Dead Island for PlayStation 3 Reviews by Gamers

I've been playing this game for almost a month now, and I'm still working through the single player campaign. The missions are solid with a good mix of side missions that help level up your characters. In the game preview, it's suggested that you'll need help getting through some of the areas in the way of co-op, but so far, I've found that playing through enough of the side missions allows you to make it easily through all of the mission areas.
In short, this is a good solid zombie game, with a solid gameplay style and a campaign back story that stays engaging. Get it, and play it!

short review
this game was glitchy, repetitive, long, frustrating, non revolutionary, hack and slash with a dash of gun play in a sandbox.

For a longer review read below.
The hype of the trailer from E3 created expectations this game could not deliver. Although Dead Island is not a revolutionary game, simply adding features from previous blockbuster games (fallout 3 and left 4 dead) does not create a solid hit. The amalgamation of different games combined into one resulted in an average forgettable game. From rendering issues to the inability to complete missions when items were obtained, there were so many glitches it became frustrating to play.

The seemingly endless missions playing errand boy for the hoard of helpless npcs became repetitively tiring and dull. The majority of the game comprised of quests where you are forcibly conditioned to open everything you can to search for items in hopes you will be rewarded with that essential item you need for a weapon modification. If you are a player who thrives in treasure hunting/looting and playing fetch this game is for you. Otherwise, stay clear of side quests if you just want to finish the game.

Dead Island focuses on attacking with up close and personal bash and slash methods, going against conventional zombie defensive tactics by attacking from a distance to prevent from getting bitten. That being said, guns in this game do not play a great factor against zombies.

One issue about the game which bothered me was the weapons selection system. Picking up new weapons inadvertently changes your current use weapon to the weapon you just picked up, thus making it painstaking to go to the menu repeatedly to set back your configuration to your weapons of choice. In a sense this forces the player to examine the statistics of the new weapon, however in later stages of the game it just gets annoying.

Overall, this game frightening enjoyable at first, but after the 4th hour I was playing like a zombie.