Barring any last-minute delays that are necessary,Dead Island 2will finally arrive this month, more than a decade since the original, or nearly a decade since any major Dead Island game. And yet when playing the much-anticipated sequel at PAX, it had almost felt like absolutely no time had passed, going by this one portion. Oh sure, it looked more impressive visually, but gameplay-wise, it felt exactly like playing a game from around 2013 or so. Dead Island 2 just felt like a more straightforward first-person action-RPG game, and I am one hundred percent down with that.
I don’t know, maybe it’s just because in the current gaming landscape, “double-A” titles likeHi-Fi Rushthat find ways to call back to simpler times while still providing a fresh experience feel more valuable than ever. Or maybe its because the shift towards a more relatively-humorous and light-hearted tone for this sequel has me welcome for anything resembling a Dead Rising sequel that we likely aren’t going to get. Branching off from that thought, we also haven’t have had many games centered around a more vibrant take on the zombie apocalypse in a while, and the whole “Hell-A” angle the game has been promoting suggests a chance to explore an even more enjoyably-twisted version of Los Angeles with what looks like a fun cast of characters. Could that be the appeal of Dead Island 2?
Or, on second thought, could it be the fact that this is a game that allows you smash a zombie upside the head with a sort of augmented hammer so hard that they go flying into the air in slow motion while viscera sprays around? You know what, that, it’s probably that.
Yes, what it all boils down to is that Dead Island 2 may not feel like the most original game, but it sure is shaping up to be a fun one. Of course, it helped that the demo chose a boardwalk carnival as its setting, evoking memories of Left 4 Dead 2 in more ways than one. Our character was tasked with having to retrieve a blood drive – that is, a hard drive with blood-related info on it, not a vehicle used for blood donations - and getting into it required heading through the carnival. This involved some light scavenging at first, getting a keycard from a booth on the beach while looting additional supplies for health, crafting and the like. The occasional zombie got in the way, but they weren’t that tough.
However, upon making it into the arcade and finally powering it up in order to open an exit, suddenly an entire swarm of zombies had to be killed, as they were now in the way. This included electric zombies that could zap the area around them, making sure the player has to be careful and takes them out quickly and carefully. I tried using guns the first go around, but felt that with ammo being a tad scarce, melee combat would work better. After exiting the arcade and exploring more, there was a section where we had to power down a ferris wheel in order to cross while another swarm attacked. This was where things notably got trickier, but also more fun.
The zombies this time around included your traditional exploding fat zombies, and your bulked-up muscular zombie that can slam the ground and stun you. I tried using the massive hammer on me for a while, but was slowing me down. After quickly going over the stats, I settled on a club that was notably quicker, and that seemed to do the trick. So now I had a strategy going: isolate the zombie in order to beat them into a pulp, carefully dodge them when in crowds, use the rage mode that had filled up to take out one of the muscleheads quickly, trigger the exploding zombies and then get back, etc. It was a rather cathartic blast of combat, and a tense one as you try to pay close attention to all of your surroundings for any additional enemies.
So dealing with hordes was fun, but alas, I met my demise when facing off against the boss of this quest, a zombie clown with bladed arms. Or to be more accurate, I had another appointment to get to and didn’t have the time to try several more attempts at defeating them. But I had walked away feeling like I had truly played a classic seventh-generation zombie game, one that does indeed feel like it could be worth the wait, especially given the potential of the open world this time around. And we’ll see if that’s the case when Dead Island 2 comes out on April 21 for PC, Xbox and PlayStation platforms.
