Great games don’t have to be completely original — take Beyond Good and Evil, for instance. Michel Ancel’s 2003 cult classic blended the best bits of Ocarina of Time and Metal Gear Solid to produce a fantastically playable experience that still has us clamoring for a sequel some eight years later. That said, there’s not much new going on in Dead Island, even for a zombie game; instead of doing something fresh with a tired premise, Polish developer Techland decided to borrow from the best parts of Borderlands, Dead Rising 2, and, surprisingly, Far Cry 2. The resulting casserole of mismatched mechanics doesn’t always go down easy, but Dead Island still makes for an enjoyable and slightly addictive adventure in killing the same enemies ad nauseam.
In what feels like an act of mercy, the game doesn’t offer much of a story to suffer through; you play as one of four characters (each with varying stats and weapon preferences) stranded on the zombie-infested tropical resort island of Banoi. Expectedly, your goal is to escape, help out imperiled folks along the way, and possibly discover some alarming plot twist that will leave your jaw a safe distance from the floor. But Dead Island doesn’t concern itself with matters of plot; the cut scenes are brief and rare, and the protagonists (along with the supporting players) aren’t even fleshed out enough to be caricatures. Really, if Dead Island has anything to offer, it’s the ability to kill zombies with a variety of homemade weapons — and, aside from a few minor issues, it excels at this simple task.
