Yahoo News Dead Island 2 review: Is the zombie-slaying sequel worth playing?
Troubled productions aren't unheard-of in the gaming industry. In fact, it's fairly common for some of the most popular titles to have undergone years of revision at the changing hands of developers and teams behind them. This isn't always a bad thing: take Resident Evil 4, for example.
For some, however, it can be a huge red flag that the end result is probably not going to live up to expectations – something which Dead Island 2 was definitely in danger of.
Announced back in 2012 with a 2015 release date, Dead Island 2 has been gestating for a while, with playable demos floating around various gaming events and changing developers no less than four times in the process.
With the project lingering as long as the very undead you'll find populating the game world, can the long-awaited sequel revive interest in the zombie-slaying genre?
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Thankfully, yes! While it's never going to be seen as a groundbreaking effort, Dead Island 2 is a fun-filled take on the genre and really has a lot to offer underneath its flesh.
It's a gorgeously gruesome and beautifully brutal zombie brawler that offers a stunning look at the sunny climes of the US, while offering a challenge to create the barmiest weapons imaginable in order to take on an increasingly wild cast of zombies, and in our play-through we were pretty much hooked until the very end.
After surviving a harrowing plane crash in the game's opening, you'll quickly realise your character is immune to the zombie outbreak – putting you on a path to find out who can help you use this as a cure and eventually evacuate you and any friends found along the way, out of Hell-A.
This being the home of Beverley Hills, the cast you'll meet are suitably vast and eccentric, leading to some tongue-in-cheek conversations and wacky missions involving washed-up rockstars, ageing actors, influencers and overworked interns.
The world and its characters look great. Walking down Venice Beach and seeing the carnage that has unfolded in the sun is a real treat – but nothing shows the care put into the visuals more than the zombies themselves. Gore has been really cranked up to show off every skin-melting, bone-crunching attack to its fullest.
You'll punch holes in faces, slice limbs and stomp heads as you fight the horde, and that's just in the early stages.
The basics of combat are, as you'd expect, fairly straightforward. Using mêlée weapons you find laying around, you can swing them at the undead – but with a limited stamina bar, you'll need to make your blows count. What really makes things interesting is the game's card-based skill system. As you journey through Hell-A, you'll find and unlock new cards which offer specific perks and buffs to your survivor.
You can equip special moves like flying kicks, ground pounds and terrifying screams to weaken or injure any flesh-eaters nearby. Other buffs will increase stamina for well-timed dodges or set zombies on fire at the cost of your health. You can change the deck to switch up your playstyle on the fly, leaving you free to experiment.
On top of this is the even more interesting Autophage system. Your survivor discovers early on their Fury ability, allowing them to tap into their zombie power in a burst of rage. As you build out your survivor, certain cards will harness this power to offer some interesting additions, such as spiting acid and further perks which harness the zombie inside.
The more of these you use, the higher your Autophage bar will fill, offering you a boost to attack speed and your Fury meter for your troubles. But there's a catch. The more you embrace your zombie power, the further from humanity you'll become – so while you may be stronger or faster, your overall health or stamina takes a massive hit.
The character development system is a lot deeper and much more interesting than initially expected, forcing you to play a balancing act and really think about how you play the game.
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The zombies themselves are a varied cast, meaning every fight can become overwhelming if you're not paying attention to who's trying to chew your arm – from your run-of-the-mill walkers, shamblers and runners to more unique zombies such as the swarm walker (a zombie with literal bees flying from a nest in their stomach) and shock walkers which are immune to electricity and spray bolts of energy periodically like a bomb on a timer.
And that's not even mentioning acid-spitting belchers, screamers or your bigger tank zombies who soak up damage with ease and like to ground-pound. Again, this is only scratching the surface of what you'll encounter.
There's plenty more to fill your trip to Hell-A aside from the main story – from finding missing survivors to following clues to hidden stashes containing unique weapons. You'll also unlock an array of side missions as you explore lifestyles of the rich and famous. We had a blast, but ultimately your mileage may vary here because most of the game's quests inevitably boil down to travelling to a location and fighting hordes there before returning.
Dead Island 2 is a concentrated dose of zombie-slaying fun. It's a marvel to see it released at all after its tumultuous development, but Dambuster Studios has managed to more than deliver on its promise of a slasher that takes everything the original Dead Island set out as a blueprint and expand on it in an interesting way.
It's not perfect and won't change the gaming landscape, but you'll certainly have a blast ripping and tearing your way through sun-drenched Hell-A with more than a few surprises along the way.
Platform reviewed on: Xbox Series X
Dead Island 2 is released on April 21 on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.
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