Dead Island

The player is drawn into the world of Dead Island on the brink of a mysterious epidemic that suddenly, and without warning, breaks out on the fictional island of Banoi. As a guest of the Royal Palms Resort…

70 6 September 2011

Hack and slash/Beat 'em up Shooter Action Horror Survival

Dead Island is a hack and slash/beat 'em up developed by Techland, released 6 September 2011 on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC (Microsoft Windows). The main story takes about 19 hrs to finish.

Verified 15 Oct 2026 Sources: IGDB , Wikipedia

What Dead Island is

Dead Island is a hack and slash/beat 'em up game developed by Techland and released in 2011. It was published by Deep Silver. It is available on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC (Microsoft Windows). It runs on Chrome Engine.

The premise, in the publisher's words

The island of Banoi is a lush, tropical paradise in the South Pacific where its flagship Royal Palms Resort serves as the ultimate getaway for vacationers with money to burn. However, all good things must soon come to an end - and the picturesque resort falls into madness, carnage and chaos after a mysterious and contagious zombie outbreak claims its once peaceful atmosphere. Cut off from the rest of the world, only four individuals who strangely find themselves immune to zombification have the power to protect the remaining survivors from the horrors of the island, to discover what's really going on and find a way to escape before their own fatal ends.

Description from the publisher · source

How it plays

It is played from a first person perspective. Its themes are action, horror and survival. It is a single-player game with no multiplayer component. Available modes: Co-operative, Multiplayer and Single player.

How it was received

Dead Island holds a critic score of 70 out of 100. That places it above 39% of the 1,124 rated hack and slash/beat 'em up games in our database, which average 70. Games released in 2011 averaged 68, so it scored 2 points above the year average. Player ratings track closely with critics at 71, across 559 votes.

How long it takes, and what that costs

The main story runs about 19 hrs. Completing everything takes closer to 69.5 hrs, roughly 3.7 times the length of the critical path.

What it launched against

Dead Island launched on 6 September 2011, within three weeks of Dark Souls, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Shadow of the Colossus (2011) and Gears of War 3. All of them reviewed better.

Released around the same time: Dark Souls, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Shadow of the Colossus (2011), Gears of War 3.

Cheats and codes

We have not confirmed any working cheat codes for Dead Island yet. Rather than reprint a list we have not tested, this section stays empty until one is verified.

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