Dead Island 2 Review

I love zombie killing and the more brutal the gameplay is, the better. So when Dead Island first came along, despite all its faults, I was hooked. Guns out, melee weapons that can be set on fire in? Yepp that’s me. Did the original experience deliver everything I was hoping for? No. Did it get majorly one-upped by Dying Light? Yes. Was I initially excited when this was announced? Still yes.

So why did it take me so long to pick this up? Well, it was a hesitation to be disappointed. After the development woes the game went through, I wasn’t too invested in it. I always expected it to be thrown out to die, well I was wrong. The game has continued to be supported and is still receiving great updates. I’m going to break this review down into the individual grading criteria so you can get an understanding of my thought process.

Artistic Achievement

Artisticly, this game is… okay. The graphics can sometimes clip and look a bit dated against other open-world games now but the added brutality also brings it to a level of cartoonish where they can almost get away with this. You do however also get a lot of the same zombie repeating over and over, so you’re likely to see the same foe multiple times which really brings a dullness to the world of Hell-A. The world in which the story sits is based in LA but brings itself down with quite a small environment that you can fast-travel around. You’re dropped into the world where the outbreak has already begun, not giving much back story to what’s gone on until much later in the game. This really makes the world feel quite disjointed, especially when traveling from one area to another.

This comes to a front quite early, by moving from the first area to the sewers which are completely different to what you’ve come to know, then back out the other side in an environment that again feels very different. Enemies are you progress in these areas change as well, despite not being present in previous areas until you’ve passed through these areas. Again this makes the world feel slightly unconnected with each other. This is most prevalent later in the game when you are revisiting areas where missions have already taken place and suddenly you’ll now find a bunch of enemies that weren’t there before.

Gameplay

The gameplay is very similar to what we’ve received from its predecessor, and from its spiritual successor in Dying Light. It’s a first-person hack ‘n’ slash fighting against hordes of the undead. You get quite a variety of weapons, which can be modded to how you want them to work. You need to hold a range of them though as certain mods remove the ability to damage certain variants at all. This is another nagging point of mine. If I’m using a machete that I’ve modified to do fire damage, the blade itself should still do damage rather than not dealing anything at all to variants resistant to fire damage. This can mean you find yourself without a weapon that can do damage if your other weapons are broken due to the game’s degradation system.

Movement within the game feels fluid, and not like you’re dragging your feet behind you like the undead you fight. This is one area that’s certainly seen an improvement from its previous entry.

Value/Cost

I actually purchased this game pre-owned at £15, which I don’t think was a bad deal. Would it be worth it at full price? I definitely don’t think so. Some of the game suffers from bloat (as it is with a number of open-world games) and eventually, you find yourself doing the same thing repeatedly. However, if you’re in the mood to just bash a few skulls in, the pre-owned price point is worth it.

Controls

There’s not much to the controls that differ from your standard first-person title, other than the occasional extra moves you can use. These still use the buttons already assigned (such as pressing L3 + R3 together) so it’s not often I found myself forgetting what buttons to press. The main issue for me was when sprinting, you have to stop to open doors which slows the flow a bit. Maybe I’ve played a bit too much Fortnite, but bashing through doors when sprinting certainly would have made this flow easier.

Length

This isn’t something I find myself saying about open-world titles often, but this game needed to be bigger. Not in terms of the environment, but the story. The ending (which I won’t spoil here) does just come out of nowhere and leaves a lot to be desired. It leaves a lot to be understood, which may be explained in the DLC releases, but that’s not the way a game’s story should go (I’m looking at you Azura’s Wrath!).

Conclusion

Overall, this game was quite disappointing, but it was to be expected of a game that went through so much development trouble. It lacks completeness and could have been done with more polish. Who knows if we’ll see any more from this series in the future?