Dead Island
Tags: violence

Plot synopsis:
=== Setting ===
Dead Island takes place in July 2006 on the fictional island of Banoi, a lush, tropical resort destination located off the east coast of Papua New Guinea, just north of Australia. In recent years Banoi was able to modernize thanks to its tourism industry, but many areas of the island are still wild, primitive and untouched by the modern world. Even though its capital Moresby was founded by Australian settlers in 1895, many of the island's interior areas deep in the jungle have still never been seen by western eyes.
Banoi is known internationally as the location of the popular Royal Palms Resort, a luxurious five-star hotel resort which often attracts high-profile celebrities and throws wild dance parties. Banoi also hosts a Maximum Security Prison off the coast on a smaller island. It was designed as a privately-owned maximum security facility for international terrorists and criminals.
The island has a modern police force and its own military called the Banoi Island Defense Force (B.I.D.F.) in charge of defending and providing security to Banoi.
=== Main campaign ===
The night after a high-profile party, the four main characters (hereafter referred to as "the survivors"); rapper Sam B., hotel receptionist and spy for the Chinese government Xian Mei, former football-star Logan Carter, and ex police officer Purna—are awakened by a voice over the emergency intercom system directing them to evacuate the hotel. They discover that the majority of the population have been overcome by a contagious and infectious plague, turning them into psychopathic, flesh-eating creatures. Briefly overcome by one of the infected, they are rescued by lifeguard John Sinamoi. The four survivors discover that they are apparently immune from infection, and with "The Voice" out of contact, the survivors are tasked by Sinamoi to try to find supplies and contact the outside world. As it becomes obvious that the resort lacks enough supplies to survive for long, Sinamoi instead has them travel to the city of Moresby to find help. The survivors take along Jin, the daughter of the bitten mechanic who modifies an armored car they use to break out of the resort.
Upon arriving in Moresby, after taking down a new special infected known as the Ram, the survivors aid a holdout at a barricaded church. Directed first to the wealthier sections of town, they ultimately raid a supermarket under the control of "Raskol" gangs, then rescue Jin after she tries to offer supplies to another Raskol faction in the abandoned police station, angering Sam B. Upon their return to the resort, the survivors make contact with "The Voice"; he identifies himself as Colonel Ryder White, a Banoi Island Defense Force (BIDF) commander, currently trapped in a high-security prison located on a remote island, only accessible through the jungle. He states that due to the characters' immunity, he may be able to create a cure / vaccine, and in turn save his bitten wife. White directs the survivors into the jungles of Banoi having them find a smuggler named Mowen who can reach the prison.
Mowen stonewalls the survivors on the prison, but does take them to a laboratory studying the plague. The researchers there determine the zombie infection is a mutation of Kuru that originated from the indigenous population. At their behest, the survivors collect a tissue sample from a mummy to better examine the pre-mutation form of Kuru and rescue a native woman, Yerema, who was about to be sacrificed by her tribe.
Mowen finally agrees to take the survivors to the prison. After the survivors complete the preparations he and Jin request, they hurry back to the lab when The Voice reports something has gone wrong; they find the zombies the scientists were studying were accidentally released, with only Yerema still alive. Rescuing Yerema and retrieving what appears to be a prototype vaccine, the survivors proceed to the prison island.
The survivors initially help the surviving prisoners to arm themselves in exchange for reaching White, but when White finally contacts them again he urges them to abandon the prisoners and proceed to him. The prisoners' holdout eventually falls, and Mowen dies helping Jin and Yerema escape the zombies. As the survivors are about to reach White, however, they are hit with a knockout gas inside their elevator. Awoken by a technology-savvy prisoner named Kevin, they find that White has stolen the vaccine and are warned that, with it in his possession, he intends to flee with his wife and call in a nuclear strike to purge the island.
