Review: Escape Dead Island

Escape Dead Island is a Survival-Mystery adventure that lets players delve into the Dead Island universe and unravel the origins of the zombie outbreak.

Pros:

• Comic book style graphics that look really good and add a different perspective on it all.
• Full 360 pad support from the get go.
• Steam Achievements.
• Steam trading cards.
• Opening tutorial section.
• Story is actually really good, Adding back story and explaining whats happened between the games.
• Weapons do not break in this game.
• New zombie types introduced.
• Full voice cast that do a good enough job.
• Collectibles are scattered throughout the levels. There are different types. One set of collectibles provide a voice over story to it all whilst another one is a bit more hands on, taking photos of certain things will trigger a back story or piece of information.
• Health packs can be found and increase your overall vitality.
• Health regens in the game and when you are getting hit, blood will start to cover the screen.
• Third person view.
• Auto saves frequently.
• camera is unlocked at the begininng and you can use it whenever you like. You can take photos of anything but important opportunities actually flash green or red. If they flash red it means its a worthy shot but you are out of range. green is your good to go.
• Heavy and light attacks with combo moves to master.
• Still has over the top execution moves.
• Gameplay is a mx between fast paced melee action and stealth sections.
• Soundtrack is very nice and does add a lot.
• Controls layout is simple enough to learn.
• Clear objective markers down to the objective marker being tied to a button, Allowing you to bring it up whenever needed.
• Noises will pop up on screen with action callouts. You will notice them from the original 1960s Batman TV show with the biffing and boffing and the thwacks!
• The game is a bit more confined in terms of clear goals but you do have some degree of free movement. its not as open as the other games.
• UI is clean and easy to read.

Cons:

• Really slow starter. You start off in a seperate tutorial with a badass ninja, then you go to a long intro and basic go here go there section.
• Attacks feel sluggish and dont really feel like they have any proper meat behind them.
• Few awkward control desicions like reload being on the right stick click.
• No visible health bar.
• Camera can have a mind of its own and obscure your view.
• Actual gameplay is slow in general with a lot of stop starting going on.
• Animations are off and look bad at times especially when interacting with ladders and other characters.
• Short game in that you could get through it with 6 hours easily with a few people reporting just 4 hours to run it.

In Summary, I must confess to being a huge Dead Island fan so when this came up i got a bit excited. When i booted the game it started off really well. I thought I was going to be a ninja with a badass Katana but no. 10 minutes later I am some annoying rich kid who stole daddys boat and is on a mission to find a good story for a friend. The game became slow with loads of pointless interactions and collection quests. When you do finally get to have at it, The game is good but its just all the inbetween stuff that ruins it. Collectibles are in places you would expect so they are no real challenge. i like the new look of it all and wish it was a bit more open in general. The story is the only reason to keep going with it and does a good job of explaining itself. In short its worth a shot just for the story but anyone expecting a trademark Dead Island experience will be left disappointed. I liked it for what its worth.