It has been in development since 2014, with four different studios working on the title. Now Dead Island 2 is finally available and a hit (PC/Epic, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series).
For a long time it looked like we’d never see Dead Island 2. A gaming zombie if you will and can handle bad puns. But now the release is through and the co-op title managed over a million sales in the first weekend alone (twitter.com).
On MeinMMO we will show you what kind of game this is, how the co-op works and what crazy statistics the developers have revealed.
For a first impression, take a look at the Dead Island 2 trailer:
Dead Island 2: Gameplay Launch Trailer
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Zombie mud and buzz saw perks
What kind of game is this? Dead Island 2 is a playground full of zombies and crazy guns. I don’t want to reveal too much – the weapons make up a good part of the motivation and it’s exciting to keep finding new combinations to reduce zombie skulls to smoothie consistency.
The developer tweet above provides an interesting and deadly example. We see a baseball bat enhanced with a portable circular saw.
You quest as an “immune” with 6 different characters through large, independent areas that are bursting with the undead and black humor. “Tinkering, banging, starting all over again” is how the GameStar colleagues define the gameplay loop in their test (via gamestar.de/Bezahlartikel).
If you don’t value the story very much, but want bloody co-op action with crazy (melee) weapons and black humor – go for it. The main story runs for around 20 hours if you shoot through it at a normal pace.
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How does the co-op work? You can experience the full game in 3-player co-op, and progress from your friends’ campaigns will be preserved. In addition, everyone has their own loot.
Spoiled crossplay players have to cut corners.
While everything can be experienced in 3-player co-op, there is no crossplay or cross-progression. If you have a PS4 version, you can only play together with PS4 and PS5. The same applies to Xbox One and Series. The PC players also keep to themselves accordingly.
What else did the developers share? Besides the impressive sales figures for the first weekend, the developers have shared other small statistics to decorate the zombie chops with numbers:
The numbers give hope that humanity would survive a “real” zombie apocalypse – given enough baseball bats and buzz saws
Here you can find out which games on Steam can currently shine with high player numbers: The 5 multiplayer games on Steam with the highest number of players – as of April 2023