Dead Island pleasently suprised me. Getting average reviews, and looking kind of gross, my expectations were not very high. But Dead Island proved to be a fun and entertaining game.
The open world setting is fantastic. You can freely explore the island whenever you want, obviously running into zombies in the first five seconds, maintaining the realistic quality ironicly. The co-op is very fun, allowing you to join a friend or stanger's game at any time. I personally gained some new friends from playing co-op. The game focuses mainly on melee weapons, which is suprisingly good. Just when your weapons break down and are no good against the increasingly powerfully zombie hoards, you get a brand new, awesome sauce weapon that gets you pumped to play more. The zombie voice acting is actually a highlight quality in the game, varying constantly and not using the overused grunt all the time.
One bad thing is the visual quality fails at times, leaving you irritated. Also the characters were not very thoroughly explored, not creating empathy between you and them, even if they die. The voice acting was not very good as well.
All together, Dead Island is a great game, and I recommend that you buy it.
8/10