Game of the Year... 2011

Yes, you read that right, despite the fact that we find ourselves nestling in the dawn of 2013, I'm about to give my 'Game of the Year' awards for 2011. The thing is, just like last year, 2011 was so jam-packed with great releases--most of which took an awfully long time to finish and fully experience--that I simply didn't even manage to play half of the games I wanted to, at least until a good 12 months after their release. Indeed much of my 2012 was spent playing 2011 releases. I've certainly experienced my fair share of last year's highlights; the likes of XCOM, Halo 4, and Mark of the Ninja have not passed me by, and I plan on checking out everything I've missed out on in due course, but finally I can at least say I've played not only every major console release of 2011, but also a huge number of lesser-known titles, downloadables, and even DLC. Thus, belatedly, I can administer my verdict on the best games of what was truly a fantastic year. 

Since there are 12 months in a year and I'll take any excuse to include more games on this list, I've decided to compile a 'Top 12', hardly the most-common numerical choice for this sort of list but frankly I feel the number ten gets far too much airtime these days, twelve is far more sensible. I'd also like to preface this with a small note: this list is my own personal preference, simply the twelve games I enjoyed the most, some of them will have been on almost everyone's lists, a couple probably won't, but in no way is this an assessment of quality. Enjoyment is what I want from a game and enjoyment is the factor that decides this list. I could very easily--if reluctantly--argue the nonsensical semantics of why game X is better than game Y but frankly that's not why I'm here. Video games, like any form of entertainment, are a very subjective matter and there will always be plenty of people who share a very different view, anyone in the business of sharing their opinion has to face up to this simple truth. So, without further ado, here goes the first ever Attack Button Game of the Year awards.

Honourable Mentions

Ah the honourable mentions. Yes of course, where would any self-respecting, sympathetic list be without the honourable mentions; those games that I simply adored but not quite enough to make it to the final dozen. They shall not be granted the prestige of a paragraph of praise and accompanying picture, but they were brilliant nonetheless. Here's why, along with a few reasons they didn't quite make the cut for me.

Portal 2 - I adored the first Portal, and frankly my feelings for the second were no different. Valve improved the game in virtually every possible way, building on the story with some surprising plot revelations and entertaining voice-acting, and giving us plenty of new toys to play with. The co-operative game was an absolute blast to play through with a friend, and a lot of care clearly went into Portal 2's production. Unfortunately, I enjoyed the experience less and less as the game wore-on, and the humour began to grate on me; I shamefully regret that I seem to be one of the only people worldwide who didn't find Cave Johnson funny in the slightest, but there you have it. 

The Gunstringer - Twisted Pixel's Kinect-exclusive tale of a sheriff marionette risen from the grave and out for revenge was a wonderful surprise of 2011. Not only did it take fine advantage of the Kinect technology, but offered a laugh-ridden campaign that failed to fall into the motion-control trap of gameplay gimmicks. Despite The Gunstringer being a fairly repetitive experience and unfortunately suffering from some hardware-integration issues, it is one of the only Kinect titles to date that actually feels like a real video game, and TP deserve plenty of praise for realising such an apparently lofty goal. The free DLC that shipped with the game, 'The Wavy Tube Man Chronicles', was also absolutely brilliant and I hope we'll see more great work with Kinect from this developer in the future.

Modern Warfare 3 - With another year came another blockbuster in the Call of Duty franchise. As far as those games go, my interest has varied over the years from 'mild indifference' to 'rabid fanboy craze', and Modern Warfare 3's release saw me transform somewhat closer to the latter. Whether or not you adore or detest the franchise, I find it hard to mount a cohesive argument against the quality of Call of Duty's raw gameplay and the stupidly addictive nature of its multiplayer. Yes these games are completely unrealistic, yes the multiplayer can be an unbalanced mess, and yes this thing is the biggest cash cow in the industry, but so what? Just as there are nights when I'd rather watch a bit of Commando than The Hurt Locker, there are times, especially in video games, where I just want some old-fashioned, stupid fun. CoD has, at the very least, provided that in spades for a good few years now, and Modern Warfare 3 was no exception. The campaign, while being about as mind-meltingly Michael Bay as you can imagine, provided a fitting end to the most profitable video game trilogy of all time, and countless nights in front of the console were guaranteed for fans the world over as the game's multiplayer and co-operative offerings continued to expand. Personally, I felt a little burnt-out on the game after a couple of weeks, the multiplayer did little to grab me and I never got back into it, but MW3 deserves plenty of praise.