Racing to the roof helipad, the survivors find themselves held by White at gunpoint. Jin, disgusted by White's plan, releases White's now-zombified wife from her restraints, and she bites Colonel White on the wrist. White kills his zombified wife and shoots Jin dead, then injects himself with the vaccine, only for it to accelerate and amplify his own mutation. The survivors kill White, then finally escape Banoi with his helicopter as Kevin intones that things will never be the same.
=== Ryder White's campaign ===
Two weeks prior to the outbreak, Ryder White, a Colonel in the Australian Army, is interviewed by a commanding officer; he is presented with targets and asked if he would kill without question. Agreeing to all including, after some hesitation, his wife Emily. Two people viewing the interview note this and have him reassigned to Banoi, where Emily also works. They speculate that "he won't push the button because of her."
Upon the zombie outbreak, White is overseeing the bombing of bridges to slow the infection, but his helicopter crashes in Moresby when the co-pilot turns. Alerted that the main bridge in Moresby remains intact, he proceeds to recover the demolition charges from the Raskols and carry out the demolition himself. He is contacted by Emily, who has taken shelter inside the prison with the help of a man known as Kevin.
Upon extraction from Moresby, Ryder hears from Emily that she has been bitten by one of her zombified patients. Disregarding her pleas to leave her, he has himself dropped off at the prison, intent of saving his wife before ordering a nuclear strike to purge the island. By the time Ryder arrives Emily has almost turned. Kevin then contacts Ryder over the intercom, offering to help him as well. When they meet, however, Ryder identifies Kevin as Charon, a notorious terrorist-affiliated hacker. However, with no other options, he follows Charon's instructions to restore emergency power and find antibiotics for Emily, fighting off armed escaped prisoners. Charon also tells Ryder he has survivors en route with an antidote.
After administering the antibiotic to Emily, Charon notifies him that a group of prisoners are approaching in reprisal for the ones that Ryder killed in order to obtain the Tetracycline. With the prisoners dead, Ryder travels to the control room in Block C and meets up with Charon. As Ryder approaches Charon, he discovers that Charon was behind the deaths of the scientists, including Dr. West, at the Laboratory but hides his suspicion. He is then instructed to clear the zombies from the shower room in Block C for when the Heroes arrive. With the shower room cleared, Ryder uses the sewers in order to return to the control room. While eavesdropping on Charon's conversation with the group(the main characters), he discovers that Charon has been posing as him (The Voice). Out of rage, Ryder threatens to kill Charon for endangering Emily and making him betray his country. Charon then assures him that the group have the 'antidote' and that the Heroes won't trust either Ryder or Charon if it is revealed that they were never actually speaking to Ryder. Charon then instructs Ryder to store knockout gas above the elevator lift that the group will be using in order to steal the antidote from them to avoid having to make any negotiations. After placing the gas and returning to the control room, Charon and Ryder watch the Heroes pass out from the gas. Before leaving to retrieve the gas, Ryder destroys the control rooms computer in order to prevent Charon from pulling off any more tricks. He then locks Charon in the control room and tells him that he's going to get the antidote for Emily. Charon then replies to Ryder stating that the antidote would only work on people that were only in the early stages of Infection while Emily was already past the first stages. Shaken by his words, Ryder runs off to get back to Emily in the intensive care unit. With Ryder gone, Charon reveals that he had a hidden backup key card and taunts him stating that Ryder should have killed him when he had the chance.
Afraid of being too late, Ryder collects the antidote from the group and frantically fights through countless waves of Zombies to get back to Emily. Upon finding Emily, Ryder finds she has already become an Infected. Ryder then vows to make a complete antidote out of the serum. He brings Emily to the roof where he discovers that Charon has turned the group against him. Jin then releases Emily to attack Ryder, forcing him to kill her and Jin in retaliation. He then injects himself with the antidote only to discover that the antidote was actually an enhanced version of the plague that transforms him into a powerful Special Infected. He is then killed by the group. The survivors then flee to safety using Ryder's helicopter. It is revealed that Charon plans on using Yerema as Dr. West called her, "a walking timebomb" to spread the plague, as he shows a smirk on his face.
