Dead Island is as close as you can get to a AAA zombie MMO. Join up with 3 friends and see if you can survive!
Yearly Archives: 2011
Dead Island: A Zombie Getaway
Dead Island: A Zombie Getaway
By Jackson Leung (Mepath), OnRPG Tech Wizard
It was Sunday night. My brother and I decided to go to our usual gaming stop; a cyber-cafe on the outskirts of town. It seems like those are the only places you can find them anymore. We were brimming with excitement over this new zombie game called Dead Island. It wasn’t long before we fired the game up and assumed our digital identities.
I became Xian Mei, the daughter of a Hong Kong inspector, smart, lethal, and deadly. Who, due to the unfortunate circumstance of being a female in a male dominated society, had her talents squandered by being sent to this island resort to observe for criminal activity. Curses.

My brother assumed the identity of Sam B. An African American rap star (yes, he’s American, the game said he grew up in New Orleans).

It was business as usual, I was partying it up at the resort. After a hard night of partying, I washed down some pills with my liquor and passed out on my bed.
I woke up the next morning, did my routine, and on the way out, there was something definitely wrong. The hotel’s halls were littered with suitcases. Some of these suitcases were randomly dispersed across the floor. Some of these suitcases were piled on top of each other, and some of these suitcases were made into a wall, but for what? I pondered this question as I emptied the suitcases of their contents into my pockets-of-infinite-storage.
It was weird, there were hotel rooms left open, blood stains everywhere, and even dead bodies. It must have been some wild party. It was weird, but I was late for work. I took the elevators down, when suddenly; it came to an abrupt stop. The power went out. A sound. The elevator started plummeting down. The doors flew open, and I saw, a person lying on the floor. He was surrounded by people with gray, ashy skin, their bodies showing wounds that by any medical standards were lethal. Seconds later, I noticed that they had said man’s intestines in their hands, and in their mouths. At the same moment, these cannibals took great interest to me, and started running towards me. Not a weapon in hand, stuck inside an elevator, and seeing these hoards of blood-thirsty gray people running towards me. I thought it was the end, I’m too young and beautiful to die; tear.
The elevator door slammed shut, another sudden drop, and the lights came back on. A voice from the camera offered help. They said I had to run into some maintenance room and obtain a weapon. It’s the only way I’m going to live. Shortly afterwards, the elevator opened, and I was at the lobby.
I don’t know where the maintenance room was, but I’m going to get there quick. Right after I empty these suitcases I found of their contents. But I didn’t have enough time for that. It wasn’t long until these gray people, which I’ll call zombies, took notice of me. I ran as fast as I could, I saw a door leading to a room that didn’t look like a hotel room. I made a beeline for it. I ran in front of the door, and then I dove inside.
When I came to, I was surrounded by people who were about to knock my head off with a bat. It wasn’t until I proved to them that I was capable of coherent thinking that they left me alone. Apparently, I am one of the few people who are immune to the virus, and one of the few people that can be bitten, and not show the same symptoms as everyone else. Sam B is another person with this mixed blessing. The once tropical paradise is now a living zombie nightmare.
Together Sam and I took our first steps out into the world of Dead Island. Taking on requests by the islanders in hopes that we can help obtain and accomplish whatever they need to help us get off the island. It wasn’t long before Sam and I were bashing in zombie skulls with whatever we could get our hands on. We had to resort to the oars from a boat, a shovel stabbed into the sand, and a kitchen knife pulled fresh from a downed zombie just to name a few of our odd ball weapons. Of course the zombie waves were endless and these primitive weapons wore out to a state of uselessness quickly.
We’ve recovered access cards, rescued wives, recovered medicine, salvaged car parts, and whenever we had a moment of rest, we’d improve our weapons. Whenever we came across some tools left out on some table, we’d use them to strengthen our weapons. Anything even resembling a weapon would quickly fall into our infinite-pockets!
We were on the way to restore the lighthouse power generator so that ships out at see can come to our rescue when we heard the sound we both dreaded the most. “Sorry guys, we’re now closing. Please log out. I hope guys had fun.” We grudgingly logged off the computers and proceeded home, excitedly sharing our thoughts of the game. We will definitely be playing this game again, in fact, I already bought two copies for our home PCs!
I am a huge zombie genre fan. So this review reflects mainly my opinion, and will be biased. I have a strong preference for George A. Romero zombie films and Dead Island sucked me into a world just like Romero would have imagined.