Saints Row: The Third - Well, well, well, the franchise that began as nothing more than a fairly-meagre GTA clone has gone on to not only match its influence, but exceed it. Some of the most hilarious writing, most-involved customisation, and most addictive open world gameplay of all time made the third Saints Row game an utter joy to experience from beginning to end. Not only hearkening back to the days of the more crazy GTA games, but topping them in nearly every way and delivering what the Saints Row franchise initially never looked capable of: a wholly unique experience. Sure, the story itself was threadbare, the difficulty seemed to jump about all over the place, and unfortunately almost all of the game's DLC has failed to match the quality of the full product, but Saints Row: The Third was the booster injection of fun for which the open-world, gangster genre was sorely overdue.

Batman: Arkham City - Anyone who has played an Arkham game would tell you it's not just the intuitive combat, the gargoyle-clad stealth rooms, or the Riddler puzzles that make it special, it's the whole package. When you put so many brilliantly-polished mechanics and features together, the result is a shining example of what a video game can be. That's what Arkham Asylum was. Arkham City, at least from my point of view, was just more of that. Now, I'm not one to argue against 'more brilliance'; 'more brilliance' is, by definition, a wonderful thing and I very much enjoyed spending more time in this particular vision of Batman's world. However, I was left feeling that very little had been done to improve the formula. Sure, its a winning formula and 'don't fix what ain't broke', but that sort of excuse has never been enough for me. I felt as if Rocksteady were doing nothing more than riding the success of the first game, and even then, it was a bumpy ride at times, with the game's story becoming something of a convoluted mess as one-too-many villains were shoehorned into the plot. The only major gameplay addition came in the form of Catwoman as a playable character, which I personally could have done without. Don't get me wrong here, I adore both Arkham games and am confident in Rocksteady's ability as a developer, but I sincerely hope, if there is another of these games, that they have enough confidence in themselves to shake things up a little.


12 Shadows of the Damned

Just about making the list is Grasshopper Manufacture's punk-rock, action horror. What the game lacked in gameplay, it more than made up for in character. Garcia Hotspur became one my personal video game icons and it only took him a few hours of gameplay to do it. Not to mention his witty sidekick Johnson, who acted as a fine cowardly counterbalance to Hotspur's brutishness. The pair were an instant hit, and represent all that I loved about Shadows of the Damned. It was stylish, it was hilarious, it was undeniably cool, it didn't take itself too seriously, but knew it had a damn fine world to show you and a kickass story to boot. It was an experience like no other in 2011, an impressive feat considering the raw gameplay itself might well have been Ctrl+V'd from any other third-person shooter. But Shadows of the Damned was about more than pressing buttons and shooting dudes; it was about the ride, and it was one I haven't forgotten.


11 Rise of Nightmares

Part of the reason I loved Rise of Nightmares so much was because it stood out. Even now, nearly eighteen months on from its release, it remains one of the only Kinect games that really tried to, well, be a video game. And for the most part it succeeded. The team at Sega Wow did what virtually every other Kinect-developer has failed to do; they didn't see the device as a hindrance, as something to be worked around as best as possible with shortcuts and handholding, they didn't even see it as a piece of serious hardware that should be treated delicately to cater to a 'hardcore' crowd. They saw the mad little toy that makes people the world over flail their limbs about in the living room like madmen. They saw what is, for now, the essence of Kinect: a kinda broken, kinda stupid thing that can actually be a whole lot of fun if you don't take it too seriously. They said let's make a game for that. And that's just what they did. Rise of Nightmare's cliché-ridden, hilarious B-movie horror, combined with surprisingly varied gameplay, remarkably intuitive control systems, and more wacky gestures than you can shake a leg at, more than cement it as one of my favourite games of 2011.


