• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Dead Island 2 | Review Thread

DragoonKain

Neighbours from Hell
I picked this up on a Black Friday deal, looking forward to playing it. Expectations not super high. Not because of reviews but just the type of game.
 

TheUsual

Gold Member
Guess I use this thread as the OT as well as I can't find one.

Just beat the main story yesterday. Total of 35~40 hours with a good chunk of side content done.
Overall this was a great game. The gameplay loop is leveling up your character, getting character perks that you assign to various Skill Card slots, leveling up your weapons with their own perks as well, and so on. It doesn't feel too grindy in this aspect. It may be a gripe that enemies do scale as you level up. That could be hit or miss depending on your personal tastes. It fits well here because you can backtrack at your own pace for hidden gear and side quests and you may want to fight enemies scaled close to you. Luckily, you can run past the majority of the zombies if you want.

The game's story ends with an opening for a third game if they choose and I do hope Dambuster Studios survives Embracer's issues to do a third game.
After finishing the main story, you're free to explore and finish up all the various side content as well. Don't think that is a spoiler at all.

You spend most of the game outdoors in Sunny California. When you get to fast travel, you can go back to areas and pick to go out in day or night time. I just stuck with daytime unless the story missions dictated otherwise.
This game oozes a sense of dread when you are put in dark and cramped environments. Areas like undergound parking garages and underground subway areas (and in some areas in Haus DLC).

Already bought the expansion pass and started a bit of the Haus DLC.
And I hope they hit it out of the park with the last expansion Sola Festival.

Glad something good came out of this game's nightmare development.
 
Last edited:
Guess I use this thread as the OT as well as I can't find one.

Just beat the main story yesterday. Total of 35~40 hours with a good chunk of side content done.
Overall this was a great game. The gameplay loop is leveling up your character, getting character perks that you assign to various Skill Card slots, leveling up your weapons with their own perks as well, and so on. It doesn't feel too grindy in this aspect. It may be a gripe that enemies do scale as you level up. That could be hit or miss depending on your personal tastes. It fits well here because you can backtrack at your own pace for hidden gear and side quests and you may want to fight enemies scaled close to you. Luckily, you can run past the majority of the zombies if you want.

The game's story ends with an opening for a third game if they choose and I do hope Dambuster Studios survives Embracer's issues to do a third game.
After finishing the main story, you're free to explore and finish up all the various side content as well. Don't think that is a spoiler at all.

You spend most of the game outdoors in Sunny California. When you get to fast travel, you can go back to areas and pick to go out in day or night time. I just stuck with daytime unless the story missions dictated otherwise.
This game oozes a sense of dread when you are put in dark and cramped environments. Areas like undergound parking garages and underground subway areas (and in some areas in Haus DLC).

Already bought the expansion pass and started a bit of the Haus DLC.
And I hope they hit it out of the park with the last expansion Sola Festival.

Glad something good came out of this game's nightmare development.
I loved it too! its easily one of the best looking game too ,I still need to buy the DLC, now bring on Dead Island 3 !
 

Mossybrew

Banned
Just beat the main story yesterday.
Hey, me too! Well, day before yesterday. I feel this game was really overlooked, I think it was passed off as "oh another zombie game" but come on, CoD every year is "just another shoot soldiers game" and that doesn't hold it back. Anyway yeah, everything about the game feels like it was made with attention to detail. The environments are gorgeous and varied (love the option to visit day or night when you return via fast travel) - character and facial models are good, the zombie-body-destruction tech is amazing, combat is satisfying for both melee and guns. There's a satisfying progression of new zombie types as you play, and different powers to equip. I really have nothing bad to say about the game. I'll probably play through again as another character at some point just to hear all the different voice lines.
 
Last edited:

Kupfer

Member
Dead Island 2 is coming to steam 22nd april. Keys on cdkeys are on discounts around 50% with about 3 different editions by the look.
How can there be a discount of 50% if we don't know the price on Steam yet? It's at 33€ at Epic as well.
Maybe the Steam version will be priced similiar.
Also, just buy on Steam, the game and therefore the Devs earned it for making a good, straight forward and fun game without bullshit.
 
Thankfully didn't pay for this (Gamepass release) as its an incredibly repetitive and mundane game that's as shallow as a paddling pool.
 

hlm666

Member
How can there be a discount of 50% if we don't know the price on Steam yet? It's at 33€ at Epic as well.
Maybe the Steam version will be priced similiar.
Also, just buy on Steam, the game and therefore the Devs earned it for making a good, straight forward and fun game without bullshit.
The devs still get their cut when they sell on legit 3rd party sites like cdkeys/gmg/hbundle/fanatical. It's actually steam who doesn't get a cut in this scenario.

Thankfully didn't pay for this (Gamepass release) as its an incredibly repetitive and mundane game that's as shallow as a paddling pool.
Is this on gamepass now aswell?
 

Pejo

Member
Coming to Steam April 22nd.


Cautiously optimistic about this.

Curious from those who played this one - Is it more in line with the first Dead Island or more like Riptide? My gf and I played the first game co-op the whole way through and loved it. The zombies were always present but it felt more like an RPG and less like a horde mode simulator. We tried Riptide and hated it because they doubled down on the resource management and horde aspects which we both hated.
 

Kupfer

Member
Cautiously optimistic about this.

Curious from those who played this one - Is it more in line with the first Dead Island or more like Riptide? My gf and I played the first game co-op the whole way through and loved it. The zombies were always present but it felt more like an RPG and less like a horde mode simulator. We tried Riptide and hated it because they doubled down on the resource management and horde aspects which we both hated.
You guys will love DI2 then
 

Orbital2060

Member
Got lost in this over the weekend although I had other plans. Downloaded to see what its like. Im not that fond of the crafting system, would rather have unique weapons to find. Actually reminds of the way Redfall is designed, too.

But its a blast, really enjoying it. Jakob has some funny lines.
 

Spukc

always chasing the next thrill
the last part of this game boss design was rather lazy and boring.. also very boring tunnel bullshit last chapter.. everything besides that was golden i had a LOT of fun with this game :)
 
Top Bottom