This is a game in which all you really do is pick up weapons, modify them in safehouse locations (using components you’ve discovered in the environment) and then use them to bludgeon zombies that come in achingly familiar stereotypes. Dead Island 2 feels like a relic from that era, exhumed and reanimated with very little acknowledgment that titles such as Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, The Last of Us, Assassin’s Creed Origins, God of War and Elden Ring have very much moved the dial on. The problem is action-adventure games have evolved quite a lot since 2012. In between crushing the skulls of a thousand undead monsters, you also meet survivors – mostly stoners, preppers and superstar influencers – who all have a part to play in the emerging story.Ĭrushing the skulls of the LA undead … Dead Island 2. At the start you choose one of six characters, all with differing stats and special abilities, and while attempting to escape the city you must solve the mystery of how the contagion came about and whether or not there’s a cure. The sequel shifts the action to a post-zombie-apocalypse version of Los Angeles, where the narrative stumbles between sprawling Beverly Hills mansions, Hollywood movie sets and sunny beaches. It’s a credit to everyone involved that it actually functions as a finished product, albeit one that shows the scars of its troubled gestation. German studio Yager had three years on the project before publisher Deep Silver passed it on to Sumo Digital for another three years until it washed up with Dambusters, Deep Silver’s own in-house studio. Work on a sequel to 2011 zombie adventure Dead Island began in 2012, but the project has since been through at least three development studios on its tortured route to release.

Once in a while, the story behind a game’s development is more epic than anything being shown on screen.

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