preston181
CAGiversary!
(I've updated this review to add more info, for those who don't want to buy the DLC to get the gist of the additional storyline. I've marked where spoilers appear).
So, the Ryder White campaign for Dead Island launched in the US today. I just finished my play through of it, and my review follows.
In this add-on, you get to play as the game's so-called antagonist, Colonel Ryder White. The campaign starts with a cut scene showing White being interviewed, where he is asked how far he is willing to go to contain the virus, including killing civilians, fellow soldiers, and even his own wife if necessary. White answers, "yes, sir!", to each one, although he hesitates when asked if he'd kill his wife. The camera pans out, and there are unknown people, (conspirators, or heads of an experiment?), are discussing White's hesitation. The next scene shows White's chopper go down in the downtown area of the island, and the gameplay starts.
You start out at the scene of the chopper crash, and establish radio contact with your soldiers. You are told you need to finish your mission, blowing up the bridge out of town. The first half of the DLC centers around you finishing this, and being evacuated.
The game starts you off with just melee weapons, but you'll find a gun in less than 20 minutes in, and after that you'll constantly find ammo, grenades and med kit drops. The shift of the DLC's weaponry is firearms from this point forward. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it is the first of the areas where the DLC differs from the main game. I never found myself without ammo or med kits after this point of my play through. I never really felt challenged. Add in the constant grenades, incendiary grenades, and molotovs; and there really isn't anything you can't take out with ease.
The next thing that is different, and perhaps the biggest change is that the DLC only has one linear main quest line. There are no side quests. You are led, quite hastily at times, through one progressive plot.
Speaking of the plot: it really isn't all that deep. Basically, after the first half of the game, where you blow up the bridge, you are air-lifted by a chopper to an aircraft carrier off the coast of the island. Ryder radios his wife, (who I am guessing is a nurse/doctor at the prison/hospital), only to be found she's been bitten. Despite being told by her to leave her behind, White orders his men to drop him off at the prison. Upon arriving, you find that it's been overrun by zombies, and that Kevin/Charon, (a hacker prisoner doing time at the Banoi prison), is impersonating Colonel White to lure the 4 survivors from the main campaign to the prison with the vaccine. The remainder of the game is spent preparing for the arrival of the survivors, by doing a bunch of backtracking around the prison, completing fetch quests for Kevin/Charon, taking on repetitive waves of zombies in the same mundane looking prison corridors.
The game concludes with White reaching the rooftop, where the same cutscene from the original campaign plays, with some additional content added. Basically, Dr. West, (the doctor who synthesizes the vaccine in the main campaign), is in cahoots with Kevin/Charon, and the "vaccine" is really a strain of the virus, altered to create "super zombies". So, we're expected to believe Kevin/Charon is some sort of conspirator, and that he just happened to know White would inject himself at the height of his confrontation with the 4 survivors on the roof of the prison.
So, like in the main quest line of the original game, White is gunned down. Kevin/Charon leaves with the 4 survivors in the rescue chopper, as well as the tribal woman from the village. It's also "revealed" that this woman also happens to be the origin of the "super zombie" virus, and we see Kevin/Charon grin in the added part of the end cutscene. Cue credits, and what will likely be the opening for a sequel.
Getting back to other left out things in this DLC:
You have no map, but with the mini-radar directing you on a single quest line, there really is no need. Also, you are locked into level 15 at the start of the DLC, and despite screenshots of a skill tree in the previews of the content pack, you never level and the skills tab is unusable. You just happen to be a over powerful soldier, with no skill progression. It's almost like Mass Effect 2 taking away the ability to customize weapons and characters that were seen in the first Mass Effect. I really hope Deep Silver doesn't decide to make the next Dead Island game in this fashion.
But, this isn't where the ommisions stop: there's also no vendors to trade with, in fact you don't really talk to anyone, aside from Kevin, aka Charon, at the prison. There are still mods, (I found 3: a shock crowbar, a sticky bomb, and a stun gun), and there are still workbenches; but even those things seem totally irrelevant to the gameplay. There are still some collectibles: tape recordings, which shed light on the story, but are completely pointless, as there is no reward for finding them.
That brings me to the next missing thing, which is inexcusable and almost unheard of in today's DLC: there are NO new achievements. Not a single new achievement was added to this add-on. However, I was able to get some other already existing achievements I was previously missing: you are faced with wave after wave of infected groups, and getting the "I only need one" achievement is pretty much a cake walk now. With the abundance of molotovs and large enemy groups, the achievements tied to setting zombies on fire are now simplified.
There are no new environments, and everything is recycled from the main game, and loads of pointless, never-to-be-used item pickups abound.
Add in that this campaign is single-player only, with NO co-op, things are really crappy from what is not there.
Still here, and not throwing in the towel based on all the missing or changed things?
So, was it fun? Well, yeah, it was fun. But, just enough fun to play through once, with crap for replay value. You can't even use Ryder White in the arena mode, because of yet another missing thing: fast travel.
This add-on seems like Deep Silver contracted a third party to make a module, and they ran out of time. From the previews, it looked like it had more, but it's like all of that was cut out. I understand that it's only $10, but for that I expected more than just something that felt tacked-on, and even unnecessary. I had more fun with the $5 Dead Rising 2 prequel content than I did with this $10 add-on. I'd only recommend buying at $5, and even then only if you're a big fan of the game, or want to basically see the set-up for the next game, "Dead World".
