Dead Island 2 Video Game Review Trailer Cast Crew

 It is midnight and the light of the full moon reflects off the surface of the Pacific Ocean. You can see the ebb off the shoreline, how the light scatters differently on the surface of the waves than on the sand. Along with the swell of the sea, low guttural moans can be heard, the dragging of crocodiles across the sand. There is an undead woman, with flesh hanging from her cheek in a group, limping toward you. No urgency, no pressure. She could be drunk, in another time and place, and just go for a walk on Venice Beach.

But this is not Los Angeles. It's HELL-A, according to an enthusiastic rep for Dambuster, who is basically our tour guide for this unlikely jaunt to a doomed West Coast vacation. He told me to soak up the vibe (the sights, sounds, and *deep breath*, yes, even the sweet rotten smells) of this doomed Los Angeles as we sat down for an hour with Dead Island 2. And his guide it was appreciated, because it is an amazing game.

Director: Bernd Diemer
Writer: Allan Stellakis
Stars: Jennifer Armour, Mick Wingert, Derek Siow

“We really want this to be a personal journey of sorts, right?” says art director Adam Olson as I remember studying this undead woman, watching the way her skin moved independently of her flesh, watching her twitch and shuffle and wobble as she struggled against the sand. . “We want you to get really close and visceral in our game. So many games, the developers just complete them. We didn't want to do just that, we really wanted to populate our spaces; there are things to see everywhere, there are details in everything. It should feel like a rich world. I think when people get their hands on our game, they'll see that everything has these fun little details and interesting things to look at. It has been meticulously handcrafted.”

I can tell you now that this is not some well-rehearsed PR hogwash. Well, it could be, but it's fair to say because damn, this game looks good. Whether it's the dim neon lighting in a muted arcade softly illuminating the katana blade you hold close to your body, or the fire coming from an ax burning the skin of a zombie whose head you've just lopped off. I enjoyed, Dead Island 2 is a dazzling feast for the eyes.

Much of this is due to the way the undead respond to you and your breakable weapons: fisting their eyes, skewering them with a spear, cutting off one of their limbs... it all plays out in front of you as you'd expect. you imagine should. Not "realistic" per se, but more grindhouse: pulpy, ultraviolent, over the top. Just like Tarantino got into 'sugar' and was left unsupervised with a fully paid Unreal Engine account.

Gore and gratuitous body horror largely stem from what Dambuster calls the FLESH system. That's an acronym that stands for "Fully Locatable Evisceration System for Humanoids," apparently. It basically means that whatever you want to do to a zombie, it responds as it should: the game's sandbox has fire, electricity, caustic materials, and other such "elements." Zap a shambler and the skin dries appropriately—you can almost smell it cooking from the inside out. Burn one, and the skin will blister and deviate just like it would in real life. Throw acid on it and... well, you get the picture.

“Zombies are at the core of this game – we are a zombie game for zombie lovers and an homage to anyone who enjoys the genre,” explains design director Adam Duckett. “We just wanted to make sure that we could have the best zombies that we could. So to that end, we spend an unhealthy amount of time, a ridiculously unhealthy amount of time, crafting that.

“We want players to feel like they can see everything they do to these zombies; every scrape, every punch, every kick…everything has immediate feedback that is so satisfying. To make it all work, FLESH was a big part of the game from the start."

It can be said that, tastefully or not, this mayhem engine is the core of Dead Island 2; Whether you're headshotting 50 meters away or sinking your electrified bear claws into the neck of a nearby megazombie, you can see the precise and actionable damage you're dealing with every heartbeat.

“[This level of detail] fits the zombie slayer feel, right?” Olson continues. “You can take a blunt weapon and gouge out the eyes of a zombie. You can punch your fist through one of his heads. Being able to chop off a zombie's head or slash the torso with a sword... it's just plain fun! It's simple and cheerful."

You might be thinking 'hm, this is a bit much', that this level of gore, dismemberment and ultraviolence depicted in this magnificent way.

Watch Dead Island 2 Video Game Trailer