The original Dead Island from Techland had a somewhat difficult development, but became an odd success when it was finally released in 2011. Its often unintentionally funny coop was the secret sauce for that period of games when the cooperative titles were extremely popular. While its often mediocre quest and level design and simplistic and grindy action RPG/looter shooter mechanics were often excused. It also allowed for melee combat using the analogue sticks, had some systemic elements, ability to drive cars and its story, despite being boring, actually acknowledged all playable characters even if you were to play solo – something that Borderlands wasn’t doing yet. But despite me being somewhat positive about the game over a decade ago, I couldn’t even bother to finish its standalone expansion Riptide, let alone ever replay it.
Techland moved on to create a potentially more interesting franchise with Dying Light, but I didn’t like those either. All while Dead Island 2 went into development hell, switching developers and being remade from scratch several times. But it has been released last year and all of its previously announced DLCs are out as well, so I’ve decided to give it a go. To my surprise, it turned out to be quite entertaining, if you know what to expect.
The basics of the sequel are unchanged. You get a selection of characters, each of whom specializes in a specific gameplay approach. You get the focus on melee combat and weapons that can be modified but also need to be repaired. You have an action RPG/looter shooter basics where you get experience, enemies have levels, you constantly find weapons of different quality, which also have a level of their own and you get main and side quests across different areas that are travelled between via loading screens. But then, there are some tweaks and changes.
Weapons can no longer be crafted Dead Rising style, so all of the focus is now on crazy modifications. You get skill cards for experience, quest rewards or loot, and you can swap them in and out at any point. Coop and its role in the story are now simplified – 3 people instead of 4, story acknowledges only one character and you have to complete the intro to unlock it. Melee combat has no analogue mode and favors counters, something that doesn’t get boring, somehow. The game also completely removes car driving in favor of making levels more fun to navigate on foot and increasing the mobility of the player character.
Where Dambuster Studios decided to focus the most, however, are the systemic elements of the game which are genuinely entertaining. It’s not quite Magicka, but the levels are full of different barrels and live wires and as soon as any fight starts you expect things to get out of control in fun ways. You can utilize those to prepare traps and become a more efficient zombie killer. Or die in a funny way. I’m really glad that this feeling of silly fun, that is usually well delivered within the story content as well, is felt in the gameplay, as it elevates Dead Rising 2 above the usual boredom of the genre. And I want to praise how this game manages to mix funny and horrifying in the most entertaining way possible.
That said, the issues of an action RPG are still here. You will get tired of combat at times, so playing the game in long sessions can be bad. Some of the side quests feel added for “more content” and nothing else. Some of the boss encounters are more frustrating than difficult, especially in the DLCs. Attempts to make some quests more engaging by making you read through the documents to figure out where to go next are commendable, but do not work with this type of interface. And honestly, I feel like this game would’ve been better if all of the RPG mechanics were ripped out and it was designed as a fun action adventure game instead. But I guess it sells worse?..
Speaking of selling – I don’t fully understand the reasoning for the 2 story DLCs either. While both Haus and SoLA have cool ideas and visuals, they feel unnecessary to the overall game experience. The main game story ends on a big cliffhanger, so one would expect these DLCs would have something to add, but they don’t. And yet, they are not the obligatory “endgame content” crap either with quite a lot of creativity put into the locations and main quests. Though the side quest design is quite bad. I just can’t figure these DLCs out at all.
Nonetheless, Dead Island 2 managed to keep me genuinely entertained for most of my playtime with it. It understands that players want to have stupid fun and lets them, which is not something I’ve seen in recent examples of the genre. If you are in the mood for a dumb, but enjoyable action RPG/looter shooter, I think Dead Island 2 might be the best example of the genre in recent years. Just don’t expect it to be anything more than that.