Dead Island 2

If you're a fan of the zombie genre, this will be a good game at full price, and a great game on sale.

The game focuses on the outbreak, and the zombies, with combat being the main draw here. Combat is relatively straightforward, but some weapon mods and environmental cues make it more engaging. The gore mechanic is well done, and is the standout of this game. No game I've ever played has realistic of a hack-and-slash mechanic as Dead Island 2.

As expected, the story is weak, but has a few memorable moments. You could probably argue that the vapidness of most of the characters is intentional, but that's a cop out. Mostly, the story serves as a mechanism to introduce new areas and mechanics. That's not a bad thing, but the main story is only like 10 hours long if you really streamline it.

This game will be short and fun for most people. To get every achievement took me around 30ish hours. I'm sure there's quicker routes though. This game will likely entertain you for 15-20 hours if you do a few sides, run around, and complete the story. I really enjoyed it, and I hope you will too.

The most clever thing Dead Island 2 does with is writing is refer to zombie overun Los Angeles as "HELL-A". Every other line of dialogue in this game is incompentnet, annoying, boring, and steryotypical cringe; its the infuriating combination of attempting to avoid anything that could be considered offensive whilst also trying to make a parody of an entire subculture of people. Its very easy to clown on Californians, but these people fail to say anything funny the whole game that actually takes itself quite seriously when it shouldn't. To produce something this completely unfunny and uninteresting after a decade in development is hella embarrassing. Skip the cutscenes and ignore everything the characters say, because they're all idiotic stereotypes and the story is every zombie trope you've ever seen and nothing else. Its never clever. Its never smart. Its never funny. Everyone who wrote for this game is incompentnet as a writer, not as people, not as a developers, AS WRITERS. Please next time pay someone to write for your game who knows how to write, maybe someone funny huh?

There is one thing the game has done better than any other game to date. Thats of course the extremely detailed gore-dismemberment technology for the zombies. For a game where you smack zombies over and over and over and over again, it takes a while to get old. Its the pinnacle of being desensitized to violence, and will be disgusting to some people, but the gore is still not as gross as the game's dialogue. In fact, I think this system might be the only reason the game wasn't canceled altogether, because without this it would have absolutely nothing new, and nobody was begging for another Dead Island game anyway. The technology will transfer over to future games and its certainly impressive (if you can stomach it). But remember, writing that is this horrible is the true threat to society, not violence or zombies.

You dont kill massive hordes of zombies, but instead get right up in their face and bash them apart bit by bit. You also have some creative ways to use the environment and some powerful abilities, things you would expect in any modern game, and you can probably put together some really crazy builds. However, Dead Island 2 being modernized in every way possible is also a mistake. I can turn off all the stupid unnecessary HUD stuff, the hitmarkers, health bars, stun meters, damage numbers. But I can't do anything about the fact that I can wander into an area where the zombies are just arbitrarily higher level and slap me dead in 1 hit. This game doesn't need a damn leveling system, it doesn't need crafting and resource gathering. It doesn't need weapons to have damage numbers, or any of these pointless stat buffs and RPG elements. Because its not an RPG, its a game that is fun to slay zombies mindlessly in for a while while you also suffer listening to incompentnet writers from an English dev studio portray what they think Californians are like.

This game is really big, and enjoying it really just comes down to enjoying cuting zombies apart and becoming increasingly more powerful. Its fun for a while, but I personally think a game like this would just be way better as a minalmist zombie slaying simulator without most of the RPG nonsense. But I guess when you're in development hell for so long you just need to invent things for people to do. The game doesn't even have a continuous open world or any other dimension to the gameplay, no vehicles, parkour, or real exploration. Its just smacking and slicing zombies thousands of times across pretty landscapes and iconic spots in LA.

You dont laugh, you don't think, you aren't challenged, you move pretty slowly, you don't listen to the characters, and you really just want to get past all the crafting benches, shops, inventories, item crates and number screens as quickly as possible so you can get back to thirsting after gore and violence. I mean seriously, who is this game made for? Wait a second....

Dead Island 2 was a pleasant surprise. Most games that go through development hell never come out or get lots of negative feedback when released. Dead island 2 went the second way. I strongly disagree with the people who hate on this game. While its cringy brainless and a bit generic and short I love it. I love the tropical, exotic and steampunk feel. It's a dark comedy massacre, I'm talking chainsaws, sledgehammer flamethrower, goofy but visceral horror. The in depth F. L. E. S. H blood and gore system is satisfyingly unique and disgusting. I love the copious amounts of playful, horrific chaos. It provided me with hours of fun (Not to mention the co-op) Its just open and fun. I'm also a big fun of the zombie genre. Simple, different and good.

