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Key · 04-24-2023, 03:55 PM

Dead Island II - First Impressions

I'll just cut to the chase. If you're not a big fan of zombie survival games or weren't really all that impressed with the previous Dead Island, this game may not be in your wheel house. However, if you're able to put that aside and realize that this game is just meant to be sort of a zombie killing grind fest, well this game will fit your splendidly. Now don't let that confuse you and make you think that I dislike the game, quite the contrary. I spent my entire weekend playing Dead Island II and whether I was just simply running around killing zombies, or doing the main quest, or doing the side quests, it was a good and satisfying time.

The main thing that would be the deal breaker for this type of game would definitely be the combat, and lemme tell ya, being able to jump and drop kick the zombies in the head while dealing massive amounts of crit damage and killing them in one hit will never not be exciting. It's extremely satisfying and as you level up, you gain more skills to better take down your foes. However, even with the satisfying nature of the jump kicking, the weapons is really where the combat shines. Whether you're using a modded golf club, or a pipe that you found sitting on the ground, the impact that you feel when using said weapons to take down zombies is so incredibly satisfying that it's almost addicting. Almost. And whether you're using your kicks or your weapons, you're sure to have a good time with taking zombies out because there's certainly a lot of them to take down.

As far as story goes, it seems to me so far that you're basically working to get enough people together to take on what seems to be a zombie apocalypse in los angeles, and you just have to do whatever you can to help as many people as you can while also making sure you survive. Which isn't always guaranteed. Though I do have to give credit to how forgiving the death is in this game, and as it should be since you can certainly die a lot in the early parts of the game as you sort of get your feel for it. You really don't lose much if any progress, and in fact, the zombies that you die from don't automatically heal themselves, so you can just run back in and finish the job. This proved to be especially useful when fighting elite enemies or bosses. Even when you die, it's only a relatively small amount of time before you can get back into the action and "finish the job" so to speak. Combat is definitely more enjoyable than the quest lines but they're also fun to do as they aren't all really the same. The characters have personality so it is certainly worth going around and doing the side quests in hopes that the people providing them will come back to your home base.

Graphically this game is quite good. I'm playing on Xbox Series S and while there have been a few times in the early game where I noticed it being a little choppy, it seems to have smoothed out since then, and I am currently level 9. So, it looks like the game stutters a little bit but it smooths out. I honestly haven't had any issues since little bit that I mentioned before. And that could've also been simply that the game wasn't finished installing yet so that could have been causing it. I don't know other consoles and how they are performing but for Xbox Series S, the game runs really well. And as it should given that you're going to be doing many things at once sometimes.

Dead Island II is a really good game to be playing while I'm waiting on other games to come out. Seeing as Star Wars: Jedi Survivor will be releasing at the end of this week, a grindy zombie killing RPG is exactly what I needed to kill the time until then. I don't know if I will finish the game in its entirety, and maybe I'll just finish the main quest and call it good. But I'm enjoying it a lot. And that's more than I could say out of the 2 hours I got in Dead Island before I put it down, uninstalled it and never touched it again. Dead Island II is everything it needs to be - an improvement of the first one. Again though, if you're not really looking for a zombie survival game or aren't really a fan of the genre in general, I wouldn't recommend. If you are willing to put that aside and just have a good time, I would recommend it. a 70$ price tag is a bit steep though and will probably turn people away.

04-24-2023, 03:55 PM	#109 (permalink)
Key . Join Date: Dec 2010 Posts: 13,153	Dead Island II - First Impressions Dead Island II - First Impressions I'll just cut to the chase. If you're not a big fan of zombie survival games or weren't really all that impressed with the previous Dead Island, this game may not be in your wheel house. However, if you're able to put that aside and realize that this game is just meant to be sort of a zombie killing grind fest, well this game will fit your splendidly. Now don't let that confuse you and make you think that I dislike the game, quite the contrary. I spent my entire weekend playing Dead Island II and whether I was just simply running around killing zombies, or doing the main quest, or doing the side quests, it was a good and satisfying time. The main thing that would be the deal breaker for this type of game would definitely be the combat, and lemme tell ya, being able to jump and drop kick the zombies in the head while dealing massive amounts of crit damage and killing them in one hit will never not be exciting. It's extremely satisfying and as you level up, you gain more skills to better take down your foes. However, even with the satisfying nature of the jump kicking, the weapons is really where the combat shines. Whether you're using a modded golf club, or a pipe that you found sitting on the ground, the impact that you feel when using said weapons to take down zombies is so incredibly satisfying that it's almost addicting. Almost. And whether you're using your kicks or your weapons, you're sure to have a good time with taking zombies out because there's certainly a lot of them to take down. As far as story goes, it seems to me so far that you're basically working to get enough people together to take on what seems to be a zombie apocalypse in los angeles, and you just have to do whatever you can to help as many people as you can while also making sure you survive. Which isn't always guaranteed. Though I do have to give credit to how forgiving the death is in this game, and as it should be since you can certainly die a lot in the early parts of the game as you sort of get your feel for it. You really don't lose much if any progress, and in fact, the zombies that you die from don't automatically heal themselves, so you can just run back in and finish the job. This proved to be especially useful when fighting elite enemies or bosses. Even when you die, it's only a relatively small amount of time before you can get back into the action and "finish the job" so to speak. Combat is definitely more enjoyable than the quest lines but they're also fun to do as they aren't all really the same. The characters have personality so it is certainly worth going around and doing the side quests in hopes that the people providing them will come back to your home base. Graphically this game is quite good. I'm playing on Xbox Series S and while there have been a few times in the early game where I noticed it being a little choppy, it seems to have smoothed out since then, and I am currently level 9. So, it looks like the game stutters a little bit but it smooths out. I honestly haven't had any issues since little bit that I mentioned before. And that could've also been simply that the game wasn't finished installing yet so that could have been causing it. I don't know other consoles and how they are performing but for Xbox Series S, the game runs really well. And as it should given that you're going to be doing many things at once sometimes. Dead Island II is a really good game to be playing while I'm waiting on other games to come out. Seeing as Star Wars: Jedi Survivor will be releasing at the end of this week, a grindy zombie killing RPG is exactly what I needed to kill the time until then. I don't know if I will finish the game in its entirety, and maybe I'll just finish the main quest and call it good. But I'm enjoying it a lot. And that's more than I could say out of the 2 hours I got in Dead Island before I put it down, uninstalled it and never touched it again. Dead Island II is everything it needs to be - an improvement of the first one. Again though, if you're not really looking for a zombie survival game or aren't really a fan of the genre in general, I wouldn't recommend. If you are willing to put that aside and just have a good time, I would recommend it. a 70$ price tag is a bit steep though and will probably turn people away.