Analysis of Dead Island 2- Sun, beach and bleeding of zombies

2023-05-05 16:35:15

After almost 10 years of its announcement, we finally received the long-awaited sequel to Dead Island, from Deep Silver and Dambuster Studios.

Back in the distant E3 of 2014, a trailer left a large part of the public speechless. This was neither more nor less than a trailer for Dead Island 2. It has rained a lot since that day. And it is that something was wrong in the development of the zombie saga created by Techland. The game was being developed by German developer YAGER, creators of Spec Ops The Line. In 2016, Deep Silver announced that due to development problems, it would pass into the hands of the Sumo Digital studio, but they did not complete the development of the title either. After a long time in silence it was announced that Dambuster Studios, creators of Homefront: The Revolution would take over the game. Things looked bad, but finally, in the middle of 2023 we received this long-awaited sequel. Was it worth the long wait? In ComunidadXbox you can know everything.

Series B in its purest form

Dead Island 2 begins with an extensive cinematic where we are introduced to all the characters that we can choose from and also tells us very superficially about events that precede the title’s story. The game begins with the military evacuating civilians on a plane, a place where our protagonists will also be. It seems that everything is going to be fine, but there is an infested and it causes the plane to crash, starting our adventure at this moment. From this moment on, our character, who is immune to the virus, must survive in the city of Los Angeles. The game has a very B-series story. There are totally strange characters like Hollywood stars, ex-rockers and even influencers, who really exude a lot of charisma. But the truth is that the story is not the strong point of the title, it is rather anecdotal, an excuse to slaughter hordes of zombies. I personally have enjoyed the secondary missions more than the main story, since the secondary characters tend to be more charismatic and with crazier stories.

This is not something so negative either, not all games have to have a story like Red Dead Redemption or The Last Of Us, but it is true that they could have given it a little more seriousness, keeping the touches of series by black humor that they work great with the game. It should also be noted that you can play this sequel without having to play the previous Dead Islandsince except for a character that reappears, Dead Island 2 is completely independent.

Burns, electrocutes and dissolves

To begin with, it should be noted that Dead Island 2 is not an open world game. And it is that in this installment we will have large areas to visit, but they will not be connected in a large open world, instead we will have to enter and exit each area, with the consequent loading time, which thank God is not very long. After clarifying this, we can say that we find ourselves with a first-person action game with touches of RPG, survival, and crafting. At the beginning of the adventure we will have to choose between 6 characters, all of them with different attributes and abilities. Some will be more agile but less resistant, others more resistant, others will have more strength… This gives many different game opportunities. We complete the adventure with Jacob, a very balanced character in his attributes. Our characters will also be able to level up, but not in a conventional way, since there is no skill tree here, instead it is replaced by skills in the form of cards, which we must equip as we wish as we unlock them. . It’s not a bad system, but personally I would have preferred a good classic skill tree.

The title match is a lot of fun. We have thousands of weapons to kill all the zombies we meet, both axes, knives, golf clubs and even firearms, all of them being upgradeable and customizable. And it is that the possibilities that we have to customize our weapons are crazy. We can create an ax that has electrical power and that electrocutes the infested, or a katana with incendiary power. The combat is not very deep, since we can only attack, dodge or block, in addition to using special abilities such as fury mode, but all the options we have to finish off enemies makes it very rewarding. All these weapons will be created with the resources we get during the adventure, exploring every corner. We will also have various puzzles related to electricity and water, but these are totally anecdotal.

Brains, guts and blood, lots of blood

Another positive aspect of the title is the number of different zombies that we will find, from normal zombies, tank types, runners, spitters… This means that every so often a new type of enemy is presented to us, avoiding falling into monotony, although the way of presenting each new type of zombie I did not like too much. And it is that every time the game tries to present a new type of enemy, it will appear in the form of the final enemy. It’s a pretty original way to add new enemies and introduce them, but I think a great opportunity for memorable and clever combat has been lost. Despite all this, I recommend playing Dead Island 2 in short game sessions, as playing long sessions can quickly become repetitive. The main adventure has lasted me about 15 hours, being able to reach double hours if we want to complete all the secondary content.

But the best thing about Dead Island 2 is the dismemberment and gore system it has. Every blow we make to a zombie will be reflected in its body. For example, if we hit the legs we can see scratches on them with each hit, and if we keep hitting, we will eventually rip one off in a very realistic way. This happens with all parts of the body. No video game I’ve played before has this level of detail in terms of its dismemberments and gore.. It is pure show.

Los Diablos, a place fallen from grace

Dead Island 2 is very beautiful, its environments are very well recreated and they look very good. From the mansions of Beverly Hills and Bel-air, to the Hollywood movie studios and the beaches of Venice Beach, all environments are breathtakingly detailed, especially the interiors. In Series X the game runs in a completely stable way, without any type of frame drop or anything like that. For a title that has also appeared on previous generation consoles, it looks incredibly good. Sometimes it even looks like a photorealistic game, due to how good its settings look.. The zombies and characters are also very well designed and recreated, and the gore, as we have already mentioned, is spectacular. If we talk about bugs, I have found very few, and none of them very important.

The soundtrack is also very good, with quite epic songs that will play depending on the situation where we find ourselves. The game has very well interpreted English voices, of a very high level. Although the voices are in perfect English, the game is fully translated into Spanish, which is quite good. The ambient sounds are also very good, especially the sounds emitted by the zombies, giving us a bad feeling when we hear one and we don’t know where it is. being honest the audiovisual section of Dead Island 2 borders on outstanding.

Dead Island 2 conclusions

After years and years of waiting, we already have Dead Island 2 in our hands, and against all odds, it was worth the long wait. It is true that in many aspects it seems to be a title from 2014, such as the semi-open worlds and the somewhat simple combat system, but graphically it is outstanding and to spend a few afternoons with friends (and alone) it is totally recommended. Personally I am glad that this title from Deep Silver and Dambuster Studios has come to fruition. We will wait for a continuation of the saga that fixes the small flaws that this installment has and that polishes the formula, but for now, we have this great Dead Island 2.

Dead Islands 2

69.99€

Pros

• Great fun both alone and in company
• Graphically spectacular light
• The dismemberment system is spectacular

Cons

• forgettable history
• You can do something repetitive
• Wasted final bosses