I am Alive

Released in 2012, this game sees players assuming the role of a lone survivor in a post-apocalyptic world as he embarks on a quest to find his daughter and wife. I Am Alive starts off strong with its gloomy and dark atmosphere, and the gameplay is also brutal with an ever-depleting stamina bar and violent executions. However, the game starts to feel repetitive as you keep executing the same tried-and-tested tactics over and over again to get out of nasty situations alive. It’s not a bad game by any stretch, but it does fall short of exploring the full depth of these promising mechanics.

15. Past Cure (2018)

There’s sordid plot, shoddy action and oddly ilfitting puzzles in a supernatural third person shooter…and then there’s Past Cure. The development team was small and fairly inexperienced, thus resulting in uneven AI and performance. However, that doesn’t excuse the story which was just a meandering mess when it wasn’t outright dull.

Escape Dead Island may not have had nearly as much hype as the original Dead Island did, and by now people know what to expect and what not to expect from the series in general, but when you play Escape Dead Island, you always have that feeling in your heart that the game is about to throw something very special at you, that something extraordinary is just around the corner, something that will make you pause and take in what just happened- either from a gameplay perspective or from a story perspective. But that something never happens.

"The gradual breaking down of Cliff’s character, going from a spoilt rich kid- again, not anything we haven’t seen before- to a person who is teetering on the edge of insanity, is intriguing to say the least."

There’s no reason to believe this is a bad game. No, this is not, definitely not a bad game. But it’s not great. It’s not even very good. It’s not special by a long shot. It’s average, it’s ordinary, it’s nothing that will stand out in your memory for a long time. While that may not be heavy criticism for any other game- after all, there aren’t very many games these days that can excite you enough for you to think of it as one of the all time greats- it is a huge point working against this game.

It’s because of this that I say that Escape Dead Island is a game of paradoxes- flirting with greatness and yet grounded in unoriginality at all times, simultaneously. The foundations that the story of this game are built on are full of clichés. There’s everything you expect there to be in a zombie story. There’s nothing you will see in the first few minutes or hours, as you see the plot developing and being built up, that will make you feel like you haven’t seen this before. You know where it’s all coming from, and you’re familiar with it- if you’ve read or played or seen a zombie story before.

And yet those clichés are very well executed, enough for the story to be actually interesting. And then there’s the personal storyline of the main character, the protagonist, which, I feel, really stands out. The gradual breaking down of Cliff’s character, going from a spoilt rich kid- again, not anything we haven’t seen before- to a person who is teetering on the edge of insanity, is intriguing to say the least. It’s a very fascinating character arc and one that is executed rather well, and more than anything else that the entire game has to offer, it’s this that keeps you hooked for however long it is that you do end up playing Escape Dead Island.

"What is not paradoxical even in the slightest is the gameplay, and more specifically, the combat. It’s always underwhelming. Bland, in fact. The combat is routine zombie-smashing affair, and the things that usually make that fun are largely absent here."

However, all the other aspects of the story never quite seem to be able to match up to this arc. Their unoriginality will always bug you, and there will be plenty of occasions when you’ll just think, “okay, move on, I’ve seen this before dozens of times. Get to the good stuff now.” Paradoxical.

What is not paradoxical even in the slightest is the gameplay, and more specifically, the combat. It’s always underwhelming. Bland, in fact. The combat is routine zombie-smashing affair, and the things that usually make that fun are largely absent here. The weapon selection is very basic and uninteresting, and there isn’t even a nice, layered upgrade system here to mix things up or keep them refreshing.

Even when the game is focusing on Cliff’s gradual descent into insanity, it’s all still the same. All that is different is the environments. What you’re doing is killing the same old zombies with the same old weapons… in a different environment. What’s worse is that when you play, you always feel like you can overpower even the largest hordes of zombies that the game can and will throw at you. It takes away the tension that a survival horror game should intrinsically have. The excessive amounts of backtracking also do not help. If anything, they make the playing sections seem even more cumbersome- not a good sign, considering this is a game after all.

