LGR - Isle of the Dead - DOS PC Game Review

Rainmaker Software's Isle of the Dead is an innovative mix of first-person shooter and point-and-click adventure game. Of course, innovation isn't always a good thing, as it often pops up on lists of the worst PC games of all time.

[@marcsm2008]

I had this game when I was a teen... Bought it at release... With my entire allowance... (cries)

[@RarefoilB]

There, there...

[@MCDexpo]

what's an allowance?

[@marcsm2008]

Money that my parents gave me every month.

[@jamesisaac7684]

@Heavy Metal Collector is the best selling game of n 64. What areas your complaint about

[@shitchops]

@Heavy Metal Collector Oooh yes. Superman 64 was terrible. Jet force gem was the shit !!

[@jeremysart]

I feel bad for the talented artist who's work went into.. this. Love the death cut scene lol.

[@Tyler-fm4ix]

"finally they stopped writing about that shit game we made 30 years ago. We're finally in the clear." LGR: Isle of the dead

[@makinbacon855]

this game scared me as a kid. that kid that said "daddy?" I actually had a nightmare over that

[@Darusamon]

I had the original version of this game when I was a kid. If I remember correctly, killing the village drummer was actually part of a quest you had to do for the chief. He had a headache and asked you to get the guy to stop banging on the drums. Killing him was the only way to resolve it.

[@skyacaniadev2229]

A reference to whoever is making the music, I would say.

[@matchmakerchris7617]

@@skyacaniadev2229 Haha, good one.

[@CringeFailLoserGirl]

@@skyacaniadev2229 I would like your comment but it has 69 likes

[@The1000thJohann]

Thing is, this game came out in 1993. Not only did Doom, one of the greatest FPSes of all time, come out that year, so did Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers and Myst, two of the greatest point and click adventure games of all time. There is really no excuse for owning this game.

[@turrican4d599]

Day Of The Tentacle and Sam & Max Hit The Road!

[@LGR]

Well to be fair, all the gory scenes were also censored in the version with the bamboochete. Still not sure why machetes are censor-worthy and shotguns are okay, but whatever.

[@kidferocious]

Censorship is weird. Might be ten years late, but I felt the need to say that.

[@scootza1]

I quite like the death animations; it's kinda cool to see the zombies devour your character instead of the boring "slump over and die"

[@kevins9785]

h o h b o i ah the 90’s. When the basis of a good game was how much sadistic violence and gore you can pack on a disk. We wonder why people are so violent these days 😭😂

[@MuttFitness]

They'd do it nowadays, but most games are marketed to about 12 years old.

[@handsomebrick]

@@kevins9785Because they don't have healthy outlets for violent impulses anymore?

[@Takimeko]

@@MuttFitness Blatantly untrue, but alright.

[@Jeyeyeyey]

@@kevins9785 I wonder what games did the people in the medieval era played then

[@wilsonator1000]

a machete is too violent but a shotgun is perfectly fine....... yeah that totally makes sense

[@wilsonator1000]

they are both just as violent that's my point it doesn't make sense to keep one and not the other

[@xXLunatikxXlul]

@@wilsonator1000 Agreed!

[@PatriciaCross]

One of those zombies eating you was clearly Duke Nukem. Surprised you didn't point that out.

[@philipcooper8297]

Groovy.

[@Renhorable]

it seems it was just a random surfer dude

[@gamercatsz5441]

Cosbydaf Jones lol

[@victorvance2573]

I thought the same!

[@jetrifle4209]

No

[@TheInsanemonkeyboy]

I bought this game used at a yard sale in the 90's it was on several 3½-inch floppy disks. Got home and inserted the 1st disk to load it and it had been copied over with Leisure Suit Larry. Guess I dodged a bullet of a crappy game. All this time I always wondered what the game was like.

[@ZorotheGallade]

I am walkin' Walkin' around Don't know what the fuck I'm doing Don't know what the fuck to do Maybe I'm goinna kill some zombies Then I'll find a place to poo Daradara Daradara Daradara Daradara Daradara Daradarararara. --Brutalmoose

[@rdubby1102]

Get it on ITunes now! Only $19.99, however you get it for free if you can successfully use the rifle without oiling it.

[@onkkell]

Heh. Title sounds like "I love the dead."

[@pedroguilherme9811]

onkel Alice Cooper approves.

[@CryMoar]

Mabamcheteboo. I think I just found the name for my new band.

[@handsomebrick]

Mabam Shetty Boo

[@malediktmanson]

Story sounds like Far Cry 1...

[@LGR]

+malediktmanson And about a hundred other games, movies, comic books, etc :) Not a very original theme, that's for sure!

