Sept. 23, 2011 I The Clarion
Arts & Life
Page 7
'Dead Island' is worth your time and money
By Alex McCracken
staff Reporter
What will you do when the zombies come?
Admit it, you’ve thought about it at least
once. You start looking at things around
you, things to barricade doors with, sharp
objects, the stray propane tank. It’s this kind
of thinking that the game of Dead Island is
built around.
Every single zombie game on the market
gives you virtually no weapon to engage
the undead with other than guns. It’s so
obnoxiously overdone that when I heard
Dead Island was almost exclusively focused
on melee combat I immediately turned up
my nose. That’s no way to kill zombies, I
thought, everyone knows you’ll never survive
a zombie apocalypse without a pistol, a
shotgun, a flamethrower, and a sniper rifle
crammed into your magical attache case that
fits in your pocket, never
I was wrong, and Dead Island promptly
forgave me for my prejudice with the most
thrilling and rewarding combat I’ve played
all year Though don’t take my excitement
the wrong way. It’s not a masterpiece, and
at face value it’s almost a disaster I feel
like when I praise this game. I’m defending
Seabiscut. Its bugs are too big, its budget’s
too small, the graphics engine's too old, but
I guess I’m too dumb to know the difference;
Because I’ve never had more fun killing
zombies, and in my day? Brother, I’ve killed
me some zombies.
So what would you have at your disposal
if you had to escape from a tropical resort?
You’d have kitchen knives, baseball bats.
crowbars and cleavers. Everyday objects that
double as surprisingly useful instruments of
death given the right circumstances. And it’s
pretty clear in the first five minutes of the
game that indeed those circumstances are
given. But wait, there’s more to the game
than simply hacking away mindlessly with
a wooden cudgel. Find some whisky bottles
and a couple oily rags in a suitcase cart? Then
you mosey on up to your nearest workbench
and whip up some Molotov cocktails.Do
you have a knife or a machete and a few
stray wires and batteries? Then by all means,
electrify them.
Smacking a zombie upside the head with
a flaming baseball bat is a very special kind
of rush. Particularly in this game, where if
you get too cocky, even for a second, bam! A
walker just snuck up behind you and clawed
its way through half your health bar If you
find yourself surrounded by more than three
zombies and the best idea you have is to swing
your sugar cane knife at the air, you are going
to die. Navigating Bonoi Island’s mindless
horde is a surprisingly strategic affair But
when you tip toe over a mob of eight re-
deaded zombies without a single scratch on
you? You feel like a surgeon.
But let’s move on to the jaw dropping
size of this title, I rushed to the end of this
thing not stopping to smell a single undead
rose and I barely got under twelve hours of
continuous gameplay. I tried to see if the game
clock was lying to me by ticking while being
paused . . . it wasn’t. You’d be surprised how
often games pull that trick. I’ve since played
again, sopping up all the side missions I can
find and I’m at twelve hours again, only this
time I’m halfway through. But let’s back up
for a second and talk about the kind of people
you’ll be running with during the game, or
rather, the kind of people you’ll have the
choice of playing as.
At the start you’ll have your pick of a litter
of four folks with a curious immunity to the
virus plaguing the rest of Banoi. A washed
up NFL linebacker, a one hit wonder hip hop
artist, a feminist Chinese spy (who rocks), and
an ex African cop. Each have three entirely
unique skill trees relaying their combat
skills, survival skills, and their “fury”ability
which after they kill enough zombies will
allow them to fly into a rage for a short time
to kill even more zombies more quickly for
experience bonuses. . . obviously.
What’s interesting is the multiple ways to
approach each tree for each character. For
instance, it’s entirely possible to play the same
character in a completely different way. To the
point where it’s perfectly entertaining to play
as the exact same character all over again.
So for those keeping score, this is a twenty
hour game with four different characters
each designed for multiple play-throughs.
Dizzy yet?
The take away message here is this: if you
can put up with dated graphics, a few killer
bugs and cringe worthy voice acting. Then
you won’t just fall for this game, you’ll fall
dead over heels. Yeah, and I also stand behind
that face palming pun.
FREE CLIMB NIGHT
For all of the rock climbers out there, or even people curious to try
something new, the Brevard Rock Gym has reinstated Free College
Climb Night!! The cost is $3 without traditional climbing shoes
(however; you can climb in regular shoes, but not barefoot) and FREE
if you bring your own, or borrow someone else’s. This is a great
opportunity to try something new or work out some new routes to get
ready for climbing season or even just meet some new people. Who
knows you might just be the next Chris Sharma or Reinhold Messner.