Dead Island 2 Review

thesixthaxis.com:

What feels like aeons after it was first announced, Dead Island 2 is finally here, and if you haven’t yet had your fill of zombie games, HELL-A makes for a sun-soaked zombie-bashing playground, armed with an array of wild weaponry. Has it been worth the wait, though?

The game picks up as a bunch of survivors try to make their escape from an overrun LA, taking the last flight out of the quarantined metropolis. Of course, that doesn’t go quite to plan. You  crash, get bitten and luckily discover that you’re not only immune, but are granted superpowers by the zombie virus.

While this is a sequel, it really feels more like a full reboot as you chase the promise of a vaccine, getting survivors to safety, and uncover the background of the outbreak and the government and military’s inevitable role in its disastrous fallout. It’s retreading such familiar zombie apocalypse ground and feels like it’s going through the motions as it does so, though there is a more up and offbeat tone throughout. There’s plenty of larger than life, if trope-filled characters, and some fun and bizarre elements like the army trying to melt zombies in acid pools — I’m sure that smells lovely.

If you were hoping for a big, open-world rendition of LA, this isn’t it. The city has been carved up into a dozen smaller locations from its landmarks and neighbourhoods. There’s Bel-Air and Beverly Hills, a pastiched Hollywood backlot, and once you get downtown, there’s wide open boulevards, the iconic Santa Monica pier and more. There’s moments where this feels like an open world, but it’s often a more linear feeling game as you follow that main path through the story with the yellow dots on the HUD leading the way.

The real meat of the game is the combat, and it’s