If you’ve never played Dead Island 2, the 2023 open-world zombie game that spent nearly a decade shuffling between development studios, then now’s a pretty good time to do so. With no fanfare, Microsoft surprise-dropped the game on February 22 on its subscription service Xbox Game Pass. Now, there’s really no excuse for you to not play it.
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On February 20, Microsoft announced the final set of games landing on Xbox Game Pass by the end of the month. The announcement included have the shark-centered RPG Maneater, the Metroidvania Indivisible, the JRPG Tales of Arise, and a few more, all joining the likes of the action-platformer Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night and the horror adventure game Resident Evil 4. It did not mention Dead Island 2. Then, just a couple of days later, Xbox game Pass added Dead Island 2 to its library, without even announcing it on its social media accounts. (The Dead Island X/Twitter account did, though).
Released on April 21, 2023, Dead Island 2 is the sequel to the 2011 open-world zombie-killing game Dead Island. The game picks up 14 years after the events of its predecessor, with the U.S. military quarantining Los Angeles because of zombie cooties. You play as one of six characters who, by working with some folks and killing some others, must find a way to end the plague that’s decimating the City of Angels. It’s fine. I had a good time with it, though I prefer the other open-world zombie game, Dying Light 2, a bit more. But Dead Island 2 is still a gory good time, especially considering its incredible brain-splattering physics. We said as much in Kotaku’s review of the zombie game
I love that this game offers a chain of semi-pure fun; it’s a fable with a lesson, if you want it to be, or regular zombie mayhem if you don’t. I’m only ever unhappy when Dead Island 2 boss fights pretzel it into something other than what it’s trained me to believe it is, a dopamine feed with cycling conflict and payoff. Though, truthfully, the boss fights are infrequent enough that my overall enjoyment of the game stays shiny. Through its skillful environmental design and indulgent combat, Dead Island 2 is one of the best, most disgusting playgrounds I’ve ever played in.
Read More: 10 Critical Things To Know Before Playing Dead Island 2
So, yeah, give it a shot. You’ve really got nothing to lose other than a few hours over the weekend. Besides, if you’re a Game Pass subscriber, it won’t cost you any extra money to download Dead Island 2 and give it a try. It’s only 15.5-36 hours long, that’s a very palatable amount of gameplay hours to chew through. And isn’t fileting some zombies a great way to pass the time?
