Dead Island 2's extended trailer shows combat that's polished and predictable
For better and worse
Dead Island 2 seems destined to be a competent but unoriginal take on the zombie smashing genre. I am undecided if I find the prospect an entertaining diversion or a mind-numbing waste of time, but a new, extended 14-minute demonstration might help you make up your mind.
Here's the video:
The demonstration goes into a lot of detail about Dead Island 2's combat, using the brawler character Dani as a starting point. In the early portions of the video, Dani is decked out with tools that make her a nimble fighter, capable of dodging attacks and skewering enemies with knives and swords. By the end, however, they've switched her to a slower fighter, able to block attacks outright and manage crowds of zombies with ground pounds and sledgehammer swings.
There are also projectile weapons, explosives, and electrical traps in action, as well as fights against different zombies types including walkers, shamblers and runners, the explosively-doomed grenadier walker variant, and a "hyper mutated zombie" who is a big tall boy.
I watch it and I think: there is nothing unexpected here and nothing I haven't done before and it is possible I am simply too old and tired to want to waste my fleeting free moments smashing zombies to bits for the umpteenth time. Then, in the next moment I think, well, it does look like a good version of its thing, and I bet it would be a pleasant enough time, particularly in co-op.
Dead Island 2 has been handed between developers and delayed several times over the past decade, but its most recent release date shift moved it earlier. It's now due to release on April 21st. Ed had a play of it at Gamescom last year and had the same assessment as me, calling it "a surprisingly polished zombie 'em up that sticks to the script."