Sometimes I use “Impressions” posts as a sort of “review of a game I stopped playing halfway,” but this one is legit just some first impressions. I’m still playing! For now.

To start, I loved the original Dead Island. Some people were tired of the zombie genre, even 12 years (!!!) ago, but I don’t mind it. What’s the actual difference between the hundreds of mobs you kill being zombies, mutants, nightmares, animals, dinosaurs, or other people? I guess zombie tropes can make some of the experience kind of rote, but at the end of the day what matters is if the gameplay loop is fun for you.

So, Dead Island 2. Thus far, I’m kind of… concerned?

It’s been a while since the first game, but everything in DI2 feels cramped. The location is Bel-Air, so that may be accurate, but this definitely feels a lot more like a corridor shooter minus the guns. There are very specific routes you have to take to get around the map, and most of them run through the same houses and yards each time. Not sure if the later game opens up or not, but I have my doubts.

I also hate the environmental improvisations. Specifically, there are water jugs, cans of gasoline, car batteries, and other similar items strewn about everywhere. You can use these items to engineer environmental traps, such as dumping water in a big puddle, throwing a zombie-attracting item in it, and then starting a generator to electrocute them all. OK, cool.

The problem is that Dead Island 2 takes after the original in that zombies scale to your level such that even a few standard zombies can kill you if you’re not careful. The cramped areas in which you encounter zombies also makes it difficult (or outright dangerous) to run away if you get in over your head, especially once the special zombies start showing up. The end result is that I am thus incentivized to start lugging around car batteries or gas cans wherever I go, so as to have the materials for environmental shenanigans at the ready. There very well may be such items available in each area, but it’s hard to find them while getting swarmed.

So, yeah, instead of focusing on the one thing the series is excellent at – the meaty and satisfying melee game – I am running around one-shotting zombies by throwing car batteries at them. If the devs wanted to lean into traps-based combat ala Horizon: Zero Dawn, then do that. Preferably under a different title.

Another thing that is really irking me is how punished you are for what limited exploration is available. You will find locked shit all over the place, but you will never really know if its even possible to retrieve the key yet. See, keys are held by special zombies, and specific special zombies only start spawning after you encounter the “first” one, typically via Story quest. Before the first boss, for example, no Crusher zombies will spawn; that means the locked military chest you found at the beginning of the zone cannot be unlocked, because the key-holder is a Crusher zombie. But you won’t know that ahead of time, so you might be combing every room for a hidden key that doesn’t exist.

Plus, inexplicably, the devs allows for “skull-level” zombies to roam about. Want to head down an alleyway and explore there instead of following a quest marker? Too bad! Zombies above your level will eat your face off within two hits. I honestly do not ever remember that being a thing in the original game. In principle, I can understand the game sort of “organically” directing players via deadly foes – this happens in Fallout: New Vegas and Dark Souls and many places inbetween – but it just feels bad here. And, of course, contributes to the claustrophobia of an already-limited map.

Also, it’s funny how much the FLESH system was hyped. For the uninitiated:

“This cutting-edge technology has been designed to deliver the most gruesome zombie experience ever seen in a video game. Anatomically correct layers of skin fat and muscle can be ripped away with machete point accuracy to reveal breakable bones and internal organs that are individually destructible,” Dead Island 2’s developers said during the introductory presentation.

“Blunt weapons allow players to shatter skulls, detach eyeballs and even punch holes through the undead. Sharp weapons can dismember heads or limbs at any point and slice torsos clean in half, utilising advanced fluid and soft body physics,” they continued.

(source)

Is the game gory AF? Yep. Does it matter even a little bit? Nope. The specific problem is that there are so many zombies attacking you at any given time that you are unlikely to appreciate the fact that their eyeball is swinging outside its socket in a realistic fashion or whatever. There’s no mechanical benefit either, as even a zombie bereft of both arms will still try to headbutt/bite you. Dead Space this ain’t. I suppose this does contribute to the weight behind melee attacks and how satisfying it feels, but honestly, I would trade all of it in a heartbeat for more ragdoll-esque physics instead. Zombies tripping over each other, falling on couches, bumping into walls, etc, is infinitely more immersive to me than their jaw hanging half off or ribs flying everywhere. I saw that in Fallout 3 death animations in 2008.

If it sounds like I’m pretty down on Dead Island 2 so far, well, you’re not wrong. The game is absolutely gorgeous running at max settings, and there are insane details in every throw-away room that you manage to find. But I’m kinda concerned that perhaps the level of detail added was exactly the cause for how closed up the game is. If I wanted to kill zombies in corridors, I would play Dead Space or Resident Evil or Silent Hill or practically any of the other games in this whole genre. What made the original Dead Island stand out was the open-world nature of the map, at least in the first two Acts. Thus far, the sequel seems to me leaning more into the Dead Rising goofiness minus its openness, which isn’t all that great of a trade.

Here’s to hoping that things improve.