Dead Island 2 | Review Thread

DenchDeckard said:
How long is it an epic store exclusive?
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Probably 6 to 12 months.

Playing it on console and having fun. I still think Dying Light 2 was better than this, but this is not bad at all.

Especially considering the games development hell, it's a shockingly good game.
 
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TheDarkPhantom said:
Got the platinum trophy last night after 30+ hours, overall this is a solid zombie slaying experience with the gore system setting a new standard in the genre. When considering the tortured development cycle the end result is especially impressive next to recent big hitters like Jedi Survivor which launched in a state of bug-ridden shambles. I can honestly say that my entire playthrough on PS5 was bug/glitch free and it maintained a near rock solid 60 FPS no matter what kind of wild mayhem was happening on screen.

As a total package I still give the edge to Dying Light 2 whose world is more compelling, whose characters are more interesting, whose traversal is on a completely different planet and whose core combat *feel* is more satisfying. Funny thing is they released a new update right when Dead Island 2 launched highlighting a revamped combat system with more gore, will check it out at some point.

Ultimately if you love murdering hordes of undead it's hard to go wrong with Dead Island 2, I'd give it a 7.5, enjoyed my time with it.
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Yeah. I'm pretty amazed that the Metacritic user score end professional critic score isn't higher. Like in the 80s.

We have a game for the first time in recent memory that's ready to go at lunch. No bugs. No "just wait for the patches". It's literally the only game on PS5 I bought new (didn't wait)

So I know "being ready at launch" doesn't make a game good. But it's not only ready to go, it's actually fun as hell and unique in its gore melee combat.

Separate question: is Dying Light 2 really that good? More fun than this???
 
Eiknarf said:
Separate question: is Dying Light 2 really that good? More fun than this???
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My ratings are

Dying Light - 90
Dying Light 2 - 85
Dead Island 2 - 80

Enjoyed all three games, but Dying Lights slightly more. More interesting quests and story, open world, parkour, better soundtracks.
 
Eiknarf said:
Separate question: is Dying Light 2 really that good? More fun than this???
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Like everything this is subjective but for me (and seemingly others too) yes and I laid out some of the reasons why. I will add that tone of both games is very different with DL2 being more serious/somber while DI2 leaning hard into the comedy and camp.
 
Denton said:
My ratings are

Dying Light - 90
Dying Light 2 - 85
Dead Island 2 - 80

Enjoyed all three games, but Dying Lights slightly more. More interesting quests and story, open world, parkour, better soundtracks.
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For me that would be:
Dead Island - 80 (with Riptide being slightly worse)
Dying Light - 90
Dying Light 2 - around 65-70
Dead Island 2 - around 75-80

Dying Light 2 may feel like a big budget game compared to Dead Island 2 (and it is), but I just couldn't enjoy it as much as the first game. I didn't like the city, the story or the focus on humans fighting each other and the zombies being moved to the background.
 
Does anyone know how to redeem the newsletter "Trickster's Smile" knife.

And if it's level scaled ?
 
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My ratings would be like this:
Dead Island - 65
Dying Light - 90
Dying Light 2 - 60
Dead Island 2 - 80

Dying light is still the best of the bunch.
Dying light 2 was a massive disappointment, which I gave up not even half way through.
Dead Island was fun, but very clunky. Same for Riptide.
Dead Island 2 was a lot of fun, although not as deep as Dying light. Still, well worth a playthrough.
 
Didn't play Dead Island 2 yet but the first game was awesome back then, really enjoyed it. Didn't like Dying Light so much and didn't finish it and Dying Light 2 was not fun at all to me.
 
Eiknarf said:
Wow
Lots of Dying Light 1 fans - maybe I aughta try it again, because I did back in the day and stopped.
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It also got a 60 FPS patch for the new consoles a few months back plus all versions have been upgraded to The Following edition (for free to my understanding), so the best time to revisit it now.
 
Oh man I was a little concerned about this game not having difficulty but it's pretty much easy mode by default.

The X/Square block + parry is game breaking.
 
Guys, help an idiot out please.

Pardon my ignorance, but what's most important when wanting to kill fastest?

Your weapons' LEVEL, or your weapons' POWER, or your weapons' DAMAGE?

See comparison between two weapons here. But then see the second example

ktSEkqG.jpg



----- See, sometimes the DAMAGE is higher on the weapon with a LOWER USER ranking... like this (see circled in YELLOW):



PkUXDqo.jpg


That's confusing to me.

So again, what's most important?


