After spending a decade or so stuck in development, Dead Island 2 is finally seeing the light of day. Dead Island was originally released in 2011, and while it did receive spin offs, expansions and remasters, the often-delayed sequel had become something that many had started to doubt it would ever get released. But perseverance has paid off and Dead Island 2 is now ready to depart from development hell and enter into Hell A, the new moniker for the zombie-infested Los Angeles that hopefully doesn’t catch on.
Dead Island 2 begins with the player’s chosen protagonist being a passenger on a commercial flight. This quickly takes a turn for the worse as the aircraft experiences zombie-related difficulties which subsequently lead to a crash. After crawling through the flaming wreckage the player encounters other survivors, one of which happens to enjoy celebrity status and the perks that come with it. The hero is invited back to her mansion in Bel Air, but prior to that happening the day gets worse when the protagonist gets bit by a zombie. This reveals that the protagonist is immune to the zombie infection, which gives them more freedom to roam about the infested parts of California, but also guarantees that scientists of questionable scruples will want to use his blood to manufacture a vaccine. This leads to a joint goal of getting to the CDC to create a vaccine and to get out of Hell A.
The player must choose between six possible zombie slayers. Each slayer has their own starting perks and there are certain ability cards that are limited to specific slayers. Dani is an Irish rockabilly brawler who wants to use her mosh pit experience to knock around some zombies. Jacob is a British stockbroker whose midlife crisis is wanting to change careers to Hollywood stuntman. Ryan is an exotic dancer who will let nothing stop him from rescuing his little brother from Fresno. Amy is a Paralympian with a razor sharp wit whose athleticism has some benefits in wasting zombies. Bruno is a hustler who loves pulling off heists and has knife skills that will prove useful in dealing with the zombies. Lastly there is Carla, a street smart LA motorcycle stunt rider whose death defying feats leave her fearless in the face of the undead. Slayer choice is up to which starting perks or personality the player wants, but for the review we went with Ryan because of the small health recovery he gets from knocking down zombies.
Dead Island 2 has the player running around California to advance the main story or participate in a number of different side missions. It isn’t one large open world, but several different zones that are connected through various gateways. Fast travel opens up after progressing to a certain point in the main story, but it can only be to and done from specific locations which are indicated by big red maps affixed to a wall or table. Activities don’t change too drastically in each area, as the bulk of the game is destroying zombies by any means necessary and occasionally solving a minor puzzle which typically consists of restoring power to something, disabling a maglock or finding a keycard. During these ventures the chosen slayer will encounter other survivors, though most of them are terrible in their own ways. But the living has to stick together, and annoying vapid humans are a marginally preferable alternative to the zombies. The protagonist seems to just tolerate their living companions, which does make the game more humorous.
Fighting zombies is the primary objective in Dead Island 2 and there are several elements that make this highly enjoyable. The player has an arsenal of assorted melee weapons, thrown projectiles and eventually firearms. Equipping special moves through the use of collectible cards also adds variety, and while attacks like a powerful scream or ground pound might be good for crowd control, the flying drop kick was one of the more enjoyable attacks which was utilized much more often than it should have been during the review. There’s a decent amount of weapon variety, ranging from baseball bats to shot guns to swords, with the wolverine-style hand claws being a favorite. These weapons can be customized with different elemental effects such as fire, electricity or caustic which are also commonly-found environmental hazards, both for the player and the zombies. Throwing a jerrycan of water at a sparking cable can create an electrical field to zap the roaming undead and Molotov cocktail at an oil can creates a nice explosion that can leave a flaming oil slick. Certain optional missions such as those provided by vlogger Amanda requires the player to kill zombies in specific manners such as decapitations, kicking them off a roof or improvising some of the nearby fire hazards. Her methods might seem psychotic, but she’s gotta get those likes and follows.
