Few games have been in development for as long as the long-awaited Dead Island 2. The sequel to the successful zombie action game has gone through four studios in ten years, and the project is finally in the hands of Dambuster Studios, the creators of Homefront. : Revolution. After the re-announcement at the Opening Night Live event, the developers visited the exhibition center in Cologne, where they showed the game at least behind closed doors. I got to the meeting a little by accident when I signed up for some kind of AAA+ open-world game, which ended up being the second Dead Island. I must say right away that I did not play the first part, so my impressions can do a good job, especially for those who are also not familiar with the series.
The demonstration itself was preceded by a short presentation, where the developers introduced us to the basic principles of the game. The action takes place in a city called HELL-A and we can play as one of six characters not only in single player but also in co-op with up to three players.
We had about twenty minutes to play the demo, we could watch the night mission, which showed both open and closed rooms. From the coast, I gradually made my way through different locations to the Ferris wheel and, finally, to the ship. Along the way, of course, I ran into a lot of zombies and thus got to the main content of the whole game – combat. While I was a little skeptical at first, expecting only relatively headless action, I was pleasantly surprised in the end.
The demo was later in the game, so I already had a variety of weapons to try out. Most of them were at close range and allowed, for example, to electrify or set fire to zombies, but I could also fight with a classic katana. From ranged weapons, I could then use a pistol and a rifle. However, you need ammo for them, and melee weapons wear out again, so the developers force you to experiment a bit with this, and this is by far the most fun part of the game. The authors give you complete freedom of action in the approach to combat.
But beware, the game isn’t really just mindlessly pulling the right trigger to attack. On the one hand, you can also charge it if you hold the trigger, but the main thing is that it is important to make dodges and dodges in time. As soon as a bunch of zombies come at you from all sides, you still have to think a little to get out of the battle alive. After a certain amount of time, you will also be charged with a rage mode, thanks to which you can crush zombies with great force only with your bare hands. However, you don’t have to rely solely on your own arsenal, making use of the environment is also key, be it explosive barrels or electrifying water.
In addition to the rich options, I also really liked the fluidity of the combat, which is mostly supported by the great animations. Visually, the title may surprise you, but overall the graphics are really great. Of course, I didn’t get a chance to learn all the details in twenty minutes, but at first glance, everything looks surprisingly good, and it’s still an open-world cross-gen game to boot. The game looked really good from the trailer, but it’s something else when you try the game in action.
At the end of the demo, I had a boss fight, namely a clown, who was relatively fast and could regenerate. I had a good time here too, but the strength of Dead Island 2 lies primarily in the fight against hordes of weaker enemies, and not one stronger one.
Fans of the first game will definitely not be disappointed. Another frenetic action awaits you, which relies on experimentation with different types of weapons and, of course, light humor, which was also present in the demo at Gamescom. I think I can say with a clear conscience that after all the rotations the game is finally in good hands and I’m starting to look forward to the release.
Dead Island 2 is out on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S. It should arrive on February 3, 2023.
ZING.cz’s Gamescom 2022 report features Acer Nitro gaming laptops with processors up to Intel Core i7.
Source :Indian TV
