Glad I didn't get it. While I was impressed with the early gameplay. Something about it didn't pull me in enough to drop $60 on it.
Its melee combat is good. Its not much of an improvement over the first game, but the first game was already pretty good in that front. Ranged on the other hand is basically gone - you can get a bow, and a sidegrade into a mediocre crossbow, or a disposable two shot shotgun. None of them are worth the hassle, really.
Atop of that, mobility felt worse than the original until you were heavily upgraded, and even then it relied on gimmicks like gliders to keep traversal fresh (by avoiding traversal) over designs that were approachable from multiple directions. A lot of map routing ended up feeling very unidirectional, unlike the first game, and you'll find yourself treading the same paths because there's not any better options, as opposed to natural flow.
And then yea, the story is just hot garbage. I didn't really dive in for it, but the stupid stick is in full effect among the cast.
Who the fuck cares about this game? It's been almost 10 years since it was announced, Dead Island 1 isn't even all that great to begin with.
I'm really surprised they didn't drop the dead island branding at all. Negative connotations in your marketing cannot be worth any 'brand recognition' the flop of the first game woulda gotten them. Between the time and the difference in feel and attitude from the first, there's not much connecting 'em aside from zombies n the name.
Looks like it could have potential, but I am getting really sick and tired of all the game advertising with "look how quirky and fun this is guiz!!!" approaches. All it does is kill any atmosphere your game could have had. If I wanted dumb quirky zombie violence, there's no shortage of actually good games out there, while yours is an unproven quantity.
