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Dead Island key art: a snarling zombie with long blond hair in front of a palm-lined resort pool and hotel

ZombieCo-op and multiplayer horror

Dead Island Definitive Edition

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Survive a zombie outbreak on a tropical resort island.

Platforms
PC, Linux, PlayStation, Xbox
Price
Paid
Rated
Very Positive on Steam (82% of 28,395 reviews)
Players
1 to 4 (online co-op)
Made by
Techland
Released
2016

What frightens A zombie outbreak turns the luxury resort island of Banoi into a slaughter: the infected crawl over beaches and pool decks, rush you on boardwalks and jungle paths, and grow into swollen, mutated things, and you face them up close with whatever you can swing.

Content: gore, intense violence, strong language, drug use, suggestive themes.

Dead Island Definitive Edition is Techland's remastered first-person zombie game, with all its earlier DLC. Caught in a zombie outbreak on the tropical resort island of Banoi, you fight the infected up close with melee weapons across an open world of beaches, a deserted city and highlands, alone or with up to three friends. It is gory action horror more than slow dread.

About Dead Island Definitive Edition

Dead Island Definitive Edition is the remaster of Dead Island by Techland, published by Deep Silver and released on Steam in May 2016, with PS4 and Xbox versions. It includes all previously released DLC and adds full HD graphics, improved models and a new lighting system.

The setting is Banoi, a tropical island with a luxury resort. A zombie outbreak hits while you are there, and your only thought is to survive. The store sums it up as paradise meets hell: sunlit beaches, palm trees and pools littered with bodies, the infected crawling over the sand.

Play is first-person and mostly melee. You smash, crack and slice with the weapon of your choice, across an open world from secluded beaches to a deserted city and the highlands, while you follow the story of how the outbreak began. Up to four players can play the story together online.

The horror is physical: hordes that rush you in daylight, swollen and mutated infected, and close, bloody fights where you can be overwhelmed. It is action first, with gore and the madness of an island falling apart, rather than the slow fear of survival horror.

Dead Island 2 moves the same idea to Los Angeles with a different studio and a darker comic tone. Players who like Dying Light, Techland's later zombie game, will find the same first-person melee against the infected.

How to play Dead Island Definitive Edition

  1. Buy the game on Steam, PlayStation or Xbox and start the story.
  2. Explore Banoi in first person, from the resort beaches to the deserted city and the highlands.
  3. Pick up weapons and fight the infected up close with the melee weapon of your choice.
  4. Follow the story to find out what lies behind the outbreak.
  5. Invite up to three friends to play the story together online.

Screenshots

A bloated zombie covered in red growths lurches through a sunlit jungle
First-person view of a player raising a wooden paddle as a zombie in swim shorts comes up a boardwalk
Burning zombies stagger across the sand near a thatched beach bar
A zombie grabs a woman in the shallows of a turquoise lagoon by the resort

Tips

  • Do not let the infected surround you; on the open beaches they come from several sides.
  • Use fire against groups: burning infected stagger and fall.
  • Play with friends if a fight is too much alone; the story supports four players.

Questions

Is Dead Island Definitive Edition scary?

It is a gory zombie action game. The infected rush you and the fights are bloody, but it is more about fighting than slow dread.

Can you play Dead Island Definitive Edition co-op?

Yes. The story supports up to four players online.

What is the difference between Dead Island Definitive Edition and Dead Island 2?

The Definitive Edition is the remastered first game, set on the tropical island of Banoi and made by Techland. Dead Island 2 is the sequel by Dambuster Studios, set in a quarantined Los Angeles.

What does the Definitive Edition include?

The remastered game and all previously released DLC.

  • first person
  • open world
  • melee
  • zombies
  • tropical island
  • resort
  • crafting
  • rpg
  • 4 player co-op
  • remaster
  • techland
  • deep silver

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Dead Island Definitive Edition is played on store.steampowered.com and its makers' stores; this page links to them and is not part of it. Pictures are from the game's own pages and remain its owner's. Terms and pictures.

Sources: store.steampowered.com, store.playstation.com, xbox.com