Many years ago, I got the blessing of traversing through the island of Banoi, and fell in love. Younger me absolutely loved every bit of Dead Island one, and when the trailer dropped for the sequel all those years ago, I was beyond hyped. The wait seemed like forever, but as the release got confirmed and approached, I stayed away from any trailers or gameplay videos because I refused to have a second of this experience spoiled. As the release day approached, I was careful not to let the hype overwhelm me and wanted to keep my expectations contained, and boy I’m glad I did. There’s a lot to like about Dead Island 2, but unfortunately there’s a lot to dislike as well.

Let’s start with some high notes. The game looks absolutely stunning, the city really is a gorgeous backdrop for all of the wacky zombie carnage that you are going to cause. The rays of the sun paint such a warm, inviting hue over the landscapes, and the enemies all look fantastic as well.

Speaking of enemies, they are super disappointing. The original had a nice variety of special versions, and unfortunately here in the sequel we get a lot of repeats of some incredibly easy to deal with Apex Variants. They are encountered fairly early and never really change except for the occasional fire or caustic version, and they don’t feel like anything other than annoying. They’re not difficult, fear inducing, panic causing, they’re just in the way. I miss the Ram barreling through a horde and ending my whole career.

Speaking of hordes…. there’s not any. The zombie population feels incredibly empty, in between houses or buildings contains so much empty space that it makes the world feel incredibly empty. This is LA, where the hell did everyone go? Why do they all look the same? I never really felt overwhelmed by a group of biters, never felt panicked by a sudden special zombie appearing in a group that was already overrunning my area, none of that occurred. The highlights of the game were when the zombie numbers skyrocketed for a special sequence in the story, but those moments are few and far between.

Fortunately, despite not having enough things to kill, the combat is immaculate. It’s beyond fun just slicing through enemies and watching limbs fly everywhere. There are plenty of flashy effects that you get to work with, and the environment is pretty interactable when it comes to combat. Random puddles of water can be hit with a battery to create a huge lightning show, decimating piles of enemies at once. It’s the highest quality feature of the game by far, and it’s a shame when it gets broken up by a repetitive lever puzzle or a hunt for a damn circuit breaker for the 50th time. The puzzles were decent to start, but you’ll be doing the exact same puzzles throughout the entirety of your playtime. That’s never fun.


Overall, I feel like this was a pleasant experience that didn’t come close to the original. The story is far weaker, the world feels far emptier, there is never enough of a challenge to feel fulfilled slaying the zombies that you encounter, and the experience just feels very arcade-like and formulaic. Not to mention the character dialogue being atrocious, the side quests being cringe, or the whole atmosphere feeling a bit too whimsical for a zombie outbreak. Every character you encounter just looks a bit too happy to be in the middle of the outbreak, but I guess that fits with your character as well. I miss everyone wanting to get the hell out.

I’m shelving this at ~40 hours. I’m nearing the third trial, have done every side quest and diversion I’ve encountered to this point. I’m level 35. I’m so, so tired of doing the exact same puzzles over and over with the slightest of differations, I’m tired of doing Merlin trials, and I’m tired of spamming the same few spell combos at the same enemies over and over.

The first 20-30 hours are incredible. I was so immersed and so excited to hop on my console and load up this beautiful world, but it quickly becomes apparent that the design just gets incredibly lazy. The Merlin trials are all the same. The enemies all fight the same and sometimes just stand in one spot spamming the same spell endlessly. The trolls and large enemy encounters are a highlight for sure, but man, this game begins to drag.

I loved the progression system, as you continue the story you get more and more diversions but by the time I finally got to some of them, I had 0 interest. It works well sometimes, and feels like a chore sometimes.

I’ll probably pick this back up after a break and finish it, but overall I’m incredibly burnt out on it and dread loading it up.

Played this with a group of friends in local multiplayer, and it was surprisingly a lot of fun. Pretty basic, wacky 2d fighter ala Smash. Sadly not enough variation in characters and the move sets as far as I could tell were beyond basic as well. Like… two button basic.

We made it to wave 32 in the survival mode as well before we suicided and called it a night. It wasn’t as fun as the main game, but if you have a group to play with, this is a fun little party title that’s worth the price on sale at least.