Preview: Dead Island 2 Plays Like, Well, a Dead Island Game

Dead Island 2 has been in the works for nearly a decade. Original developers Techland wanted to work on Dying Light, so the property had been passed between a couple of studios before landing at Dambuster Studios at Deep Silver. But despite not being at Techland anymore, Dead Island 2 still has a lot in common with Dying Light. It’s also still very much a Dead Island game, which may or may not be welcome news. There are a few small but impactful changes, but whether they’ll be enough to differentiate the sequel from its predecessor remains to be seen.

In a PAX East preview, we got hands-on time with a build that had the player fighting through multiple areas of the Santa Monica pier in Los Angeles, which is the setting of the new game. You start off on a dark beach, cutting down zombies in bathing suits. Then, you transition onto the boardwalk before entering a dark arcade where you become overrun while trying to turn the power back on. Finally, you have to engage with your hardest challenge yet while attempting to turn on the Ferris wheel. (I wasn’t able to see if anything came after that because my demo glitched and sent me back to the arcade portion after dying during the Ferris wheel encounter.)

In each of these encounters, the first-person gameplay feels frantically familiar, especially with melee attacks, which were the first game’s bread and butter. You can switch between numerous melee weapons — including what I can only describe as electric Wolverine claws — and go to town on crowds of enemies. My character even had a bezerker special attack that allowed her to deal massive amounts of damage with just her hands.

New this time around are guns. I still relied on melee most of the time since these zombies are fast and it’s easy to get overwhelmed, but using an assault rifle came in handy in smaller encounters or when I wanted to unload damage into giant tanky enemies.

Also new for Dead Island 2 are degradable weapons. While my preview wasn’t long enough to truly feel its impact, there were a couple of times when my weapons became unusable in the middle of a fight, keeping you on your toes. But there were so many other options I could pick up, that I never felt empty-handed.

Dead Island 2 has also leaned into environmental interactivity. While there are a lot of items you can pick up for crafting and for throwing, there are also a lot of elements that can help you in fights. This was sort of a thing in the first one, but you’re encouraged more to use water puddles to electrocute enemies or spill oil to better set them aflame. Enemies can also use elemental damage as well, so it’s key to not only swing wildly but to pay attention to what’s going on around you. 

All of these additions and changes combine to maintain the chaotic energy Dead Island is known for, but it also keeps you engaged during fights, which bodes well for the game’s open world and how it will hold up after dozens of hours. 

But there are certain expectations since Dead Island 2 has been in the works for so long. Sure, the game has been passed around to multiple studios, which likely had to constantly retool it based on updated technology and trends, but it needs to feel like it's related to its predecessor and that it can improve upon and surpass it. On the first point, Dead Island 2 succeeds. It’s just more Dead Island, and that could be good news for some. Despite some expected bugs while playing through the demo, the gameplay felt smooth and dynamic. By adding slight variety between encounters, you’re forced to constantly rethink your strategy on the fly. While I focused primarily on melee (especially with some of the incredible weapons provided by the demo), there were moments when gunning down zombies worked better. When you’re in a more enclosed space like an arcade, you can swing easily, but when you’re running around a boardwalk with a hulking behemoth stomping towards you, you might have other ideas.

However, since it’s been more than a decade since the first Dead Island, I was expecting a more unique identity here. Sure, there are differences, especially in regards to the technology working behind the scenes that adds more gore and animation variety to kills. However, it feels like just more Dead Island. But that could end up being its strength with the final release. 

As a series, Dead Island isn’t deep in terms of story or setting. It’s always been about rushing through zombie hordes while picking up weapons, crafting materials, and looting along the way. It’s also always been tongue-in-cheek compared to other zombie-killing titles. This was welcome in 2011 when the zombie genre was gritty and nihilistic thanks to The Walking Dead’s popularity, but nowadays, Dead Island is just one of many zombie hell games that sought to bring humor to the proceedings. 

Dead Island 2 is scheduled to be released on April 21, 2023, for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.