10 Dead Rising 2: Off the Record

It seems that not a lot of people noticed Dead Rising 2: Off the Record. For a variety of reasons it slipped under the radar, but I would implore any Dead Rising fan, or even anyone with a passing interest in the franchise to pick it up because it is, quite simply, the best game in the series. Finally the folks at Capcom paid attention and made some of the changes fans and detractors alike had been clamouring for. The introduction of a sandbox mode was a much-welcome feature, eliminating the pesky time limitations and letting players get down to the meat (or perhaps flesh?) of the Dead Rising experience. Snapping "erotic" photos again felt like being reunited with an old friend, and at least on a personal level, the most important addition of all was the return of perhaps the world's favourite wartime photojournalist, Frank West. The developers took the time and care to not just rush out a re-release, but really make a product worth the money. The completely re-imagined story, along with the new area, weapons, and psychopaths all contributed to making the game more than justify its creation. There are still things in the Dead Rising formula that require a bit of tweaking but Off the Record improved far too much to be ignored. In short: fantastic!


9 L.A. Noire

L.A. Noire was something special, not just in the way it went about using its marvellous MotionScan technology to present lifelike characters, but in everything else it did too. The interrogation mechanic was something else, and the way in which Team Bondi went about converting the methodical, slow-paced style of an adventure game into an open world was a stroke of genius. Not to mention they wrapped it all up with an emotional story, and decorated the game with just the right degree of raw brutality and dark corruption to capture the fragility of post-war Los Angeles, and its inhabitants. The game was a triumph; a sterling example of storytelling, artistry, and remarkable technology. The tale it told left a lasting impression on me, as did the characters I met along the way. The pleasure of donning my sleuth cap and sussing out--or at least attempting to suss out--each crime was the realisation of a childhood dream. I can only hope we see more games taking inspiration from L.A. Noire in the future.


8 Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3

I'm hardly a fighting game pro but this game made me feel like one. Capcom's fantastic design allowed rookies to pull off 100-hit combos and screen-filling ultra moves with ease, while meticulously balancing each member of the game's huge roster to suit the competitive community too. The inclusion of well-made challenge and training modes only eased the introduction for less-experienced players, and the overall accessibility of the game is one of its finest attractions. Fights themselves are truly a spectacle to behold, with utterly sublime graphics and magnificently-detailed animations. You'll never see a slow fight in MvC 3 and the game does a sterling job of essentially capturing what you would expect a battle between the likes of Ryu and Wolverine to play out. The initial release of the game would've made the list by itself, such was the quality of the core game, but the Ultimate edition really completed the package. The addition of so many new characters and stages was enough to sell me on the product, but Capcom went above and beyond, tweaking and re-balancing each character, adding a spectator mode that was sorely-missing in the original, throwing in a free downloadable--and completely wacky--card-based bonus mode, and even the little novelty additions like playable Galactus went a great way to making Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 fantastic value. The attention to detail on display from the developer, and the care they invested to make a truly accessible fighting game was a gesture I fully appreciated, and to this day UMvC 3 remains one of my all-time favourite fighters. 

7 Mortal Kombat

Just edging ahead in the fighting game stakes is Mortal Kombat. This is a franchise that, at least from my point of view, trod a drastically fluctuant path since the turn of the millenium (and perhaps even a little bit before, the less said about Mythologies: Sub-Zero the better) and fans--myself included--were, understandably, rather equivocal in our expectations towards this new game. But as more footage was released, doubts were vanquished and excitement grew, with good reason. Mortal Kombat (9) is a sensational video game, and the perfect example of how to reboot a struggling franchise. Netherrealm took MK back to its roots, whilst adding a modern touch to spice things up. All of the game's classic characters returned, and each was designed and balanced so well that I found it impossible to decide on a favourite. It was one of the only fighting games in recent memory to feature a full story mode that actually made sense, and evidently a lot of attention went into providing as full an experience as possible. The Challenge Tower was an addictive and varied addition, while the game's multiplayer--the lifeblood of any fighter--was handled very well, with the theatre-style spectator mode a nice touch. Roll on Injustice!

