Dead Island 2: We tried action RPG resurrected as zombies

It was 2014, and from the PlayStation conference stage, a sequel to a game that made a lot of noise despite its flaws was announced. Of course, we’re referring to Dead Island, the game that launched Polish Techland into the stratosphere and subsequently led to the birth of the blockbuster Dying Light. But things didn’t go as planned by then-publisher Deep Silver, and development soon shifted to Yager Development, fresh from the success (not the criticisms, not the sales) of Spec Ops: The Line. Even this time, things don’t go as expected: Sumo Digital was initially called in to help, but that wasn’t enough. 2019, when Dead Island 2’s development practically restarted, this time under protective wing. Dambuster Studiosfinally manages to bring order to the project.

So much so that at Gamescom 2022 it’s finally I tried Dead Island 2. Here’s what we learned about this game that was reborn from its ashes. Like a zombie.

Twenty minute demo

It’s 2022, we’re back at Gamescom after two long Covid breaks, and among the games on offer, guess what, there’s it, it’s it again: Dambuster Studios’ only Dead Island 2, so far we can say, really seems to have made it . At least from what we got to play: We tried Dead Island 2 for nearly twenty-minute demos that ended in a grisly face-to-face with a murderous clown, marred by rage and the most abnormal biblical infections.

But who Stupid Studios? The origins of this development team go back to the early 2000s when they created two outstanding Timesplitters as Free Radical; Their story ended with the mega-flop Haze, which Ubisoft and Sony tried to sell as the most believable “Halo Killer”. The embattled Free Radical was rescued and purchased by Crytek, which was renamed Crytek UK. He created Crysis 2 and 3 for Nottingham-based software house Crytek, and then took over the Homefront project, with which he began developing the sequel, Homefront: Revolution. But in 2014, Crytek also started having a bad time and decided to sell the intellectual property of the war game and shut down Crytek UK. This time Koch Media came to the rescue, today Plaion, through funds and new projects, has brought the team to the present day as Dambuster Studios.

Homefront: The Revolution was a disaster, but the situation was as it was. It went much, much better with Chorus from 2021, we recommend you take a look at our review.

Is it possible that, in five years, a software house with such a long experience could only manage to collaborate on the creation of a beautiful game like Chorus? It sounded strange, but as we still didn’t know that all this time Dambuster Studios was also busy rebuilding, and most of all, the very unfortunate Dead Island 2. This sequel takes place not in a tropical resort but in the city of angels, California. Los Angeles. The demo begins on Santa Monica’s famous beach, at the foot of the pier immortalized in thousands of movies, the game now collapses and is reduced to a ghostly barricade.

Attack and defense

Here we became familiar with the commands: we chose the mouse and keyboard, since the current version is the PC version and already has the gadgets and skills that are in our character. The skill system is based on cards. this will be found and selected later, giving us improvements and in some cases even new shots. Instead, there are defensive cards that allow you to activate the possibility of parrying blows and/or using powerful counter moves. The weapons we find in the backpack range from the more classic drum pistol to the more exotic bagh nakh or Wolverine-like claws that let you smash through enemies with overwhelming speed.

In between, clearly created sidearms crafting system (which we weren’t allowed to try in-depth) as axes that can free up electricity and other similar conveniences. As with Dying Light, more so than Dead Island, in this sequel it will be crucial to leverage the elements to increase our effectiveness in combat. There are also two types of throwing weapons, similar grenades, that can attract or slow nearby undead.

realistic immortal

Considering the latest Techland efforts created by the game, we immediately attempted to climb up to access the pier, but discovered that there was no more or less advanced parkour system, as is normal in Dead Island 2. Indeed, different characters, all of them six maximum number of players in a game is three, all endowed with a weight that leans more towards realism. As we continued our way through the zombies with the least endurance, our character also stumbled and was out of breath. Sure, it was only a few seconds, but trust us when we say they look a lot more when surrounded by similar enemies. Even zombies are slow but relentless, and the combat system is based on a technology that responds very accurately to the weapon used to inflict wounds and injuries based on the power of our rechargeable shots. and their direction.

Killer Clown

As we move around the pier, making our way through abandoned passages and ghostly halls, we retrace our steps a few times because Dead Island 2 not only gives a rough direction and also makes you take the wrong path. Once we reach the iconic Ferris wheel on the Santa Monica pier, the fun begins: we are attacked by dozens of zombies, forced to constantly move, falling to the ground, retreating, giving the bottom of every gun and bullet. . We are also trying to take advantage of some environmental elementsHe activated the nearby generator to electrify a large pool of water to fry the enemies and detonate the large gas cylinders scattered around.

Particularly threatening is a zombie two meters high and passing meters, staring at us, hard-eyed and deadly slaps: it is he who kills us the first time, but on the second try there is no escape and we take the victory home. Shortly after this, we will find eternal peace at the hands of the heretics. killer clown The demo awaits us at the end. They hit us on the back, there is no time to try again: we’re done and we’d gladly continue.

Zombie Express

The next thing is no less interesting: we go to a small room not far to chat with the producer of Dead Island 2, an element that looks quite proud and explains in detail how the effects of our footage are calculated. and how the contextual dialogs will change depending on the selected character. We also have the opportunity to better understand the game structure, which is not a true open world, which we will explore during the interview. Dead Island 2’s Los Angeles is, in fact, all huge and divided into several areas that we’ll return to several times throughout the main story. Dead Island 2 is therefore a ‘a more linear experience than we expectedAnd while that’s not great news, it might be good.