Dead Island: Definitive Edition

Is an upgraded version of the original Dead Island, featuring improved visuals and all of the available DLC for that game.
Other than the better graphics the Definitive Edition plays identically to the original title, so expect the same blend of visceral zombie massacre, fetch quests, skill tree upgrades, bad voice-acting, and weapon-building that you experienced the first time around, either by yourself or with up to three other people in co-op play.

It uses the same game engine as the Dying Light definitive edition. I recommend turning off the chroma and film grain effects as they seem to only make the visuals look fuzzier. Also I´d hope they would tell what kind of anti aliasing method they are using and few other anti aliasing choices wouldn't be bad for future patch, I hate it how developers treat pc gamers as idiots who must not be confused with options or information.

If you didn't like the original Dead Island or were only mildly impressed with it, the Definitive Edition won't win you over since it's essentially more of the same. The Definitive Edition can be safely recommended to hardcore Dead Island fans, and to those who like loot-heavy action RPGs like the Borderlands games.

In this Review, I'm going to talk to you about the Good, the Bad AND the Ugly. Hope you enjoy.

The Good

Loading times

The loading times for this game are insanely quick. It takes anywhere from 1 second to 2 seconds to load up the map after clicking play.

Graphics

Overall, the graphics are very nice. Most of it is highly comparable to Dying Light, such as the grass, a good chunk of the textures and models, the air particles, etc.

Performance

The performance is great. I can run it anywhere from 50-110 FPS with no stuttering with everything on High.

Gameplay

Just like in the original, you are still kicking, punching, hitting zombies with blunt and sharp weapons and eventually firing with firearms. I feel like the game is easier compared to the OG dead island, propably to make the game easier for the casuals. Zombies are easier to kick down and they take huge amounts of damage when they are stunned, I actually killed majority of the zombies just by kicking them to the ground and kicking them couple of times.

Overall the gameplay is fun and the physics were outstanding when the game first came out. You can mod your weapons for instance with rag and alcohol to make it light into fire and rarely to set the zombies on fire which deals massive damage. I was hoping they would have added some crazy weapons to this version for example a light saber or flamethrower. The gameplay is fun in the grand sceem of things.

The Bad

The Story:

The story is kinda predictable and straightforward. What I like about the story is that it takes you to places and new areas which make sense. The story is not anything groundbreaking, you won´t get deep character development here but the story is fitting nevertheless and what I really appreciated was that there was several environments that all were fitting for the story and had great level of detail put into them.

UI

Although the UI for Dead Island was never amazing, it could still use some improvement. In the original Dead Island the upgrade damage/force/durability was added onto the end of the original rather than just added all together. This made comparing weapons easier, and for some reason it was removed in Riptide and carried over to the Definitive Collection. The main menu also seems laggy because it's locked at 30 fps for some reason.

The Ugly

Textures/Models

While most textures look great, others are lacking. The models could also be better. Although quite a few of them have been upgraded, there are some that haven't been touched or are broken. See here[imgur.com] for specifics and screenshots.

Glitches/Bugs

Quite a few glitches seem to been patched, such as glitching through walls, getting out of the map and items disappearing. However, there are still some significantly big bugs present. See here[imgur.com] for specifics and screenshots.

Sounds

Most of the sounds haven't been touched other than the ladders. This means that all of the walking sound mismatching from the original is still in this one. There's also a weird audio level bug that randomly occurs when playing online, causing random sound effects to become extremely quiet.

Character Shadows

I know Dying Light didn't have character shadows, but come on. I miss looking down and seeing my shadow moving with the derpy character animations. I don't know how many times I've just looked down and started spinning around in circles trying to find it.

The Trailer:

Final Verdict

70/100

Dead Island Definitive Edition brings back that old Dead Island gameplay and feel, alongside with all new graphics features. It runs on the Dying Light engine, Chroma 6, and bring with it new post-processing effects, making the island look more beautiful than ever. Most of the original models have been relaced, or updated, including new weapon models, character models, gun models and more... The introduction of the all new physically-based shaders and photo realistic lighting system make it look more beautiful than ever. It's a great game if you loved the original Dead Island.

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