I'll start off by saying that I never actually use to write reviews.
This won't be a review "per se", but a few opinions on the game.
As soon as there's a "real" review posted, I will probably delete this and add it as comment to that review.
So let's go.
If you enjoyed the Dead Island games, you will certainly enjoy this one too.
I was extremely hyped for this game. Not only did I buy it on day #1 (something I rarely ever do), but I also went for the Ultimate edition, as the "Be the Zombie" was suposed to get that... just to find our that due the physical delay of the game, the mode had been made available for free to everyone.
The few days between the game being released in US and me being able to play it in EU, I got even more hyped watching all those streams on twitch.
Then I finally could play myself.
GAMEPLAY:Dead Island copy pasta, mixed with Mirrors Edge or Assassins Creed.
PROS:
- traps that can be used, like electric fences and exploding cars.
- parkour
- once you have enough level: grappling hook
- weapon socket slots
CONS:
- grappling hook: makes the parkour basically irrelevant
- while the different weapons of choice are OK, there is only a small variety of mods. it's either small or medium electric, fire or toxic effect on your weapon. or a mix of those.
- medkits and repairing a weapon is instant. this makes stuff waaaaaay too easy. but ofc you can chose NOT to use it like that:
I already noticed on the twitch streams, that the game wouldn't be too hard. So I put a few self-limitations in place, to make it a little bit more challenging and fun:
- only used med kits when not directly engaged in combat
- only repaired in safezones or when completely safe and undetected
- only assign skill points in safezones
3/5 base points
+1 parkour
-1 copy pasta
3/5 final points
ZOMBIE GAMEPLAY:- As of today, I have NOT been able to invade a friend. Even with same settings (friends only, any daytime) I never got matched against any of my friends. Granted, only tried half a dozen of times before we gave up.
- In public games, after waiting 2-3 minutes on the matchmaking queue while "finding a game", I am greeted with a "session no longer availabe" message. WHY? because people is STUPID and leave their settings to "public" and when someone actually joins their session they shit their pants and go "single player mode" or whatever, so...:
- As of today I have NOT actually managed to play as a zombie vs. other players yet. Granted: I need to try different times of the day and maybe get luckier after 22:00 or whatever
0/5 base points
0/5 final points
STORY:The story is not a Shakespeare or Stephen King... but it's entertaining enough. However when you are 40y. old like me, you'll probably go "heh, saw that one coming" pretty often.
The game is quite entertaining at first, plenty of stuff to do while you are still weak and insecure about the surroundings... The game also throws quite a lot of missions and sidemissions and side activitities at you...
But... it gets real dull real quick!
- In first place, one of the coolest things: air-drops... your controller starts to vibrate and you can hear a plane. You can actually see it in the air dropping the supplies and then it's a rush to see if you can get there and loot it before the bandits do. It's also a very good way to make XP... guess what... after a certain chapter, they don't drop anymore. At all. One of the coolest, most entertaining things that actually give XP... removed from the game.
In the second map you find some air drops here and there... but you find them already on the ground just surrounded by a few goons. Good for XP, but not nearly as amazing as at the start of the game.
- At some point, early in the game, you might feel overwhealmed by all the side-activities (challenges, sidequests, etc) going on... which I like. But as soon as you arrive at the second map it's all dull and boring. Only a handful of activities besides the main story.
Also, the second map basically encourages you to travel on rooftops all the time as safezones, objectives, vendors, etc. it's all high above ground... which leaves you to close to zero interaction with zombies actually. Unless you wanted to save a survivor, pick up one of the few airdrops or something like that, you'd rarely put a foot onto ground... and that became boring pretty soon too.
One of the biggest problems with this game is replayability...
There is new game+ in case you want to hunt your last pieces of collectibles while replaying the game... but in the Dead Island games you could chose different characters with different play styles... in Dying Light once you're done... there is not much else to do right now without any DLC apart the "Be the Zombie"
3/5 base points
+1 sandbox activity on first map
-1 no real replayability
3/5 final points
GLITCHES:Before I even had the game I already knew two important things:
- There's a real nasty bug that can corrupt your gamesave and make you lose all progress except story-progress. luckily there's a patch on the way (which won't recover anything if it happened to you tho) and you can prevent this from happening by being very careful when you quit the game (never do it while sleeping)
- The items can be duped using the same method than in the Dead Island games. But hey, that's up to you if you're that kinda guy/gal.
And then, the WORST of them all for the TA community: achievement glitches.
has not been unlocked by anyone yet, people are stuck at 97% of the achievement.
There is a chance it's not a bug and there is a reeeeeal well hidden sidemission somewhere... but we'll see about that.
Other achievements also have been reported at not unlocking at the proper time, but that might be to blame on the (currently) crappy XBO achievement app.
GRAPHICS:Yeah, looks awesome. whatever. moving on
4/5 base points
4/5 final points
SOUND:Sound acting is OK, but sound FX is brilliant IMO, I play with dolby surround and most of the times I can hear zombies approaching from the proper direction, where the plane is coming from (more or less), etc.
That being said, background music is lacking to nonexistant
3/5 base points
+1 sound FX and voice acting
-1 music
3/5 final points
Aaaaand I ended up writing muuuuch more than I expected. So maybe I'll keep this posted as review and keep adding/correcting stuff when I am bored.
FINAL VOTE:4/5 base points
+0,5 hype
-1 glitches
3,5/5 final points
3.5