Despite all the variety in un-undeading the zombies, Dead Island 2 feels repetitive after only a few hours. There’s quite a bit of variety in the zombie types, but they’re all mostly dealt with in the same manner. There are only six boss battles in the main story quests and outside of Butcho the Clown the other fights are handled in almost identical manners. Fight the boss toe to toe with well-timed use of the block button to stagger them and then retreat to deal with all the lesser zombies that crash the fight while avoiding whatever environmental hazards have popped up. It’s far from an elegant approach to victory, but it’s what gets the job done. The main quests typically involve some sort of minor puzzle solving, but it’s usually the same issue of finding a keycard, restoring power to something or disabling a maglock. Completing these tasks seem novel at first, but become expected after a few missions, and the reward for completing this task is fighting off waves of zombies. The optional side missions and Lost and Found quests add more variety, but these often require the player to go scavenger hunts. Some of these are entertaining, but a many of them consist of a lot of busy work, going from point A to point B to follow a paper trail to a battle against waves of zombies. They can be entertaining at first, but it’s unlikely most players will stay interested long enough to complete all the optional quests.
The combat in Dead Island 2 is one of the strongest assets which is fortunate because there’s a lot of zombie killing involved. Well-timed blocks can parry zombie attacks, leaving them stunned for a good counter attack which can be fatal to some of the weaker varieties. Most of the challenge doesn’t come directly from the zombie the player is fighting, but rather from the general chaos in fighting the hordes of the undead, which did lead to a few deaths that felt cheap. The player may be doing well fighting against a roided-up zombie and nearby lesser zombies when an offscreen zombie may trigger an explosion that slays the zombie slayer. What makes the combat nice aside from the customizable nature of the weapons is how the player can change their equipped cards to unlock different perks and abilities, allowing them to strengthen their slayer to best fit their play style. Given that there’s a survival horror element to Dead Island 2, none of the melee weapons are built to last and all the firearms have limited ammo supplies, but outside of some of the preferred weapons being temporarily taken out of commission due to damage or ammo shortages, at no point in the review was there ever a dire situation where the the slayer was defenseless. Despite how fun it is to drop kick zombies into other zombies or throwing an explosive device into an oil slick, the lack of variety dulls the gameplay experience. The thoughts in reaching an objective point didn’t take long to start saying “not this again” when confronted with something that needed to be repowered. It also doesn’t help that the boss fights all seemed anticlimactic, where five of the six boss battles seemed like slightly more difficult versions of the previous fights. The one that was handled different was only due to it introducing a new enemy type which was subsequently added to the run-of-the-mill zombie hordes.
The environments of Dead Island 2 create a stark contrast to the decaying flesh of its undead denizens. Taking place in some of the ritzier parts of California such as Los Angeles and San Francisco, it seems only natural that this would be an unusually vibrant setting for the zompocalypse. The artistic team went all out to cater to fans of all things gory as mutilating one’s enemies seems to be a major focal point of combat. Exposure to caustic chemicals or fire can sear the flesh away from the zombies, though doing so may not stop them from being aggressive. Decapitations and dismemberments occur frequently, but one must remember removing an arm or leg may not completely stop the threat. Visible wear and tear on the equipped weapons is a nice visual touch.
Dead Island 2 follows the trend of many newer games continuing to be cross generation. The good news for people who have not upgraded to a PlayStation 5 is that it can still be enjoyed on the last-gen model. The bad news is loading times after each death on PlayStation 4 are terrible and graphic quality is noticeably better on the newer console. Outside of those differences gameplay mechanics and performance is comparable across both consoles. There weren’t any real game-breaking bugs or major glitches during the review playthrough, but visual bugs and glitches were common, with one of the most notable being when a characters weapon appeared to be levitating on its own as the person carrying the weapon only had their head and shoulders above ground level.
Closing Comments:
Dead Island 2 is a gory adventure that offers up plenty of mindless mayhem for zombie slayers. The remnants of California make for a great playground to dismember and destroy the walking dead in every conceivable way the game presents. The beautiful, sunny environments provide a stark contrast to the reanimated rotting carcasses. But as fun as the combat can be towards the end of the story, the missions began to feel as fresh as the enemies' flesh as the repetitive nature of the quests turn them into chores in the final hours. Unremarkable story and repetitive gameplay aside, what Dead Island 2 does well it does very well, and despite these shortcomings, killing thousands of zombies with everything the game puts at the player’s disposal can still be a great time.
Dead Island 2
Reviewed on PlayStation 5