Thanks by the way
 
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Okay, what a ride. Finished it some days ago, took me like 25ish hours for the campaign and another like 10 hours to clean up and get the platin trophy. All in all 35hours which didn't feel too long or wasted.
This is my GOTY so far. Great slasher, I got what I expected. Way more fun to play than the first Dead Island or Riptide, even solo. Some missions are top notch with a dense atmosphere, some are just silly and trashy, but I took them with a smirk.
A game you can play from start to finish without a single bug, without an ingame store or stupid MTX.
This just felt old-school.
 
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Kupfer said:
Okay, what a ride. Finished it some days ago, took me like 25ish hours for the campaign and another like 10 hours to clean up and get the platin trophy. All in all 35hours which didn't feel too long or wasted.
This is my GOTY so far. Great slasher, I got what I expected. Way more fun to play than the first Dead Island or Riptide, even solo. Some missions are top notch with a dense atmosphere, some are just silly and trashy, but I took them with a smirk.
A game you can play from start to finish without a single bug, without an ingame store or stupid MTX.
This just felt old-school.
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Good
I was just about to ask if we can continue to play after we complete the main quests-
 
Finished!
What a great game! What a blast! Had so much fun

There in lies the difference: a game like The Last of Us is serious and great.
And a game like Dead Island 2 is really fun and great.
Both zombie stories and both protagonists are immune - both think they're immunity will be used for a cure etc

But they're more different than the same
 
Fun game deserves good sales. Hopefully we'll get Dead Island 3 down the road and that they'll keep the idea of creating the maps based on real world locations.
 
So I went out of my way and got all the legendary weapons. No trophy pops up on the top right hand of the screen.?
 
Was there ever an OT made for this one?

Hard to believe this came from the Homefront 2 guys. Just goes to show to not ever doubt any dev that is putting out some pretty mediocre shit early in their lifespan. Having played through Dying Light 1 & 2, but avoided the original DI like the plague this has been a pretty comfy ride so far on the PS5. And as expected, when you finally get your hands on a gun it's an instant game changer and practically nullifies the use of melee weapons (unless you're addicted to the flesh tech). The gunplay is decent too for a game that sells itself on smashing apart faces with golf clubs and sledgehammers.

Interestingly, the standout parts of this game to me so far have been the ambient music and the interior design of the homes combined with the lighting. Yeah the gore tech that they use is top tier, but I'm old and desensitized. Also, I'm skipping dialogue and story completely since the studio decided to avoid calling me "she" and "her" and decided on "they" instead which is fucking dumb and confusing every. single. time you hear it.

I see the general consensus on here was that everyone pretty much liked it that played it. It certainly isnt as flawless bug wise as everyone claimed (I fell through the floor twice and got caught on random geometry from accidentally backing into a corner) and as of right now I wouldn't put it above Dying Light 1 if we're talking first person open world zombie action, but yeah so far so good.
 
Alright so I finished last night. All in all I thought it was….fine. I'll tell you this though, I'm getting real tired of quests and enemies leveling up with the player in these types of action RPGs. It completely kills any sense of power and in games like this where the power trip is the focal point it makes absolutely no sense.

It also makes end and post game optional content an extra pain in the ass and tedious as all hell. Here you are, at the level cap with some badass weaponry, and you just want to wipe out the last handful of sides….but the enemies still wipe you out just as quickly as they did 30 hours ago. It was endlessly irritating. Out of all the accessibility bullshit being shoved into games, we get nothing to turn off quest or enemy scaling. Oblivion got this right 17 years ago.

Contrast/colorblind options, pussy ass spider phobia options, skip combat and mission options, but hey, want an enemy level slider? Go fuck yourself
 
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Chuck Berry said:
Alright so I finished last night. All in all I thought it was….fine. I'll tell you this though, I'm getting real tired of quests and enemies leveling up with the player in these types of action RPGs. It completely kills any sense of power and in games like this where the power trip is the focal point it makes absolutely no sense.

It also makes end and post game optional content an extra pain in the ass and tedious as all hell. Here you are, at the level cap with some badass weaponry, and you just want to wipe out the last handful of sides….but the enemies still wipe you out just as quickly as they did 30 hours ago. It was endlessly irritating. Out of all the accessibility bullshit being shoved into games, we get nothing to turn off quest or enemy scaling. Oblivion got this right 17 years ago.

Contrast/colorblind options, pussy ass spider phobia options, skip combat and mission options, but hey, want an enemy level slider? Go fuck yourself
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That's a good point. The first time I experienced that, I definitely recall scratching my head. Thinking, "Wait, why are they leveling up too? Do the enemies and I have a symbiotic relationship of some sort?"

The goal of leveling up is to be able to wipe the enemy out easier, and feel it…etc. Not stay the same at chapter 27 as you were at chapter 1.