6 Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Human Revolution surprised me. I'd never been much into Deus Ex before, I played and enjoyed the first game enough but never really invested myself in the series. Picking up a copy of HR, I expected a decent little stealth romp to kill a weekend. What I found was an awful lot more; a wonderfully-imagined, and rather scarily realistic cyberpunk vision of the future; a story wrought with intrigue, fascinating science, and conspiracy; and some of the most dynamic gameplay I've seen in the last few years. To top it all off, the game handles stealth--should you choose that particular path--brilliantly, with some truly challenging segments, multiple pathways through nearly every area, and countless options to deal with the enemies you face. The quality of the story missions can't be understated, but it was outside the core game that I really found myself falling in love with HR. There's such a lot to explore in the game, so many computers to hack, well-written side missions to undertake, and secrets to find, and all of this content is such a lot of fun to discover. A hallmark of a well-made game is a world worth exploring, and Deus Ex: Human Revolution can safely check that box.

5 Dead Island

Oh Dead Island, you were the zombie game I've always wanted. You took zombies and made them scary, something that an awful lot of developers have been unable to do. You built a world that really felt like it had been overrun with the undead, complete with the raw helplessness and terror that we imagine would come with it. I felt genuine dread at the prospect of running from one end of a city to the other, sure in the knowledge that the fight for survival would be a tough one. A fight with more than a few zombies was a true challenge, and the wild howls of the lethal infected would send a shiver down my spine. Dead Island did so many things right that I was more than willing to overlook its minor flaws, and I feel anyone else should be too. Techland crafted a survival horror experience that was simply fun to play, with an intuitive combat system, a ludicrous amount of content, and a co-operative game that can't be missed.

4 Rayman Origins

It's hard to put into words just how much I adore Rayman Origins. As a lifelong fan of the limbless wonder, I don't think anybody could've been happier than me to see his return to the two dimensions from whence he came, and a big, beaming smile didn't leave my face from the moment I picked up the controller until I set it down. The game is beautiful. In fact, let me just say that again for emphasis; the game is beautiful. It is an utter joy to make one's way through each and every wonderfully composed level, accompanied by a cheerful soundtrack every bit as gorgeous as the world that dances to its beat. The nicely-balanced difficulty, hilarious multiplayer, and hours of potential replayability were generous sprays of polish on an already shimmering game. Rayman Origins is a consistently blissful experience from start to finish, and I was truly sad to reach the end; which is not something I feel very often. 

3 Gears of War 3

It's amazing just how good Gears of War 3 is. After the original blockbuster, and it's more than impressive sequel--a game that more than managed to deliver on the developer's promises of a "bigger, better, more badass" experience--I admit I felt some trepidation going into the final chapter of the trilogy. Could they really do it again? How can you possibly improve on a game like Gears 2? Well, as it turns out there's an awful lot of answers to that question, and Epic Games knew them before the rest of us. Gears 3 was the ultimate package, an explosive campaign saturated with some truly great storytelling, the horde and beast modes that surpassed their peers and cemented Epic's place as masters of their own innovation, and, perhaps best of all, a balanced, addictive, and superbly refined multiplayer. The game captured every aspect of the franchise that people adored, polishing each to a gold standard and throwing in plenty of new tricks to keep it fresh. It not only surpassed its outstanding predecessors, but somehow made them look puny and hollow when put up against such a masterpiece. As we now know, it wasn't the final Gears of War game and I can only hope Judgement delivers this year, but I won't believe it until I see it. After all, how can you possibly improve on a game like Gears 3?


2 The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

How can one summarise Skyrim in a paragraph? After spending my first hundred hours in the game's world, I felt like I'd only just scraped the surface of what that game has to offer, and I remained just as eager to see it all as when I began. It's more than a game, it's another world. A living, breathing, wonderfully-built world that you want to explore. The fiction is rich, the scenery beautiful, the adventuring wild and the quests innumerable. It feels as though you're living another life. The freedom the game offers you only enhances this, and it's something I feel other developers could learn a great deal from, as well as the reason I adore the Bethesda RPG model more than any other. They don't confine you, shepherd you along, hold your hand or tell you what to do. Skyrim teaches you its basics and sets you loose, there's a hell of a lot out there to discover and Bethesda are confident that whatever you find, whichever path you take, cave you explore, town you terrorise, or quest you undertake, you'll be desperate for more. They're right.