I've never played the first Dead Island, and I generally don't lean towards FPS melee games. However, after seeing some mixed reviews and catching it on sale, I decided to give Dead Island 2 a shot. I can honestly say it wasn't a bad experience.

The game kicks off a bit slow, but not in a boring way. At the beginning, the weapons feel pretty weak, which made the combat less thrilling than I hoped. Still, I'm glad I pushed through the first couple of hours because it started to get much better. As I progressed in the main campaign, I unlocked more moves and got my hands on better weapons. Upgrading them really made a difference, and I found spears to be particularly effective.

One aspect I really enjoyed was the variety of enemies. The fact that their zombie forms reflect their previous jobs added an interesting twist. For example, seeing firemen zombies that can't burn or police zombies trying to shoot at you was pretty cool. The splatter effects when you hit them are fantastic, really giving a sense that your actions mean something. Later on, you do come across guns, which shakes things up a bit. While some guns didn't feel super powerful, they were still decent enough to mix in with the melee combat.

The game has a semi-open world layout, letting you explore and take on side missions, which is great for leveling up and gathering materials for upgrades. You've got to be cautious, though, since some zombies are pretty high level, making it smart to avoid certain areas until you're stronger. The story is there, balancing serious moments with some tongue-in-cheek humor, kind of like how it's done in Far Cry games. I didn't really connect with any of the characters, but that didn't ruin my enjoyment of the game.

Surprisingly, the boss battles were a highlight for me. It's always refreshing to see some originality in zombie games. The sound effects are spot on too, adding to the whole creepy atmosphere. Graphically, the game looks quite good, runs smoothly, and has impressive visuals.

On the downside, as I mentioned earlier, I didn't find myself overly engaged. I often could only play for about 90 minutes before I felt ready to take a break. So, this is a game best enjoyed in moderation. Overall, for someone like me who's not a huge fan of the genre, Dead Island 2 turned out to be a fun way to pass the time. It's not going to be at the top of my list, but I can see how fans of the first game would appreciate it.

Video games that are stuck in development hell for years usually end one of two ways - we either never actually see the game ever be released, or it's finally released to a cacophony of poor reviews. Thankfully, Dead Island 2 has managed to avoid these pitfalls. A mere 9 years after being announced, it's finally arrived. And it's an absolute blast.

Austrian developers Deep Silver have a mixed bag when it comes to the quality of their titles. They have given us excellent games like the Metro and Saints Row series, however they've also given us the appalling shambles that is Ride To Hell - Retribution. And, of course, there is their most controversial series - Dead Island.

The original Dead Island is perhaps best known for its genius marketing campaign, and although the game just wasn't able to live up to the hype, it was nevertheless a fun, gore filled, zombie slaying romp. A follow up, Dead Island Riptide, arrived a couple of years later, although it was hard to differentiate between the two games, such was their similarities.

And now, finally, Dead Island 2 has arrived. Developed by Deep Silver's own team at Dambuster Studios (the first two titles were developed by Techland), Dead Island 2 encompasses everything that was good about the first two games, and makes it all a whole lot better. Switching the action from Banoi to Los Angeles, Dead Island 2 allows you to plough through various areas of the city of angels, committing your own brand of zombie butchering mayhem. Dead Island 2 is beautiful to look at, taking in the scenery of areas like Bel Air & Beverly Hills as you stain the streets red with zombie claret. Just like in the previous games, you can choose from an array of characters, then get down to the serious business of crafting a wide array of melee weapons and firearms to take down the undead horde. A wide array of different zombie types keeps things interesting as you utilise different ways to take them down, whether it be an electrocuted sword, acid soaked crowbar, or a rifle that fires incendiary rounds. There's also tons of environmental hazards you can utilise to turn the tide in your favour, whilst the choice to either play alone or online with other players remains a choice, just as it was in the previous games. Finally, a mixture of main missions, side missions, and the newly introduced lost & found quests (where you track down either missing people or missing weapons), keeps you busy while you maurade around the ten different areas of LA.

Without going into too much detail and running the risk of spoilers, I'll finish with this - Dead Island 2 will likely be 2023's most pleasant surprise. A game we feared may never arrive has arrived. And it's a ton of fun, a gorgeous looking game packed with things to do. If you liked the first two Dead Island games then you'll love this. Mindless, zombie slaughtering mayhem has never been so enjoyable. Bravo Deep Silver & Dambuster Studios - bravo!

9/10.