One of Epic Games Store’s biggest exclusive games is now also on Steam after missing from the Valve platform for a year. The game in question hails from 2023, or, more specifically, April 21, 2023. And until April 22nd, the only way for PC users to play it was via Epic Games Store. To this end, it has been one of the biggest Epic Games Store exclusives. That said, not only is it on Steam now, but it is 50 percent off, which means rather than cost $60, it only costs $30. More than this, the game is listed as “Playable” on Steam Deck, though not “Verified,” which means Steam Deck users may run into some issues while playing the game on the handheld machine.
If you haven’t connected the dots yet, the game is Dead Island 2, the long-time-coming sequel to 2011’s Dead Island. After switching hands from several studios, the action game came out last year via developer Dambuster Studios and publisher Deep Silver. Upon release, it garnered Metacritic scores ranging from 73 to 76, depending on the platform. How it coupled this on the commerical front, we don’t know entirely, but we know it sold over two million copies in a month.
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“A deadly virus is spreading across Los Angeles, California, turning its inhabitants into ravenous zombies,” reads an official blurb about the game. “The city is in quarantine and the military have retreated. Bitten, infected, but more than just immune, you learn to harness the zombie inside. Only you, and the handful of other swaggering fellows who happen to be resistant to the pathogen, holds the future of Los Angeles (and humanity), in the balance. As you uncover the truth behind the outbreak you’ll discover who-or what-you are. Survive, evolve, save the world-just another day in Los Angeles!”
“Dead Island 2 is far from a perfect game, but given everything it took to get it here, it’s damn near close to a miracle that it turned out as good as it did,” reads the opening of our review of the game “It’s pretty difficult to make a zombie game that feels like it has something new to offer after all of these years, but Dead Island 2 largely manages to succeed. After a zombie virus tears Los Angeles apart, a bunch of otherwise ordinary citizens are left stranded and forced to find their own way out of the blood-soaked streets of sunny California. You play as one of six different selectable characters (though this doesn’t seem to directly impact the story) and seemingly immune to the virus, making you a potential candidate for a vaccine. It’s up to you to figure out how to get out of this apocalyptic hellhole and also possibly stop this infection from destroying all of humanity.”
Dead Island 2 has only been out on Steam for a few days, but it has already amassed 1,830 user reviews with a “Mixed” rating thanks to only 65 percent of these reviews recommending the game, though most of the negative reviews don’t seem to have anything to do with the game itself and more things surrounding it. In other words, take this score with a pinch of salt.
