Following the crash, it’s down to our Slayer to navigate the hellscape of L.A. I decided to go with the cockney stuntman: Jacob, mainly because the man just oozes old-school cool in the style of Jimi Hendrix (one of the greatest guitarists of all time in this humble writer’s opinion). Prior to the crash, you get to choose from the six different ‘Slayers’ that you’ll spend the game playing as, all of which have their own particular starting perks alongside strengths and weaknesses. The game begins with six distinct individuals (which make up the game’s protagonists) boarding one of the last evacuation planes out of the quarantined city, only for said plane to crash in a fiery inferno due to an infected passenger being on board and subsequently eating the captain. Set around a decade after the events of Dead Island, the United States government has enforced a quarantine around LA due to a zombie outbreak. The game finally released just over a week ago on 21 st April 2023, setting the zombie apocalypse in the city of Angels: Los Angeles, aptly referred to as ‘Hell-A’ by the games’ cast of characters. Another production of note that mixed things up significantly was 2011’s Dead Island, which placed a strong emphasis in melee combat, gore and dark humor in the fictional island setting of Banoi (based just off the coast of Papua New Guinea) which went on to developed a pretty significant cult following, primarily due to it being the first game of it’s kind.įollowing a lukewarm reception to it’s sequel: Dead Island: Riptide in 2013, there was no news on the franchise until the announcement of Dead Island 2 at E3 2014 what followed however was development hell for nearly nine years, chewing up and spitting out developers left right and centre before eventually settling on Dambuster Studios in 2019. Occasionally a movie or video game would release that would mix up the formula somewhat (see 2013’s The Last of Us as a stellar example) leading to a renewed focus in the sub-genre, before trailing off once again. In recent years, zombies have become a bit of an overused trope when it comes to horror (thanks in no small part to the likes of AMC’s The Walking Dead) with productions containing the titular creatures usually falling by the wayside in terms of critical reception and overall production, eventually becoming a shambling corpse themselves from one iteration to the next. Offering a satirical view of the western world under the guise of a horror movie, Romero’s ‘Dead’ films offered complex, social commentaries that were as thought provoking as they were comically gory at the point of their release Dawn of the Dead (1978) for example was about rampant consumerism in the rise of the shopping mall boom of the late 70s and early 80s, the zombies themselves acting as metaphorical, goofy caricatures of society that consumed everything that was thrown at them. Nicknamed the ‘Godfather of Zombies’ for good reason, Romero was the catalyst for the zombie boom in contemporary media, specifically with his stellar body of work within his ‘Dead’ series of movies, beginning with the classic: Night of the Living Dead from 1968. When it comes to zombies, no one has ever done them better than George A. Having released for all major platforms on 21 st April 2023, I’ll be covering the time I’ve spent with the PlayStation 5 version of the game detailing the good, deconstructing the bad, whilst ultimately discussing whether the game is worth your time and money at the £59.99 asking price (UK PSN Store). Featuring a revolutionary gore system that is nothing short of fantastic, Dead Island 2 throws more ways to main, butcher and slaughter through the walking meat sacks at the player (literally in this case) than ever before, amidst the backdrop of Los Angeles (or Hell-A if you prefer). After nearly a decade of development hell, several build iterations and developers later, Dead Island 2 is finally here, throwing the player once more into the zombie apocalypse and subsequent slaughter-fest sequel to the 2011 cult classic from Techland.
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