Dead Island being 50% off currently, is it worth it? I don't really understand what sets it apart from other melee-focused zombie games; does anyone here own it?
I've seen a fair amount of it. It's closer to "Borderlands" than "Morrowind/Oblivion/Skyrim/Fallout." In that, what you're opening boxes and searching around for is a known, finite amount of item and item types. Kind of like how Money was a generic filler thing to find in Borderlands, Dead Island struck me much the same way. It apes open world games without having as detailed of mechanics. Like Borderlands, all the stuff you buy with earned XP is "yaaawwwwwwnnnnnnn."
Re: Open world, the game doesn't put in the leg work to make it really stand out. Enemies often respawn in the same places moments after turning your back on them. Things aren't randomized to a great extent, and when there aren't tons of NPCs to talk to ala Bethesda games, areas can tend to seem a little shallow, since their only salient features are zombies and loot.
The weapon/upgrade system is pretty wonky as I understand it. The loss of durability on a good item often makes using them too expensive. Knocking off a single point of durability on a high end weapon costs silly amounts of money to repair.
On the plus side it's atmospheric, immersive (until the UI starts putting a lot of junk on your screen), the murderalting is pretty satisfying and the game can even start to get challenging later on when you start meeting a lot of zombies and the higher end zombie types.
DI is something I'd buy for $5 to $10 tops. It's a fun romp if you don't hold its short comings against it.