Dead Island 2 made a non-playable appearance at E3 this year, and though its wares looked a bit too premature to pass any real judgement, I’d hesitate to say I was blown away. In fact, as I sat watching the Yager Development rep play and explain the game, I don’t recall feeling very many strong emotions at all. Informative? Sure. Promising? I’d say it was. Exciting? Well… “there’s always PAX.”
With PAX now upon us, not only is Dead Island 2 now playable on the show floor, but it’s playable with multiplayer co-op. An entire ingame area was available to me during my eleven-minute demo, complete with weapons to upgrade, walkers to slice in two, and teammates to troll. Or, you know, join forces with.
Deep Silver made it very clear that the PAX build is not just beta, not just alpha, but pre-alpha (a term I’m seeing a lot lately), so it’s important to keep in mind that pretty much anything is still subject to change. I’m of the opinion that the term alpha is strong enough on it’s own; a few more steps down this slippery slope and developers will be showcasing design documents at PAX next year. But I digress.
The demo area was residential, and when the loading screen faded I immediately looked for things to do. There were a few objectives listed on the left hand side of the screen (upgrade your weapon with fire by collecting X, upgrade it with electricity by doing Y), but for the most part I had free reign to slap around some zombs’ and go at it. There were timed objectives that popped up periodically, which I’ll get to in a minute.
One of the first things I noticed is that my character was female. I looked around at the other folks playing, and this was not the case for all of them. Equipped with a samurai sword and my instincts alone, I began wandering the barren neighborhood in search of undead adversaries to take down. My search didn’t take long.
Once you do encounter zombies to slice up, Dead Island 2 offers a bevy of options when it comes to how exactly the player can do so. With my sword, I could execute a simple, repeated hack with R2, which was often plenty for disposing your standard undead. To make things interesting, I could press L1 for a kind of “killing slice,” often splitting a lurching corpse in two or slicing a head clean off, sending it flying into the sunset. There are guns, maces, and more to be toyed with, but given the timed nature of the demo, I stuck with my trusty blade.
One mechanic I had far too much fun with was my character’s kicking ability. It’s simple and not all that groundbreaking, but the ability thump zombies in the face with the business end of your sneaker is oddly satisfying. It’s useful elsewhere too; knocking down doors, fences, suspicious-looking grass, all became easier with the help of my trusty Reebok shoe. By the time the demo concluded I was getting creative, leaping into the air and unleashing flying calcitrations the likes of which Viewtiful Joe himself would be proud. I earned more than a few odd looks from the nearby Deep Silver rep, but hey — now he knows what Dead Island 2’s humblest attack is really capable of.
I mentioned timed objectives, and at one point during the demo I was tasked with defending a barbecue from certain and unceremonious doom. Zombies swarmed, meat sizzled away on the grille, and there were even a few Thugs (large, heavyset zombies with a substantial boost in power) to make things interesting. My signature kick rendered useless, I slashed and sliced with reckless abandon, my fire-imbued blade blurring wildly across the screen as I fought to save my neighbors’ right to roast burgers and dogs without compromising their own brains in the process. I was eventually forced to retreat, but apparently I held them off long enough — as I ran down a nearby hill confused and nearly dead, I was notified that with the help of my PAX-mates, we’d completed the objective. I kicked down a nearby wooden post to celebrate.
Though its visuals have improved, frame rate and overall fluidity in Dead Island 2 are still a bit rough around the edges. I don’t mind that, though; I was mainly just happy that I had fun. Yager has also gone and toughened up some of the more intimidating enemies, a specific complaint I held about the game the last time I saw it.
Dead Island 2 is expected to release in the Spring of 2015, so it’s not as if this is a title we won’t be hearing about for a while. At E3 I was boggled by its focus on goofiness in favor of the first game’s drama, but after the PAX demo I think I’m finally beginning to get the picture. Whether or not it’s the right move for the franchise is another discussion entirely, but that’s not really gamers’ call to make. I do have one request for the final build, though; how about some varied shoe and sneaker options? A few thwacks from a hefty Windsor Smith would surely send the Thugs running. No weapons required.