1 Dark Souls

Yes, as you may have guessed, Dark Souls takes the 2011 crown. What can I say that I haven't said already? I've spent over three hundred hours on this game now, completed it over a dozen times, and I continue to fall deeper in love with each passing minute I spend in the world of Lordran. People talk about the similarities between Dark Souls and Demon's Souls and they're certainly there to see, but From Software didn't just build on a solid foundation, they went above and beyond. Preserving the intense difficulty and dark fantasy adored by many in the first game, they crafted a whole new world even more intriguing, mysterious and unforgiving than the last. They built an experience that functioned on a completely different level to most video games, centrally-focused around the ideas of challenge and achievement through a combat system that taught players to learn from their mistakes. It says it all when the game took me about fifty hours to complete first time through, and now I can finish it in around five. And in spite of what little value that achievement really holds, I'm proud of it. I've "beaten" an awful lot of games in my times but Dark Souls is the first I feel like I've truly "conquered," and I'm still desperate to play more. In the same way that my character has levelled up over time, I too felt like my own stats were rising, my dexterity piqued after countless battles, my foresight matured through my adventures, and my strategies honed through repetition. Everything about Dark Souls is handled in a way that appeals to me and my sensibilities, from the lore that isn't thrust into your face with hours of cut-scenes, but delicately gleaned from your interactions with the world itself, to the boss battles that feel every bit as grand as they look. It's an incomparable video game experience, and the best I had in 2011.

Review: Dead Island

When there’s no more room in hell, the dead will go on vacation.

She's probably gonna want to turn around...

Dead Island, the latest addition to the somewhat crowded and ever-growing zombie family, is one of those rare games that’s a little hard to classify since it tries to do an awful lot, combining a variety of elements from different genres, while trying to bring its own new mechanics to the table. Comparisons can be drawn to Borderlands, Condemned, Left 4 Dead, and more, but while Dead Island certainly contains ideas and systems taken from other games, as a whole it feels like a fresh and unique addition to the wonderful world of slaying the undead.


The story, like an awful lot of zombie fiction, is about as barebones as you can get. There‘s been a zombie outbreak on the tropical island of Banoi. You play as one of four survivors who happen to be immune to the virus, each having their own back-story, combat specialities, and unique skill trees. You then proceed to make your way across the island, helping people out and slaughtering a lot of zombies along the way, with the obvious ultimate aim being to get the hell out of there. There’s some brief semblance of exposition along the way, mostly in the form of cut-scenes involving a mysterious voice on the radio that seems to be trying to aid your escape. The plot is most definitely not the game’s strong suit, but it does all tie together at the end, so that, should you care enough to pay attention to what‘s going on, you’ll get some sense of closure from the finale. Even if the story isn’t your thing, you won’t be short of motivation while playing Dead Island, the thrill of trying to stay alive, level up, and find more loot within this tropical nightmare will keep you playing for many hours.


A lot of hype was generated over the early teaser trailer for Dead Island, showing a family of holiday-makers being overwhelmed by a horde of zombies, a father brutally attacked by his own daughter, combined with some beautifully haunting background music, the trailer packed a punch. While the game could never have been expected to live up to that sort of hype, it still manages to do a great job of capturing the powerful emotions associated with the desperate scenario these survivors find themselves in. You’ll walk into safe houses and hear people sobbing and screaming, stumble on a group of partying teens relying on booze to see them through the nightmare, find a lonely desperate man who sadly asks you to put his family to rest after they became part of the horde. Some people have turned to religion, some will task you with finding their treasured possessions just to retain some normality in their lives, most just want to go home. Some great voice acting and sound design is used throughout the game to build this oppressive atmosphere, and while outside in the streets the action may all be about hacking limbs and loot-hunting, any time you go inside and talk to these people you can’t help but realise the sadness and utter despair of their situation. 