I give this content a 5 out of 10.
So, the Ryder White campaign for Dead Island launched in the US today. I just finished my play through of it, and my review follows.
In this add-on, you get to play as the game's so-called antagonist, Colonel Ryder White. The campaign starts with a cut scene showing White being interviewed, where he is asked how far he is willing to go to contain the virus, including killing civilians, fellow soldiers, and even his own wife if necessary. White answers, "yes, sir!", to each one, although he hesitates when asked if he'd kill his wife. The camera pans out, and there are unknown people, (conspirators, or heads of an experiment?), are discussing White's hesitation. The next scene shows White's chopper go down in the downtown area of the island, and the gameplay starts.
You start out at the scene of the chopper crash, and establish radio contact with your soldiers. You are told you need to finish your mission, blowing up the bridge out of town. The first half of the DLC centers around you finishing this, and being evacuated.
The game starts you off with just melee weapons, but you'll find a gun in less than 20 minutes in, and after that you'll constantly find ammo, grenades and med kit drops. The shift of the DLC's weaponry is firearms from this point forward. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it is the first of the areas where the DLC differs from the main game. I never found myself without ammo or med kits after this point of my play through. I never really felt challenged. Add in the constant grenades, incendiary grenades, and molotovs; and there really isn't anything you can't take out with ease.
The next thing that is different, and perhaps the biggest change is that the DLC only has one linear main quest line. There are no side quests. You are led, quite hastily at times, through one progressive plot.
Speaking of the plot: it really isn't all that deep. Basically, after the first half of the game, where you blow up the bridge, you are air-lifted by a chopper to an aircraft carrier off the coast of the island. Ryder radios his wife, (who I am guessing is a nurse/doctor at the prison/hospital), only to be found she's been bitten. Despite being told by her to leave her behind, White orders his men to drop him off at the prison. Upon arriving, you find that it's been overrun by zombies, and that Kevin/Charon, (a hacker prisoner doing time at the Banoi prison), is impersonating Colonel White to lure the 4 survivors from the main campaign to the prison with the vaccine. The remainder of the game is spent preparing for the arrival of the survivors, by doing a bunch of backtracking around the prison, completing fetch quests for Kevin/Charon, taking on repetitive waves of zombies in the same mundane looking prison corridors.
The game concludes with White reaching the rooftop, where the same cutscene from the original campaign plays, with some additional content added. Basically, Dr. West, (the doctor who synthesizes the vaccine in the main campaign), is in cahoots with Kevin/Charon, and the "vaccine" is really a strain of the virus, altered to create "super zombies". So, we're expected to believe Kevin/Charon is some sort of conspirator, and that he just happened to know White would inject himself at the height of his confrontation with the 4 survivors on the roof of the prison.
So, like in the main quest line of the original game, White is gunned down. Kevin/Charon leaves with the 4 survivors in the rescue chopper, as well as the tribal woman from the village. It's also "revealed" that this woman also happens to be the origin of the "super zombie" virus, and we see Kevin/Charon grin in the added part of the end cutscene. Cue credits, and what will likely be the opening for a sequel.
Getting back to other left out things in this DLC:
You have no map, but with the mini-radar directing you on a single quest line, there really is no need. Also, you are locked into level 15 at the start of the DLC, and despite screenshots of a skill tree in the previews of the content pack, you never level and the skills tab is unusable. You just happen to be a over powerful soldier, with no skill progression. It's almost like Mass Effect 2 taking away the ability to customize weapons and characters that were seen in the first Mass Effect. I really hope Deep Silver doesn't decide to make the next Dead Island game in this fashion.
But, this isn't where the ommisions stop: there's also no vendors to trade with, in fact you don't really talk to anyone, aside from Kevin, aka Charon, at the prison. There are still mods, (I found 3: a shock crowbar, a sticky bomb, and a stun gun), and there are still workbenches; but even those things seem totally irrelevant to the gameplay. There are still some collectibles: tape recordings, which shed light on the story, but are completely pointless, as there is no reward for finding them.
That brings me to the next missing thing, which is inexcusable and almost unheard of in today's DLC: there are NO new achievements. Not a single new achievement was added to this add-on. However, I was able to get some other already existing achievements I was previously missing: you are faced with wave after wave of infected groups, and getting the "I only need one" achievement is pretty much a cake walk now. With the abundance of molotovs and large enemy groups, the achievements tied to setting zombies on fire are now simplified.
There are no new environments, and everything is recycled from the main game, and loads of pointless, never-to-be-used item pickups abound.
Add in that this campaign is single-player only, with NO co-op, things are really crappy from what is not there.
Still here, and not throwing in the towel based on all the missing or changed things?
So, was it fun? Well, yeah, it was fun. But, just enough fun to play through once, with crap for replay value. You can't even use Ryder White in the arena mode, because of yet another missing thing: fast travel.
This add-on seems like Deep Silver contracted a third party to make a module, and they ran out of time. From the previews, it looked like it had more, but it's like all of that was cut out. I understand that it's only $10, but for that I expected more than just something that felt tacked-on, and even unnecessary. I had more fun with the $5 Dead Rising 2 prequel content than I did with this $10 add-on. I'd only recommend buying at $5, and even then only if you're a big fan of the game, or want to basically see the set-up for the next game, "Dead World".
I give this content a 5 out of 10.
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