Many, too many years have passed since that beautiful but damned trailer that announced the arrival of this game to the world. There Isla Muerta 2 Review What you are about to read finally puts an end to a problematic and, we imagine, exhausting development for all parties involved. Before we start ripping this new game apart, regardless of how you evaluate the final product, Dambuster Studios deserves no small amount of credit for bringing the so-called ship to port. So welcome Dead Island 2, it was nice meeting you anyway.
bite and bite
Dead Island 2 is a chat game. Yes, really: you grab two friends and start playing, but it's like talking on the phone. We talked about what you did tonight and what you did, and he will bother you enough; But when the volume increases it is better to put the talk aside and concentrate because it will mean that problems are coming, a lot of problems. Dead Island 2, let's be clear, can be played alone without any kind of problem, and for about ten hours it also keeps you glued because in the end the thing works, the graphics are really very beautiful and also, let's be honest, knocking out zombies is always a satisfaction. Except that without friends something is missing, the talk, and the talk is missing because the adventure lacks the bite.
In Dead Island 2 you basically do two things: kill zombies 90% of the time and search for new items to kill other zombies in the remaining 10%. And so far that would be fine, right? Also, using these small, but super detailed levels instead of the latest, sloppy open worlds is a significant advantage: you are always doing something and you never waste time. However, there is a lack of progression, exponential growth, a change of cards on the table that impacts players like Ravenholm did in Half-Life 2, or the most recent skyscraper in The Last of Us Part II. where the infected arrive. Get out of the walls and you can get there with a shotgun. It is not nice to put such important productions in front of you, but that sensitivity in the management of emotions is also found in many games that for one reason or another have not made history. Few surprises here, and it's a shame.
Blows and scalps
Dead Island 2, on the other hand, goes straight from start to finish, adding new elements, such as new powers and new crafting mechanics, but ultimately nothing that gives you the idea of getting closer and closer to danger. In fact, thanks to the possibility of increasing our power by recycling zombie parts that will be unlocked halfway through the game, we will become so strong that the danger to others will be ourselves. immune to this strange new epidemic zombie. From a certain point on, Dead Island 2 encourages us to overcome the zombie threat rather than fear it, and it is a choice that is perhaps also made to hide the limits of the entire technical and gameplay infrastructure. There are some end-of-level bosses unlike any other, galvanizing moments in which the music booms and zombies come out everywhere, but it's still about fighting and not through a complex or interesting system but rather elemental. .
Suggestions...
Dead Island 2 does a lot with little, it is true and so is the fact that many of these problems were already present in the first game, which also showed a technical and graphical performance far from the standards of the time. At least Dead Island 2 from this point of view is decidedly modern, very clean and with a pleasant and constant fluidity, with some drops only in the cooperative mode. In terms of gameplay, however, we're stuck in 2006.. For example, being able to play with elements such as electricity and fire is now a constant that is no longer surprising if done like in Dead Island 2. In the game Dambuster you can open the tap of the pipe to flood the surroundings and finally use a weapon modified or an electrical source, such as a car battery, to toast lost loved ones quickly while remaining more or less safe. Barrels of water, like gasoline cans, can be used to create trap pools, where you can lure zombies with the right bait and then blow them up in one go with a homemade bomb built for the purpose. The biggest limitation of implementing such a system is that it never leaves room for creative improvisation. You don't feel like you're doing it because you're an evil genius; you feel like you're doing it because the game told you to.
Weapons and cards
Not even the modified weapons are surprising, more or less the same ones already seen and used in the first game or in the two Dying Lights of Techland. The idea and style of the weapons was born with Dead Island, so it is also correct to find them here, but the repetition after what from a certain point of view is three games is felt. The different abilities that will be applied to our character through the discovery and selection of certain cards are another demonstration that the developers have found a balance, a precarious balance, and then were afraid to damage it with more radical abilities, in order to do more. clearly canceling a gameplay that remains, also for that reason, always too docile and restrained. Is a double flying kick better or a single but less powerful kick, or is an explosion that scares away the zombies while we use the medkit or the explosion while reloading better? Yeah, Skill cards allow you to build a construction. own, but always a little boring. Not even the number of zombies on screen, around a dozen, helps in this sense, although the game will use various tricks to give us the idea of being overwhelmed. I may be crazy, but if I had to direct a game about zombies, the first thing I would do is make sure there are enough of them to convey the idea of a horde.
