Dead Island 2 Review – #Slaying

Dead Island is a series that has always held a special place in my heart.

I received the original Dead Island as a birthday gift from my mom way back in 2012. At the time, the two of us weren’t very close, and receiving this game, which I didn’t even know existed, out of the blue meant so much to me. It was a sign that my interest in horror, zombies, and video games hadn’t gone unnoticed, at a time when I felt like nobody understood me.

Though I remember the game receiving mixed reviews, I loved it, and my emotional attachment to the game kept me tied to the series as more and more poorly thought-out sequel content was released. I even own a copy of the weird MOBA they tried in my Steam library. I, like a lot of people, thought that these titles spelled the death of the franchise, even as I booted up Riptide for some co-op with my girlfriend.

When Dead Island 2, which was originally set to release in 2015, was announced to release in April of this year, I felt skeptical. I didn’t know what to expect from a series with so many flop titles, but that maintains such a nostalgic and hopeful fanbase.

I decided to give Dead Island 2 a chance, hoping that there would be more than my nostalgia to sell me on the title. I’m happy to say that I wasn’t disappointed.

Dead Island 2 makes a great impression right off the bat by starting players off with a flashy, stylish intro. The main menu is sleek, simple, and cool, with a fantastically dreary song remixed to really sell you on a feeling of dread going into the game.

The intro really does a good job of letting you know what the vibe of the game is going to be. There’s a lot of up-beat humor and cartoonish violence to spare in Dead Island 2, but it doesn’t shy away from the horrible reality of what’s going on around you. In a city inhabited by the dead, that feeling of dread is bound to sneak in between the high-octane violence, and Dead Island 2’s setpieces and score do a great job of reminding you of that.

Starting a new game sends you into a fast-paced cutscene, showing a diverse cast of characters escaping from the amply-named Hell-A as a zombie outbreak overruns the city. All of the characters introduced in the first cutscene are then playable throughout the campaign, with the player being able to choose which character they want to play first.

“First” is the operative word there. Rather than going for some open-world grind fest, Dead Island 2 opts to have a relatively short campaign of 24 missions and several rather restricted, carefully-crafted levels to transition between. Players are encouraged to beat the campaign with one character and then go back and do it again with another, with each of the available characters having their own unique stats and abilities.

This also plays into the way Dead Island 2 wants you to play the game – with friends. While the game functions totally fine as a single-player experience, being able to jump into other players’ games as your own character is a huge highlight of the series and one that is made even better in Dead Island 2. Each playable character being unique only amplifies the fun of the multiplayer Dead Island 2 experience, allowing for different playstyles depending on who is in your game.

Dead Island 2 gives you six playable “Slayers” to complete your story or take online for some co-op zombie killing. Each character has their own personality but takes on the same story and series of events as the others, meaning each playthrough will feel familiar but with just a little bit of a mix-up to keep things interesting.

My favorite character is Amy, a Paralympic athlete with a bubbly excitement for killing zombies.

These characters all have a unique set of stats and skill cards to make playing each one different. My current slayer, Amy, has cards that make her better at outrunning, sliding around and dodging zombies to tire the hordes out, while others (like Carla) are more prone to upfront violence.

All six of these characters begin the game onboard a flight heading out of LA. Whether they had a special pass or snuck onboard, everyone on the flight is set to take this special, government-guarded flight out of the zombie-infested city and onto safer pastures — until something onboard goes wrong and the plane crashes.

Surviving the crash alongside movie star Emma Jaunt, it’s up to you and your ragtag band of Hollywood elites and streamer stars (Including returning character Sam B) to find a way to contact a chopper and escape from Hell-A.

Dead Island 2’s opening had me in awe, from the moment I first stepped out of the plane to the first zombie attack. The roaring fire against the LA sunrise was a contrast of color that had me just exploring the prologue area for about the first 20 minutes of my playthrough.

This scene sets a great precedent for the insane set design and graphics you’ll experience throughout Dead Island 2.

While you’d expect the lavish modern homes of the LA super-elite to get boring really fast, Dead Island 2 keeps things fresh by using these set pieces to tell stories. Whether you’re moving through a streamer house and reading about their plans for a scripted apology video or seeing how an earthquake ruined a wedding day at a luxury hotel, Dead Island 2 does a good job of making the world storied and lived in even as it’s overrun by the dead.

This pairs great with how Dead Island 2 navigates you through a level. Rather than just walking down the street from point A to point B, the various roadblocks (both man-made and environmental) see your Slayer having to navigate over fences and through backyards to make it around Hell-A. I found these unexpected routes got me a bit out of my comfort zone and motivated me to explore the map more than I usually would in a game like this.

What surprised me the most about Dead Island 2’s graphics were the zombies. Every zombie in the game has some impossibly complex gore system in place, to the point where their body reacts specifically to the different types of damage you’re doing to it, and where, with a level of accuracy that felt like borderline realism.

Slashing a zombie across the chest with a machete leaves an accurate cut not only in the flesh, but in the zombie’s clothing. Swiping a zombie in the face with a rake leaves rake marks, bludgeoning a zombie caves parts of them in. The gore is so realistic I actually found myself staring in shocked fascination at times.

At one point, you have the chance to shove zombies into a swimming pool full of acid. I decided to watch, and sure enough, the acid ate away at the zombie slowly, until they were nothing but bones and some of that sludge from the first season of Breaking Bad.

This level of detail just goes to show how much care went into this game, which is an objectively odd thing to say about realistic gore.

The gore system isn’t just for show, however, as choosing how to hack and dismember zombies is actually a tactical decision that can help you survive when things get hairy. If a particularly fast zombie is giving you trouble, you can quickly dismember a leg to slow them down. If a huge muscled-out Crusher is giving you trouble with its slam attack, you can chop an arm off to put that to an end.

Sam B isn’t the only thing returning from the original Dead Island with a fresh new look. Anyone who has played the classic games will immediately find themselves at home with Dead Island 2’s gameplay.

Find a weapon, pick it up, and smash zombies with it until it breaks. Modify your weapon for increased effects, like stunning electrical damage or flesh-eating acid, and then also smash zombies with that until it breaks.

Familiar, classic, and fun, Dead Island 2’s gameplay feels very arcade and easy to jump into, but now the inclusion of skill cards mixes things up and makes the apocalypse more interesting.

Abilities such as healing when you time a perfect dodge or releasing a concussive blast when you heal give you plenty of tricks to survive with, and with a ton of skill-card slots available, you’ll find plenty of opportunities to make a unique build.

The environment is also one of your best weapons for surviving the apocalypse. Got a shock weapon? Smack a pool of water to electrify a horde of unsuspecting zombies. Open flame? Jump-kick a crusher into it to create some roast beef. Just be careful not to fall victim to these hazards yourself, as I have done so many times in my playthrough.

Every weapon feels different, and there are a ton of them. Organized into different weapon classes, you’ll find carrying a ton of zombie-killing tools to be super useful. Headhunter weapons make quick work on zombie’s heads, Maimers chop limbs off better, and Bulldozers are great for crowds. Those are just some of the weapon types you’ll find in-game, so pick up everything you can and find what you most enjoy hitting zombies with.

Curveballs are incredibly useful throwable tools with infinite ammo, but a short cooldown, and you’re limited to just two at a time. Items such as a meat lure that districts hordes or a stunning fire suppression bomb make dealing with the hordes a lot easier.

Try Hard Guides was provided with a PC review copy of this game. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles in the Game Reviews section of our website! Dead Island 2 is available on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and the Epic Games Store.