There’s no Back 4 Blood randomness here when a Skill Card ability is enabled and active in the Skill Deck, it is always in effect (with some exceptions), and players can dive into their Skill Deck to make changes and adapt to the situation at any time. Skill Cards are akin to modular branches of the tree that can be swapped out for or combined with other active cards to tailor the abilities of one’s slayer to their desired playstyle, not to mention turn the odds against the undead in their favour. ![]() While many Skill Cards can be collected (acquired through levelling up, completing certain missions, scavenging fallen zombies, or simply exploring LA), players effectively have only one deck to concern themselves with: their skill tree (a.k.a. Having played the finished game extensively since launch, however, I’m relieved to say that Dead Island 2’s Skill Cards are nowhere near as tedious or complex. Leading up to this review, my biggest concern with Dead Island 2 was that the recently unveiled Skill Card mechanic would complicate and bog down the flow of gameplay, similar to how Back 4 Blood’s Playing Card decks all but killed that game’s momentum between rounds with its constant min-maxing and multiple deck-building shenanigans. Most players familiar with FPS action titles should also easily hit the ground running. Veterans of the latter series, in particular, will find themselves evading, sprinting, jumping and delivering powerful flying kicks like a pro within only minutes of unlocking the ability to do so. ![]() “I’m relieved to say that Dead Island 2’s Skill Cards are nowhere near as tedious or complex.” Thankfully, Dambuster Studios has addressed this by adopting a more modern control scheme that auspiciously borrows elements from Call of Duty and Dying Light to provide a responsive gameplay experience that is better suited to its close-quarters style of combat. Each comes with its own themed tourist map that players will learn and memorize backwards and forwards so that they can quickly navigate across each zone to reach new areas once they have been unlocked.Īs discussed earlier, it’s been quite some time since the last Dead Island game washed ashore, and gamers’ tastes in control schemes have long since evolved in the interim. Rather than overwhelming players with a large, sprawling open world map replete with side missions, quest givers and a fog of war to gradually uncover, Dead Island 2 presents its playable areas as an interconnected network of sightseeing spots. Regardless of which slayer you choose, the primary objective in Dead Island 2 is naturally to get out of “HELL-A” alive and escape the “zompocalypse.” However, it won’t take players long to realize that the game is far less intended to be a desperate, pathos-drenched struggle for survival than it is a pulpy, tongue-in-cheek, satirical “what-if” romp through the City of Angels and its surrounding neighbourhoods.ĭead Island 2 takes place in the immediate aftermath of the zombie infestation that has taken hold. ![]() ![]() “The look, vibe, and personality of each playable character are surprisingly as diverse as one can expect in a first-person RPG brawler.” Thankfully, the third time has indeed proven the charm for Dead Island 2, as Dambuster has not only managed to get the game past the finish line finally but has also delivered a highly polished, well-crafted and delightfully grotesque follow-up to the original games with production values well-befitting its fictional Hollywood setting. Infamously, the long-anticipated sequel to the original Techland-developed Dead Island and Dead Island: Riptide saw its reins c hange hands from its initial developer Yager (of Spec Ops: The Line fame) to Sumo Digital in 2016, only for that effort to be mothballed once again and the IP moved internally to be worked on by Deep Silver’s own Dambuster Studios in 2019. Moreover, it was so slow that there were many times during the game’s development that pundits and franchise fans alike, looking from the outside in, were convinced that the title had been cancelled ( despite Deep Silver’s repeated claims to the contrary). It’s no secret that for the past decade, publisher Deep Silver’s action role-playing game Dead Island 2 has shambled along a slow and wayward path toward release.
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