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Dead Island 2 | Review Thread

Eiknarf

Banned
Combat feels good though! It's all with weight and feels powerful. The different weapon classes so far are also noticeably different
Actually, I just read that, “Yes, there’s haptic vibrations for melee but Trigger Effects are only active with guns..”
 

winjer

Gold Member

Dead Island 2
  • Up to 14% increase in performance in Dead Island 2 @ 4k, using AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition 23.4.2 on the Radeon ️ RX 7900 Series GPUs, versus the previous software driver version 23.4.1 RS-556
  • Up to 15% increase in performance in Dead Island 2 @ 4k, using AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition 23.4.2 on the Radeon ️ RX 6000 Series GPUs, versus the previous software driver version 23.4.1 RS-557
 

winjer

Gold Member
I'm playing the game at 1440p, FSR2 Quality, everything maxed out, no motion blur. Getting a constant 140 fps, locked with RTSS. Could go a bit higher if unlocked.
Game does a shader compilation at the start. if we skip the intro we can see a menu saying how many shader are left. But if was very fast, just a couple of minutes.
During gameplay, the frame time graph is a constant flat line. Only one isolated frame time spike when entering a new area. This is one of the best optimized UE4 games I have ever played.
With these settings vram usage is 9.5 to 10GB, on the first level. Without FSR2Q, it goes slightly above 10GB.
Graphics are amazing, again, one of the best looking UE4 games I have ever played. Textures are very detailed. And the pre-baked illumination system is amazing.
Sound design is good. But inside buildings it sounds really bad. It's muffled and very unrealistic. I hope they fix this in a patch.
Animations for zombies are very good and the gore is impressively good.
Gameplay is very similar to the original, but less janky. So getting into it, was like ridding a bike.
I only played one hour or so, so I can't tell of more advanced features and how deep it is.
But for the start, it's simple but fun.

Edit: Since this game has an implementation of FSR2, we can use the inbuilt denoiser, which is better than the one in UE4.
Must be used with UUU:
r.FidelityFX.FSR2.UseSSRExperimentalDenoiser=1
 
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AlphaDump

Gold Member
Excited to check this out tonight. Going to ping pong between this and Horizon DLC.

Hoping they just built upon and improved from what was already in place for DL2. Reviews are exactly what I expected, but I just want a zombie sandbox world with wonky shit sprinkled in to play around with.
 
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Mephisto40

Member
I'm a little dissapointed to hear it's not open world, but more like jumping from hub to hub. Really have to wonder why that is the case in this day in age, it's not like this game is that visually taxing

I'm guessing this must be a limitation of the previous gen being supported
 
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shubik

Member
I'm a little dissapointed to hear it's not open world, but more like jumping from hub to hub. Really have to wonder why that is the case in this day in age, it's not like this game is that visually taxing

I'm guessing this must be a limitation of the previous gen being supported
The levels are big and there is lots to explore. There is no need for an open world for each game. It works in this case
 

Ogbert

Member
It’s ok so far.

Touch disappointed with the combat as, although improved. I was hoping for it to be a little smoother.

Still early game though.
 

OneBigPuss

Member
Yep, this is exactly the kind of game I needed. Just mindless zombie slaying. One thing, why do they keep referring to my guy as a "they?" Lol
From one gameplay video i saw i think its because devs got lazy and every npc has only one response for you no matter who you playing as (when your character says something to npc, the response you get after doesn't feel like a specific response to what you just said but something that is close enough and can be used for every other player character).
 

winjer

Gold Member
From one gameplay video i saw i think its because devs got lazy and every npc has only one response for you no matter who you playing as (when your character says something to npc, the response you get after doesn't feel like a specific response to what you just said but something that is close enough and can be used for every other player character).

This is not an RPG. It's just an action game, where the NPCs just serve to give the player the next mission.
 

OneBigPuss

Member
This is not an RPG. It's just an action game, where the NPCs just serve to give the player the next mission.
Its not an rpg but that explains why npc do not differentiate between male and female. It would be nice if they could add it tho. Dont you think?
 

sloppyjoe_gamer

Gold Member
Yep, this is exactly the kind of game I needed. Just mindless zombie slaying. One thing, why do they keep referring to my guy as a "they?" Lol

Lead quest designer from the dev team

tyler oakley reaction s GIF
 

Eiknarf

Banned
Havent gotten to the guns yet :) Good to know
Yeah I'm a stickler now when it comes to the haptic feedback and trigger effects. I can't go back to non-trigger effects. You could GIVE ME a free Xbox Series X and I wont play it. I'll take it and sell it, but I have no interest in anything less than what the PS5 DualSense is doing now.
 

Fools idol

Banned
The characters in this are absolutely fucking trash.

It's like they deliberately made all the non-blue haired characters awful to troll you.

Card system also sucks but hrrrrrng dat combat is tasty. Who doens't want to smack a zombie in the chops with a bunsen burner attached garden rake?
 

Phase

Member
The characters in this are absolutely fucking trash.

It's like they deliberately made all the non-blue haired characters awful to troll you.