There’s some stuff to be liked here, though. The music is always intense and excellent, and the graphical style is excellent. It’s not like anything we’ve seen in Dead Island games before, and Escape is better for it. The photo ops are a nice distraction from the zombie killing action and collecting all the collectibles throughout the entire game proves to be more enjoyable than you would expect.

Ultimately, there’s plenty of stuff in Escape Dead Island that has to be commended, but plenty of other stuff that, in more ways than one, lets the commendable stuff down. Escape Dead Island promises greatness and memorable moments throughout the game, but sadly, time and again, it fails to deliver on those promises.

This game was reviewed on the PC.

We are kicking off our 6th annual Game of the Year awards with the Worst Game of the Year. With each new year, there’s both a new and existing crop of developers that intentionally or unintentionally wake up and think to themselves, “How can I make a mark on this industry?” Some succeed beyond their wildest dreams, some become encumbered by their own hubris (and consequently sweep our most notorious awards) and some just outright fail.

Oddly enough, the over-hyped Watch Dogs and Assassin’s Creed: Unity netted nominations for the worst games of the year. It’s amazing when you consider that when fully patched and lacking any issues, both games are decent. Since they were marketed to be amazing, however, they automatically become less than great when they fail to live up to expectations. Mix in never-ending heaps of bugs and you’ll likely find them to be the worst games ever made.

Alas, neither is the worst game of 2014 (or any other year). Escape Dead Island was a uniformly horrible exercise, especially when you consider that the events of the game may or may not have happened. There was only one clear winner though and sadly, it’s not the first or second win of his career.

Nominees:

• Assassin’s Creed: Unity
• Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric
• Escape Dead Island
• Watch Dogs

Winner: Sonic Boom Rise of Lyric

Where does one begin?

Over the course of his illustrious career, Sonic the Hedgehog has gone from being Mario’s greatest rival to Sega’s biggest running joke. With each new Sonic game after the admittedly solid Sonic Adventure 2, Sega came up with new gimmicks for good ol’ blue. A romantic relationship with a female princess? A talking sword? Colourful little critters? A werehog? An entire reboot of the franchise? It’s telling that Sonic’s greatest success in the past few years has been Sonic Generations which re-captures the magic of the franchise’s highlights.

Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric unfortunately takes it to brand new lows. From the redesign of the characters to the awful humour and focus on melee combat, Sega was determined to neuter every last bit of the hero we loved with Rise of Lyric. The saddest part? This is par for the course of Sonic and pretty soon, there will be yet another attempt at making him relevant again.

Note: GamingBolt’s Game of the Year categories, nominations and awards are selected via an internal nomination, voting and debate process. You can check the rest of categories and the respective winners here.

If you’re a fan of horror games and/or the Dead Island series, then this news should make you reasonably happy, as it includes lots and lots and lots of new information for the upcoming Escape Dead Island. Escape Dead Island, for those of you who didn’t know, is the single player spin off that is coming to Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC on November 18, and follows Cliff Calo, who is not immune to the zombie virus and is searching for the truth behind the epidemic while struggling to maintain his own sanity.

You can see the new trailer above; however, if you’re interested in seeing the game in a more ‘real’ and less controlled sense, then Deep Silver have you covered there as well. Earlier today, there was a livestream showing off the game on Twitch, which covered the first two chapters of the game. You can head on over to the Twitch channel, and watch the stream in the archives, if you want to see what the game is really like in action.

Stay tuned for more coverage.

The game is currently set to be published by the industry renowned, Deep Silver. Deep Silver are the owners of the Dead Island series so this is unlikely to change; they are perhaps best known for their Saints Row series and Metro ( Redux) series of games.

Escape Dead Island is being developed primarily for 7th generation consoles with no plans for an 8th generation build of the game having been announced. It is currently slated for launch on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360. The game will launch on November 18th in North America, November 20th in Australia and November 21st in Europe.

