It’s too easy to compare Dead Island 2’s survival (opens in new tab) To the zombie it features. It moved from studio to studio long after it seemed dead. Despite its name, Dead Island 2 is effectively a new game. According to game director David Stenton, when development took over for his Dambuster in 2018, it was “built from the ground up.” The only thing it left behind was zombies and its LA setting. It feels like the genre it’s placed in will never die, but zombie games are still being released regularly.What does something like Dead Island 2 bring to the table? teeth?
After speaking with Stenton and creative director James Worrall, and playing the 20-minute demo, it’s clear that the focus is squarely on that dangerous close-quarters combat. “It was a passion for gore, a passion for close combat,” he explains Stenton. “And just doing it really, really well.” In the section of the game I played, I traveled to Santa Monica to her peers as Amy, one of his six playable characters. did. It’s a tight, linear piece where the bright lights and amusement rides slowly undo as I dig deeper, inadequate for a showcase of how the game’s ambitions as an open world come to fruition. Enough, but a good example of a game moment…to a split second battle.
It’s a spooky section, more atmospheric and calming than the bombastic trailer would have you believe. It’s a very handsome looking game. “It’s easy to build places that people feel familiar with,” Worrall says of the game’s setting. “Then it’s in contrast to the zombie apocalypse, which means they know everywhere they go. Even if they’ve never been to Bel-Air, they know what Bel-Air is like.” The tone of Dead Island 2 is closer to Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead series. Scary things are frightening, or at least grotesque, but our hero is a little larger than life and confronts fear with bravado and one-liners. cornered.
personality contest
Worrall explains that there are no branching narratives, but the characters you choose bring their own unique perspectives. “Each player character has its own voice and its own dialogue, so there may be one character who is particularly driven, energetic, or bright. Some characters are very reserved and nuanced.. We created these characters to reflect a wide range of playstyles.” All of these heroes have their own starting stats and abilities. However, the choice largely depends on your personality, as you can more or less suit your preferred zombie-killing style.
Your player character is far from an immortal hero, and once the undead shuffle into the scene, all the quips in the world are of little use. There’s a real sense of claustrophobia as zombies gather around you because they can’t get rid of them quickly. Individual walking corpses are a threat in their own right. In these moments, the game evokes memories of Resident Evil 4, making split-second decisions on how to handle groups of enemies. Stick your foot here and try a headshot over there. Instead of guns, they mostly use over-the-top melee weapons and undo them when they get stuck or embedded in rotting flesh.
This is all thanks to a system for rendering zombie bodies called FLESH (Fully Locational Evisceration System for Humanoids). It took them ten years to create the perfect acronym, but by god they got it done. Or is that zombies have an absolutely disgusting level of detail.
Perverse, I couldn’t get enough. I love these intimate battles, and Dead Island 2 has more in common with games like his Chivalry than any other zombie his Slayer. Dying Light may be a close relative, but it still focuses more on acrobatics than on Dead Island 2’s precision. As well as heavy and light attacks, you can swap defensive and special attacks if you want block more than dash for example. There’s a lot of trading items (mainly cards that enhance your character) for stats, but it’s pretty unexciting. What sets it apart is the focus on precision, where you really have to aim your thrusts and swings to hit the body part of your opponent.
danger warning
Dead Island 2 is packed with interactive landscapes to heighten the chaos of these skirmishes. Sure, there are the typical exploding tanks, but the game also has fluid simulations of water and fuel. Water conducts electricity and fuel sets fire. It feels more dynamic than just remembering to bring the right resources to every fight. “In the end, when you’re fully zombie slayer at the end of the game, what you’re actually relying on is sort of a combat symphony,” he said. ” says Stenton.
The demo ended with a boss encounter. It’s a confrontation with the zombie he clown who was taunting me while exploring the pier. One-on-one battles like this turn a zombie game into a well-worn action RPG. There is a stage and window of opportunity as the clown’s arm can block ranged attacks. It highlights the complexity and surprising difficulty of combat. Many moves and abilities are at your disposal, from ground slams (an ultimate ability that you can trade with others, although we didn’t see any alternatives in the demo) to kicks and dodges. combo. It just comes at the cost of the complexity of the situation of fending off hordes of brain eaters, and it feels much less alive.
The presence of a friend will probably help, and you’ll be able to bring two with you. It’s not hard to imagine how it could specialize in different roles and abilities, emphasize the RPG aspect, and allow for different build tweaks. I think it will be the perfect game for your session.
Dead Island 2 is nothing new, and its twists and hopes for a compelling narrative go beyond the scope of the demo, but there is certainly something interesting nonetheless. The hero is immune but infected and carries the disease without turning into a zombie. In other words, leaving quarantined LA is not an option.Our heroes, unable to escape, are chasing fleeting moments of joy in a desolate and broken world while fighting for their lives. It may be a little relevant to many people now.
I had little to no expectations for Dead Island 2, nor was I very interested in it. A sequel to a mediocre RPG? Another zombie game? Absolutely no originality, but excellent in some of its execution. I’m not sure there’s a compelling campaign to tie it all together, but it’s in that battle that the game kills.