[@malediktmanson]

Now that I think about it. Shit, hahaha!

[@Logan912]

+malediktmanson Now that I think about it, that's pretty much Crash Bandicoot 1's story too.

[@sistaledaren]

+Logan Palmer go away

[@muntapede572]

malediktmanson or maybe farcry 1 sounds like isle of the dead

[@JBurtBBA]

Ha ha!! I bought this off the $10 rack at CompUSA in 1994. Agree with entire review and am still laughing my ass off

[@drcatjailofficial3735]

its funny that a merit software is involved in this because the game contains nothing of merit.

[@LGR]

Merit also published that terrible Dragon's Lair port I reviewed a while back. Yeah, they didn't exactly have a great track record.

[@Monstermania101]

That music is a masterpiece.. I'll always shed a few tears when I hear that song playing.. me and my wife got married and chose that for or wedding song. I've never danced so Passionately to a piece of music. I'm crying right now thinking about it. And oh my don't get me started about our honey moon to this music. Let's just say it was like sea world. Very wet.

[@cvnic]

what the fuck

[@EsotericStarWarsRubbish]

*yikes*

[@iAmCodeMonkey]

Lol, cray cray alert

[@user-sl6gn1ss8p]

@@iAmCodeMonkey why are you berating my husband? It really really was magical - no other song could compare

[@qaz3000]

Tutulutut🎶

[@MattMcIrvin]

Drawn in the style of every college-newspaper comic in the 80s.

[@anarchist135]

Remake this game in the latest crytek engine

[@tylerkriesel8590]

They already did, it’s called dead island.

[@BeardyOfIron]

I played this game as a kid. I broke the disc after many mind numbing hours of HELL.

[@handsomebrick]

Someone should make a modern 3D version of Where Time Stood Still, it would probably be amazing.

[@Gigantor3000]

Wow. This brings back memories...memories of excitement, confusion and then disappointment. I got this game for my birthday in 6th grade or so, it looked so cool and bloody and rad. I booted it up and brother....this thing sucked balls.

[@Uncle-Jay]

I would really like to see this remade, because the concept is actually pretty cool, it was just done super half assed.

[@AlexeiVoronin]

6:17 - Is that zombie Duke Nukem? :D

[@g-forcefgt323]

yes there are a million zombie duke nukems

[@loggers5246]

*_WOAH BUMMER DUDE_*

[@iaincowell9747]

@@loggers5246 The sound file sounds like it's not complete. Sounds like "WOAH BUMMER DU".

[@ProblmSolvd]

Games that come with comics to explain the story... what ever happened to games doing cool shit like that? I miss drawing maps for silent hill, and writing down room coordinates for resident evil games to find all the ammo (I had a system!)

[@soundred1254]

Wow this game sucks. It does have cool box cover art though

[@anthonyyu2722]

"In fact, it's not even a six of diamonds of all trades and a novice of none, it's just not much of anything." - haha, that is LGR gold right there.

[@mcgibs]

I remember being creeped out and intrigued by the box art way back in the day when I was maybe 6 or 7 and wandering around a computer store. I couldn't remember the title of the game. Years later I was almost certain Isle of the Dead was that game but the box art was nothing like what I remembered. Turns out it was the first edition I encountered back then.

[@jdzero]

Realms of the Haunting was actually a decent attempt at fusing a point-n-click and shooter ... though neither are all that ground-breaking. Their budget was primarily used on green screening people on crappy CGI backgrounds, and hiring terrible actors to be in the those green screen rooms.

[@phar314]

The cutscenes are so damn gold.

[@k6ka1]

he's definitely older than you are. back in the days, he bought those PCs and started a collection. he's still collecting. and when you buy something, you probably want to keep it and show it to other people in the future, which is exactly what Clint does.

[@PunakiviAddikti]

Anyone else notice how that double barrel shotgun doesn't need to be reloaded? It's like it's semiautomatic as well as has a magical, endless magazine of shotgun shells. That magically runs out when the game says you ran out of ammo.

[@paulazippel2053]

WTF! Look at this (2:47), the control is so fast and feels like I having a seasick. I laugh at this (3:01) "AAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH". LOL.

[@Dalekzilla54]

This game always brings memories of Brutalmoose singing to the music. "I am walking.....walking around..."

[@touhouguyII]

LOVE your channel!

[@LGR]

Thank you!

[@touhouguyII]

Lazy Game Reviews You also have a very relaxing voice, a great LP'ing voice:D

[@lorettathomas2753]

Lazy Game Reviews i love your channel too been watching for 3 years your reviews are really cool to watch are you going to review duke nukem sometime soon bryan t

[@LucasGodzilla]

+Loretta Thomas Now he did

[@lorettathomas2753]

LucasGodzilla i'm really happy he did i asked him on facebook if he had plans on reviewing doom 4 he said he wasn't sure yet but he said he will cover the original

[@Feenicks01]

I remember seeing ads for this in PC mags and being thoroughly excited as an impressionable 10 year old ... Sad to know that the actual game was shite ...

