A pleasant surprise, Dead Island 2 banishes the boredom from the original game, and makes zombie-slaying fun again
Dead Island 2 on PS5
£59.99 £49.99 View Deal
Dead Island 2 sees players battle hordes of zombies using makeshift weapons in Los Angeles.
What we love
- Plenty of funny moments and amusing situations
- Experimenting with weapons is a lot of fun
- Destroying zombies limb by limb has never been more satisfying
- Card-based upgrade system is nice and flexible
- Exploration is rewarded with interesting side-quests and mostly useful items/weapons
What we don’t
- Some characters are kind of annoying
- Can feel repetitive at times
- Gunplay isn’t up to scratch
- Bosses and stronger enemies can be a chore to fight
Dead Island 2 on Xbox
£59.99 £54.99 View Deal
Dead Island 2 sees players battle hordes of zombies using makeshift weapons in Los Angeles.
A victim of its own hype, the original Dead Island was one of the most disappointing games I’ve ever played. While I liked the idea of brutalising zombies on an island paradise, I found the whole thing so incredibly boring that I gave up after just a few hours. Despite not getting on well with the first one, I was curious to try the sequel, partly to see how bad it turned out after almost a decade of development hell. Much to my surprise, however, I’ve actually really enjoyed my time with Dead Island 2, which shifts the action to a zombie-infested Los Angeles. As far as zombie slaying games of 2023 are concerned, it’s not quite on par with the Resident Evil 4 Remake, but it’s a LOT better than I imagined, as you’ll see from the Dead Island 2 review below…
https://www.youtube.com/embed/yiHalBhBMj4
Admittedly, the slightly jerky opening cutscene did little to alleviate my suspicions that Dead Island 2 would be anything other than terrible. Then you’ve got the character selection screen, featuring the usual array of annoyingly over-the-top survivors with far too much sass given the grim situation.
After selecting a character named Amy and preparing for the worse, my next task was to escape the wreckage of an airplane crash, before heading to the nearby home of a famous actress after being bitten by a zombie.
As it transpires, my character is basically immune to the virus, which essentially makes it my job to venture outside and deal with the zombie hordes.
After crafting my first modified weapon (an electrified number that bludgeons zombies and does shock damage), I head out into Los Angeles to find some help, but not before exploring a party mansion belonging to a social media sensation, and helping a Hollywood legend by fixing his stairlift.
Pretty soon I realise that I’ve been playing Dead Island 2 for more than five hours, and I’m having a great time!
It’s hard to figure out exactly what makes Dead Island 2 so much more enjoyable than its predecessor, especially considering it shares much of the same DNA.
The melee-based combat system is back, only I found it much more enjoyable this time around. I can’t say for sure how it compares to the feel of Dead Island (it’s been a long time since I played it), but the limb damage, frequent slow-motion kills and wealth of weaponry results in a sadistically satisfying experience.
Whether punching a zombie’s face off, or amputating a leg and stomping its head, Dead Island 2’s combat is worryingly gratifying, barring the slightly weedy gunplay, which once again feels like a bit of an afterthought.
The game uses a swappable card system for upgrading your character and learning new skills, something which provides greater flexibility when it comes to figuring out your playstyle. Instead of sinking points into specific attributes which you’re then stuck with, you can quickly and easily swap out cards depending on the situation.
I also like the way you can carry lots of different weapons at any given time, and repair your favourites when they begin to break (take note, Breath of the Wild).
Exploration is another area in which Dead Island 2 excels. Split into self-contained districts, the semi-open-world environments are packed with weapons, items, secrets and side-quests, usually after finding other survivors.
While some of the side-quests amount to little more than killing a few waves of zombies or finding power supplies, the rewards and character interactions are generally worth the effort.
Going off the beaten path (or simply paying attention to your surroundings) also reveals interesting and amusing stories about what happened during the apocalypse.
At the ‘GOAT Mansion’ belonging to the aforementioned social media stars, for example, you’ll notice a whiteboard featuring a script for a “heartfelt” apology video, complete with instructions on when to pause for crying.
Dead Island 2 may lack subtlety, but for every joke that fails to hit the mark, another one successfully raises a smile.
It’s also a surprisingly stable and bug-free experience, at least compared to what I was expecting. You do get the odd zombie glitching out after flying into a wall (and some of the zombie spawns feel a bit random and out of place), but other than that, Dead Island 2 feels like a polished game.
The boss battles are arguably the biggest disappointment, typically amounting to little more than hitting, running and repeating. It’s a shame, because there’s an element of Dead Rising’s ‘Psychopath’ encounters to the bosses, just without the inventive gameplay to match the outlandish visuals/personalities.
It’s also fair to say that the game can get a little repetitive, especially when wave-based encounters outstay their welcome. It’s a much better game when you’re able to dictate when to enter combat, and not when it’s forced upon you.
As much as I get a kick out of smashing heads and tearing limbs, it loses its appeal when you’re forced to do it to 20+ zombies in a contained environment.
Dead Island 2 is a much better game when you’re able to use the environment to dispatch big groups of zombies, all the while picking off stragglers with throwable weapons and head stomps.
It’s fair to say that Dead Island 2 isn’t the most inventive game, is definitely on the shallow side, and can sometimes feel a tad repetitive.
However, the wonderfully gruesome combat, the flexible upgrade system and the excellent (and surprisingly amusing) world building makes it easy to overlook many of its flaws.
I’m not suggesting it’s the second coming of The Last of Us, but if you’re in the mood to creatively murder hordes of zombies, then Dead Island 2’s “Hell-A” is worth exploring.
Dead Island 2 on PS5
£59.99 £49.99 View Deal
Dead Island 2 sees players battle hordes of zombies using makeshift weapons in Los Angeles.
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