Dead Island is a first-person survival horror/action role-playing game developed by Techland and published by Deep Silver for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It is centered on the challenge of surviving a zombie-infested open world island with a major emphasis on melee combat. It was originally announced at E3 2006, but was pushed back to 2011. It was released on September 6, 2011 in North America and September 9, 2011 for PAL regions (excluding Germany).

Dead Island features open world roaming, played from a first-person perspective. Most of the gameplay is built around combat and completing quests. Dead Island is a role-playing game and uses experience-based gameplay and character customization. The player earns XP by completing tasks and killing enemies. Upon leveling up, the player gains health and stamina, and can invest one skill point into a skill tree.

Combat is carried out through the use of melee weapons and firearms. Melee weapons are emphasized to the point that firearms are not available for the first quarter of the game, and consist of blunt and bladed weapons. Weapons are randomly generated and positioned in predetermined locations as well as found on some enemies; they have unique stats which are generally based on the player's current level. Each weapon can be upgraded four times to increase its stats, and most weapons can be "modded" - customized based on a blueprint to add special features, such as nails or electrified blades.