[@SilverSurfer166]

Where can I find the 10 hour loop of the music?

[@MrFutago87]

After seeing Brutalmoose's review of this game I noticed that the bodies of the native guards apparently can switch.

[@thekenyonsquad5672]

actually, there are two villages, so the bodies weren't switched, they were just different guards.

[@MrFutago87]

Kenyon Erickson Well that went from kinda neat to really lazy fast.

[@Mii85]

Kinda feels like The Forest on drugs. I might be masochist byt this seems fairly interesting.

[@u9vata]

Maybe the team was just under time pressure and deadlines... This actually looks like a decent game - just not groundbreaking or "great". I would not say it can deserve the worst game ever made award.... The idea I literally like a lot and maybe gameplay is bad only because of deadlines effecting this kind of innovation badly to be honest...

[@moserfugger6363]

It's a very shitty came, but at least they tried. ;-) The artwork and animations were pretty ambitious for such a small project. Greetings from Germany!

[@judsongaiden9878]

They probably drew some inspirado from Lucio Fulci's 'Zombie'. 6:29 And this came out a year before he did that.

[@SpaceMissile]

6:49 - "...or the MaBamCheteBoo thing" _i love it._

[@Sarioya]

If I remember correctly, you actually *have* to kill the drummer in order to progress.

[@toogee1850]

Literally the only thing that looked good about this game was the animations and little cutscenes. Those cartoonish zombies and that art style is pretty dope.

[@socialghost4400]

This game looks like a bad mod for wolfenstein 3D more than it looks like an official released game

[@Ikelae]

man.. you can tell a game is bad when you can just see the control issues.

[@TECH097]

Toonsmyth Productions is actually the KZbin account of Myk Friedman. Sadly he passed away due to medical complications involving Diabetes from what I understand. Despite that he left a great impact on the world of animation with his fantastic style and wit. R.I.P. Myk. We'll miss you.

[@SpookySkeleton738]

You sound like Duke Nukem sometimes...

[@mikeygee2793]

That's the poooooooint

[@TheSmokingUnicorn]

After watching some questionable at best, horribly bad at worse movies for a class, I am more than thrilled to find a new LGR review in my inbox.

[@DjStiv3]

they should remake this game with the same artist on a handheld it would be pretty cool maybe make it an actual FPS if need be

[@kagemarunl]

...excuse me while I steal your entire collection. ♥ This game you can keep, but the amount of awesome and nostalgic games at 0:15 is just...wow. I love these reviews, have no regrets about becoming a subscriber and hope you'll keep on making awesome reviews! 8D

[@phreakinpher]

Bam-friggin-boo is my new favorite phrase in the English language.

[@TastyBirds]

I use to be a perpetually blazed chief

[@someinterwebguy]

The music in this game sounds like somebody having a seizure while attempting to play a MIDI keyboard.

[@wentworthmiller1890]

Wow, didn't know Crysis and Far Cry weren't the pioneers of the Jungle scene!

[@ارابيلا-ي6ج]

Wentworth Miller scofield , is that you?

[@wentworthmiller1890]

@@ارابيلا-ي6ج That's me.

[@jbfarley]

I hope you weren't actually that dumb

[@jasonji3263]

7:18 "Ah bummer dude," I lost my shit.

[@bytex666]

Kind of weird how all the zombies are taller than the trees

[@AlyxxTheRat]

Ma-bam-chete-boo is permanently etched into my brain now.

[@NujuBIONICLE]

Is Dead Island spiritual successor to this one ?

[@truksrok]

Where the heck did you find a computer old enough to run this game?? I'm shocked! lol

[@justanotheryoutubechannel]

Wow, just seeing the start of this game I’m really interested in the concept, I love island settings and a build-engine FPS set on a tropical island would be amazing to me. The combination of the adventure mode and the FPS gameplay could be fun but I’m not sure if it’s a great game or not from the start, but I might give it a go someday.

[@Nik-ff3tu]

Holyshit I used to see this game in my dreams when I was little kid and I totally thought that I made it up

[@hugo182]

I've seen shitty games... but this one... oh man!

[@Phantom.Gaming64]

Hold up, so every time you exit the game, you are treated with this cut-scene? (6:32) Whoa, that takes some balls.

[@Gligar13Vids]

You know pathways into Darkness? It did the whole FPS and Point and Click idea better.

