Dead Island Definitive Edition is essentially an HD Remaster of the game using Techland's newest engine "Chrome Engine 6" which was used in their newer game Dying Light. For better or for worse, It is essentially the same game as the one found in 2011.

+ Brings a unique RPG aspect to killing zombies with levels, skill trees, random drops, treasure chests, etc
+ The environment is rendered in beautiful detail with some stunning visuals
+ 4 player drop-in coop is extremely easy to set up with friends or randoms
+ For a zombie game, the story is rather good

- Lots of visual and technical bugs from the 2011 release have made their way into the game.
- The zombies feel a bit uninspired as there's lots of enemies that feel recycles from other games
- The game throws a million sidequests to you at once and it can be overwhelming
- The area with the most polish is the first area, the Resort. The other maps just don't feel as refined
- The inventory and menu system on PC was just ported over from the console version of the game

The Dead Island series of games have a lot of history behind them. This was one of Techland's breakthrough games and it essentially put them on the map back in 2011 when they revealed their trailer for Dead Island. On the game's release there were a lot of issues with the original game, some game breaking such as bugs that would crash the game, corrupt your save or just impede your progress. While some bugs are still in this new Definitive Edition of the game those nasty ones seemed to have been ironed out as I have not been able to replicate them.

The Definitive Edition is built on using their new in-house game engine, the Chrome Engine 6. Originally used for Dying Light (another zombie game made by Techland) the engine was ported over to Dead Island to make this its own "HD Remaster" of sorts, sporting better visuals such as increased rendering distance, lighting, character detail, and much more. That being said, I played this game on Max settings and even with everything cranked up, the shadow quality is still pixelated and jaggy for environment shadows. Sure I can change that in the .ini files but I shouldn't have to.

The most fun in this game is stomping around with friends. Playing with other increases the zombies and other enemies' health and damage (and there's some increased amount of zombies but its not overly noticeable). When you have 4 diverse characters to choose from, it makes for a fun time. You have a Blunt Weapons Expert (such as hammers, maces, etc), a Sharp Weapons Expert (such as Knives, Cleavers, etc), a Firearms Expert (needs no explanation), and a Throwing Weapons Expert (sometimes the weapons thrown will automatically return to your hand) (Called Boomerang in game). Combine this with a gauge that fills when you kill various enemies using your character's preferred speciality and you can unleash devastation with your Fury skills. The Blunt Weapons expert drops all weapons and starts punching everything in sight with devastating blows, the Sharp Weapons expert unsheathes a sword that can practically 1 hit all enemies, the Firearms Expert takes out her personal side-arm and unleashes hell, and the Throwing Weapons expert uses throwing stars to hit multiple enemies at the same time. On top of the various characters, there's a robust crafting and upgrading system to enhance your weapon of choice. These range from adding elemental damage to your weapon such as Electricitiy and Fire and making your weapon inflict bleed damage on Critical Hits to the rare mods created from finding hidden skulls around the map and placing them at hidden altars.

The best games to compare this against are not other typical zombie games. If you liked the Borderlands series, the Diablo series, Torchlight, and other games where there's procedural loot and leveling, you will enjoy this game. If you like to roam around with friends and stomp on zombies with kicks and a ton of various weapons, you'll like this game. There are still a lot of warts with a game that's supposed to have a lot of refinement and polish for a remaster on a new engine and I'm not sure if that's laziness on the developer or just technical limitations on the engine itself. That being said, the game does get from me:

6 / 10.

Dead Island Definitive Edition is essentially an HD Remaster of the game using Techland's newest engine "Chrome Engine 6" which was used in their newer game Dying Light. For better or for worse, It is essentially the same game as the one found in 2011. + Brings a unique RPG aspect to killing zombies with levels, skill trees, random drops, treasure chests, etc + The environment is rendered in beautiful detail with some stunning visuals + 4 player drop-in coop is extremely easy to set up with friends or randoms + For a zombie game, the story is rather good - Lots of visual and technical bugs from the 2011 release have made their way into the game. - The zombies feel a bit uninspired as there's lots of enemies that feel recycles from other games - The game throws a million sidequests to you at once and it can be overwhelming - The area with the most polish is the first area, the Resort. The other maps just don't feel as refined - The inventory and menu system on PC was just ported over from the console version of the game The Dead Island series of games have a lot of history behind them. This was one of Techland's breakthrough games and it essentially put them on the map back in 2011 when they revealed their trailer for Dead Island. On the game's release there were a lot of issues with the original game, some game breaking such as bugs that would crash the game, corrupt your save or just impede your progress. While some bugs are still in this new Definitive Edition of the game those nasty ones seemed to have been ironed out as I have not been able to replicate them. The Definitive Edition is built on using their new in-house game engine, the Chrome Engine 6. Originally used for Dying Light (another zombie game made by Techland) the engine was ported over to Dead Island to make this its own "HD Remaster" of sorts, sporting better visuals such as increased rendering distance, lighting, character detail, and much more. That being said, I played this game on Max settings and even with everything cranked up, the shadow quality is still pixelated and jaggy for environment shadows. Sure I can change that in the .ini files but I shouldn't have to. The most fun in this game is stomping around with friends. Playing with other increases the zombies and other enemies' health and damage (and there's some increased amount of zombies but its not overly noticeable). When you have 4 diverse characters to choose from, it makes for a fun time. You have a Blunt Weapons Expert (such as hammers, maces, etc), a Sharp Weapons Expert (such as Knives, Cleavers, etc), a Firearms Expert (needs no explanation), and a Throwing Weapons Expert (sometimes the weapons thrown will automatically return to your hand) (Called Boomerang in game). Combine this with a gauge that fills when you kill various enemies using your character's preferred speciality and you can unleash devastation with your Fury skills. The Blunt Weapons expert drops all weapons and starts punching everything in sight with devastating blows, the Sharp Weapons expert unsheathes a sword that can practically 1 hit all enemies, the Firearms Expert takes out her personal side-arm and unleashes hell, and the Throwing Weapons expert uses throwing stars to hit multiple enemies at the same time. On top of the various characters, there's a robust crafting and upgrading system to enhance your weapon of choice. These range from adding elemental damage to your weapon such as Electricitiy and Fire and making your weapon inflict bleed damage on Critical Hits to the rare mods created from finding hidden skulls around the map and placing them at hidden altars. The best games to compare this against are not other typical zombie games. If you liked the Borderlands series, the Diablo series, Torchlight, and other games where there's procedural loot and leveling, you will enjoy this game. If you like to roam around with friends and stomp on zombies with kicks and a ton of various weapons, you'll like this game. There are still a lot of warts with a game that's supposed to have a lot of refinement and polish for a remaster on a new engine and I'm not sure if that's laziness on the developer or just technical limitations on the engine itself. That being said, the game does get from me: 6 / 10.