Moments like this go some way to realising the emotion of the trailer

This is a game about survival. In fact, it very much captures that feeling of survival horror that you might have forgotten in recent times. Unless you’re amongst groups of survivors or inside an armoured truck, you never feel safe on Banoi. No matter how well-armed you are, if you aren’t concentrating, at any moment or around any corner a crowd of infected could rush you and bring you down in seconds. Dead Island makes you pay attention, it puts you constantly on your toes, it forces you to really think like a survivor, it won’t punish you too harshly for dying, but it makes you care enough to want to avoid death at all costs, the game essentially captures the very essence of what makes a good survival horror experience, combined with the desperation and tension associated with how we imagine a zombie apocalypse might be.


Banoi is divided into three huge main areas, the beautiful resort with its sandy beaches, poolside bars, and the grand hotel where the story begins. Then there’s the city, dilapidated and claustrophobic, with a surprise waiting around every street corner. Finally, the dense jungle, eerily quiet, with an endless canopy of towering trees looming over you, letting in little rays of sunlight here and there. Techland do a fantastic job of making each area not only look wildly different, but feel and play very differently too. At the resort you’ll have wide, open spaces with which to conduct your battles, but once you enter the much more densely-populated city and find yourself amongst narrow allies and dead ends, with new zombie types being thrown at you, the fight to survive becomes much more difficult. 


Speaking of fighting, since you’ll be doing such a lot of it, it was imperative for Dead Island to have an enjoyable combat system, and fortunately it does. There are guns to find but the focus here is primarily on melee weapons, of which there are an awful lot. At first you’ll find yourself having to make use of paddles and kitchen knives, but very quickly you’ll be able to pound away at zombie heads with maces and sledgehammers, or slice off limbs with katanas and scythes, the variety of weapons keeps the combat interesting, and, similarly to Borderlands and in the style of an MMO, all loot will have its own statistics and colour-coding to denote usefulness and rarity. The drive to seek out new weapons and find more loot is as powerful as it’s ever been, and I found myself going to great lengths in my exploration just to find new weapon chests. You’ll also be able to improve any weapon you pick up at one of the game’s many workbenches, here you can upgrade, repair, and modify your implements of destruction. Repairs and upgrades are simply a matter of spending money, but modifications require specific items that you’ll find scattered about the environment; batteries, duct tape, the usual sort of stuff. These mods can add elemental effects to your weapons, adding more layers to the already rich combat customisation.

Combining swords and batteries has never been so much fun!

The fighting itself is one of the game’s strongest points. Two control schemes are available, by default you’ll hit a button and swing whatever you’re holding, having some loose control over which part of the body you’ll attack. Bones will break, limbs will slice off, and the overall damage model on the zombies is incredibly good. This isn’t something I’ll say often with such enthusiasm, but the flesh-tearing technology in this game is outstanding. Without going into too much grisly detail, you’ll see some very gory and realistic damage effects from your attacks. The other control scheme is the one I used throughout much of the game, and is surprisingly hidden away in the options menu. This analog control scheme allows you to use the right stick to control the direction of your swings. Pull the stick back to ready your weapon, and flick it in any direction you like to attack. The system takes a little getting used to at first, but works very well once mastered, allowing you to strike with precision, breaking legs and cutting off heads at will. Whichever control scheme you choose, the fighting in this game is immensely satisfying, combined with the loot-hunting and levelling, you have so many reasons to get out in the world and kill some walking dead. That’s right, there’s levelling too, with each character having their own skill trees to sink points into. The trees are more than diverse enough to make everyone feel and play differently, and offer a decent level of character customisation. If you want to focus on staying alive and picking locks, the survival tree is for you, should you wish to do more damage with your specialist weapon set, there‘s a tree for that too. Each character also has their own ‘Rage’ ability to wipe out hordes in seconds, very useful for when you get overwhelmed, these abilities, again, have their own skill tree, allowing you to spec your character to your style of play.

He just wants a cuddle

The world of Dead Island is huge and you’ll want to explore as much as you can, not only does the game encourage you to stray from the beaten path, it rewards you most handsomely for doing so. Whilst navigating some sewers during a particularly creepy side mission, I took a little detour, discovering a ladder leading to a makeshift shrine where I discovered and collected a secret skull. Initially believing it to be nothing more than a collectible, it turned out to be the key to unlocking a secret weapon, the details of which I shall not divulge, suffice to say it quickly became one of my favourite tools for dispatching a crowd of zombies. Neat little secrets like this are commonplace in Dead Island, and you’ll have a hard time not stumbling onto some of them regardless of how you play. I.D cards, recordings, hidden weapon chests and mods, you’ll even spot a few little easter eggs and nods to the likes of Lost and Friday the 13th, and come upon extra side quests and survivors should you choose to explore areas thoroughly enough. 