=== Characters ===
Sam B (voiced by Phil LaMarr), a one-hit wonder rap star from New Orleans. He was booked by the Royal Palms Resort to perform his well-known song "Who Do You Voodoo" at a high-profile hotel party. He gladly took the chance to play this gig. Once strong, self-confident and proud, Sam B has had a troubled past and a history of drug and alcohol abuse, and his private life became a haze of fake friends and bad advisers. He believed his gig at Banoi was his last chance to get back on top. He also has a specialty of blunt weapons which became very useful during the plague.
Xian Mei (voiced by Kim Mai Guest), a desk clerk at the Royal Palms Resort. Born and raised by a police commander killed in the line of duty in China, she secretly works as a spy for the Chinese Government. To conceal her covert activities, Xian performs menial tasks for the hotel (as seen in the opening where she helps a sick guest). It is assumed that she does well at keeping her espionage a secret, as all refer to her as the desk clerk. However, during the Jin rescue scene Purna claims that she knows Xian's true nature, and several collectibles show that employees knew she was no ordinary employee. She also has a specialty of blade weapons which became very useful during the plague.
Logan Carter (voiced by Troy Baker), a former American football star, spoiled by life and successful in every possible way. Unfortunately, his own ego finally put an end to his bright future. Taking part in a reckless street race with tragic consequences, Logan not only killed a young woman - his unfortunate passenger - but also fractured his knee, putting an end to his sports career. His fall from stardom inevitably followed and he plunged swiftly into a life of bitterness and despair. He ended up letting a blood drive use his name, and in return received an all-expenses-paid trip to Banoi. He also has a specialty of throw weapons which became very useful during the plague.
Purna (voiced by Peta Johnson), an Australian Aboriginal former officer of the New South Wales Police Force, referred to by the game as the "Sydney Police department." After losing her career when she shot and wounded a child molester (the novelization contradicts this by stating that she succeeded in killing him) who could not be prosecuted due to his wealth and connections, Purna then turned to working as a bodyguard for VIPs in dangerous places all over the world. She is mostly hired for her looks (not just her skills), as wealthy men do not mind showing up to parties with an attractive woman like her on their arm. Purna states she wishes to finish off the child molester after leaving Banoi.
Ryder White (voiced by Joe Hanna), a colonel with the Australian Defense Force who communicates with the hero in Chaos Overture, providing directions for escape. Ryder has also been in contact with the survivors at the Pool House, advising they evacuate to the Lifeguard Tower. When the hero is able to communicate with Ryder once more at the hotel with Dominic, it is revealed that he is on the prison island and is dealing with his injured wife, Emily White. In the "Ryder White Campaign", it is later revealed that Ryder was not the voice from the main game, instead Charon, also known as Kevin, has been posing as him and was the true villain of the game, not Ryder.

Review: A True Zombie Game.
In my opinion the people behind Dead Island get what a zombie game is really about.
After playing through the whole game I can tell that this game was made by true zombie fans, where a game like Left 4 Dead was made by people who just like shooting a bunch of things (not that is a bad thing).
My only problem is that I wish they had focused more on the single player aspect then the CO-OP.Other then I will say is that this a great game for any true zombie fan and I hope there is a Dead Island 2..
This game to me is just great.It has the same set up as games such as GTA or Red Dead.
Graphics good, weapons fun, story fun, and oh, did i mention the zombies?!
The zombies are great so far, i have not beat the game but from where i have gotten they range from slow easy kills to not so slow and not so easy.
Exactly what i want from a zombie game.The weapons are fun, customizing is amazing.This game combines the styles of GTA with the weapon customizing of Diablo and the survival of Resident evil.
Basically someone took some of the best games made, put them in a pot of awesome and cooked up Dead Island.Don't think about it, go get this game.
