ISLE OF THE DEAD

This Island Ain't No Fantasy!

You're a passenger on a South Pacific island-hopping adventure. But your last stop is an sbrupt one. Crashing on the beach of a jungle island, you are the sole survivor lost in paradise... or is it?

You must hunt for survival items, weapons, and a way to get off the island. Be prepared to do a lot of blasting, hacking and slashing... or die! Hideous zombies, vicious wolves and other horrors await you, if you dare!

Features:

• Fast, smooth scrolling, "first-person" 3D graphics!
• Gruesome creatures galore!
• Challenging puzzles you must solve to survive!
• Rescue a gorgeous "Zom-Babe" from a horrible fate as one of the Un-dead!
• Fully scored suspenseful soundtrack!
• State of the art point and click interface!
• Multiple endings! (There's more than ONE way to skin a zombie!)

~ from the back of the US box

"Worse. Game. Ever!" is a phrase that's bandied around quite a bit. Whether it's an ultra-broken mess, a minor disappointment, or an otherwise good game that subverts expectations, it's easy to slap the hyperbolic slogan on anything. But there is another category reserved for ultra-special recipients; the ones that admirably try to do something different - and fail while doing it. Isle of the Dead, a 1993 first-person shooter by Rainmaker Software, is one such game.

Merging the kind of FPS action as seen in Wolfenstein 3D with a first-person point-and-click adventure is the kind of out-of-the-box genre-busting rarely seen at the time. The era was flush with games aiming to capitalise on the new technology and most stuck with the "shoot-everything-that-moves" rinse-and-repeat gameplay design so Isle of the Dead stood out. Playing it now, the two genres sit seamlessly with the overall vibe of the game as you struggle to survive on a zombie-infested tropical island. How did you get there? Your plane crashed. Whose fault was it? Yours, of course.

Playing as the pilot who really should get his license revoked, you begin the game on a beach, the smoking wreckage of your downed plane behind you. To your left, the calm ocean reaches out to the horizon (in a nice optical illusion that completely breaks when next to any other walled texture) and to your right is a wall of lush jungle. A literal wall; flat with a messy, pixelated, jungle-themed texture. The limitations of a 2.5D raycast engine doesn't really allow for naturalistic scenery so every treescape or dung house is represented by right angled textured walls. You need get up close too as slight differences mean that something is likely hidden there. Give it a hack with your machete (found inside the crashed plane) to find out. If you can suspend your disbelief (which is easy enough when you regularly play ancient games like these), its looks are decent enough if all too samey, so you'll soon find yourself struggling to get your bearings. What's worse is those zombies will respawn every time you re-enter an area, their relentless pursuit quickly becoming annoying. Luckily, that machete is quite useful and ammo for the guns you can get are plentiful, as are coconuts that replenish health.

The adventure segments break up the janky action nicely. Some even require the use of your 

inventory (left) while others offer up a foreboding atmosphere (right).

Unlike most other Wolfenstein 3D clones, there are no levels here. Instead, you have several interconnected maps that combine to make one large location which can be freely explored. I can't think of anyone else doing something similar around this time truly making it ahead of its time, but by being the first you're stuck with some annoying design choices - primarily in the controls. You can play the game with either the keyboard, the mouse or both but when faced against a hoard of zombies, none of these options play all that well. I recommend using the mouse solely for the adventure segments and limit yourself to just the keyboard for the action. Even so, it's hard to gauge where the enemies are or when you're actually being attacked. All too often you will see the death screen without really knowing why.

The adventure segments are a little better, but not by much. At least they foreshadow any dangers if you're observant enough. The puzzles won't exactly stress your grey matter, but the insta-deaths lurking around every corner will surely stress your patience. Whether it's that trip line you didn't see or the rusty shotgun you didn't think to polish before use, you will see some intensely graphic animated cutscenes every time you die. To be fair, these deaths are hugely entertaining. Entertaining enough that I was enticed to hunt down every one. 

By the time you reach the cannibal settlement, the plotline - such as it is - will come further into focus. Apparently a mad scientist has been doing nefarious experiment on all of the dead people on the island effectively removing their primary food source. Instead of eating you, the village chief asks for your help. These brief conversations are commendably voice acted in that crunchy compressed way that was common back then. They're acted with an am-dram comedy-troupe twang that only adds to the overall offbeat (and very un-PC) sense of humour.

The many death scenes are gruesomely entertaining. Can you find the all? (left)

You even blow your brains out every time you quit the game! (right)

Less than a year after the floppy disc version came out in the December of 1993, a shiny CD-ROM variant hit the shelves complete with notable differences. The original Floppy release contained all of the gore the developers could imagine while the updated CD-ROM release made use of the storage space with better music and improved textures. Unfortunately, it was also heavily censored even going so far as to replace the huge machete blade with a blunt bamboo stick that makes zero sense. As such, an unnamed yet dedicated fan patched the best of both worlds resulting in the definitive edition. 

Regardless of which version you play, the custom-built engine was something of a minor technical marvel for its time (though id Software's Doom came out the very same month to take away any faint rumblings of thunder it may have otherwise had). The conception of Rainmaker Software was directly inspired by the pioneering release of Wolfenstein 3D. Their Render Engine, while having some limitations, was actually a bit faster and more malleable than that 1992 classic (even if it couldn't handle distances as well) and did so nicely on a variety of aging setups. If you couldn't handle Doom, Isle of the Dead had you covered. I think it's just about worth a playthrough despite its many, many flaws.

To download the game, follow the link below. This custom installer exclusive to The Collection Chamber uses the DOSBox-X build of DOSBox to bring the game to modern systems. This package contains the original uncensored Floppy release, its 1.29 update and the censored CD-ROM version. Manual, Comic Book & Map included. Read the ChamberNotes.txt for more detailed information. Tested on Windows 10.

File Size: 35.6 Mb.  Install Size: 96.8 Mb.  Need help? Consult the Collection Chamber FAQ

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Isle of the Dead is © Rainmaker Software, Inc
Review, Cover Design and Installer created by me

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