Speaking of which, the numerous side quests, while mostly being little more than thinly-veiled fetch and escort missions, manage to stay fresh and interesting throughout and I rarely found myself getting bored. The zombie apocalypse setting allows Techland to play with the typical side quest formula in some pretty unique ways, you‘ll rarely be doing much more than running from point A to point B and back again, or clearing out a house of zombies, but the way each mission is presented, and the various ways you can go about them thanks to the open-world nature of the game, provide added impetus to take on these side missions, not to mention they will often reward you with a bounty of XP and new weapons. 

The movies lied! One shot to the head doesn't work!

An open world is only as good as the things you can find in it, and Banoi is simply crammed with goodies. And zombies. An awful lot of zombies as a matter of fact, in all shapes and sizes. Techland took the age-old dilemma of “Should our zombies be fast or slow?” and said “Both!”, you’ll not only be accosted by slow-movers and fast-runners, but a whole host of other specialised zombie types, all of which exhibit some quite fantastically repulsive designs, like the fearsome Butchers who will attack you with their own sharpened forearm bones. Variety is such a big part of this game, and it’s great that not only can you find such variation in weapons, quests and locales, but in the enemies themselves too. All of the zombie types require the use of different combat strategies to effectively take them out, and this is just one more way in which the combat and overall experience of Dead Island stays fresh throughout the entire game.

He doesn't want a cuddle

Unfortunately, not everything in Dead Island is quite as rich as the combat or beautiful as the landscape, there are a significant number of issues, bugs, glitches, confounding design choices, and general “Why is this happening?” moments that most players are bound to encounter at some point. However, during my time with the game, around forty hours of play, I did not once experience anything game-breaking or anything that made me want to quit playing. The bugs I did encounter ranged from comical to frustrating. Weapons vanishing after being thrown, the mini-map consistently requesting I walk through walls to reach my objective, and character’s eyes rolling back in their heads were just a few of the hiccups throughout my zombie-slaying adventure. Despite the lengthy list of technical problems, I happily played on and would encourage others to do the same, which goes to show just how enjoyable Dead Island can be, even with its drawbacks. 


Where this enjoyment is most readily apparent is in the multiplayer, Dead Island can be played co-operatively with up to four players and this is where I feel it excels. Alone, the island can feel a little overwhelming and scary, but when accompanied by a couple of buddies to watch your back and steal all the good loot, the game quite simply becomes a lot less atmospheric, but a lot more fun. As with the likes of Borderlands and Left 4 Dead, you can’t help but feel Dead Island was designed with co-operative play in mind, even the skill trees contain abilities that only really make sense with multiple players. The co-op works well and is nicely integrated, even popping up every now and then to let you know if there are any joinable players around the same part of the story as you. This doesn’t mean that the singleplayer should be avoided, the game can be just as good by oneself, but, if you have the opportunity to play co-operatively, it’s definitely worth checking out.

Hey look, zombies

There are an awful lot of zombie games around and Dead Island somehow manages to feel like all of them and none of them. There are parts to the game that literally feel as if they were plucked directly from other titles, yet the new ideas Techland have developed serve to make Dead Island an experience unlike any other. Left 4 Dead took us on bite size journeys through a zombie-infested America, where the goal was always to get to the next safe house. Dead Rising was all about having as much fun as you could by killing the undead in hilarious ways. Dead Island tries to let us experience the emotion, drama, tension, and sheer horror of the fight for survival in an open world overrun with the walking dead. While it is certainly punching a little above it’s weight, and suffers from a myriad of technical issues that hamper it from ever fully realising its potential, Dead Island is an experience all zombie fans should enjoy and Techland must be commended for setting themselves such lofty standards and very nearly reaching them.

For the purposes of this review, the Xbox 360 version of the game was played.