Like the socialites of Orange County, Dead Island 2’s great looks and seemingly ideal first impressions betray a surprising lack of imagination. Meanwhile, Dambuster Studios delivered a charmingly hilarious post-apocalyptic sequel to the 2011 original. This sequel is evenly distributed with great one-liners and disjointed body parts. But aside from that ball-to-wall silliness and quite a few comedic chops, what hasn’t been done well in a dozen other zombie-filled games since the original Dead Island came out more than once Not much. Ten years ago, especially Dying Light 1 and Dying Light 2 (made by Techland, the studio that created Dead Island, among others). Despite its lack of originality, Dead Island 2 does a great job of parodying over-the-top Los Angeles-based zombies, injecting a much-needed dose of Botox into a series that has been dormant for far too long. there is Reds in Hollywood Making his carpet even redr with a lavish gore was a laugh-out-loud funny and generally well-used time.
It’s a lighthearted first-person action game, where unspeakable violence against hordes of “Hell-A” zombies is the most commonplace. After picking one of six virus-resistant playable characters aboard a failed plane evacuation, you’re thrown gore-first into the ridiculous streets of Southern California, where no one seems to be taking the apocalypse seriously. Alone or with up to two co-op companions, dropkick and eviscerate undead cow barks over the course of this 30-hour adventure. Seekers of life, including a drug-addicted rock star and a geriatric ex-movie star who takes her fashion cues from Hugh Hefner.
The attempt itself may actually be ironic, as the narrative, like a cheesy B-movie, makes little effort to create anything that comes close to coherence…in their torso. The few twists and turns that exist in this familiar post-apocalyptic tale aren’t all that surprising or interesting.
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The good news is that while it lacks storytelling content, Meandering Odyssey at least has some very interesting writing and memorable characters throughout, and the fact that both are completely free-form works is what makes Dead Island so special. One chapter was looking for a squeaky assistant on the set of a horror movie featuring a giant acid-spitting mechanical spider. In a side quest, she took down zombies in a creative way for social media influencers looking to increase her influence. The many ways the developers skillfully tease the typical vanity and emptiness of the Los Angeles setting are reminiscent of Grand Theft Auto 5’s Los Santos in the best possible way.
Much of the constant stream of laughter comes from your chosen protagonist. The main character mocks almost everything and everyone around him, for example Jacob, the character I played the most, repeatedly questioned his clown motives as a zombie stalking children’s carnivals. rice field. One downer, though, is that a lot of the great lines are stepped on by his NPCs who use the same lines no matter what character you’re playing. Too often, this means that they don’t care what the hilarious thing the character said and just go ahead with what they want to tell you. Other than that, his high-quality voice performance underpins an excellent screenplay, allowing him to recklessly push through the ridiculous hijinks in front of him. That’s the best part of Dead Island 2.
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If you’ve ever braved the virtual zombie apocalypse, you’ll be familiar with the combat formula that this cheeky iteration comes very close. Craft more elaborate tools of destruction like swords and sledgehammers and flamethrower demon lovers, and eventually guns. But while the more wacky melee option has an interesting design, it’s actually not as exciting as it looks because it doesn’t feel all that different from an unmodded peer aside from applying different status effects The melee weapons you have at your disposal are also far less original and crazy than the kind of bonkers weapons you played with in the Dead Rising series. not possible.
As such, Dead Island 2’s numerical close-quarters novelty wears off quickly. Regardless of what they look like and sound like on paper, there’s just a lack of variety in the way the available destruction tools work, and this battle against hordes of zombies stands out. The fact that it’s as hard as hitting a T-ball from . start. Multiplayer is the best remedy for avoiding repetition. Because if your friends are there to help you dropkick an enemy off a rooftop, it’s going to be a blast.
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One thing that has eased the tension a bit, though, is that failures, alone or as a team, are becoming increasingly rare. Unlock enough tools to stand on top of piles of undead corpses instead of being swallowed under them. For example, doing a perfectly timed evasion or parrying both have very generous windows, making the zombie in question invulnerable when doing it, and it’s crazy how much health is restored in the process ( where appropriate) skill equipment). As a result, I never felt like I was in danger. There’s nothing positively wrong with getting up close and personal with the undead, but in just a few hours, I definitely feel embarrassed about my title as the newly appointed king of extreme plastic surgery in the Los Angeles area. I got
The introduction of ranged weapons exacerbates the problem. It feels sloppy and inaccurate, and doesn’t benefit from most of the melee-focused skills and upgrades. Not only are firearms rarely the most effective way to mow down zombies, ammunition is very limited and firing them is never satisfying. More than that, with zombies constantly coming your way from all directions, you’re unlikely to find yourself in a situation where you can open fire on your enemies before being interrupted by a quick-time event to push the pushy zombies away. It means rarely. you go back to the brawl. Also, last year I parkoured around Villedor in Dying Light 2, so my movement during combat in Dead Island 2 feels really slow by comparison.
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However, it’s not all overwhelming news. In a nice change from previous Dead Island/Dying Light games, consumable tools like grenades, molotov cocktails, and shurikens are replenished through cooldowns instead of finite amounts you create and use. This gave me the freedom to use gadgets rather than hoarding them in fear of future scenarios where I would never need them.
Another thing that keeps combat fresh is the constant stream of passive perks and active abilities that unlock as you progress through side quests and story. Ultimately, a wide variety of options are now available to customize your character to suit your preferred playstyle. If you want to get even weirder, you also have access to superhuman powers like the powerful AoE ground pound and the ability to go into a frenzied rage and tear apart zombies with your bare hands. These powers have cooldowns and serve primarily as a way to break through traditional hacking and slashing, but they can go a long way toward making repetitive combat encounters more interesting.
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In addition to the bugs that creep from the torso-mounted beehives, Dead Island 2 also has a variety of uninteresting technical bugs. It wasn’t game-breaking, but I saw people sinking into the ground during cutscenes, captions that lied about who they were talking about, and lots of other unintentional stupidity. , lag, disappearing characters, and many other problems make a somewhat buggy game even more unpredictable. Alone, you hardly have a good time, but that gives Dead Island 2 a slightly unpolished feel.
My final complaint is that there is an annoying rule that no one can join your game unless they are in the same part of the campaign or further. You want to play together, but only have to do so again if either player gets ahead of the other. It’s a particularly odd decision, as I can’t think of a single plot development that makes enough sense to justify shielding it from spoilers in this way.
