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E3 2014: Dead Island 2’s unexpected return

Softonic Editorial Team

Softonic Editorial Team

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At E3 2014, I was able to see the true sequel to the original Dead Island. You might remember or have forgotten Dead Island: Riptide, which felt more like an expansion. Dead Island 2 is different because it’s set in California taking place months after the outbreak in Hanoi. The zombie threat has spread to the point where all of California is a quarantine zone.

Dead Island 2 supports eight player multiplayer and allows you to play to your individual style. Whether you want to work together or try to survive on your own, Dead Island 2 will give you the opportunity to play like you want. While the presentation didn’t specifically state it, the multiplayer portion of Dead Island 2 sounds like it will always be connected, like the last Need for Speed game.

E3 2014: Dead Island 2’s unexpected return

Four classes and lots of weapons

Once again, there are four playable classes. The classes revealed were Berserker, Speeder, Hunter, and Bishop. It’s obvious that these aren’t the actual character names, but traits the characters have.

The Fury attack is present in Dead Island 2, but will be different for each character. Like in Dead Island, there will be plenty of different weapons and you can still craft and upgrade weapons with various ingredients. A difference is that you don’t need a workbench anymore to craft weapons, as long as you have the necessary parts, you can craft weapons on the fly.

The live demo

Instead of Techland, Yager is developing Dead Island 2 using the Unreal 4 Engine. One of the main features is that there is now a combination system to create zombie faces. This means that no zombies should look alike when playing the game.

Unlike the polished reveal trailer, the demo of Dead Island 2 was using a prototype build of the game. This meant that the visuals were weaker than expected, but Yager promised that this would all be fixed in the final version. Still, it’s disappointing that this was the way that the game was shown for the first time.

From what was seen in Dead Island 2, expect the same type of gameplay from Dead Island. Combat is essentially the same expect for a few new moves and killing zombies is very similar. There weren’t a lot of details revealed like building weapons, the mission system, or map of the game.

Still very vague

Possibly the biggest change from the previous Dead Island games is that there are also human enemies. This could result in some interesting gameplay when you see zombies and humans fighting one another.

It’s disappointing that the demo didn’t show a more polished graphics engine because the end of the presentation showed some big potential. But if graphics are all people are looking for, then as of now Dead Island 2 has little chance of success.

Check out all our E3 2014 coverage on Softonic.

Follow me on Twitter: @raulprz

Softonic Editorial Team

Softonic Editorial Team

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