The best way I can sum up Dead Island is that it tries to catch the co-op flavor of games like Borderlands and bring it to a tropical paradise with weapon crafting.
But fighting the same hordes over and over again in the hopes of getting that one special component for my ultra-rare weapon build wore out its welcome quickly.
Expect high framerates even if you have a basic gaming rig like I do at the time of writing (A10-6800k + R7 260X).
+ Crafting is good, adds some unique effects to the weapons and increases damage.
It's just cloaked in this B- movie zombies-on-a-tropical- island setting.
Jin's story is touching./ + Not really a positive or a negative, since your experience may be different, but the player-base I encountered while pugging coop matches was – immature would be a kind description.
Hey, look!" If you have a group of friends you want to play with, you'll have a much better co-op experience than I did.Despite the decent story and some good characters, there is very little time is spent with these characters; take time to do plenty of side-quests, and any sympathy built for any of them will have gone by the time we return to the main quests.
Don't do the side quests, then; but the risk is going into an area under-leveled – and trust me, you are in for a frustrating time if that happens.
By Act IV I just didn't feel like fighting anymore; fortunately you can just run by the enemies in the final levels (a few will chase you, but those can be dealt with easily).
Much better to join a co-op game in the hope of finding someone to trade with.
"Get 5 cans of food" "Find parts for the generator" "My friend / wife / husband / father / mother was infected, they had a memento / letter that I'd like to have back, can you help?" "Get 5 cans of food" - Maybe because the missions all feel the same after a while, I stopped caring.
Get your own gas." Main story missions are a bit better, but even those suffer from an over-use of escort missions.Dead Island makes a great first impression with its beautiful island paradise and aggressive zombies, but the copy-paste missions, same-y combat and rapid weapon decay left me feeling annoyed and ready to move on to something else..
This game is brilliant, what can I say, the setting is awesome, the graphics are beautiful, the music is dark and it really feels like it's the end of time when you play it, it is a gory game and I mean gory, so its not for the weak hearted whatsoever.The story resembles GTA style gaming with you fighting to survive with what ever is to hand and I mean ''Whatever is to hand'' playing this game with headphones on is a must try, with an assortment of weapons and zombies of different types and strength this game is a must buy, the only thing I will say that I'm not to fond of is the multi-player mode, as I myself am not a fan of multi-player, I prefer to go it alone, especially on a free roam game such as this, their are hidden extras in the game which are a must find, if you are a fan of zombie type games with a free roam added then this is the game for you, check it out!.
You customize and modify your weapons, get to dictate how your character progresses with experience, and get to choose what quests you do and do not want to accept.
Unlike games like Left4Dead, this game doesn't tell you where to go and give you a single pathway to follow.
Definitely a thinker, and a bad-ass FPS adventure game..
I've been waiting for this game to come out for quite some time.
But it may have been for the best, because the graphics are good and the gameplay is one-of-a-kind.
So you're not just annihilating zombies (which believe me, you do a lot) but you also have a purpose other than going through a campaign with no destination other than the end of the level.
That may be the ONLY thing I would change (it tends to get annoying when all your weapons in your inventory are broken to hell and all you can do is run and cry).
It wouldn't be so much of a problem if it wasn't a lot of money to get them repaired because there is money EVERYWHERE but the most money I get in between missions is about 2000 dollars and some weapons cost 900 bucks just to repair it.
You can pick up miscellaneous items and customize your weapons too (like putting spikes on a bat and putting an electrical charge on it).
So essentially, it can be a pain to play the game at times.
Definitely a good change from typical zombie games.
It's also 4-player which is awesome, and you can play online with your friends to get missions completed.
A good game not superb and takes too much time.
Has many good functions and are at times a really great game with a good story.
BUT it takes to much time doing relative repetitious missions, there are too many significant bugs (like zombies hitting trough a closed door) and the game play is not superb in itself.The levelling systems has a few problems, like that at times fighting ordinary zombies can actually become harder as they level up along with you and that the new skills you get and new weapons you access is not always equally good.
