Dead Island 2 Review

Back From The Dead

Let’s face it, the zombie genre has been beaten into the ground with a makeshift one-handed weapon over the last decade. What was once a niche and entertaining experience is now a recurring and overdone slugfest of a game type. However, what perhaps started the trend was the hugely popular Dead Island game released in 2011. Having sprawling open areas to find and mutilate zombies was a rivetingly addictive time to be had in Deep Silver’s depiction of Banoi Island.

Now finally, finally, in 2023 we get to play the sequel to the cult hit and get to do all the zombie smashings again but this time in “Hell-A”, or Los Angeles to call it by its real name. Now despite the fact that LA isn’t an island - damn you misleading buggers- it’s a visually stunning landscape very faithfully reimagined in a post-apocalyptic backdrop.

Diving Headfirst Into Hell

After choosing your character from an eclectic bunch of would-be heroes who survive a plane crash in L.A, you set off on a journey to find sanctuary from the walking dead and meet some eccentric characters along the way; some of which will be familiar from the first game. Each character has their own personality, appearance, voice and most importantly, statistics based on your playstyles. I chose to play as Danni on my playthrough and her sharp tongue alongside her brilliant irish accent had me giggling at multiple times throughout my roughly 25 hours with the game. She’s blunt, confident and sarcastic making for some brilliant conversations with the game's weird and wonderful cast.

Despite having to stick with your character, Dead Island 2 does offer you a lot of flexibility when it comes to your character’s perks. As you progress you will find and unlock skill cards which allow you to alter your skillset in interesting ways. You can switch from being able to dodge to block, from drop kicking to drop kicking and more. Even deeper than that though is that you can customise what happens when you perform certain actions. For example if you perfectly time a dodge, you may recover some health or instead you might get a damage boost. It all depends on your preferences and the freedom to choose was a very welcome option.

There’s also a pretty decent variety of weapons to find and craft in Dead Island 2, too. From lead pipes, to wolverine-like claws to shotguns, there’s definitely something you’ll love to use. The guns didn’t feel extremely impactful which was probably a purposeful choice to make you want to use melee weapons more which is exactly what I did. Anything that had me getting up close and attacking with speed were my go-tos but each weapon type was satisfying in its own way. You can also add modifications to the weapons in exchange for parts and currency making them more powerful and potentially providing status effects on zombies depending on the situation you find yourself in.

Dead Outside…

The world of Dead Island 2 is absolutely stunning with a depiction of L.A that could look genuinely viable should the rich and famous people of the U.S somehow become zombified. The glaring sun, the burning Hollywood hills, the houses most of us will only dream of and the evidence of parties with all sorts of illegal substances all perfectly represent an area of the world you would either love to be a part of or hate entirely. What Dead Island 2 also does well is sell the illusion that you’re not fighting the same cut and paste zombies. There’s a lot of different body types, haircuts, skin tones and fashion choices with the zombie enemies that make it feel a little fresh as you’re exploring. With a decent variety of enemy types as well there’s lots of ways you will need to attack them and approach each enemy type in a slightly different way. You might have to dodge the long range attack of a slobber, before getting up close and personal. Or try to keep your distance facing the visually imposing crusher zombies. It managed to have just enough variety to not feel too repetitive.

Perhaps even more impressive is the excruciating detail that has been included in the violence. Ultimately the gruesomely detailed gore is what makes the game fun. Experimenting with killing methods allows you to dismember, bludgeon, burn, electrify, melt and explode the dead and unless you’re some kind of robot will almost certainly make you wince a little when you see the excruciating details in the mess you create. Using sharp swords make slices and cuts into the dead and blunt force weapons will puncture and break bones. It’s a unique kind of addiction that manages to fill the void left by the unfortunately empty open world.

With the world being separated into sections of open areas, the game definitely encourages exploration. The issue with exploration in Dead Island 2 is that it all feels rather pointless. The hours spent searching every alcove and door locked by a missing fuse held so little reward that I kept opening them just hoping it was a trophy to unlock rather than the game giving us something meaningful or usable. Some of the collectables you find had some great content which made the search feel a little more worthwhile but in general the lore wasn’t really added to so it still felt redundant. It isn’t helped much by the largely very forgettable side quests. Apart from a couple of funnier quests, Dead Island 2’s cast insist on sending you to point A, discover something missing, head to point B then clear enemies and return. It’s almost mind-numbing in its simplicity.

Another issue with the open aspect of the areas was the speed and randomness with which zombies respawned. I’d leave a room of a house after clearing it from the undead and before I’d finished searching the next one I’d hear the groans and the screams from the previous room as if I’d never been there. That’s all well and good when you’re trying to grind kills to level up but when you just want to be left to explore it becomes a pain, especially since it means using up valuable resources all over again. They’d just reappear from vents, out of the ground or in most cases just literally appear in front of you which really ruins the immersion of an otherwise beautiful world.

… And Inside

Unfortunately Dead Island 2 suffers from many of the same issues of its predecessor. It’s without doubt a fun co-op experience-when it works- but it ultimately feels redundant after a few hours of gameplay. You soon realise that the quest you’re about to do you’ve already done and the methods of killing zombies get old really quickly. The crafting system makes somewhat of a difference to this but with a small set of animations and killing blow types you start to feel less of a badass and more like that guy that spams hadouken on Street Fighter. It’s a shame as it’s a supremely good-looking game and has a very likable and believable cast of characters and zombie killing has probably never quite been this addictive or satisfying. Ultimately it just lacks any real emotional depth or meaningful progression and that makes it a game I had fun with but not one I miss now that it’s over.