Card system also sucks but hrrrrrng dat combat is tasty. Who doens't want to smack a zombie in the chops with a bunsen burner attached garden rake?
Can you run through this with just a few upgraded weapons? I'm the type of person who could run through a whole game with one weapon if I like it. Also, what's the gun situation? Viable?
 

KungFucius

King Snowflake
I expected a leap from the previous games but sounds like it is very safe.

Worth putting in the backlog, but we are a few weeks away from an onslaught of games, so I won't start anything right now, just gonna finish up Ghostwire Tokyo and hold the fort.
The onslaught is already here. Horizon DLC, Jedi survivor next week, Zelda, Final Fantasy, Diablo, Baldur's Gate, Starfield, Spiderman, .... This year is nuts.
 
This game is just lucky to get out of the door really. To have put it out in such great condition over seven different consoles is pretty impressive.

This isn't pushing the PS5 and XSX at all. It's an older UE4 game with no special effects.
 

Hoppa

Member
Played a bit on PS5, game looks reeallly good - didn’t expect that from this (went in blind, didn’t play the first one). Gameplay isn’t for me though so don’t know how much longer it’ll keep my interest. I do love the setting and how colourful it is, not seen that in a zombie game before..
 

Ceadeus

Member
I had to log in so I can say how much I like this game. I'm so glad deepsilver kept on developing and believing in their project because we rarely get, us gamer, quality game like this. Its graphic are clean and framerate solid. The world is detailed, believable and really beautiful. The skybox and light effect make the many colors and textures pop up. Incredible art design and the care level to the image quality is a joy to watch and also to interact with.

There is so much more good things to say about it but I need to go back at it.

So good
 
So apparently those Character Packs that were supposed to be included with the more expensive Editions won't be available until Summer lol



Is it a huge deal? No, but "soon after release" usually implies something much sooner than ~3 months away. Also, for the Deluxe Edition specifically, you're basically paying for nothing extra at launch.

So yeah, if you're interested in picking up the game keep that in mind.
 

GenericUser

Member
I had to log in so I can say how much I like this game. I'm so glad deepsilver kept on developing and believing in their project because we rarely get, us gamer, quality game like this. Its graphic are clean and framerate solid. The world is detailed, believable and really beautiful. The skybox and light effect make the many colors and textures pop up. Incredible art design and the care level to the image quality is a joy to watch and also to interact with.

There is so much more good things to say about it but I need to go back at it.

So good
Yeah, I love it. Back to the game ....
 

Osthyvel

Member
Game looks amazing, runs great, combat and gore is amazing. So much better than Dying Light 2.

Sounds good!

This is one of my most anticipated games, but i will hold on and buy it further down the road, because i recently got Dying Light 2, and its awsome, and that latest gut update is sick!

Actually, this is like debating if cod or bf is best, its two different type of games, need to own both is my melody.

Dead Island: more gore, humor, simple and plain fun gameplayloop. Not open world, simple movement.

Dying Light: trying to be more serious, open world, choices that impact both world and story, deeper both story and gameplay, advanced movement with parkour.

Its a no brainer to play both series of anyone like slashing zombies imo.
 
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ManaByte

Banned
The gore system is some legit next-level stuff. Amazing how with every punch or kick more skin, muscles, organs and eventually bones start showing. Remarkable job, really.
Yea I punched a zombie in the face and the jaw detached. Awesome stuff.
 

SmokedMeat

Gamer™
This wasn’t really on my radar, but sounds like they pulled it off and made a fun zombie game. Glad to hear it’s running great on PC.

Does it appear to have any replayability, or is it pretty much one and done?
 

winjer

Gold Member
This wasn’t really on my radar, but sounds like they pulled it off and made a fun zombie game. Glad to hear it’s running great on PC.

Does it appear to have any replayability, or is it pretty much one and done?

Seems to be a one playthrough and done. If you are playing just single player.
But it has a co-op. So it has potential to have more replay value.
 

SJRB

Gold Member
Didnt the first Dead island do this? The NPCs would talk to you as if you had all four party members ingame even if it was just you in single player. If memory serves..

..Or is it the 2023 'they'? 👀

It’s a “we don’t want to record multiple versions of voice lines” kind of ‘they’.

Nothing nefarious about it.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
How's the challenge level in the game? I know there's no traditional difficulty settings but just want to ask if its generally a fun and a less challenging experience?

I'm just looking to break the shit out of zombies without worrying that it'll be a Souls-like experience.
 

John Bilbo

Member
How's the challenge level in the game? I know there's no traditional difficulty settings but just want to ask if its generally a fun and a less challenging experience?

I'm just looking to break the shit out of zombies without worrying that it'll be a Souls-like experience.
I'd say it is quite casual in the beginning three hours I've played at least. Utilizing the character powers correctly makes the game a lot easier. I haven't died once.
 

Dr.Morris79

Gold Member
It’s a “we don’t want to record multiple versions of voice lines” kind of ‘they’.

Nothing nefarious about it.
Thats what I initially thought.

I had a feeling thats what it was, going by the first game. It was a bit jarring at first, half way through the game you dont even care.
 
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