The story is pretty good and has many interesting characters (and a lot of uninteresting ones too) and it contains some of the same classic left-wing and social critical points that the classic zombie movies and games also did.All in all its worth playing but there are better ways to use your time..
Not a bad game once you get past the first hour or so of game-play.
You really need to give this game a good two hours before you can appreciate the complexity of the story.
Something that really spoils the game and makes it look dated.
The opening prerendered cutscene, which shows a few signs of the outbreak, already there using the 1st person perspective(every single one from there on breaks that otherwise consistent view, which can't be changed when driving or any other situation, and they're prerendered, but the communication might as well have been like when accepting/declining/briefed.
It's just them arguing over what to do next, and without the four speaking, we wouldn't have to suffer through as much of the bad dialog spoken by cardboard cutouts), has you drunk and stumbling through a party(a concert playing Who Do You Voodoo, a bad rap, but, hey, that's the state of mainstream hip-hop music today), where you meet all four main characters, which makes it feel strange when you wake up in your room at the resort after a night of heavy drinking.
Other than what they say when you pick items up or say yes/no, you forget who you even chose, other than the benefit they give, unlike Left 4 Dead, which this so badly wants to be and isn't, where they're distinct and well-rounded.
Forget that emotional, involving cinematic trailer, this is nothing like that.You can play single player, but the drop-in/out co-op is where it's at, 4 person but you can all choose the same character.
Not to mention how this sends you back and forth, using the same, largely linear, route, over the island(until after the first act after that, it's a slightly rundown city, there's a jungle, and you wonder what happened to the concept we were promised: paradise with a spreading sense of death and hopelessness), rather than truly allowing the open world it claims.This has an emphasis on mêlée combat, yet unlike Contagion, there's only one type of attack with mêlée, and no charging, except for when it decides that's what it wants to let you do meaning you can't always depend on it to do what you need it to, smack, slash, "gun-butt".
The game's enemies were rendered to have fully modelled layers of meat and muscle, meaning they have a multi-layered damage system with real-time injuries.
This has experience-based gameplay and character customization, though options are quite limited, it is more character selection rather than "customization".There is also a stamina bar, meaning that after a set amount of physical action, such as running, jumping, or swinging, you need to stop to regain it, meaning that having a fight with tougher and/or more numerous foes will result in you often running out and getting killed.
Packed with mediocre characters on and island inhabited by more survivors than zombies, a combat system that's just awful and weapons that last about five minutes before breaking, you have got yourself one big pile of horse manure to endure.
However, there is a few aspects to this game which I like, one being co-op.
You and your friends can team up and discuss just how bad this game is.
Another thing I like about this game is the atmosphere.
Games need to have a story progress og some kind of progress, not the same action and quests hours after hours in the beginning of the game.
Very bad game title, 2/10..
First-person games have never appealed to me, but when I played this game, I have to say I was REALLY impressed!
The one downer I noticed was that a lot of zombies seem to repeat themselves in different levels of the game.
But fighting different zombies and getting decent amounts of rewards from each is a great addition!
The zombie game everyone was waiting for.
I really, really like this game.
its the first true zombie game that uses first person (i wont count left 4 dead because they run, and death isn't an energy drink) the many, many weapons, many, many zombies and a big island as your sandbox to play in, its becomes a huge ton of fun, very quickly.
the controls where great, all the attack, aim other buttons are pretty much where they should be, the choice of switching between standard digital swinging to analog was a really good thing too put in, i discovered it after id completed the game and it made the impact when hitting zombies with a sledgehammer all the more satisfying.
the characters where OK, nothing great, the each have a little back story but not too much, they mainly serve as puppets to their skill sets more than anything.
and Sam B.the story isn't too bad either, i liked the twist that comes with the Ryder White campaign.
what a bunch of d*cks.but to be honest, i didn't care about the story (although the trailer was very moving i will admit, as is the new trailer for dead island riptide (embarrassingly girly squeal) i was in love with how much ass you could kick, i loved the variety, i loved the combat, i loved the different zombie types and its a damn fine game.
