PlayStation Plus Subscribers Need to Play This Underrated 2023 Zombie Game Before It's Gone

Dead Island 2’s hellish development cycle is still noteworthy even considering all the wretched stories that have come out over the years about a number of games. It went through four different development studios and multiple iterations over the course of nine or so years. By the time it miraculously came out in 2023, it seemed as though the mythical tale regarding its development outshined the game itself. It’s understandable but a little unfair, given how Dead Island 2 is a surprisingly great game in its own right and worth getting to before it leaves the PlayStation Plus Extra library on August 18th.

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For a game that was passed through multiple teams in some form, it’s refreshing that Dead Island 2’s focus is one of its best features. It isn’t some massive open world with Grand Theft Auto 5 levels of square acreage. Instead, Dead Island 2’s version of Los Angeles is a bunch of interconnected hubs separated by loading screens. While seamlessness sounds enticing, this approach lets the game cover a lot of landmarks without the filler in the space between them. The desolate mansions of Bel-Air and the sprawling Santa Monica pier are just a few loading screens away instead of 15 or so real minutes of walking.

Dead Island 2 Isn’t a Bloated Mess, Thankfully

Maps are still a decent size, but they are not overwhelming. There are plenty of buildings to pilfer through and zombies to bash without it feeling like it has been crammed with “content” like some of the worst Ubisoft games. It gives Dead Island 2 a more handcrafted feel, as shown in some of the gags in the Bel-Air section and unique shops in Venice Beach. These distinctive maps probably wouldn’t have been as unique if they were simply procedurally generated background noise. Design director Adam Duckett spoke about this decision to not aim for the stars, joking that he has two kids to take care of and, thus, opted to make something more digestible.

“It was a decision we made quite early on,” said Duckett. “We wanted to focus on quality over quantity, both in the content that we can add in, the quality of the environment, the visual quality, and also to make sure that we were putting a lot of focus into the core of the game, which is our brutal zombie combat. We really wanted to make sure that the environments were great playgrounds and great sandboxes for players to engage with zombies up close and personal.”

As Duckett noted, combat with said zombies is also — sometimes literally — shockingly solid. Responsive dodging and swinging means it feels great on a fundamental level to bludgeon a walker’s head off, but it’s not as mindless as it seems. Los Angeles is littered with all sorts of temperamental canisters that cover a variety of elemental effects and explode when struck. Surveying the environment and then planning how to turn the various tools inside of it into deathtraps adds some variety and tactical thought, but it’s just as rewarding when all of these types of traps go off organically and lead to emergent chaos. This is even more prevalent during co-op and the horde mode Dambuster Studios added after launch.

Dead Island 2‘s Gore Is Absolutely Brilliant (and Disgusting)

The F.L.E.S.H. System is what brings all of this together. It’s admittedly a marketing term that describes how it renders each zombie’s insides, but it meaningfully improves the game in various ways. Seeing how this procedural system reacts to various acts of violence is a nasty sight to behold that changes every time because it takes into account which weapon was used and where the impact was. A zombie’s eyeball may flop out of its head while its intestines hang out of its belly and the skin melts off its face, revealing the bone underneath. It gives every battle a small story and keeps the army of undead from looking too similar since it’s not pulling any pre-canned decals for its gore. Such destruction can also influence gameplay, as well, since a zombie with a busted leg or arm isn’t able to use the full range of its attacks. Dead Island 2 is not difficult enough to mandate this level of literal disarmament — the RPG systems are underdeveloped, after all — but it demonstrates how this system isn’t just cosmetic.

Dead Island 2’s combat can get ridiculous at times when zombies are flopping every which way — the physics make for an ample comedic playground — and this tone is also reflected in its narrative. Los Angeles is ripe for satirization, and its colorful cast of sardonic main characters and ridiculous NPCs rise to the occasion. Poking at vapid celebrity culture may seem trite, but Dead Island 2 has enough decent quips and fantastic jokes that land well enough to avoid feeling like it is beating an undead horse. It doesn’t ever seem like it’s trying too hard, either, another one of its underappreciated qualities. Despite its abrupt ending and the few more serious parts that don’t land, Dead Island 2 understands its setting well and makes good on it. It could have just coasted off its violence and had essentially a script of filler dialogue like, say, Dying Light, yet it went above and beyond.

This, more or less, sums up Dead Island 2 as a whole. A bland or mediocre zombie game would have been somewhat impressive, given the debacle surrounding it. However, Dambuster instead crafted a thoughtful game that understood how to get the most out of its tone and setting and built an impressive bit of zombie tech around it all. Dead Island 2 is not a groundbreaking experience that reshapes the genre, but there’s something to be said about a game that consciously focuses on quality over quantity. It’s not the most exciting principle to stand on, yet it makes for a nice surprise, which is key for a subscription service like PlayStation Plus.

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