• 1. Development
• 2. Gameplay
• 3. Story
• 2. Characters

Development

Escape Dead Island is being developed as a spin off from the main series canon of Dead Island, limited though it may be. Deep Silver have stressed that the game isn’t set within the main canon and therefore shouldn’t be taken into account when considering its place in the overall series, it’s stand-alone.

Despite being a spin off from the series and having no connection to the main plot of any main line Dead Island games, Escape Dead Island is the first entry into the series that isn’t considered a main series game.

Deep Silver announced, on August 27th, that anyone that pre-orders the game on either PC, PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 will be able to receive special access to a beta build of Dead Island 2, which is set to be the third official game. Dead Island 2 is exclusive to PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4, meaning that players wanting to access the Beta will need an 8th generation console.

Unlike the previous Dead Island games that have been nearly single mindedly focused on first person combat against hordes of the undead in a once tropical paradise, Escape Dead Island is set to be much more story driven. The player will apparently discover the source of the initial viral outbreak that so ravaged the once tropical, heaven-like island of Banoi.

The game isn’t being rendered in a similar style to that of the previous or upcoming Dead Island games in the series. Escape Dead Island is being brought to life with bright and interesting comic book styled visuals.

Gameplay

Escape Dead Island is going to be unlike the previous Dead Island games in the series in more than a few ways, with the visual style alone being distinctly different. But one of the most prominent changes to the fundamentals of gameplay is the absence of player specific powers and abilities. This puts a much greater emphasis on survival as an individual.

Another tweak to the gameplay that puts an interesting spin on the game as a whole is the sound detection AI that will make enemies react to the amount of noise that the player makes, making the choice between stealth and combat an important one.

If players find themselves in a particularly sticky situation, there may well be an opportunity to turn the environment to your advantage. Deep Silver and Fatshark have made mention to this particular feature, but what exactly it means is dow n to speculation at the minute.

A feature of the game that has went largely unexplained (likely due to possible spoilers) is that as you explore the world around you, stranger and stranger things begin to happen. The world becomes distorted and strange. There will be events in the game that will be open to multiple interpretations. This may well be one of the reasons that this game doesn’t take place in the main series established canon. Players may also be tasked with the collection of clues and hints to help unfold the near apocalyptic tale.

Story

Escape Dead Island is pitched as a survival mystery, but this is merely a facade to cover the usual zombie slaying madness that permeates all of the Dead Island games. The story follows Cliff Calo, a man that’s intent on documenting the strange happenings and rumoured events of what happened on Banoi, the infamous Island that’s off the coast of Papua New Guinea.

Cliff arrives at the Island of Narapela which is part of the much larger Banoi archipelago. Once there, he starts to being beset by deja vu while trying to figure out what is going on, what feels familiar and why it feels familiar.

Characters

Thus far, we’ve been officially introduced to one character that will, for certain, be making an appearance in the game. His name is Cliff Calo and he is travelling towards the Banoi archipelago in an attempt to investigate and document the strange goings on in that region. Though we don’t yet know why, Cliff is besieged by deja vu. Though screenshots have shown some characters that are a bit familiar.

Note: This wiki will be updated once we have more information about the game.

The fun first person zombie basher from Deep Silver, Dead Island, was today confirmed to be receiving a a third person survival “mystery spin-off” that picks apart the origin story between the original outbreak of zombies and ties together all the events that lead up to the recently announced Dead Island 2, a sequel to the hugely successful Dead Island.

Set to feature “visceral melee combat set in a beautiful paradise setting”, ESCAPE Dead Island features an all new art style  and gameplay system that sees players once again fighting against hordes of the undead in an attempt to survive the insanity. You’re going to encounter new elements of the Dead Island universe, uncover new secrets related to the outbreak and bring a second death to the inhabitants of the island with a load of new weapons.

ESCAPE Dead Island will arrive in North America on November 18th and in Europe on November 21st, hopefully zombie free, on PS3 and Xbox 360. But just in case, where did I put my boom stick?