it exists, we played it and it was very cool


Calamitous is the best way to sum up the development of Dead Island 2. The title was announced in June 2014 at the PlayStation E3 conference, and in all, three studios will have had the project in their hands. Yager Development (Spec Ops: The Line), Sumo Digital (Sackboy: A Big Adventure) and now Dambuster Studios (Homefront: The Revolution). But rest assured fans, that back-and-forth is over and this sequel is ready for release. So ready that we had the opportunity to try it. DI2 exists and we left reassured by what we saw/played.

After the announcement of the release date on video during Gamescom 2022 Opening Night Live, it’s time for us to let go: it’s been several days since we were invited to take Dead Island 2 in our hands. Yes, it sounds unreal but here is our preview.

Under the sun of the City of Angels

In Dead Island 2, there is no longer any question of strolling quietly on the paradise island of Banoi, a fictional town in northern Australia. The six characters of this new adventure – against four previously – will go to the west coast of the United States in the stronghold of cinema: Los Angeles. A place where full quarantine has been declared. The sunny vibe of the early visuals – which was brilliantly parodied by GOAT Simulator 3 – was fully retained as the teams started development from scratch, which further explains the latest delays.

If Downtown LA could have been a playground in itself, we will visit other well-known places, obviously, infested with zombies. We will therefore descend on the Santa Monica Pier and its attractions, often used by Hollywood, in the chic streets of Beverly Hills or Bel-Air, and even in Venice Beach and its iconic promenade. The game should be built around these progressively unlockable areas, not an open world like Dying Light. However, we can not say anything more about it, because our demo was restricted to the Santa Monica pier, in the middle of the night, with enough enemies and weapons to have fun.

dead island 2 prints

Even if the environment changes, it is still an action-RPG playable in solo and up to 3 players online. An experience where the focus was on horror and zombies with the aim of obtaining a visceral result. We will have the choice between six characters, including Amy, the warrior with whom we met.

Dead Island 2 is alive and well

Head to the Santa Monica Pier to find a lost data disk. We are not sent there to test the different activities, but to fulfill our mission by surviving. Just like its elder, Dead Island 2 offers two types of gameplay with melee combat and firearms. And like Dying Light, guns are generally a bad idea when it comes to melee combat. If you can’t climb everywhere like the Techland franchise, there are not only classic trips. Knowing that the zombies can arrive in waves and that we can be overwhelmed given the cramped surroundings at times, our characters are equipped with a multidirectional strafe to get out quickly, and movements such as the drop kick which is obtained via abilities that respond to a new system.

Dead Island 2 reviews

To unlock skills, we must find cards to build a deck, or wait for them to be given to us as rewards, in order to then assign them wherever we want. This process is intended to be very flexible since at any time, it is possible to reconsider our choices to adopt another style of play. For example, dodging can be exchanged for blocking attacks. It should be perfect for the undecided and rekindle interest over time. We cannot definitively decide on the extent of the aptitudes but there are several trees (survivor, agility, killer and “numen” which will perhaps be translated by god), and also a system of tiers (tiers 1, tiers 2, third 3) which will count for the evolution of the character.

Dead Island 2 still offers to repair, via a workbench and for money, our weapons and to retouch them with removable or non-removable perks (ex: increase damage at the expense of durability, perform a critical hit to trigger an explosion …) and mods (ex: strength booster). The fights are sometimes tactical with enemies sensitive to the elements (fire, electricity…) etc., and we must therefore pay attention to our opponents to maximize the damage by having an eye on the health bar. Some zombies are even protected by parts to be demolished before hoping to melt their life. For what we’ve seen, the feeling is very good and satisfying, although there may still be room for improvement here and there to make it even more visceral. But we still took pleasure in trying at all costs to discover all the dismemberments. These can be done by charging a shot and targeting specific parts (head, legs, etc.) or in a more natural way, according to the developers.

Dead Island 2 preview

As for the atmosphere, the Dambuster Studios teams respect the horror map and the atmosphere given off by the Santa Monica pier in the middle of the night, with the illumination or not of the attractions, worked wonderfully with a little ghost train atmosphere. A clown with a very successful design will even have “traumatized” one of our colleagues (no, we won’t throw out a name).

We are waiting for it… really!

To be honest, we didn’t necessarily expect to come out with good impressions with such a development. But Dead Island 2, even if it won’t be original at all, should provide a very cool zombie experience, in line with its predecessor, thanks to a very fun melee system. Ditto for the horrific atmosphere. If the teams manage to reproduce sequences like those on the Santa Monica pier, it will be more than enough for the genre. In short, we are curious to try it for long hours, relieved not to have the feeling of dealing with a Duke Nukem Forever and we will be there.



Source link -120