All the (unlisted) changes I've noticed from original Dead Island

[Mostly Harmless]

By pure coincidence I actually started a new Dead Island game a couple of weeks before the Definitive Edition came out (with no idea it was coming out or even existed). As a result I ended up playing through both versions side by side and made a note of the various unlisted changes I noticed.

First, the game uses the modified UI and menu/inventory system from Dead Island Riptide, which results in a number of changes:

- Throwables and consumables no longer take up inventory space (a huge improvement)

- Collectibles are better organized

- When crafting mods, the interface actually shows you how much of each ingredient you have in your inventory (very helpful)

- No dynamic crosshair, which makes targeting body parts a little harder

- In Inventory, weapon damage is now given as Damage Per Second rather than Damage Per Hit.

- Critical hit chance against downed enemies has been dramatically increased.

- "Named" and "Boss" enemies (i.e. the first version of each special infected you meet, the Mayor, named Punks, the various Bobs, etc.) are marked with a skull next to their name, similar to the special bosses from Riptide, though none of them seem to have higher stats than they did in the original game.



There are also a number of small changes to overall gameplay.

- Quests no longer show what reward you receive for completing them. I feel this hurts the game, as knowing what reward each quest gives was really helpful in deciding which quests to do and which ones to ignore. (Oddly, Riptide Definitive Edition shows quest rewards).

- There seems to be a new physics engine used, which tones down the physics in general. Certain decorative objects can no longer be interacted with (i.e. beach balls), enemies no longer spaz on your windshield when you run over them, and the corpse physics are much less "over-the-top" when you kill an enemy with a high impact weapon (which is kind of a shame, as I actually liked the hilarious physics, especially sending an enemy flying off a few dozen feet in slow motion after whacking them with a katana).

- The critical hit chance on kicks has been dramatically increased, which makes finishing off downed enemies with kicks much easier. (Actually a change in critical hit chance on downed enemies from Dead Island Riptide)

- The damage of various attacks have been changed. Playing as Logan, I've noticed that throws do noticably more damage (I can kill Floaters and Butchers with 3 throws without skill upgrades and just 1 or 2 throws with maxed skill tree).

- The targeting system for thrown weapons is less reliable and misses occasionally even if the crosshair is dead-on.

- It seems the blast radius of the Suicider has been reduced.

- The bug where you'd automatically swap out and equip random weapons when picking them up, or put away your equipped weapon after using a consumable, has thankfully been fixed.

- The weapons have been re-textured, with some weapons having major cosmetic changes. I.e. Gabriel's Sledgehammer now has a much fancier gold decoration, and the iron sights on some of the firearms have been improved.



There are a few changes which I'm pretty sure are bugs.

- Shotguns no longer have their special dismemberment ability, which seriously hurts their usefulness due to their low damage.

- In the Labratory and Tombs area all enemies and containers have nothing except cash and firearms ammo. (Probably a bug, though I do like the idea of enemies dropping ammo, the problem is you can't get anything except ammo in these areas)

- Certain blueprints seem to be missing from the game. The Hot Rod is the most noticable since it was the best in its class. (Supposedly the location of these blueprints is now randomized, but I've seen nothing to support this.)



Certain NPCs seem to have been reverted to their 1.0 version stats. However, the rest of the game plays like 1.3 version rather than 1.0 (i.e. kicks use up stamina, you can't do the duplication glitch, etc.)

- Jason seems to have his 1.0 version stats, which means he has more health than anything other than the final boss, and does enough damage to kill in 1 hit. (Since he's very much an easter egg, this really isn't a problem as far as I'm concerned and actually adds to his "specialness" as a hidden boss.)

- Banoi Butcher also has his 1.0 version stats, which means he no longer has "boss" level health and dies in just a couple hits. (I feel this should be fixed, given how much he's set up as a boss fight).



Some other miscellaneous changes I've noticed:

- Some cutscenes have been slightly altered. Most noticeably, in the shadowy cutscenes involving The Voice you can clearly see who you're actually talking to, whereas in the original game they were concealed by a high-back chair.

- The textures on most characters have been improved, though Jin now has weird shiny skin in most lighting conditions for some reason.

- Afran (the jungle warlord boss) now looks angry rather than scared when you fight him (a small change I actually think is a big improvement).

- As far as I can tell, the Heavy Pistol has been changed from a Desert Eagle to what looks like a .45 ACP pistol (sort of looks like a USP .45, can't tell for sure).

- Some "objectionable" posters (mostly fairly tame lingerie ads) have been removed. I personally think they were consistent with the sort of ads you'd actually see at a tropical resort, but whatever. The "zombie porn star" easter egg is still there, for what it's worth.

- In the Ryder White campaign, in the opening movie the pictures being shown to White have been changed. Most jarringly, White's wife has been changed from a unique photo that looks like her in-game model, to a generic female NPC that looks NOTHING like her in-game model.

- Ryder White's player character model actually looks to be simpler/have a lower poly-count (as seen in the character select screen). His in-game NPC model used in cutscenes seems OK, though.