In Dead Island 2 you either dodge or even
The combat takes place by aiming at the part of the zombie's body that we want to damage first, a choice that will also depend on the type of weapon we wield. With a sharp weapon it is preferable to aim at the extremities, to be able to carry out selective amputations; However, with a blunt instrument it is usually better to aim for the body or head. By modifying the weapons on the work tables that we will find scattered around the place, we can still perfect them to adapt them to the use we want to give them by increasing their strength and speed, for example, to the detriment. durability and speed.
After several hours of play, firearms such as pistols and machine guns will also make their appearance, also with several upgrades available and a good number of dedicated skill cards. Then new powers will take over, including one rampage mode which will give us the opportunity to destroy the zombies that surround us only with the help of our hands. There are also dodge and parry cards, but they cannot be used at the same time; Performing one of these two actions just before being hit activates a finish that, depending on the weapon, will trigger an almost always lethal execution.
Layers of pain
Like many first-person games, especially those that don't want too much complexity in the controls, the hand-to-hand combat doesn't feel very responsive. Our character's arm and weapon will never stop against the body of a zombie, but will continue cutting based on the characteristics of the weapon and completing the animation of each thrust. What will make us understand the intensity of our shots will be the animations of the zombies, and how they are built in Dead Island 2. The enemies in this game are made up of layers.: They have clothes that tear, skin that tears, flesh that tears and finally muscles and bones that will try to respond realistically to the blows they receive. The system works and is undoubtedly one of the strong points of this game: seeing a limb left hanging by strips of skin, hanging while the zombie advances towards us, after having tortured it with an ax, is a dream for those. who love splash shows and Grand Guignol.
Drinking in hell-A
Another strong point of the game is this. Infernal Los Angeles is renamed Hell-A. As we have already said, a great job was done graphically, but more than a question of dirty polygons, the secret of Dead Island 2 is having perfectly captured the atmosphere, the mood, of the Californian city. The colors, the light, the buildings and the symbolic attractions are all or almost all there, and when they are not there at least the idea is there and that's it. This helps a lot to return to previously visited maps without getting bored, which will practically always happen if you also want to tackle the secondary missions that the game offers along the mandatory route. Some of them aren't even that obvious: for example, there's a scavenger hunt involving a Bel-Air pool cleaner from the structure that we really wouldn't have expected in a similar game, and which pushed us to explore more methodically, reasoned.
Actors!
The narrative is entrusted to exaggerated characters, but not like, for example, in Ubisoft's latest Far Cry, where crocodiles in T-shirts now also find space. The cast of Dead Island 2 can become deadly serious, and a cheerful character moments before can throw you off balance. A line of great cinema and weighted to perfection. a moment later. The narrative plot as well as the dialogues do not shine for their originality, but they work really well. Among other things, the game offers six different characters to embody, each one with particular memories of a place or a moment, a background from which they will draw the jokes, a different way of reacting to events and this, as you will understand, is a great nice detail. The six different characters also have unique physical characteristics: they may be more or less fast or strong, have more or less resistance, but these differences are not very noticeable once the game has started. The different unique cards that these six characters will be able to activate count much more and will dictate your approach more concretely.
Conclusions
Tested version PlayStation 5 digital delivery PlayStation Store Price 69,99 € Holygamerz.com 7.0 Readers (34) 8.1 your voteDead Island 2 is an adventure that passes calmly without leaving a trace. If you enjoyed the first, you'll probably enjoy this sequel as well; However, if you are looking for something more exciting and incisive you will necessarily have to look elsewhere. The experience lasts about twenty hours and at the end of the tour you are waiting for who knows how many incentives to start again. But it's beautiful to look at, somewhat relaxing in company, and despite its flaws, it could be the game you've been looking for.
PRO
- Zombies are beautiful!
- Nice splash, just how it was supposed to be.
- The story and characters do their job.
AGAINST
- There is no satisfying crescendo
- It's always the same
- A slightly deeper combat system wouldn't have hurt
