3.5/5 ★ – Caljb03's review of Dead Island 2.

Dead Island 2 transported me back to the 7th-generation days in some of the best ways possible. It was an incredibly fun zombie action game however it did little to offer anything outside of that. While the primary gameplay loop on Dead Island 2 had me hooked throughout, it doesn't add anything to what is an already oversaturated and worn-out genre. Where games like Dying Light use parkour to change the loop to something new, Dead Island 2 says "Now fight the zombies in LA" and expects you to think that's a brave new change. The gameplay loop in question is this game's combat. It's the melee-focused gameplay you've come to expect from the previous Dead Island titles and Techland's spiritual successor Dying Light games. It's not new, but it works. The FLESH system works wonders to make your attacks feel impactful. It turns a baseball bat from a boring old tool into something that can have a zombie's eye pop out. The way this system works is wherever your attack lands on an enemy, the enemy will sustain damage in that area. So focusing attacks on the head will leave their cranium as a bloodied stub, and focusing on an arm can have it sliced clean off. Even though the combat itself isn't anything new, this small addition gave it a new breath of life throughout my playthrough. It's not just melee combat though, there are also ranged weapons. This is where the gameplay starts to fall over itself. Guns in this game suck, they're just bad, really bad. Aiming with them feels far too sensitive making it easy to accidentally miss your target, they also don't do nearly enough damage as they should making them feel like more inventory filler than something important. They aren't as bad as the Dying Light firearms, but it becomes blatantly obvious that the developers put their focus on the melee combat as the guns just fall flat. Narratively, I wouldn't be able to recommend this game. Having beaten it a couple of days ago, I don't think I can tell you much of what actually happened in the game. This isn't "The Last of US" hell, it isn't even "Days Gone". It's your by-the-book zombie story with a group of plucky survivors stuck in the apocalypse trying to escape. Dead Island throws a few predictable curveballs your way in an attempt to set the narrative apart, but in the end, you'll likely forget they even happened. I do think that the standout here is the graphics. I don't subscribe to the idea that graphics are an overly important part of a game, but if they're able to enhance the experience they should be praised. Dead Island 2 may be one of the best-looking games I've played, making the lack of a photo mode sting even more. The care that went into making environments seem almost photo-realistic at times can be seen throughout, and I was constantly in awe at what the team were able to do. The lighting system in play helps enhance an already texture-rich world into something unbelievable. The light floods rooms through large windows as it naturally would, pool lights create an eerie glow as you fill it with zombie corpses and sewers are filled with realistic darkness that's only broken by your flashlight. These added plenty to my experience, honestly making it an unforgettable playthrough. Dead Island 2 is proof that you need more than zombies to carry your game, even after reading through this review you'd probably think that I'm describing a 6/10 instead of a 7. And you'd be right, but Dead Island 2 gave me far more than I was anticipating and even though it has its fair share of issues, I still found myself thoroughly enjoying my time with the game.