Can you believe it has been 12 years since the first game released and almost 9 years since that now infamous trailer for the reveal of the second game. In that time Dead Island 2 had become a bit of a joke, with many gamers assuming that the game was no longer being made and was not classed in the same group as titles like Duke Nukem Forever (which strangely released the same year as the first game).

Now we are very close to the game releasing, the release date is set and Deep Silver were kind enough to give me access to the game, so I could try out the first few hours of the game and I came away impressed. In order to make this a little easier to follow, this preview will try to answer the questions you are likely to have, so here we go.

Is this connected to the original game?

Dead Island 2 is a sequel to the first game, as well as the standalone expansion, Riptide. Early on in the game, a character appears who was present on the original island and explains some aspects, in order to help fill in the blanks for anyone new to the series, or those who may have forgotten.

How does movement feel?

The game makes use of a pretty robust movement system, which is not surprising as the creators of the series were Techland, who went on to make Dying Light. The game doesn’t support the same level of parkour, but your character does have some moves they can make use of.

Given that the zombies will not wait for you to finish fighting before they attacking, dodging is crucial. You can sidestep a zombie, which has its uses but the best option is to take a step back. This method of evading is the one I found to be most effective, as at least in the early portion of the game, the zombies like to lunge for you and fall to the ground.

When you are not dodging attacks, the movement options are pretty basic, running and walking, jumping and climbing. Climbing is perhaps the most useful as it can give you more paths to get around some zombies, of course you can also crouch and try to sneak past them.

Do weapons still breakdown?

Yes, but the game retains the basic weapon features of the original game. Weapons are primarily melee in focus, but there are guns later on. Just like the first game, some weapons are as basic as a pipe, some a sword, but all can be upgraded. Upgrades can be as useful as applying extra damage to them, or adding elemental effects, which can help you out.

Almost all weapons can be repaired should they start to breakdown, but the longer you leave it between it starting to degrade and the repair, the more resources it will cost. Resources and weapons are found everywhere, checking everywhere is going to be important, especially when some of the harder and unique zombies show up. The game could be called Kleptomania: The Game and it would not be incorrect. Finding the balance between upgrading and repairing weapons, will be a challenge for most players, but it is not a complicated one.

Why is it called Dead Island 2 and not set on an island. Does the lack of an island make for a weird play space?

Honestly, I don’t know it is keeping the name and not set on an island and I really don’t think the developers do. The game starts off with all the characters you can choose, attempting to escape LA and while they fail, someone explains all avenues of escape are cut off, with a wall encircling the city, just ask those in Melbourne, it can work.

While the game is not set on an island, the location itself does have some fun things going for it. Much like the first game, Dead Island 2 delivers large locations that are broken up by a loading screen. The locations, well the ones I was allowed to visit, are themed to various areas of Los Angeles. The first is that of Beverly Hills and it wasn’t just one location per region, but a few zones within. The first part of the area is just lots of fancy houses, sometimes you can’t access more than a single room, sometimes you have the entire place to explore.

While I would have loved for this game to be set on an island, the setting of Los Angeles doesn’t detract from the game and in fact will likely provide more unique settings than an island would be able to.

What about the zombies, are they a danger?

They can be, there are a few things that can get you killed and the most common one is not paying attention. For the most part, the zombies will shuffle about, doing what they do and if you don’t engage, they will leave you alone. If you get to close or make too much noise, they will come for you. The danger comes in based on the numbers, if the zombies are basic ones, i.e. no special conditions to them, you should be ok. A single zombie and you are fine, a few zombies and you had better dodge, a special zombie and you had best get ready for a fight.

The special zombies are trouble, well depending on the type. There are some elemental ones that will have effects that trigger when you attack them, so throwing a weapon to remove that first is great. Then there are others that are larger or contain throwable effects, like the swarm zombie. Those require thought to deal with, not only because they can dish out large amounts of damage, but rather getting in close can be quite tricky. Plus, you still have to contend with any other zombies around, so watching your back is crucial.

Just a FYI, you can literally carve out chunks of skin and bone from zombies when you attack them, so just be aware you might find some visuals to be quite confronting.

Ok, you have talked about the undead, what about the not-dead?

Ah yes, the players character, there is quite a collection to choose from. You have Dani, Jacob, Ryan, Amy, Bruno and Carla, with each having a very distinct personality. I opted to go with Amy, as there were some characters that seemed like self-centred pricks and I couldn’t stand the idea of playing as them. Amy is still quite arrogant, but its an arrogance that comes from skill and training. Her main goal is to escape the city, so she can get to the running trials and hopefully get into the Paralympics.

Each character does have their own special buffs and perks for selecting them, for example Amy can get back all her stamina if she hits any zombie with a thrown weapon. Bruno does things a little bit different, as when his stamina is low, he gets a boost to the critical damage that he can dish out. The only restriction on the characters is that you can’t change part way through the story, once you have selected you are done.

Beyond the playable characters, there are a host of survivors that you interact with, some of the are quite helpful and others are not so much. There is one survivor who will trade you money for weapons and supplies, it is he that gives you the zombie bait. There are others who have knowledge and are willing to help and of course, there are solo survivors who need help.

Is the game fun?

Honestly I had a blast playing it. Yes, this was a development build, which meant there were some technical issues, but I expected them, but even with those I still had fun. Combat is fluid enough that it doesn’t feel like Dark Souls, but at the same time, not quite as chaotic as Dying Light, it lands quite nicely in-between.

The characters you can choose from are interesting, though some seem to be really poorly thought out, at least at the start, the later parts of the game could flip all of that. The locations are large and have plenty going on, even if the zombies spawning randomly all around gets tiring after a while. With a lot of interactivity with the world, and freedom on how you attack the zombies, it should provide a lot of challenge and variety for players of all types.

Dead Island 2 is coming to Xbox, PlayStation and PC on April 21st, with orders available for the game now.