Isle of the Dead (video game)

Gameplay of Isle of the Dead, with the main character holding a machete.

Isle of the Dead is a first-person shooter and point-and-click adventure game. The plot follows the player character, Jake Dunbar, who is the lone survivor of a plane wreck on a mysterious tropical island filled with zombies under the control of a mad scientist.[1][2] The goal of the game is to escape the island and save the damsel in distress.[3] After retrieving items from the wreckage, Dunbar explores the beach and moves further inland by hacking at the undergrowth with a machete.[4] Dunbar can also acquire guns, although ammunition is scarce and limited.[2] Instant-death traps also appear in the game – in one of these, a gun blows up in Dunbar's face if it is not lubricated.[3] Quitting the game causes Dunbar to commit suicide by shooting himself in the head.[5]

Isle of the Dead was developed by Rainmaker Software and published by Dallas, Texas-based company Merit Software.[6] The game's concept and design was created by A. Sean Glaspell; it was programmed by Bruce J. Mack and Bryan Kelsch, and featured art by Myk Friedman.[1] The game was originally intended to be a hack-and-slash game. Programmer Bryan Kelsch, however, disliked games giving players tasks without reasons to do them. Because of this, the programming teams added a script with narrative hooks, attempting to turn the game into a "good hack and slash game, but with a strong plot".[2] Kelsch said the game was intended to have the feel of horror pulp comics, so a minicomic was included with the game.[2] Isle of the Dead was later shown at the 1993 Consumer Electronics Show.[7] A port for the Atari Jaguar CD was in development but never released.[8][9] The game was released 1993.[10]

Previewing the game at the Consumer Electronics Show, Computer Gaming World, while not impressed with that game graphically, thought that it made up for this with its "enthusiasm, gore, and the spicy addition of a little gratuitous T&A".[7]

Upon its initial release, Isle of the Dead received negative reviews, and it was compared to Wolfenstein 3D.[1][4][3] Sandy Petersen, writing for Dragon in their "Eye of the Monitor" column, gave the game zero out of five stars in the magazine's rating scale, advising readers to avoid playing it.[1] Peter Olafson, of Compute!, while negative towards the graphics, compared the mood of Isle of the Dead to EC Comics horror magazines.[4] Chris Lombardi, writing for Computer Gaming World, argued the game was designed to be campy, but otherwise described it as the worst video game he had seen among adventure games and games with 3D graphics.[13] In their 15th anniversary issue, Computer Gaming World rated Isle of the Dead the 32nd worst game of all time, noting its "crude graphics, weak sound, and a weak 3D engine".[10] Electronic Games, on the other hand, gave a positive review, saying that the game was not intend to be taken seriously.[2]

Retrospective reviews for Isle of the Dead were also negative. Kurt Kalata from Hardcore Gaming 101 said that Rainmaker Software took the worst elements of point-and-click adventures and first-person shooters and turned them into "an overtly shlocky mess", criticizing the lack of feedback when taking damage and the death animations throughout the game.[3] PC Gamer's Richard Cobbett, in his "Saturday Crapshoot" column, criticized its structure and the in-game map for being unhelpful.[14] Corbett would later call it one of the weirdest shooters of the 1990s.[15] Adam Smith, of Rock, Paper, Shotgun, called Isle of the Dead one of the worst games he had ever played.[16]

• Isle of the Dead can be played for free in the browser at the Internet Archive
• Isle of the Dead at MobyGames