Despite being slightly broken on release, Dead Island has scored legions of fans who enjoy nothing more than slaughtering zombies in its open-world island. We liked it. Thanks to a Halloween tie-in sale it’s currently sitting at number five in the Steam charts, and it's already got an impressive number of mods for such a recent game.

This is partly due to it being fairly simple to mod, and partly due to bits of it not working on release. Open up its PAK files in WinRAR, then tweak certain settings with notepad to your undead heart's content. This simplicity has resulted in mods which do everything from make zombies’ heads come off every time you hit them, to changing the game to make it more like Crysis.

To get started, it’s a good idea to backup your Dead Island profile and save games - you’ll find these in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\\91310\remote\out\profile s\default.pro and C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\\91310\remote\out\save\sa v_0.sav. Dead Island seems to have been built with modding in mind, so from here it’s simply a question of extracting the necessary files to C:\Users\\Documents\DeadIsland\out. If you don't fancy getting your hands dirty you can use the Dead Island Helper to enable and disable mods.

There is one caveat - if you’re playing a modded game on a VAC-enabled server, you could be banned. So make sure that you turn off VAC in the game’s settings, and ensure anyone you play with has it turned off too.

With this in mind, open up your Dead Island folder and get modding.

1. Still Alive Parkour



That’s Still Alive as in the song from Mirror’s Edge, not the song from Portal. As you’d expect, this parkour-tastic mod adds running, jumping, regenerative health and knockdown enemy assaults. Like Mirror’s Edge, Still Alive essentially turns Dead Island into a first-person driving game with legs instead of wheels, so you have to learn how to accelerate and brake without falling off cliff faces.

2. Benjamin318's Dead Island Better Resolution and Texture



Good old Benjamin318 (Did his parents really call him that? Is he the 318th in a series of Benjamins?) has upped Dead Island’s slightly muddy textures to higher definitions with his Better Resolution and Texture pack. Benjamin318 points out that they’re not high definition but still a vast improvement on the original, while also wondering, “WHY DOES EVERYTHING LOOK SO DAMAGED AND OLD?”

3. Amputator-Tots and Decapitator-Tots

For long-dead humans, zombies’ connective tissue always seems a bit too cohesive. Fortunately, this pair of mods ensure that the zombies’ limbs fly off (Amputator) and heads explode whenever you shoot anywhere near them (Decapitator). Just like they would in real life.
4. Crysis



Everyone’s favourite pretty-but-shallow military sci-fi shooter gets ported to the Dead Island island with this Crysis mod. It basically turns the player character into the slightly portly monochrome Spider-Man impersonator from Crysis, complete with the ability to throw people obscene distances and break people in half with your fists.
5. George Romero



George A Romero’s 1968 film Night of the Living Dead pretty much set the tone and rules for the modern zombie - watching it is actually part of the curriculum if you're planning on becoming one of the undead. The George Romero mod aims to implicate the living dead’s rules on the island of the dead, so you’ll face off against slow, limping zombies who you’ll have to shoot in the head.

6. Dark Gloomy Overcast Skies plus Ominous Thundering in the Background



This mod adds dark gloomy overcast skies plus ominous thundering in the background. Perfect if you like the atmosphere dark gloomy overcast skies with ominous thundering in the background generates, and, let’s face it, who doesn’t?

7. Punch Drunk and Fist of the Dead Island



Described as a fun fist/physics Mod, Punch Drunk lets you fight off zombies as if you were a drunk person. Warning! Do not operate heavy machinery or fight zombies while under the influence of alcohol. Fist of the Dead Island gives you utterly furious and speedy arms, with the ability to send zombies flying across levels.

8. Dawn of the Dead Island

Following the Romero mod, Dawn of the Dead Island adds realism and makes the game “feel more like Stalker in terms of gameplay.” Gone is levelling, and the focus is on merely surviving the zombie onslaught. The zombies are more shuffley, too, but still pack a deadly punch, and that’s on top of a whole bunch of character and game tweaks.

9. Gunslinger V2

If you’re finding Dead Island too tricky, Gunslinger V2 gives you unlimited ammo and higher rates of fire. OK, so it’s more of a cheat than a mod, but it’s still pretty damn cool.

10. Director’s Cut



We’ve covered this mod before, saying it “Rebalances the combat, skill trees and items to deliver better pacing and a requirement for headshot precision.” Since then Director's Cut has been updated to version 3.4, which adds some minor tweaks to an already brilliant mod.

That's our pick of the bunch so far, but there are plenty more out there. Feel free to add your favourites in the comments below.

Techland have been tackling the hectic task of getting Dead Island up to scratch head on with a series of post-launch patches. In recent weeks crashes and major bugs have been the focus. The latest patch marks a change of tack, and sees the devs rebalancing Dead Island's undead hordes, adding extra stuff in the form of new weapon blueprints, levels, and crate rewards, and boosting the XP rewards for those on a second playthrough. It's looking as though Techland made the right decision in delaying the upcoming Bloodbath Arena DLC pack, but how long will it be before we can finally play a polished, bug free version of Dead Island? Get the full patch notes below, via Eurogamer.

Gameplay improvements

Level cap raised to 60
New blueprints for weapon mods added
Infected damage reduced
Infected no longer interrupt player attacks
A series of improvements to subsequent playthroughs implemented: quest XP rewards adjusted, XP rewards for challenges adjusted, XP awarded for all quests completed in co-op
Purna's ammo carrying capacity increased by 50%
Character state from a save game can now be loaded when using the Start from Chapter option
New balancing option added: enemy levels can now be adjusted independently for each co-op player
Players respawn with more health
Lock pick skill level required to open a lock is now clearly indicated
Improved rewards in weapon crates
All weapon crates now contain rewards
Fixes and interface improvements

 
Bug fixes

Fix: players are no longer left without a weapon after dropping the equipped item and healing with a medkit.
Fix: equipped items no longer swap mysteriously after drinking an energy drink
Tweak: healing with medkits from inventory works better, makes smarter choices of medkits
Fix: loot from dead enemies is now always identical for all co-op players
Fix: Purna no longer finishes her Fury with fists equipped
Fix: map tracking after death
Fix: zone info in the quarantine zone (City of Moresby)
Tweak: respawn point selection is now smarter

 
General

Improved stability and network performance in co-op
V-sync option added
Quest and reward fixes implemented

 

The Bloodbath Arena DLC for Dead Island has been pushed back so Techland can spend more time fixing launch bugs. The devs made the announcement on the Dead Island Facebook page, spotted by CVG, and is good news considering the impressive selection of launch day bugs. A day one patch squashed many of them, but a little more polish would go a long way.

The Bloodbath Arena DLC will add a series of four survival maps that can be played co-operatively. It was due to arrive this month. Techland are set to announce a new date shortly. If you can't wait that long, spice up Dead Island with the fan made mod that adds devastating head shots and more spectacular close combat moves. In spite of the bugs, Dead Island is fast, bloody fun. See what we thought in our Dead Island review.