Dead Island Definitive Collection

Dead Island Definitive Edition brings two great games together into one package that will provide hundreds of hours of zombie slashing fun.

Dead Island: Definitive Collection may not be enough of a reason for those who have already experienced the original and Riptide to warrant making the return trip, but for everyone else this is the best way to experience these games. The improved visuals and lack of bugs makes getting through the main courses less of a chore, and Retro Revenge is a fun little side dish.

With the Dead Island Definitive Edition, Dead Island and Dead Island Riptide have never looked so good. The use of Dying Light's graphics engine means almost every setting looks better and more realistic than it did at the start of the decade, but it unfortunately doesn’t run any better now than it did then. With around 35 hours of gameplay packed in and a fun little retro beat 'em up to complement it all, though, it's the best way to play if you missed these zombie-smashers.

For its budget price the Dead Island: Definitive Collection offers two solid open world experiences that have never looked or played better on console as well as a retro-styled novelty that can be enjoyed in short bursts. It’s just a shame that the changes made to both Dead Island and Riptide are only visual, as both have gameplay aspects that could do with a little more polish. More irksome is that Riptide in particular is still subject to the occasional bug, especially when playing in multiplayer. On the whole though, the Dead Island: Definitive Collection is a great place to start for those...

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Arriving as one of the more unexpected remasters of the year, Dead Island: Definitive Collection sets out to resurrect the popularity of the series in the run up to its troubled second instalment. The question is: has the series already been buried too deep for this remaster to restore its reputation?

I’ve been a big proponent of re-releases since they allow a new generation of gamers to check out some of the best games of yesteryear. That said, Dead Island was never an amazing game when it released in 2011, instead it was an exceptionally buggy action game with plenty of spunk. Despite not being an all-time classic, the debut found a huge audience (it sold over 5 million copies) and did well enough to spawn a standalone expansion called Dead Island: Riptide.

Dead Island: Definitive Collection is great value if you're a fan of the games, given that it's the only way you can play them on Xbox One. Players that fit that description shouldn't be expecting any major gameplay changes though since they're very thin on the ground, outside of an unlockable "one punch" mode which was available on PC as a mod for the first game. Even at a budget price, players new to the franchise can safely avoid the set as there's much better gameplay to be found elsewhere, such as in the likes of the Metro: Last Light or even Techland's own Dying Light, both of which outs...