Previews// Dead Island

Early on you'll probably just be armed with something like a paddle and dealing with zombies can be quite nerve-jangling. You really don't want to be dealing with more than one at once if you can avoid it.

This is the sort of game where, if you come across three or four enemies blocking your path and you don't happen to be armed with a decent weapon, you'll give serious consideration to finding another route rather than risking a confrontation.

Many things in the game can be used to damage zombies, although (frustratingly) not everything that looks like it could be a weapon actually is. In my time with the game I used paddles, lead piping, a 'flimsy' crowbar, a gas canister, a Molotov cocktail and a diving knife.

As with Dead Rising, however, these weapons will wear out over time. Having a weapon in your hand as you go into a fight with zombie #1 in an area does not guarantee that you'll still have said weapon by the time zombie #5 comes lurching your way. It's very tense stuff.

Also reminiscent of Dead Rising is the inclusion of work benches where you can mod, repair and upgrade your weapons. Unfortunately, this isn't a very intuitive process and I just gave up after a while of poking around the menu.

I don't think I had enough cash to do anything productive (not that there was anyone to give the cash to or anything to actually buy) but it's difficult to be sure. I'm hoping there's a bit more of an explanation as to how it works in the finished code but, frankly, I ought to be able to figure this out pretty quickly without losing interest.

Similarly, the skill tree was hard work. I'm all for the game having a bit of depth, but it shouldn't kick you out of the core experience while you try to figure out what the hell you're doing.

Anyway, having completed a couple of fetch-type missions on the shoreline, I made my way further up onto the island to a lighthouse. At this point it started to become evident that the story won't be quite so straightforward as a series of missions all pointing in the same story direction

There seem to be rival factions of survivors at work. I've read The Walking Dead. I know what happens when you get rival factions in a zombie-infested environment. Fingers-crossed...

I should also mention that it was at this point that I picked up a vehicle and learned how much fun driving over zombies is. The answer: 'a lot'. I mean, you probably guessed that, but in any case I'm confirming that the answer is 'a lot'. And then...

My hour was up. Game over.

Dead Island presents you with the kind of decisions and resources you'd expect to find in a real zombie apocalypse. If Techland can work out the awkwardness of some of its menus, you can tell your better half you're 'training' as you fire up your console with Dead Island in it. (S)he'll surely be grateful.