This game is like a mix of Dead Rising, Dead Rising 2, Left 4 Dead, Resident Evil, and Grand Theft Auto. It had the need to obtain weapons, these weapons also get worn down and break, just like Dead Rising. It had the ability to mess with your weapons, just like Dead Rising 2. It had the zombies chasing you like Left 4 Dead, but unlike left 4 dead, avoided the campy unrealistic occurrence of sudden hordes of zombies arriving. You kind of have venture into areas where zombies are located for them to take notice of you, and then the chasing starts. Finally, there’s the atmosphere of Resident Evil. You don’t feel like you’re going to die any time soon, but you’re always concerned that something might kill you. There might be something around the corner, behind that bush, behind you! At the same time, not only are you scared of being killed, you’re scared of wasting your precious weapon’s durability on killing the damn thing. Finally it resembles GTA in that you can steal and take whatever you need to survive with little worry of legal repercussions.
I loved everything about this game, and in my book, this is a must play game for any zombie fan. It’s a good single player game, but to get the full experience you MUST play it with friends. Some people say that this game brings nothing special to the table, but really, I’m not sure if there has been another zombie-genre game that has fulfilled this zombie-fan-gamer’s desires any better. Dead Rising was great when it came out, Left 4 Dead was intense, and Resident Evil kept me awake at night, but this game has a whole different feel altogether! I feel like I’ve been on that island, and I’ve slain those zombies, and I desperately need to get back to the game so that Xian and Sam can leave that island! They need me!
The Verdict: Play me now (10/10)
The pros:
* zombies
* visuals
* sound
*zombie bros
* atmosphere
* realism
* open-world environment
*zombie room service
* their first trailer
* the list goes on…
The cons:
* I can’t really think of any. Perhaps if the graphics were more realistic, then when that day comes where I finally bash my computer screen in after losing a match of Starcraft, I could use Dead Island as a reactionary excuse.
I’m always lurking the forums and redesigning OnRPG. Feel free to say hi.
World of Tanks Review w/ JamesBl0nde
World of Tanks is one of the most intense action MMOs around. JamesBl0nde discusses just what makes it so unique.
Dead Island
Dead Island combines first-person action with a heavy focus on melee combat, character development and customization of a vast array of weapons. All of these gameplay features presented in a dark story inspired by classic zombie movies with a gritty and engrossing campaign that can be played with up to 4 players in co-op mode.
Features:
First Person Melee Combat: Pick up a sword, hatchet, or pipe and get ready to knock some heads with precision game mechanics built around life and death combat.
Co-op Storyline: Team up with up to 4 players as you make your way through the gritty resort. There are strength in numbers!
Weapon Customization: What’s better than a sword? A gun with a sword mounted on it. Combine whatever you find to create some ideal weapons to meet your zombie hunting needs.
RPG Elements: Advance your character’s skill sets as the story progresses in preparation for the final showdowns.
Immortal King Online Basic Gameplay Video
Immortal King Online showcases the process of conquering and moving your army across continents.
Dungeon Defenders Developer’s Diary 3
In this week’s Dungeon Defenders Dev Diary, the balance between traps and combat mechanics are discussed.
Immortal King Online
Immortal King is all about conquest in the world of Ancient Greece. Fact and fiction meld into a war torn land where witches and demigods rule. If you’re familiar with browser strategy games then you should be able to jump straight into this one without much difficulty. As your build and upgrade your hometown, you can collect taxes to spend on further upgrades or on hiring stronger mercenaries to conquer new lands.
Features:
Hero System: There are 137 hero units, 72 types of soldiers, and 7 usable formations in Immortal Kings. Each side is allowed to bring up to 10 hero units into combat, making for plenty of variety from battle to battle. Choosing the correct formation to counter your enemy makes the difference between victory and defeat.
Prestige: By aligning yourself with the Ocean, Underworld, or Heaven, players can obtain faction and unlock progressively stronger heroes.
City Management: Build and upgrade your city with the funds of your conquests to create a powerful economic powerhouse. Strong armies fund strong cities which in turn allow you to build stronger armies!
AQ Worlds To Celebrate 3rd Birthday with Style
Adventure Quest Worlds to Celebrate 3rd Birthday with Style
Artix Entertainment today announced that it is teaming up with two-time Grammy Award winner alternative rock band They Might Be Giants to celebrate the third birthday of the hit MMORPG AdventureQuest Worlds on Friday, October 14th at 6 PM EDT.

This Birthday Event will take players on an adventure unlike any other they previously enjoyed in AdventureQuest Worlds. In fact, the event will be too big for one week, so the first half of the event will be released on October 14th, and then the epic adventure will continue with the second half of the storyline released the following Friday on October 21st.
