Dead Island - Completed

Sewers, never ending sewers really killed the game for me. Then came the mundane fetch and retrieve quests for no purpose but to have some filler quests.

Then you have the crashes & bugs in the game which all of us have experienced during the past few months, some of us more than once Jaimie?

Anyhow it's done just barely enjoyable & that is mainly due to the company of The Claptrap Boys.

All that running around the island to get a final showdown with Ryder White the survivors fly off into the sunset, if a sequel gets released I won't be running out to meet them.

Dead Island - Level Jumping with Challenges

Whilst playing on Monday my character jumped from level 9 to level 11. We had gone in search of some food tins to complete a quest & Gus had just activated his rage ability. He was shooting down zombies with his pea shooter whilst I was trying to whack with my baseball bat.

Then up popped the message that my character has levelled up, going to the abilities screen it said I had two points to use? Why? I queried this to the others? Is it a glitch? But they were too interested in splatting zombies to help me figure out what had just happened.

What had actually happened was I had completed a challenge and gain a load of XP points that made my character jump 2 levels. Like Borderlands you have various challenges in the game from driving around to killing zombies in a particular style and when completed you gain XP.

I used my points to upgrade my attack abilities by causing more damage & having my weapons last longer.

You can pick up so many weapons in the game that there is really no point in spending your money upgrading your favourite weapon because it will not be too long before you find something better. I now only spend my money on repairing weapons.

We completed quite a few quests but sometimes the quest line on the map did not appear so you will need to set yourself a custom marker to the location.

Dead Island always gets compared to Borderlands & if I am brutally honest it does not even come close to the enjoyment of Borderlands for me but & this is a big BUT it is still an enjoyable online experience with friends & you will have some laughs along the way.

Dead Island - Revisited

Dead Island Revisited

After the Lost Planet 2 PMG it was time for another attempt at Dead Island. This time with The Claptrap Boys reunion tour, I decided to go with the Sam B character because of his skill to rejuvenate health. Jaimie went with Logan, Jon was Xian & Gus was left with Purna.

We all made it to the starting hut & received our first quest to liberate the lifeguard tower. Trying to find any decent weapons to use is difficult at the beginning of the game and you really just have to use oars or if you are lucky to find any knives. With a new character you are limited to only equipping 2 weapon slots (this will increase when you get to level 5) but you can carry a maximum of 12 weapons. Just keep an eye on the condition of your weapon because once it deteriorates you will be causing little or no damage.

Once the tower is conquered you have the option to purchase weapons from Wayne who can be found in one of the small rooms off the garage. Also you have access to a workbench to repair or upgrade your weapons. At the lifeguard tower you will receive lots of side quests to do various tasks from collecting vehicle parts to finding medical supplies.

The highlight of the evening was next to the Lighthouse is an area which is full of suitcases & boxes. Watching both female characters carrying boxes and walking down the hill was hilarious.

Overall an enjoyable 2 hours killing zombies more again same time next week.

Dead Island - UGVM Fact Finding Mission

After having completed Borderlands, the "Claptrap Boys" tasked me to research more on Dead Island, what better way to do this then to obviously purchase and play it.

A week later & I have now played this enough to report back on my findings

The game has taken ideas from various titles obviously Borderlands, Fallout
& Left 4 Dead.

You get a lot of quests in the game especially side missions almost any character you meet in the game will give you a fetch and return quest.

The weapon system relies on mainly melee weapons, I have yet to come across any guns. These weapons have a condition meter which over time reduce & if you don't repair the weapon they will break.

You can collect lots of weapons littered around the island from paddles, knives to rusty pipes. Visiting the repair table you can obviously repair but you can also upgrade your weapons or if you have received any blueprints and have collected the required parts needed make yourself a new weapon.

The driving in the game sucks there is only one camera view and that is inside the vehicle driving wheel style :( no 3rd person pan out camera angle so you can easily reverse if needed.

On single player it is an enjoyable experience because you are in control of what quests you take and action.

On multiplayer it can be a bit frantic because any co-op player regardless of level can join your game. So if you are fighting a lvl 3 zombie and are a lvl3 character yourself it will take you a few hits but for a higher
co-op partner it's easy.

There is an option when you either start the game or a new character (needs further testing to confirm) to play the game single player only or co-operative. Within co-operative I think you can select if you want private or a public game.

The one co-op session I had with Orrah & Hakk was frantic because quests were being assigned and completed with no knowledge of the storyline associated. For the game to work on co-op you need to ideally all have a similar level character and all be at the same checkpoint in the game to play together & enjoy the story.

Item collection in the game is a case of pressing X to open a case or cupboard & X again to collect. At the moment I seem to be able to carry everything I find but I am limited to only 12 weapons. Each weapon comes with stats so you can decide to keep the stronger & drop the weak unless you want to keep them for a blueprint project.

The game also includes a skill tree, you are awarded one skill point at level up to unlock a new skill example extra damage to lockpick.

Oh and yes the game has zombies not a lot come charging at you like Left 4 Dead I've only had 3 or 4 come at me any one time.You have a stamina meter which means you can't go charging in swinging and expect to last long on you own, with a co-op team obviously it's easier.

So in summary it is an enjoyable single player experience because you can control the pace of the game & the quests you take & complete.

On a co-op experience you need to find similar minded players to you otherwise you will not enjoy the experience.

Definitely one for the "Claptrap Boys" to purchase when reduced in price