But I still had a fun time with this
 
My ratings:

Dying light 1 90
Dying Light 2 60 (quit playing after 12h)
Dead Island 2 90 (game was a blast, really satisfying melee combat)
 
Ywap said:
I've been told this game is too easy. They haven't added a harder difficulty level since launch?
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I wouldnt put it in the too easy space. There's basically zero feedback when damaged (aside from fire or explosions) so you can be ripped to pieces real quick without realizing it, especially in the beginning. It reminded me of Wolfenstein II which suffered from the same problem big time. And the issue persists the entire experience. You might be one shotting zombos in the dome piece with a high power pistol in the end game, but an encounter with a Butcher, a shock explosion Screamer and some fodder fucks can still body you in seconds.
 
Chuck Berry said:
I wouldnt put it in the too easy space. There's basically zero feedback when damaged (aside from fire or explosions) so you can be ripped to pieces real quick without realizing it, especially in the beginning. It reminded me of Wolfenstein II which suffered from the same problem big time. And the issue persists the entire experience. You might be one shotting zombos in the dome piece with a high power pistol in the end game, but an encounter with a Butcher, a shock explosion Screamer and some fodder fucks can still body you in seconds.
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Ok, i see! Maybe i´ll try it out soon but i still love the idea of a really, really hard first playthrough. I haven´t followed the game but the devs have never mentioned adding new difficulty levels?

Thx for the input (y)
 
I did not have the feeling that the game is too difficult.
Sure, I died from time to time, but it would be boring if I didn't. Then I adjusted my cards and learned the timings for dodging attacks (not least for the trophy), played accordingly and always saved the ultimate for butchers and mutators.
In addition, I never played quests underleveled. If you don't just rush from A to B and are on the road a bit and do some sidequests along the way, you can get there quite well without having to grind.

All in all, I can say that if you take your time, the game isn't too hard. But if you learn how the game works (dodging, leveling up, leveling weapons, using the enemies' weaknesses to do more damage with the appropriate weapons, creating a character set that fits your playstyle, use the environment for your advantage etc. you'll be able to do a lot of things. You realize there's more depth to the game than I previously thought.
With all that in mind, the game becomes almost too easy.
I've played through Dead Island II solo and never got stuck or had to grind and I'm not a super duper rad player.

Can't wait for the DLC.
 
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Replaying the game before the DLC comes out.. its so good, the art direction, the weapon variety, the sound and atmosphere... really incredible that they actually pulled it off
 
Picked this up at a secondhand store for PS5 and finished the main story last night. It was fun the whole way through. I was happy to turn off my brain and swing a sledgehammer through crowds of zombos for hours and hours.
 
am almost done with the story now , the game is super awesome , every side mission is different than the other unlike days gone , and combat is addictive
 
Did they ever fix the traversal stutter on PS5? I completed at launch and whilst some areas were OK performance wise. Others had an annoying stutter, which even VRR couldn't fix. The beach area was one of the worst.
 
DirtyBast8rd said:
Never noticed any traversal stutter so I assume it's patched.
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On the PS5? I tried it a few weeks ago again and it was still there. The beach boulevard area and the rich house suburb two areas had it the worst. VRR resolved some of the performance dips, but not all. I'll download and test it again.
 
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King Dazzar said:
On the PS5? I tried it a few weeks ago again and it was still there. The beach boulevard area and the rich house suburb two areas had it the worst. VRR resolved some of the performance dips, but not all. I'll download and test it again.
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Can't complain either on PS5 and CX with VRR ... did you install it on a slower SSD or something?
 
Kupfer said:
Can't complain either on PS5 and CX with VRR ... did you install it on a slower SSD or something?
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Thanks, but no. Some areas are fine. But some areas arent. So on the beach boulevard area (iirc its called Venice beach) you can run about everywhere up and down the boulevard and never have any frame time issues or stutters at all, anywhere?

I'm re-downloading now and I'll report back.
 
So just retested. The two areas I tested were Venice beach and Beverley Hills as they were the worst areas effected at launch for me. I only tested at night, but both areas seem to have been improved, but imo there's still the need for VRR. Without VRR its improved too, but there are still occasional hitches when moving about and frequent enough to be a niggle. I did have a couple of hitches over a 15 minute test with VRR on, but they were very minor and a lot less than I experienced before. Glad I revisited. Thanks Kupfer Kupfer & DirtyBast8rd DirtyBast8rd
 
King Dazzar said:
So just retested. The two areas I tested were Venice beach and Beverley Hills as they were the worst areas effected at launch for me. I only tested at night, but both areas seem to have been improved, but imo there's still the need for VRR. Without VRR its improved too, but there are still occasional hitches when moving about and frequent enough to be a niggle. I did have a couple of hitches over a 15 minute test with VRR on, but they were very minor and a lot less than I experienced before. Glad I revisited. Thanks Kupfer Kupfer & DirtyBast8rd DirtyBast8rd
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Good to know things were improved!
 
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