PLATFORM: PC, PS4/5, XBOX ONE/SERIES (REVIEWED) | RELEASE DATE: 21ST APRIL
Taking place ten years after the events of 2011’s Dead Island (which almost fits perfectly with the nearly decade-long development process that the sequel has been through), Dead Island 2 drops players into a zombie-infested Los Angeles – now known as Hell-A – where the entire state of California has been quarantined by the US military. The purposely pulpy B-movie story kicks off in the affluent suburb of Bel Air and takes you across ten locales above and below ground as you make your way to San Francisco in search of safety. The overarching narrative maybe isn’t the strongest, and often goes exactly where you expect it to, but it serves its purpose and most likely isn’t really supposed to be the focus of your attention anyway.
Instead of getting bogged down with plot points and dialogue, Dead Island 2 would much prefer you to spend your time splattering brains across the sun-soaked Californian coastline. You’re given a choice of six “Slayers” to play as, and without the ability to change between slayers, you’ll need to choose wisely as you’ll be spending the entirety of the game with your chosen companion. Apart from varying stats and a couple of unique abilities, none of the characters are substantially different from any of the others, so you’re pretty much free to go with whichever one you find the most appealing. Rippling Ryan, the stripping fireman, is maybe the least overbearing, while alternative pin-up girl Dani has got the most entertaining dialogue (referring to the zombies as “gobshites” within a few seconds of seeing them gives a good indication of what to expect from her personality).
Whichever slayer you choose, DI2‘s gameplay will be familiar to fans of the original and its 2013 follow-up, Dead Island: Riptide. Largely focused on melee combat, you’ll be using workbenches to install mods and perks to your knives, bats, swords and axes to enhance your attacks by adding extra damage and elemental effects. Slashing away at zombies is immensely fun, as blood splatters everywhere, chunks of flesh dangle from undead bodies, shattered jaws flap in the breeze as enemies flail around, and skin is flayed off with every strike. The weapon-specific executions are an absolute blast as well – no spoilers, but the first time you see what happens when you smack a dazed zombie while wearing claws on your fists is a real “punch the air” moment. Guns do also come into play, and will be almost indispensable towards the second half of the game. Skill cards can be found throughout the game too, which give you new abilities or enhance existing ones. These can be swapped out at any time to refine your playstyle, allowing you to focus your skills on your preferred methods of murder.
Moving away from the original game’s open world structure, Hell-A is divided into ten smaller locations which generally push you along a fairly linear path towards your objectives. Each area is big enough that there are plenty of opportunities to explore, but a few extra diversions and distractions might have been appreciated to vary the gameplay a little. There are side quests, lockboxes and “lost and found” missions that ask you to read journal entries to track a certain objective, but very little else to sink your teeth into. Similarly, the enemy variety and weapon modifications seem a little thin on the ground – as fun as they are, once you’ve tried out the handful of elemental effects and figured out how best to take down the half a dozen or so different zombie types, there isn’t quite enough to keep things fully engaging for the full 15-20 hour campaign. A “solid 6” in the days of rating things out of 10, there’s certainly plenty of fun to be had, but Dead Island 2 maybe isn’t quite the radical update that many had possibly hoped for.
