Dead Island 2 is finally back from the dead after being re-revealed at Gamescom's Opening Night Live 2022 with a confirmed release date of February 3rd, 2023. The sequel to the 2011 title will launch for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Series X|S, and PC. But what might take fans by surprise is that Dead Island 2 won't be an open-world game, according to Polygon.
It's no secret that Dead Island 2 has had a difficult development period. After Techland, the studio behind the original Dead Island decided to ditch the sequel and focus entirely on the Dying Light series, Deep Silver had to look for a new development studio. Initially, it was the Yager studio that stepped forward in 2012, who are best-known for Spec Ops: The Line.
The game was then announced for a 2015 release, but Deep Silver dropped Yegar studio due to creative differences. After that, in 2016, Sumo Digital studio from the UK took on the contract and worked on the project for three years. Ultimately, the studio was dropped for an unknown reason. Finally, in 2019, Deep Silver announced another studio switch. This time, it was the Dambuster Studios known for Homefront: The Revolution.
Polygon recently had the opportunity to go hands-on with Dead Island 2. According to them, Dambuster Studios scrapped all the original ideas except for the California setting and went in a new direction. Dambuster took the simplistic approach while developing the game from scratch. Dead Island 2 picks up where the series left off initially and is a violent, zombie-wrecking, first-person action RPG focused only on killing zombies and having fun.
Dead Island 2 offers six playable characters and a three-player online co-op mode. All six characters are infected by the zombie virus, but they are immune, and capable of channelling that power in the form of zombified rage. Each character is also ungradable with a personalized skill system. The skills are represented in the form of a deck of cards and after unlocking all, they can be swapped around.
Initially, in 2014, Yager discussed its vision to take the Dead Island 2's zombie apocalypse to San Fransisco and beyond. It was a good idea, but Dambuster Studio is taking a completely different approach. According to Polygon, "Dead Island 2 is not an open-world game, instead moving between a number of distinct, large districts".
Instead of creating an open-world environment similar to the likes of Dying Light 2, the developers are limiting the game to various locations such as Los Angeles, including Venice Beach, the mansions of Bel-Air, and Beverly Hills. Thus, making Dead Island 2 a not-so-open-world game. There will be places to explore and side quests to take on, but the main games will be a linear journey through the zombie-filled streets of LA.