Escape Dead Island is a survival mystery game that follows the story of Cliff Calo, who sets sail to document the unexplained events rumored to have happened on Banoi.
However, he is prevented from leaving due to the zombie outbreak escaping the facility and spilling out onto the island, so he instead hides the USB flash drive containing the data before being attacked off-screen by a massive creature.
Aspiring journalist Cliff Calo, the son of an influential broadcasting executive, and his two friends Linda Waterson and Devan Mavropani, arrive on Narapela hoping to uncover the truth behind the events on Banoi.
Cliff is resentful due to his father passing him up for promotion in favor of his sister, and has decided to start his own independent journalism outlet with Devan and Linda.
Devan carries the injured Linda to a mobile camp on top of the island's central mountain in hopes of finding safety, while Cliff goes to investigate the plane crash.
After passing out from one such hallucination, Cliff wakes up at the mobile camp just in time to witness Linda being carried away by the same massive mutant who attacked Kilo Two in the prologue.
Devan appears and insists the two of them attempt to escape, stating that Linda was barely alive and will not survive, and criticizing Cliff for abandoning her while she was injured.
He discovers the mutant is Dr. Aaron Welles, a Geopharm scientist who was infected by the virus but has undergone a unique mutation and retained his intelligence, albeit at some cost to his sanity (a concept explored in the Dead Island: Epidemic multiplayer game).
He stated that "I want more games like Escape Dead Island—games that don't have to be perfect or gigantic blockbusters and can just be fun experiences that understand what their place in the world should be.
"[5] Scott Butterworth from IGN gave the game a 6.8/10, stating that "While Escape Dead Island's workmanlike combat and ho-hum zombies fail to fully capitalize on this unoriginal but respectably executed premise, it does manage to punctuate its enjoyable filler with some genuinely spectacular moments of madness.
"[11] James Kozanitis from Hardcore Gamer gave the game a 1/5, saying, "Escape Dead Island squandered whatever opportunity it had to make a compelling story, while offering only sub-par gameplay to tide you over in the meantime.
He stated that "Escape Dead Island's single-player adventure is plagued with enough technical and design horrors that every copy of the game should be sealed shut and stamped with enough biohazard symbols to keep innocent fans of the series away.
"[7] Justin McElroy from Polygon declared it "the worst game I've ever finished", calling it a failure in its attempts at stealth, survival horror and action.