New Xbox deal lets you bite into three Dead Island games for absurdly cheap

Dead Island returned after far too long last year with the launch of Dead Island 2, and if you’re yet to play its fantastic predecessors, now is the perfect opportunity. The Dead Island Definitive Collection packs in the series’ first three games and this week’s Xbox sales means each game will only cost around $1.

This week’s Xbox sales see the Dead Island Definitive Collection drop to its lowest price yet, packing in Dead Island Definitive Edition, Dead Island: Riptide Definitive Edition, and Dead Island Retro Revenge for just $2.99 / £2.49 / €2.99.

The bundle includes the starting point of the Dead Island series with its iconic tropical resort setting as a group of survivors attempt to fend off the hungry dead. It’s a fantastic game to play solo or with friends in four-player co-op, thanks to its open-world design in the paradise setting of Banoi. Dead Island was a standout game of the Xbox 360 generation, marking developer Techland as a studio to follow if you want freedom with your zombie-slaying escapades.

The Dead Island Definitive Edition achievements arrived in 2016 when the game was updated for Xbox One, bundling all of the original game’s DLC into one package.

The same goes for Dead Island: Riptide, which continues the events that started with Dead Island instead of launching as a direct sequel. It doesn’t change the formula much at all and instead focuses on the survivor’s unfortunate crash onto yet another tropical island after escaping Banoi. It’s just as fun as the first game, offering all of the co-op fun, weapon crafting, and open-world exploration introduced with Dead Island. It’s estimated that it takes around 20 to 25 hours to unlock all of the Dead Island: Riptide Definitive Edition achievements, so there is plenty of fun to be had here as well.

Finally, the bundle also includes Dead Island Retro Revenge, a spin-off game that takes the series in a completely different direction. It’s a 16-bit side-scroller that follows a survivor named Max attempt to save his cat from ravenous zombie hordes, corrupt soldiers, ex-convicts, and more. It was met with mixed reviews when it launched in 2016 with the mainline remasters, but it makes for a pretty fun way to spend some time casually killing zombies outside of the open-world environments of Dead Island and Riptide. Completion estimates suggest that it takes around 12 to 15 hours to unlock all of the Dead Island Retro Revenge achievements, so it’s not overly time-consuming either.

Dead Island was one of my favorite zombie games on Xbox 360 — alongside Lollipop Chainsaw — and solidified my love for the zombie-slaying genre. Being able to explore a beautiful tropical paradise while crushing heads with a modified hammer and scavenging for resources with a co-op buddy was a treat, and I can’t recommend it enough.

As I mentioned before, Dead Island 2 launched last year after a complicated development cycle, breaking onto our list of the best Xbox zombie games, and is now in the hands of Dambuster Studios instead of Techland. Dambuster has built on the core foundations of the series with new execution animations, a Fury mode, deep character customizations, and more. Check out my Dead Island 2 review for all the juicy details.