What a strange, difficult to classify game Dead Island is. It's a zombie game. It's first-person melee-focused. It's in a tropical setting. It's an RPG. Wait, what? Yes, I would classify Dead Island as an RPG. A first-person melee zombie survival-horror RPG, but an RPG nonetheless.

Absolutely huge in scope; Fun; unique combat; Scary and tense in unexpected ways

Slightly outstays its welcome; Seriously problematic bugs; Sometimes looks very ugly

Ryder White is not a bad man. Despite what Dead Island would lead you to believe, Colonel White is an honorable man with good, if misguided, intentions. His wife has the virus. He finds her in a condition that no man would EVER want to find his beloved.

Excellent story; Same fun Dead Island gameplay

Linear path; Important elements removed

When I first sat down with Dead Island at this year's E3, one thing was certain: It was insanely fun. As the whimsical members of Deep Silver's PR folk guided me through the  game's island setting of Banoi, I knew that Dead Island wasn't quite shaping up to what many thought it would be, but that it...

Dead Island is all about zombie-fueled mayhem; It has a bizarrely fascinating way of taking hold of you – just make sure you bring three friends along for the ride

Where do I begin: Cruddy voice-acting, no story, bugs and glitches galore; And not to mention the fact that the car controls are just plain bad

Dead Island reprend un scénario mille fois vu dans les mauvais films d'horreur. Sur une île magnifique où se prélassent des vacanciers, sans doute en formule tout compris, se répand un bien mauvais fléau.

Ambiance série B assumée; Un vaste terrain de jeu; Une partie solo conséquente; Un multi sympathique

Visuellement en retrait; Trop redondant parfois

Good: A solid game that definitely has an audience. Might lack replay value, could be too short or there are some hard-to-ignore faults, but the experience is fun.

Don't let your braaaaaains go to waste… read our review of Dead Island.

+ Fantastic environment; + Great co-op experience

+ Great co-op experience; - Bugs and framerate issues hold this game back from being "great"

Techland's tropical open-world zombie apocalypse is a bit too ambitious for its own good, but it's also an incredibly solid and fun first game in what will hopefully mature into a much more polished video game series.

Dead Island is the latest entry in the white-hot zombie shooter genre. Only the emphasis here is not so much on being a shooter. It's able to stand out from the pack with a deep storyline, lots of RPG elements and a unique setting.

Dead Island is a strange game, one that has an odd desire to simultaneously delight and disappoint its audience. This bizarre dichotomy existed even before the game was released, beginning with a brilliantly haunting announcement trailer and evolving into a hip hop music video .

There was a point, not far into the game, where I returned to a cabin that harboured an injured survivor. He'd turned into a zombie, and as I refashioned his face into a concave husk, it made me think of what Dead Island could have been.