[E.N.D.Y]

Also, some NPC models have been changed, which was completely unneccessary and downright wrong. For example:

James: the guy with the hat on top of the lighthouse. His character model should be seen next to Sinamoi in one of the opening cutscenes, but in the cutscene it isn't him.

Joseph: the plumber guy in blue clothes who you escort to the water tower. In a later mission you sould meet him near the church (in front of the stairs), but it's also a completely different character model.

Also, you mentioned "The Voice" who could be seen because of the lack of shadows. Well, not to spoil anything, but that character model is wrong too :D

[kaffekoppen]

Originally posted by Mostly Harmless:

- The critical hit chance on kicks has been dramatically increased, which makes finishing off downed enemies with kicks much easier.

Seems like you just always crit when attacking downed enemies. I could be wrong here, but I feel like kicks deal more damage now.

- Shotguns no longer have their special dismemberment ability, which seriously hurts their usefulness due to their low damage.

Yup. Sadly they kind of suck now. They used to be my go-to weapon for killing thugs.

[=Axton=]

Well done compiling that list, too bad it took a customer to put that together and make it public.

[upcoast]

You also can't drive the truck down the hill to Ope's.

[MalkHead]

Great observations, mate.

>In the Labratory and Tombs area all enemies and containers have nothing except cash and firearms ammo. (Probably a bug, though I do like the idea of enemies dropping ammo, the problem is you can't get anything except ammo in these areas)

Yep, the devs just forgot to include some files :)
If you go to 'DIDE/DI/Data2.pak/data/maps' and check out act1a (resort), there is a file "act1a.loot". in act3b (labs) this kind of file is missing, so the drops default to cash and ammo.
There is already a mod that fixes it and also adds a lot of blueprints to your backpack, including ripper (but you need to start a new game). Sadly, even then you don't get the hot rod mod

[upcoast]

I would really like to have the quest paper back.

I'm having so much frustration with the fine lined cross hairs they get washed out in the lighter shaded things and the bloom so essentially I can't aim the majority of the time. I opened up DI original and noticed the cross hairs there are x2-x3 more defined/heavier/thicker.

[Mel Gibson]

You can still do item and weapon duplication glitch.

For weapon gltich: just have a full 'weapon wheel', swap to hands, drop weapon you want to dup, press and hold f to pick weapon up for five seconds, put item into storage then back out, press 'drop item' key. ezpz money.

For item glitch, drop items near a checkpoint, throw grenade down, as it explodes hit esc, reload last checkpoint, items will still be in inventory and on ground.

[paranumget]

>Some "objectionable" posters (mostly fairly tame lingerie ads) have been removed.
I have to wonder if Deep Silver demanded that. Techland itself I don't imagine to be the type to think "good looking women in an adult rated game is objectionable or sexist somehow".

Other questionable but somewhat less stupid texture changes are how some of the busses now have textures that display references to Harran (Papa New Guinea area is nowhere near the middle east), energy drink machines now have the Dying Light texture/branding, and I'm sure a lot of machines and items that used to have a variety of fake company ads/branding have been replaced with the DL energy drink company.

There's also the matter of the Resort trucks and Jungle trucks for some reason having the side mirrors mounted on the hood rather than on the doors.

[Sata]

Thanks Mostly Harmless !
This "is" the differences we, who played the original one a lot, want to know. Too bad your post can't be a sticky one.

[paranumget]

Another one:

In the Ryder White campaign, for no discernable reason whatsoever, Ryder's voice is almost always covered in a radio effect filter outside of cutscenes.

[path]

TL;DR this remake is absolute wank and you should not buy it, instead go to that website starting with a G that cannot be said on steam and buy the original

[Capt. Alex]

the license plates on the vehicles no longer read dead1sland but now read BAU 7836 or have been removed.

[there is actually another duplication glitch involving the chainsaw that jason drops, whatyou do is chainsaw an item for 5 seconds then have a friend pick up the item, if the item stays on the ground when he picks it up you are doing it right] i do not know if this has been fixed in the DIDE version tho.

the NPC for "the voice" character is actually correct if you have played the ryder white story,

======SPOILERS======

ryder white never actually talked to the main 4 characters but was being directed by the prisoner who escapes the island with the 4 main characters. so in all technacality this npc is actually correct to the stories lore. i would believe the chair is just bugged as it should be more concealing.

[☢☣Red»Klayton☣☢]

I noticed the billboards too. It was sad, those were cool and realistic, because...it's a beach/resort island...it has people everywhere that are naked. Oh well. But good lists I noticed some of the small stuff too.

[Mikfail]

Heres another old thread documenting changes & bugs, lots of feedback from the community:

http://steamcommunity.com/app/383150/discussions/0/364043054118534910/

[Vargas78]

I preferred this version to the original, though i wouldn't buy definitive edition full price if you already own it. Get it on a promotion like now and use the steam 2 hr refund feature to see if you get on with it or not as a lot of people prefer original.