Great combat and beautiful open world with a practically non-existent plot and lifeless characters..
The voice acting is sub-par to the point where it sounds like they're reading the script for the first time, and there isn't a whole lot of diversity of zombies.
The combat is the game's finest point, with the weapons crafting adding to this.
The zombies are relentless and despite lacking diversity in move sets and design, it is very easy to get swarmed if you don't watch your back and some of them are truly horrifying to look at.
All in all, Dead Island is a good combat-driven zombie massacre that could have been a great one had there been more effort put into the characters, dialogue and plot..
Hate It. Okay, after my tenth time going into that room trying to kill a zombie with a hammer just to be killed again and once again sent far away to some checkpoint to start all over again, I have to ask, who cares?
I can't build any kind of strategy because the zombies pretty much just pop out of nowhere and you can't kill them from a distance and sometimes you're dead before you even know what hits you.
There is pretty much no tutorial at all, no build up to the story at all, no handful of easy missions to get you used to the oh so complicated controls, you're just plunged into the zombie apocalypse fighting your way through with nothing but pipes and shovels as complete strangers pile one mission onto the next before you even have a chance to get use to your environment.
The entire premise of having to fight hand to hand first person no less with one zombie after another is quite honestly making me nauseous.
I hear it's pretty cool if you're playing with multiple players but as a single player game it completely sucks..
OK, the setting is kind of fun, a little like 'Dead Set' (which handles a zombie outbreak from a group of Big Brother contenders), but it is so very wrong.Zombies belong to the horror genre, and a resort island has absolutely nothing in common with horror.
Here I do think I should mention the virus - the game makes a quite good attempt at explaining exactly what the virus is, but you can't really do anything about it or dig deeper into that mystery.In the game you can choose between four characters who are quite well described, but so very cliché - you can't go a game nowadays without having a game with a hot black chick - who also runs around half-naked around crazed flesh-eating zombies...
I couldn't find a single really likable character amongst these four - Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 also lacked better fleshed out characters, but they were more likable than this bunch.Which brings me to the 'role-playing' part of the game (it has very little to do with role-playing).
The game essentially builds on that you have to do all kinds of stupid side-quests, and even the main quests feel like side-quests since they don't really lead to anything major.
Besides, you never have the option to sneak, but you can most of the time outrun the zombies since they won't leave their turf.The zombies never come in hordes either, which also adds to the lack of doom and gloom feeling a game like this needs.
Five zombies running at you is never a horde, only an annoyance.The good parts are few, but also very good: the navigation system, where the compass constantly gives the correct path to where you are going is great.
I also liked the general user interface where you have stamina which goes down every time you run or fight in melee - that made the fights a little tougher.
Combat is mainly done in close combat - fire arms are quite few, and only available in special places, so its generally a bad idea to pick up a gun and fire away at zombies, since you'll need the guns for non-zombie enemies.
I didn't like that weapons could break (no matter how many heads you bash, a crowbar will NOT break), but I could live with that.
Another nice feature was the ability to upgrade or repair weapons, or even create new ones which was a lot of fun.
What I turn against is the sanity of going into close combat with all these zombies, all of which were only around when you were out doing missions - what would actually happen would probably be more of a frog-leaping method from safe house to safe house (as in L4D) until you reached total safety or managed to flee the island.The sound is OK.
I don't really think one should pinpoint graphics since that always depends on what kind of system you have, but I played the game with high settings, and it still looked bad - the faces of people were clay-like, environments looked stiff and few things looked really good.
The only people that looked good for real were the four main protagonists - and you only see yourself in some carefully selected cutscenes.The game re-uses some areas.
It is not a bad game, but one that might hold a couple of hours of reasonable entertainment, and there it ends.