Not only out of his element, but someone who evidently has a track record for NOT liking this type of game. Irresponsible journalism on Gamespot's part and makes you wonder if there's an agenda behind it.
The video at that link says Invalid Address, but yeah you can read the review at least.
Hmm..well, if some of what he says is, in fact true, then he makes a few valid points. A game that relies heavily on fetch quests can become tedious quickly. Also, there's a fine line between survival horror gameplay and one-note, uninspiring gameplay. I wish he would've at least touched on how it feels to kill the zombies, because that alone kept me playing Dead Island for a long time.
I'll wait to see other reviews, of course, before deciding, but I have a feeling my $60 will be safer switched over to Black Ops 2 or Darksiders 2, and then if I'm going to gamble on this game, I'll do it when it goes on sale for $30 or less. It is Ubisoft after all. If it's not "must play" right away, it can wait.
He played in chicken mode (easy), you can tell by the video when it was still up.
Easier to kill zombi's (tougher zombis dont have their classes stats) easier to survive, gimped zombi ai (they dont communicate or react to sound, typically a lone zombi would make enough noise upon spotting the player to lure nearby packs, and screamers who will alert zombis in a wide range, limited zombi types, cant get to final half of 'real' game, with the technological 'fantastical' enemies talked about in the edge review (lol, they didnt like them, thought it was jumping the shark, regaurdless, mcgee doesnt know they even exist outside multi, where he thinks they are awesome and should exist and act like that in the real game).
He doesnt know anything about building barricades, stat level ups for keeping one character alive (like increased run time melee damage etc)...
Its a review for people like him. Who would enjoy a game mode like cod zombies over a survival horror.
Thats the whole POINT of reviews, you identify individuals with tastes similar to yours, with likes and dislikes similar to yours, so when they like something, you know youll probably like it, and when they dislike it, you know you probably will as well.
There is no universal standard because nobody universally likes all the same games.