Here it solves the problem by giving you jerry cans full of gasoline, acid and water you can pour out, throw and shoot, as well as car batteries that effectively act like electrical grenades.Įnjoying Dead Island 2 requires you to accept it's 95% hitting zombies with sticks – and the remaining 5% is choosing the stick The original Dead Islands and series like Dying Light have always struggled to stick the landing with environmental traps – things like electrified puddles you can never quite get enemies to walk through. But by far the best additional layer comes in the traps you can set. The skill cards mete out a steady progression of alternative moves and abilities to rotate in and out of use, while the mid-to-late stage addition of guns adds a fun extra set of toys to play with. However, while the combat plateaus every now and then, there's just about enough variety to keep things moving. Towards the end of the game I often found myself going around larger enemies I didn't have to fight, and I just ended up avoiding one late game creature entirely because it could block and heal – it's not hard to deal with, just a joyless pain to whittle away. You don't really have a flexible enough bag of tricks to vary much under pressure, making tougher encounters feel like a one button slog. When you face large, damage-soaking enemies with projectile vomit, stunning electrified screams, or slamming knockbacks, the simplicity of… just kind of standing there and hitting them a bit can begin to feel stretched. Against bosses and minibosses in particular, the basic combat can feel a little exposed.

Dead island 2 | e3 trailer 2014