Chris InglisDead Island 2, by Dambuster Studio and Deep Silver, is the sequel to the smash hit zombie slayer Dead Island from 2011. The sequel has been a long time in the making, when there was a point where it didn’t look like it was going to happen at all. Now thankfully, due to wok of very passionate developers, Dead Island 2 is finally launching on all platforms on April 21, 2023, and it is well worth the wait. While initially I was comparing the game to Dying Light 1 and 2, it was Dead Space that came first and laid some very good foundations. This sequel takes what was great about the first game and adds a fantastic story, amazing gory graphics and it’s just so fun and satisfying slaying so many zombies in so many ways.
The intro cinematic sees Los Angeles in quarantine and the military have retreated. After seeing the zombie infection spread fast, only you and a handful of others make it onto a plane to fly out of there. But of course, a zombie made it on the plane and with infection spreading so fast, the plane is shot down. Miraculously you survive, albeit with a metal shard sticking out of your guts. Later you find out you are resistant to the pathogen and therefore hold the future of the humanity at stake. Dead Island 2 takes players across iconic locations of the City of Angels, now stained with horror, in an exciting pulp journey from the verdant suburbia of Beverly Hills to the quirky promenade of Venice Beach.
Graphically the game is insanely good. From the high level of detail in each character you meet, to the vast expanses of landscapes within cities and cliffs overlooking Beverly Hills, to hacking off limbs of so many zombies. This game is a visual treat so long as your PC can handle it. I had a few crashes early on in my playthrough but in checking in with other reviewers, it seemed to be just a me problem as they were having no issues at all and commented that it was one of the better performing AAA PC releases of the year.
This game is just full-on fun and action packed from the opening scenes where we get to choose who we will slay as through HELL-A from one of six characters, all of whom have specific innate skills that help you make your decision. There is Jacob, Bruno, Carla, Dani, Ryan and Amy. Jacob gets a stackable minor damage boost and extra crits when stamina is low, while Bruno is good at backstabbing zombies. I thought to myself, I’m going to be charging headfirst into zombie hordes, so I won’t be backstabbing much. Turns out there are plenty of opportunities to open with a good backstab so Bruno is a viable choice.
Carla gains a minor damage boost when close to multiple zombies and gains a toughness boost when health is critical, whereas Dani’s heavy attacks trigger a forceful explosion, and she regains health when slaying multiple zombies (which happens a lot!). Amy regains stamina when hitting a zombie with a thrown weapon and gains a minor damage boost when attacking isolated zombies. I chose to go as Ryan, a firefighter who gets a moderate force boost when using block or dodge, as well as regaining health each time we knock down a zombie which came in very handy.
Despite having these innate starting abilities, the character customisation options with unlockable cards through gameplay is where you really get to home in on your favoured play style. As you gain levels through killing zombies and completing side and main quests, you will gain XP and unlock skill cards. Specific card slots open at specific levels but there are four types of cards – abilities, survivor, slayer and numen.
A similar style of gameplay is present in comparison to the original Dead Island. You can still kick zombies back and throw weapons right into their eyeballs. Only this time throwing a weapon like a sword or axe is likely to cleave the zombie face in half in gruesome and gory detail. In terms of gore factor, Dead Island 2 is right up there in the goriest game I have played in a while. There are blood streaks everywhere, and blood baths wherever there are tight enclosed spaces. Hacking limbs off becomes commonplace, and some finishing moves you do after stunning them had me cackling to myself in their absurdly gruesome ways.
There was a heap of times where I cracked up laughing with the game. A few times it was due to Ryan’s dialogue. I haven’t tried other characters, so I don’t know if they all say the same lines or have different personalities, but Ryan had some great moments where he was either praising his own actions or just laughing at how f’ed up the situation was. Then there are moments in the story that are just hilarious. There is a couple that is drunk and drugged up, with the bloke wearing purple undies and a leather vest. They are so wasted and oblivious to the chaos going on around them, a couple of their scenes had me chuckling good.
All characters you meet are well written and very well voice acted. There were no characters that made me cringe or question the emotion behind the dialogue delivery. It all felt very well put together and matched the mood and tone of each scene. There’s the famous damsel in distress and her protective manager, then there are hard asses who have experienced this kind of combat before, indicating there have been previous zombie outbreaks. The main story was very engaging but where I got the most value out of the game was exploring for loot and completing side quests.
Sometimes side quests will pop up via someone yelling at you as you run past or something like that, while other times you will use a fuse to connect power to a meter box. This opens a door or gate and then a side quest will commence. It’s totally up to you if you pursue these or not, but with the semi open world nature of each zone, you’re bound to run into them just by following the main story. Traders will allow you to buy fuses and I always kept at least one in my inventory in case I came across a fuse box.
Weapon customisation is as good as the first game, and much more detailed with the environmental effects. You can add things like shock or fire damage mods, improve their stats at the cost of durability, and so on. I was forever breaking weapons and thankfully you can carry 8 active weapons with 8 backup weapons. A weapon wheel allows you to switch between weapons, however using keyboard/mouse I found it so difficult to move around to certain weapons. It was much easier hitting 1-4 and just using those slots. I liked to order my weapons from strongest DPS-wise to the weakest, and if weapons broke during a big fight, would swap them out for inactive ones whenever possible.
Workbenches are scattered around the lands, but you will need to keep an eye out for them. If you run past one but didn’t see it, an icon will show on the compass in the top middle of the screen which was helpful. Though workbenches also show up at key story points too, and these are not just for adding mods, you can also fabricate items like health kits if you find the blueprints and spend money to repair your weapons too. I always have one or two favourite weapons that I made sure I didn’t let break completely so I could switch to them if I was getting overwhelmed.
And then there are the environmental traps that were so effective, especially against the larger brute boss zombies. Man do they pack a punch! They also do a shockwave smash which throws you to the ground, and you need to time a jump to avoid them. But luring brute or regular zombies into an electrical, fire or poison trap was oh-so satisfying! I loved how sometimes you could set up a zombie train, leading them to a big shock trap and just watch them burn, and swoop up the piles of loot afterwards.
The one thing I didn’t get to test out was co-op multiplayer that supports a max of three players. This unlocks after about 20-30 minutes of gameplay during the ‘Call the Cavalry’ mission, and there is cross-gen multiplayer but not cross-play. This means PC can only connect to PC and console players can only play with other like-consoles. There is also a caveat that base Xbox One and PlayStation 4 players cannot host games, only join them given the game’s graphic requirements. You can read more about co-op on the game’s official site, especially about content limitations if you join someone further into the story than you.
Overall, Dead Island 2 has so many great things to offer the player that it was a joy to play for both short and long sessions, with something new and explosive around every corner. There is amazing graphics, superb voice acting, hilarious characters, and an engaging story with heaps of side quests. It took the best bits of Dead Island and enhanced them without changing the winning formula too much, as a good sequel should do.
This review utilised an Epic Games Store key provided by Plaion ANZ and Dead Island 2 is available on Epic Games Store, Xbox and PlayStation consoles.
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Chris Inglis
Daniel Agius