Although there is a lot to admire about both the playable and non-playable voice cast, the plot lacks and/or rushes any character development to the point that supposedly emotional story beats fail to land as the writers intended. Avoiding spoilers, the game tells a paint-by-numbers zombie outbreak tale, with some interesting narrative threads that are left unresolved, or never reach their full potential.

Traditionally, people don’t come to zombie games seeking out a top-shelf story (with the exception of titles like The Walking Dead, The Last of Us, etc.), and Dead Island 2 does very little to dispel the negative stereotypes surrounding zombie horror writing. Terms like “innovation” and “originality” unfortunately do not apply to the long-awaited Dead Island sequel, which is largely a retread of its long lineage of zombie game ancestors.

However, even more interesting than the descriptors that I would use to discuss Dead Island 2 are the words that I would avoid mentioning. So when the long-rumored Dead Island sequel finally arrived, I sorted through my weapons of zombie destruction (AKA my controllers) and charted a course for the post-apocalyptic hellscape of Dead Island 2, set to release for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox and Xbox Series X|S on April 21, 2023.įollowing multiple playthroughs of Dead Island 2, where I completed a blood-soaked journey through every story mission, side quest, and earned every PlayStation 5 trophy, a variety of adjectives come to mind when examining the game through a critical lens. Whether in the halls of the Raccoon City Police Department in Resident Evil 2, past Call of Duty co-op marathons with my sister, or one of the many undead-related gaming experiences (such as 2011’s Dead Island) that I have come to cherish through the years, I’m basically the Yo-Yo Ma of zombie murder at this point.

Like many of you reading this, I have killed A TON of zombies in my life as a gamer (or lack thereof).

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