Since 2014 it has been in development, four different studios have worked on the title. Now Dead Island 2 is finally available and a hit (PC/Epic, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series).
For a long time, it looked like we would never see Dead Island 2. A game zombie, if you will, and coping with bad puns. But now the release is through, and the co-op title achieved over a million sales in its first weekend (twitter.com).
What kind of game this is, how the co-op works, and what crazy statistics the developers shared are shown on MeinMMO.
For a first impression, take a look at the trailer for Dead Island 2:
Zombie Muck and Chainsaw Extras
What kind of game is this? Dead Island 2 is a playground full of zombies and crazy weapons. I don’t want to reveal too much – the weapons are a big part of the motivation and it’s exciting to find new combinations to reduce zombie skulls to smoothie consistency.
An interesting yet deadly example is provided by the developer tweet above. We see a baseball bat that has received extended capabilities through a portable circular saw.
You quest as “Immune” with 6 different characters through large, independent areas that are bursting with the undead and black humor. “Crafting, smashing, starting over” define the colleagues from GameStar in their review the gameplay loop (via gamestar.de / paid article).
If you don’t care much about story but want bloody co-op action with crazy (melee) weapons and dark humor – go for it. The main story takes about 20 hours if you rush through at a normal pace.
How does the co-op work? You can experience the entire game in a 3-player co-op, and progress from your friends’ campaigns is retained. Additionally, everyone has their own loot.
Spoiled crossplay players will have to make concessions.
While everything can be experienced in 3-player co-op, there is neither crossplay nor cross-progression. If you have a PS4 version, you can only play with PS4 and PS5. The same goes for Xbox One and Series. PC players also remain among themselves.
What else have the developers shared? In addition to impressive sales figures for the first weekend, the developers have shared additional small statistics to embellish the zombie slaughter with numbers:
- 11 million hours played
- 28 million player deaths
- 45 million halved zombies
- 756 million severed zombie limbs
- 1.1 billion zombies killed
The numbers give hope that humanity would survive a “real” zombie apocalypse – with enough baseball bats and circular saws
Which games on Steam are currently shining with high player numbers, you can learn here: The 5 multiplayer games on Steam with the highest player counts – as of April 2023
