Escape Dead Island
Top Critic Average
Critics Recommend
Critic Reviews for Escape Dead Island
Escape Dead Island questions how we perceive reality, alongside questionable zombie-killing and stealth.
Escape Dead Island is a competent yet unremarkable side story with remarkably shallow action.
Escape Dead Island squandered whatever opportunity it had to make a compelling story, while offering only sub-par gameplay to tide you over in the meantime. It has no business being a game, rather than a one-shot graphic novel for dedicated fans.
Escape Dead Island completely ignores what makes a Dead Island game fun: there's no sense of dread and the highly enjoyable crafting system is nowhere to be seen. Hell, there's not even a co-op option. What we do have is a boring linear experience with one-dimensional characters and rickety combat.
The first Dead Island was absolutely ridiculous and quite flawed in my opinion, but because I can feel the love that went into the game and thus the care, it's a blast to play in some areas because the developers cared if I had fun. Unlike its predecessors, Escape Dead Island feels devoid of heart or identity. It is a cruel reminder of the shovelware that plagued the PlayStation, PlayStation 2, and the Wii and behind its generic facade hides a malnourished newborn of a game starved for nutrition and attention.
Escape Dead Island disappoints on multiple levels, from its lackluster gameplay, to its awful storytelling. The revelations found in this game are not profound enough to justify the long slog, filled annoying characters and lousy stealth and combat systems. Not to mention the ending is insultingly stupid and lazy. The best way to escape this island is to never visit it.
This spin-off is the unambitious median point in a triple-A market saturated with zombies and stealth-action games that have narrative aspirations.
I've played far worse games than this. I encountered no egregious, game-breaking glitches, and for as exanimate as the combat and stealth mechanics are, at least they're functional, as inoffensive as they are unimpressive. But it's just so completely, exhaustingly boring. There's nothing to it.
