Dead Island 2 Embraces Madcap Zombie Mayhem
The original "Dead Island" suffered from a classic case of tone whiplash. Following an emotional, evocative trailer, gamers were shocked to discover that the final product was an over-the-top, B-movie romp. "Dead Island 2" drops all pretense and cranks the zombie-killing mayhem up to 11 right out of the gate, creating an experience that looks both funny and eminently playable.
Tom's Guide watched a guided demo of "Dead Island 2" at E3 2014, and it seemed to be everything a first-person zombie brawler fan could ask for. This time, the action has moved from the island paradise of Banoi to suburban California, and we'll be damned if there's not some kind of suburbanites-as-zombies metaphor in there somewhere.
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The demo followed a protagonist as he made his way across the McMansions of California toward a mansion known as the Clubhouse, after he'd promised to clear the mansion of zombies who have taken up residence. Approaching the Clubhouse let us observe how the game's combat engine has evolved under the direction of developer Yager, which did not design the first game.
As with the original "Dead Island," the combat in "Dead Island 2" is primarily focused on melee weapons, as ammo for guns is relatively scarce, and the loud noise tends to attract more zombies than the bullets kill. The protagonist made his way into the Clubhouse, hacking away at zombies with a machete, bludgeoning them with a sledgehammer and even bopping them over the head with a bottle of wine (as the Yager rep joked, every suburban house in California has a wine cellar, apparently).
Yager has also ramped up the contextual combat commands in "Dead Island 2." For example, with the machete equipped, the protagonist could kick zombies away when they got too close, and follow up with a potentially lethal (well, lethal-er) slice to the head. Our favorite move, though, was the Zombie Launcher. With the sledgehammer equipped, the protagonist could kick a zombie away, then launch it into the sky with one well-placed upward blow.
Customizing weaponry is a big part of "Dead Island 2" as well. After infiltrating the Clubhouse and finding some crafting components just lying in plain sight, the player set to work constructing an electric crossbow. This weapon could fire shocking bolts to stun entire groups of zombies, but it could also activate distant targets. Firing a bolt at a car, for example, turned on a car alarm, attracting a horde of zombies to the source of the sound. Blowing the car up with a machine gun took all of the nearby zombies with it.
"Dead Island 2" also introduces a number of human opponents into the mix. Humans who opposed the heroes were also present in the original "Dead Island," but they will take a bigger focus here, as civilization is collapsing and they want to take the scraps for themselves. One of the ways to deal with them is to bring a horde of zombies down on them, as the protagonist did with another well-placed electric bolt to a car alarm.
As a next-gen title, the game will also boast much better graphics than its predecessors, as Yager demonstrated with a number of gorgeous environmental still shots. The game will also provide support for anywhere between one and eight players to experience the campaign cooperatively, and drop in and out at-will.
The original "Dead Island" was well received, but critics generally acknowledged some problems with the game's combat, pacing and difficulty curve. It's too early to tell whether "Dead Island 2" will solve all of them, but what we saw at E3 looks like a promising start.
The game is set to release in Spring 2015 for the Xbox One, PS4 and PC, and has no defined price yet.
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