Dead Island: Definitive Collection Review

"You can Never Escape the Island"

Dead Island

I've always found the Dead Island series to be a solid entry of games and they honestly get a worst rep than they deserve. With that we have the Dead Island Definitive Collection which brings Dead Island and Dead Island: Riptide to the current generation. They now feature breathtaking scenery and even more realistic zombies which does look great.

I did however find that there wasn't that much of a difference with it looking just a bit better in comparison to my memory, but the buggy core gameplay persists on. There were numerous issues I came across when playing these titles to see what was different in these remastered editions. Aside from the graphical improvements it plays the same with a bit more issues than what I recalled from playing back awhile ago, the package also includes all the DLC for the title so there's some extra content.

Looking at the first Dead Island it follows a group of survivors that were caught in the middle of the zombie apocalypse while on a beautiful resort located on the island chain of Banoi. Playing solo or with a group of up to four you level your character skills while attempting to survive the infection and make your way to a radio guy with a plan. This never goes as planned so be prepared for many core and side quests while you try to survive on the island.

Dead Island: Riptide

This somewhat sequel continuation of the series continues with the original squad on a new island that's in close proximity to the original. It continues the story and builds further on the lore that was lightly touched upon in the original game.

It also includes a number of improvements, but largely the same sort of game with just new quests and a bit more focus on the military presence. The game itself was decent though not really an improvement over the original title as it just continued the story with a bit more content. It's really just more of what you played in the first game with a few expansions here and there to make it unique.

Gameplay

The remastered collection comes with a streamlined UI between the two titles and a much more luscious world to explore. It does look a bit better though from playing it again it really just felt like the same thing as before with the change in graphics over the years obviously not being that big of a deal.

The game features somewhat rigid movement and combat which at times makes fights a bit tenser. Other than that it can feel rather awkward at moments and there are of course many glitches present across the game as that didn't seem to be addressed at all.

Everything can be played by yourself or with a group of four in a very streamlined atmosphere which is appreciated as it's a lot more fun with some friends. It just scales the world's combat to the group and it works well generally in cooperative play. Loading was also much better in this one as I recall many moments of long loading in the games back on last generation consoles so that was nice.

The Conclusion

Dead Island is what I'd consider a decent series and with this cheaper package you do get a good amount of campaign length which many players look for. The world is improved looking running perfectly fine on current consoles and it does have a bit better of a lighting system similar to that of Dying Light.

It's a bit rough around the edges, but it's easy to overlook that with the decent stories and the lengths of both titles. The game is even more fun if you can play in a squad and it's nice to have a RPG zombie survival title to play together so it fits that bill well. If you've played either Dead Island title in the past it's basically the same so not a huge difference in coming back to the island. With that if you'd like another go at the games then this is the best way to do so and price isn't terrible.

For those that haven't played these titles they're worth checking out as they provide a solid story killing atmosphere across a number of beautiful locales. I also wanted to mention that Dead Island: Retro Rampage was not considered as part of this review as it hasn't been released yet to play it though it's supposed to be a bonus of this collection.

Dead Island: Definitive Collection Review on Xbox One
Review Code Provided by Tinsley PR

Rating Overall: 7.2