[@Edgewalker001]

Wait wait wait... You play as Torg from Sluggy Freelance with a better defined chin? XD

[@MegapiemanPHD]

I like to think of this game as a prequel of Techlands Dead Island, both are bad, mix genre's, and do very little to keep interest. Thinking this way explains why there are zombies in Dead Island, a fact that the game pretty much neglects.

[@theholidaydecorguy609]

I got this game on a shareware cd back in 1995. It honestly is a fun little game if you don't let the fact that it's utter trash. Honestly, and please don't laugh this game got me into programming. Also, love this video.

[@Turovale]

The game actually seems like a variety of good ideas implemented terribly. I say that exact thing on a lot of the games Clint reviews though.

[@eringildea1854]

m a b a m c h e t e b o o

[@ravick007]

O_õ Dude! You voice sounds very... uh... Duke Nukem-ish!

[@vancereloaded]

I had no idea what this game was from the title or the box-- but then you got to the part where you're walking on the beach and I recognized that instantly. It's clear from the game that the developers had some neat ideas, but it seems for whatever reason they filtered them through the mind of a 5 year old. I think my cats could draw a better map, for example.

[@NudeRockENT]

LGR, I've learned more from your videos than I have in my entire 12 years of schooling... you are a f*cking modern-day god man. Keep doin what you're doin. It's people like you that give me hope for the human race

[@trimmy91]

Easily controlled? AAAAAAaAA lol

[@-Karnage]

Doesn't look too bad actually

[@JohnnyCasey]

Games, or movies like this always make me wonder what are the developers are doing now days.

[@jetpak12]

The game's artists seem to be skilled, judging from the look of the enemies and the animated cutscenes, so why couldn't they make better textures for the walls? I don't think fixing that would have saved the game though.

[@censor2112]

I watched this video like 20 times and I just now realised, the zombies are as tall as the palm trees!!

[@skyedouglas871]

Gotta love the mudic, reminds me of "Human Music" from Rick and Morty

[@Monstermania101]

Skye Douglas yes I love the soundtrack for his game sooo much. Me and my wife got married and used the first track for our wedding song. Absolutely beautiful day.. we danced so passionately and even played it on our honey moon. And wow let's just say that was like a trip to sea world, very wet!

[@herrabanani]

i always just see "LGR - Isle of the Dead - D..."

[@mytchyl]

Is the voice actor/animator in this game the same Myk Friedman of Toonsmyth?

[@ShadowNinja452]

Looked it up & yup. Same guy. Unfortunate he's dead these days though :( RIP Myk Friedman

[@ShamanEffect]

I stumbled across a let's play of this a couple months back and I got to say, whoever did all of the cut scene animations did a very good job. I was actually surprised the game featured a day/night cycle, though it's all superficial. I heard if you know what to do and where to go, you can actually beat the game relatively fast. Yeah, I think all of the death animations are the best part of the game, though I've never seen them all, or a compilation. Still not a good game, but I've seen worse.

[@psychoticgiraffe]

The music actually does a good job of setting the mood.

[@xRemRooodx]

Zombie-kid: *Daddy?* *Wauahg*

[@MrScrubnub]

wow reminds me of the great showcasement video titled Why Does This Game Exist following back to 2009 on youtube

[@dbjr68x]

You should check out Etherlords I & II. I always enjoyed playing those games. It's not a dos game, but still.

[@garyleigh]

I hated this game back in the day. Never got far. The only thing I remembered about it was the 'Daddy?' quote, which almost made it worth while!

[@VGamingJunkieVT]

That's some hypocritical censorship. A machete has to be censored into a bamboo stick but the bloodied carnage and guns, that's just fine?

[@CafeenMan]

Looks like it was the Crysis of its time.

[@jbfarley]

No

[@ronch550]

I find it amusing that they supposedly ended up crashing on the island but according to the box art you're going around with a sexy girl in bikini. Like, how did she end up wearing just that? Did she lose all her clothes when they crashed?

[@datasilouk1995]

I was expecting so much from this game I mean a title like that who wouldn't eh? Massively disappointed.

[@saulmighty]

I tried this game on a shareware cd or something, thought it sucked back then. Some friend at school hyped a game called Monkey Island. Somehow I mistook it for this one and said that it sucked. :D

[@jakespoon5549]

Where can I buy the ost?

[@CrotchBlaster]

"A watered down version of Wolfenstein" well, that says a lot.

[@johnivantaro6684]

Those zombies must have been really dangerous if they infected Duke Nukem.

[@Jraptor1959]

Kind of looks like it had promise but didn't deliver on it. They probably showed the cartoons to Merit to get the funding.

[@zogmorp]

The enemy sprites are really well animated.