4/5 ★ – TalonJedi's review of Dead Island 2.

Man I adored this game way more than I thought I was going to. It’s easily the best zombie FPS/brawler I’ve played in years. Probably since the first Dead Island over a decade ago. If completely blows the likes of Dying Light out of the water too in regards to quality within not only the fluidity in gameplay mechanics but the visuals as well. I’m not sure what graphics engine Dead Island 2 uses, but it’s very pretty looking. And I almost experienced no frame dips at all as it ran in 60fps overall. The story was pretty entertaining to boot as was the dialogue and acting commentary from not only other characters but the character you choose too. I picked the Irish goth chick Dani and she was a pip and as sarcastic as they come which was gnarly. The weapon customization was very accessible and addictive to undertake as well. As you level up your character you’re constantly finding new weapons of various qualities from common to superior and you’re able to add elemental mods from Lightning to Fire to even corrosive damage. Some zombies have weaknesses and immunities to certain elemental types like firefighter zombies are immune to fire but weak to water, etc. I also loved messing around with environmental hazards too. Pour or toss a can of water on a live wire cable and watch a pack of zombies get fried and so on and so forth. And in regards to boss fights, while there was some stronger enemies they paraded as bosses that’s really the only area I felt that could have been improved upon. Even the final boss fight was a little bit weak. And if anyone is wondering if this is a sandbox like game, rest assured because it is not. There are open zones you can explore and fast travel maps to connect and transport you around between each zones but no objective was further than a couple of hundred meters within each mapped zone. And there’s no new game plus mode which I felt it could have benefited from too. Overall I loved my time with this one and I may go back to mop up any remaining side quests and such and I can highly recommend this zombie title over the Dying Light series without hesitation by far