It’s no small feat that Dead Island 2 is finally released to the world. Originally announced in 2014 (with a pretty stellar announcement trailer, just like its predecessor) as a sequel to Dead Island and Dead Island Riptide, the game was in development hell for years as it cycled through various developers, each of them never able to bring the zombie slaying game to life. That is until Dambuster took over in 2019. Now, it is 2023 and I’ve actually played and completed Dead Island 2, and I’m surprised to say that I’m genuinely happy that this game came back from the dead.
Dead Island 2’s Story
Dead Island 2 takes place around 15 years after the events of the original Dead Island, but this time around players are dropped into the city of Los Angeles, dubbed “Hell-A” in game. Los Angeles has been placed under a full quarantine because of a particularly strong zombie outbreak. After an intro cutscene that sees you on your way out of L.A., your plane is shot down and you are prompted to select one of six “Slayers”.
The Slayers are divided into 3 archetypes that act as “classes” and determine your base stats, unique skills, and combat abilities. The “light” class has increased agility & critical damage but lower peak health and toughness. The “medium” class is relatively well rounded with increased stamina and peak health, but need to use healing items more often as they have the lowest health recovery. The “heavy” class can withstand the most environmental hazards and have increased toughness, but the lowest agility and critical damage of all the Slayers.
I was pleasantly surprised to see that each of these Slayers actually played quite differently and if you didn’t change your playstyle to fit, you can find yourself in a world of hurt quickly. Each Slayer is also very adequately voice-acted with earnest performances that often had me chuckling to myself. It didn’t seem to me that the NPCs had unique voice lines depending on the slayer you are playing as though, which is a slight disappointment.
You as the player are, obviously, immune and such starts a series of events to try and get your blood to the CDC for a cure. Naturally, along the way you meet a zany cast of characters that give you story and side quests that send you into the many zones of L.A. that make up Dead Island 2’s map. There is deception, cover-ups, and all the standard twists and turns you’ll come to expect in a post-apocalyptic zombie story. It isn’t anything special, and by the end, I was a bit confused and ready for it to be over so I could get back to the side quests.
Dead Island 2 tries to set itself apart from the rest by relying relentlessly on sarcastic quips from your Slayer and leaning hard into stereotypes that you wouldn’t find too farfetched from reality in Los Angeles. The result is a bit uneven. Story NPC’s are extremely serious while your character constantly cracks jokes and I found it really awkward. Luckily, side quests are where the craziness of the plot & world really works. During one early side quest, I jump-kicked zombies off a roof while an influencer filmed to try and get a video out to her online followers. Another side quest had me carrying a broken movie prop through a Hollywood studio to reunite it with an actor who had been looking for it. Each side quest had at least one zany character that made me laugh.
It tries to reach GTA levels of satirical writing, and in some cases it gets close, but most times it falls short. At the very least it captures the sheer outrageousness of LA.
Combat in Dead Island 2
Any shortcomings in the story are made up for in its melee combat. Slaying zombies in Dead Island 2 just feels good. Your swings have real weight to them, and when they connect with a zombie they sound and feel good. Something that I felt was lacking in Dying Light 2 last year. Its systems aren’t particularly deep, but they are fun nevertheless. Part of the fun comes from a couple of systems in particular: the Flesh system and the environmental effects.
The Flesh (Fully Locational Evisceration System for Humanoids) system offers a semi-realistic way for the zombie’s, you guessed it, flesh to be ripped from its bones, jaws to be dislocated and smacked off, and limbs to be severed realistically. It’s a procedural effect that makes each encounter with a zombie just a little bit more dynamic. The more you attack an enemy the more of their flesh is ripped off, in surprisingly accurate detail too. The finishing/special moves take full advantage of this as well. Time a dodge or block perfectly and you can stagger a zombie and counterattack. These counterattacks put you into a quick time event that changes based on your weapon type. Have a machete? You take a swing at the zombie’s face, often removing an eyeball on your way out, before decapitating them. It’s brutal, and I kind of dig it. It gets even more disgusting when you add in environmental effects like acid on top, as the flesh literally melts away slowly as the zombie shambles toward you.
In addition to the Flesh system, my second favorite part of Dead Island 2’s combat is the environmental effects that come in the form of water, fire, electricity, bleeding, and acid. These can come from the environment themselves or from mods added to your weapons. In most encounters, you will find some combination of these liberally placed around the area for you to use and experiment with. It is the equivalent of red explosive barrels placed on every corner of a shooting gallery in a traditional first-person shooter. It fits in with the silly vibe of “Hell-A” that there are such conveniently placed tools for destruction. And honestly, I was happy about it. It became a mini-game in itself to scan the environment to see what kind of environmental mayhem I could create. Zombies standing in a millionaire’s shallow pool? Throw a battery in the pool and watch them get zapped. Luckily as the game goes on, modified zombies are introduced that are resistant to some effects, ensuring you keep a well-rounded arsenal.
About halfway through the game, firearms are introduced and you now have access to a multitude of different gun types. They are all pretty standard fare, pistols, shotguns, and assault rifles. You can mod them just like your melee weapons to add various effects like acid and fire, but that is about as exciting as it gets. None of the weapons are particularly fun to use and, outside of some crowd-clearing situations, were always a second choice to melee combat for me. Curveballs, Dead Island 2’s throwables, are far more effective. They are replenished through cooldowns as opposed to finding them in the environment a la skills in Diablo. They range from zombie-attracting lures to electrified shurikens and can be found throughout the environment throughout the story.
Progression
Dead Island 2 ditches the traditional skill tree systems of many RPGs and opts for a card-based system. These cards can be found in the environment, earned as quest rewards, and doled out as you level up/progress through the game. It is a neat idea, but I felt the amount of cards was lacking to really min/max your character, or create any truly meaningful builds.
Later in the story, you are introduced to some interesting cards that are extra powerful, but chew away at your humanity by reducing your overall health, or giving your attacks extra power but they also hurt you. It is the most interesting part of the card system.
Dead Island 2 isn’t an open-world game like its predecessors. Instead, it is open zone with each of L.A.’s beautifully detailed districts separated by loading screens. Each of the 10 zones in Dead Island 2 is decently sized, with plenty of side paths to explore to get crafting materials, pick up side quests, and find special weapons. I really enjoyed this approach as it allows the game to cover a lot more ground through its loading screens. It also allowed the developers to really nail the look of each district. You’ll recognize some landmarks, but really it just “feels” like L.A. as your run around Bel-Air, Venice Beach, and more. The structure of the game brings you back through many of these locations allowing you to collect side quests & treasures.
Coop is where the game truly started to shine for me. Slaying zombies with a friend is just that much more fun. Especially combining abilities and environmental effects. It’s a shame then that the progression system is a little weird and cross-play isn’t implemented.
Final Thoughts
Dead Island 2 doesn’t break the mold in any meaningful way, but I don’t think it has to. It’s a fun game, that can be even more fun with a coop partner or two. It doesn’t succeed in telling an interesting narrative about the rich of L.A., but the melee combat bolstered by the Flesh system kept me coming back for more. The side quests are a highlight with absolutely bonkers characters & scenarios and there is plenty to do in the game. There is also something to be said, sadly, about a AAA game releasing Day 1 without a plethora of issues, especially on PC. The game ran like a dream on my machine, and it was quite pretty in most cases. Overall, I’m happy that after almost a decade, Dead Island 2 is out and it is fun.