This event is titled “The Collector” and will feature an epically bizarre new storyline with evil aliens, clones, dinosaurs and other oddities. The AQWorlds team is preparing to release new zones, quests, bosses, Event Rare items including armors, weapons, helms, back items, pets, house items, at least one new house, and cut-scenes with voice acting by They Might Be Giants as well as the Artix Entertainment staff. Each new zone will play a They Might Be Giants song, and the band is even recording new, never-before-heard songs specifically for the AdventureQuest Worlds 3rd Birthday Event!
Brooklyn’s alternative rock pioneers They Might Be Giants have sold four million records worldwide and won two Grammy Awards: one for their theme to Malcolm in the Middle™ and the children’s album Here Come the 123s. They Might Be Giants’ songs appeared on numerous television programs and films such as The Daily Show with Jon Stewart™ and Drinky Crow Show™ as well as movies Coraline™ and Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me™.
Elsword Exclusive Pet System Reveal
Elsword is bringing out an advanced new pet system. Check out this exclusive reveal!
Age of Conan Unchained: After The Switch
Age of Conan Unchained: After The Switch
By Vincent Haoson, OnRPG Journalist
Age of Conan is one the latest titles to shift from the purely subscription based MMO titles to a “hybrid” business model where the game is playable for free while giving bonuses for subscribed players. The hybrid system also introduced the in-game cash shop system to AoC where players both free and premium can buy items in exchange for cash.
In theory, the business model seems to be a solid change since the trends these days is that a lot of premium based titles are now shifting to the F2P system with the inclusion of an in-game shop. But did it work for AoC? The answer, based on my observations, is yes, yes it did.
How so?
One of my gripes in AoC prior to Unchained is that the game lacked players. This was especially true on the low level cities and areas. Even with the 14 day free trial, the game’s early content can barely attract anyone new even with all the “innovations” they implemented into the genre.
However, now that I have returned to AoC with a new character – I see a lot of people lounging around cities or running around trying to finish a quest or two. From my previous trial of this game I only saw one or two players running errands. These players are now leading entire teams around the world as large questing parties have become the norm. The higher level areas are now more populated too.
Of course having more players is not without its downsides. The more pronounced downside is that there seems to be an influx of rude and uncouth players running around. While it’s not as much as I normally see in F2P games it is still shocking to get told off by some low-leveled newb.
In retrospect, this may be a good thing as well since it does provide a more “barbarian” feel since the world of Conan isn’t as nice and proper as the other worlds out there.
Disparity
Of course one of the biggest issues games must consider when altering their model is the “fairness” between those who are playing for free and for those who are willing to shell out for their characters.
Personally, I really don’t see why this should even be an issue, since people who actually pay to play Unchained expect bonuses for their patronage since they are investing on the game itself via-paying for the subscription. So free players can just suck their thumbs and cry for mommy because those who paid get “better” service.
Also, I believe that the F2P system is more of a gauge at least for those who are coming in late to AoC to see if it’s worth their time. As I mentioned, the 14-day free trial before wasn’t enough to truly experience AoC and my engagement with Unchained hasn’t changed my initial impressions. You need to spend more than a month to truly enjoy playing AoC.
As a refresher to the difference between the free and premium subscribers, here’s the chart from Funcom chronicling the difference:
Most of the locked-out features are for players who are really planning on investing more time and actual money on the game. Free players are definitely shortchanged with their “AoC experience” as the game follows Turbine’s approach and keeps the best dungeons and end-game content available only to paying players. Previous subscribers can rejoice in this since they still have bubbles of premium world to call their own.
In-game Store
The Hybrid business model introduced the in-game currency system for all players where players both free and premium can spend more money to buy weapons, mounts, boosts and vanity items for their characters.

There is not much difference between most F2P game’s premium shop and AoC’s since it offers all the same conveniences you would expect.
Conclusion
In essence AoC hasn’t really changed in terms of gameplay and looks. The fact that the game is now more accessible to people is all in itself good. Comparing the pre Unchained days to what I see now, I can say AoC feels more alive than ever. On the other hand, the in-game store is a win-lose situation. For veterans it’s definitely a minus since weapon buying from the in-game store is like an insult to the many hours they spent farming gear on their subscription game. However, new players looking to spend can enrich the end-game PvP environment by gaining an advantage in gear to catch up to veteran players.
The Hybrid system so far is a good enough system that makes the games a little less daunting for new players. There is one thing that I noticed. Even if the hybrid system “dumbed” the game down a bit, the learning curve is still steep. That should be enough comfort for veterans that at least the hours they spent playing AoC wasn’t in vain. I imagine the old veterans will be stomping new players into the ground in PvP into the foreseeable future.









