, the real dangers after a zombie infestation aren't the undead, but the survivors that also surround you. When society breaks down, it's the people that become truly monstrous.
You play one of four characters who is immune to the infection, which is a clever way of explaining why you're the one leaving safety to help with every major and minor mission. The game has moments of brilliance and is often fun, but it's also clearly not finishedand nearly broken on the PC. I can't wait to revisit things when the technical issues are sorted out.
How bad are things at launch? This is the first game I can remember playing where a developer's no-clip mode was mapped to "Y" as a default in the final code.
So what's going on here?
It's hard to separate the issues with the game and the issues with the PC port, but we'll try. For starters, moving feels weird and imprecise, a sure sign that the controller-based controls weren't tweaked for a mouse and keyboard. When driving a car, simply looking around introduces an annoying amount of lag. When you attempt to strafe you begin moving at half-speed, which doesn't make much sense. That speed reduction is more than enough to ensure a quick death once you are surrounded by zombies.
The graphics suffer from too much brightness, which leads to a blown-out image no matter how much you fiddle with the in-game visual settings or the controls on your monitor. If a character is knocked down a sloped surface, their legs and arms often pass through the environment as they get up. Some missions crashed, or broke down at the very last step, leading to a number of situations where I had to quit and restart the game.
I found myself stuck in the game's environment, and, when I restarted the game I found I had kept my progress in the game's story, but my experience, abilities, items, and cash had all been wiped clean. I was fighting powerful enemies with none of the advantages I should have at that point in the game, making it impossible to continue. I was forced to start over, losing around four hours of progress. This made me very grumpy.
Then, after some testing, I realize what had happened. If you accidentally hit the "Y" button and go into no-clipping mode, you may fly into a solid object and get stuck. If you restart the game from this position, all your character's stats are wiped. This bug exists in the version of the game that is live on Steam right now.
We were given a list of fixes that were coming in a day-one patch, and it was extensive. I haven't had a chance to play much with this patch, but many of my issues haven't been addressed. I have a feeling we're going to see an extensive number of additional patches coming in the coming days and weeks. Graphical and game play issues plagued my time with the game to the point where I decided to walk away after ten hours or so.
There are also gameplay issues that were confounding. How can I fit piles of crowbars, knives, and baseball bats in my inventory, but I had to use energy drinks the second I picked them up? Is it a glitch that every time I pick up a bottle of alcohol it replaces the weapon in my hand, so when I try to attack a zombie thinking I'm holding a knife, I instead take a big drink and get drunk? Why do pipes break so easily against the skulls of zombies? The weapons in Dead Island often feel like they're made of cardboard, and fixing them or replacing your arsenal is going to take up a good amount of your time. Who knew the skulls and armbones of zombies were made of adamantium?
The weapons you pick up around the world feel oddly fragile, and they lose their power rapidly. You can either constantly replace them, or head to a workbench to repair them. This costs money, which you find by searching the zombies you kill, finishing missions, or scouring the environment. The first 30 minutes of the game will have you going through an amazing amount of luggage for pieces of wire and money. Everyone on the island seems to be carrying around $8 in their pockets, until you put a few hours in the game. Then the zombies begin to drop more money because... the money levels up with you?
The combat is nice and personal, as you use blunt weapons to break the arms and legs of the undead. The aiming system is imprecise, however, and it's hard to judge where a blow will land, even with practice. When you place your aiming reticle over a zombie it begins to slide around, as if it's trying to lock onto different parts of the zombie's body. This may also be a holdover from the game's console roots, but it leads to frustration and missed shots. The slow strafe controls, rarity of health kits you can carry with you, and tricky combat systems make it hard to get out of bad situations if you are surrounded. Don't worry, if you die you're merely revived a few feet away, less some money. This system does a great job of sapping any tension from the game, since there is so little to be lost by your death, unless the game spawns you in another group of zombies.
The inventory system is maddening. You can only hold a few items in a quick-use menu, and you can switch between weapons by holding down the middle mouse button and selecting which weapon you'd like to use in a circular interface. If go through all the weapons in your quick-use slots, you need to bring up the menu, go through your extensive collection of pipes, bats, and knives, add those to your quick-use slots, select one, and then go back to the game. This kills the flow of battle, as the zombies seem content to hold back and wait for you to select the best blunt object in your arsenal. The system inventory management is an annoying, clunky part of Dead Island that should never have gotten past testing.
It's not all bad!
The frustrating thing about all these issues is how much fun there is to be had. The missions take you to some beautiful parts of the island, and you'll meet some interesting characters and help them in varied ways. When the combat clicks you can feel the brutality of breaking a zombie's arm and them cutting off their head or, in my favorite move, knocking them down with a running jump-kick. Getting into a vehicle, running down the zombies, and then smashing out the windshield so you can see is brilliant, as is the fact the steering wheel is on the "wrong" side for us Americans.
You need to plan your movements very carefully, and if you get stuck in the middle of a zombie mob it's usually because you did something wrong. You can play up to four-player co-op, and this makes the game a much more frenzied, action-oriented game. There were many times I found myself having a great time, and drawn into the world of Dead Island.
Then a technical issue popped up and jerked me right back out of the experience. To play the PC version of Dead Rising in its current form you're going to need incredible patience and a willingness to fight through some very clunky game mechanics. As it stands, I can't recommend this in any way, shape, or form. This is a game that needed more time to bake, and hopefully after a few patches we'll be able to enjoy the game hidden under the unpolished exterior.
Dead Island is available now for the PC, 360, and PS3. We have not played the console versions.
I love that in the 2nd to last paragraph he calls it "Dead Rising"...oops.
