Dead Island 2 Review Thread

Thread: Dead Island 2 Review Thread
Just bought the game on Epic Store for 18 Euro with the 33% voucher and 5 Euro from their great rewards thing.

Was torn between this and Dying Light 2 (which has ray tracing!) but decided to go with this one because most people say it's simply more fun and less of a chore.

Edit: Just saw that the German version is censored.... but mods got me covered, thank god.
 
regawdless said:
Just bought the game on Epic Store for 18 Euro with the 33% voucher and 5 Euro from their great rewards thing.

Was torn between this and Dying Light 2 (which has ray tracing!) but decided to go with this one because most people say it's simply more fun and less of a chore.

Edit: Just saw that the German version is censored.... but mods got me covered, thank god.
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Impressions? I was thinking about it as well, since it's probably Epic Store exclusive (unless it's a limited time deal).
 
Dreamlord said:
Impressions? I was thinking about it as well, since it's probably Epic Store exclusive (unless it's a limited time deal).
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Sale ends in two days, don't know how long it'll be exclusive to Epic. I'm downloading right now, will share some impressions later.
 
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Huh. Ok first off the visuals. Game looks excellent, @VFX_Veteran wasn't lying when he said it's one of the best looking games out there. Sure, pre-baked lighting, very bad reflections, too much grain, low res shadows etc. buuuuuuuuuuuut they still did a great fucking job.

GDU-N4AWMAExwGI

GDU-N4DXgAApabz
GDU-N4DXcAAz95j


Pretty damn nice, and the gore model is god tier as well. Some strong negatives though:

- No DLSS, I had to mod it in. Which is very easy, gladly. Game only offers FSR for some stupid ass reason.
- No film grain option, it's always there and can't be removed. It's very strong.
- Strong chromatic abberation on the edges of the screen. I was able to turn it off by editing the .ini file. But there's no in game option to turn it off.
- Blood disappears very quickly, all gone within 15sec and there's no way to change it.

Gameplay wise, a ton of fun, love smashing the zombies, really entertaining. @Dreamlord I'd say it's worth it!
 
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regawdless said:
Huh. Ok first off the visuals. Game looks excellent, @VFX_Veteran wasn't lying when he said it's one of the best looking games out there. Sure, pre-baked lighting, very bad reflections, too much grain, low res shadows etc. buuuuuuuuuuuut they still did a great fucking job.

GDU-N4AWMAExwGI

GDU-N4DXgAApabz
GDU-N4DXcAAz95j


Pretty damn nice, and the gore model is god tier as well. Some strong negatives though:

- No DLSS, I had to mod it in. Which is very easy, gladly. Game only offers FSR for some stupid ass reason.
- No film grain option, it's always there and can't be removed. It's very strong.
- Strong chromatic abberation on the edges of the screen. I was able to turn it off by editing the .ini file. But there's no in game option to turn it off.
- Blood disappears very quickly, all gone within 15sec and there's no way to change it.

Gameplay wise, a ton of fun, love smashing the zombies, really entertaining. @Dreamlord I'd say it's worth it!
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In my opinion the Dead Island 2 is definitely the better choice over Dying Light 2. I'm a huge fan of the first Dying Light but man the sequel is the epitome of bloat. Just way too much going on, you could easily trim 40% of that game and be left with a hefty multi dozen hour campaign.

Not only that, but the movement mechanics have been dramatically changed with the inclusion of the hang glider and massive skyscrapers. No...I don't want to be slowly cruising around with my hangglider looking for exhaust vent updrafts to stay aloft, I want to be scrabbling around, running across rooftops and making leaps of faith across buildings trying to stay alive. Absolutely none of that tension is present in Dying Light 2, instead it's replaced by dozens of forgettable characters and an overloaded list of missions to complete. It's kinda shitty, and I don't think I even completed it.

Dead Island 2 however was a wonderfully concise and tightly developed game. No bullshit or nonsense. It's here to do a job and does it so well.
 
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Phunkydiabetic said:
In my opinion the Dead Island 2 is definitely the better choice over Dying Light 2. I'm a huge fan of the first Dying Light but man the sequel is the epitome of bloat. Just way too much going on, you could easily trim 40% of that game and be left with a hefty multi dozen hour campaign.

Not only that, but the movement mechanics have been dramatically changed with the inclusion of the hang glider and massive skyscrapers. No...I don't want to be slowly cruising around with my hangglider looking for exhaust vent updrafts to stay aloft, I want to be scrabbling around, running across rooftops and making leaps of faith across buildings trying to stay alive. Absolutely none of that tension is present in Dying Light 2, instead it's replaced by dozens of forgettable characters and an overloaded list of missions to complete. It's kinda shitty, and I don't think I even completed it.

Dead Island 2 however was a wonderfully concise and tightly developed game. No bullshit or nonsense. It's here to do a job and does it so well.
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You are selling me on it and I haven't played game one of any of these.
 
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regawdless said:
I'm enjoying it a lot. Hitting zombies in the face with a golf club and sending their jaws flying is satisfying as hell. You should try it, can always refund it if you don't like it.
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Remember, I don't have a PC that can play modern games. It's going to have to be on an Xbox or Playstation for the foreseeable future.
 
WesternBlood said:
I don't have a PS5 yet. Just XBox Series X.
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And good guy Phil Spencer doesn't allow refunds? I thought they all do now. It's great on Steam and Epic Store, you can play some hours and refund if you don't like it. Has been a thing for years.

Mhm.
 
regawdless said:
I'm enjoying it a lot. Hitting zombies in the face with a golf club and sending their jaws flying is satisfying as hell. You should try it, can always refund it if you don't like it.
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I'll pick it up when I have some extra scratch. Tbh I've had Dying Light 2 for a while and haven't even booted it up from all the negative criticism ive seen of it.

Which is a shame bc Dying Light is GREAT.
 
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Dacon said:
I'll pick it up when I have some extra scratch. Tbh I've had Dying Light 2 for a while and haven't even booted it up from all the negative criticism ive seen of it.

Which is a shame bc Dying Light is GREAT.
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Yea, I have both games. Sadly DL2 is just a failure.
 
For the troubled development and a new dev coming in to fix the game, it's really remarkable. Just sad they didn't implement RT reflections, the mirror look abysmal and the performance overhead is there, I'm running it at 100fps with DLSS Quality.
 
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