The good 👍
- Gun-focused builds are more useful than in the first game
- Locations are bigger and varied
- Good visuals and gore mechanics

The bad 👎
- There is not much difference in the playthrought between different characters, and even unlocked abilities don't feel like an upgrade
- Not a big variety of enemies
- Bosses are a joke; they die before their dialogue ends and have no special mechanics
- A lot of useless fetch quests that can't be disabled from popping up on the map
- Shaders are recompiled at each game restart. Really?
- Plot is shallow and predictable
- I was disconnected from the host multiple times, but at least it's easy to reconnect
- Crafting of better-than-basic mods requires a ton of exotic materials, which are grindy to obtain

Conclusion:

I hoped Dead Island 2 would massively improve on Dead Island 1. And all it did was tweak things a bit, like gore and firearms. Otherwise, it feels like a very similar game, and the first game was not great.

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Details

📘 Story ☐ Bare-bone ☑ Average ☐ Good

We are immune survivor of zombie apocalypse. That gives us the quest to save humankind by doing mundane tasks and fetch quests for other non-immune characters. There are no interesting characters or relationships, the plot is extremely predictable, and there is not even a hint of "wow" moment. Very average and forgettable. The map is littered with notes, but as there are so many zombies around, there is no time to read them... and then, when we are in a safe zone, reading a note from a location visited 10 minutes ago feels like a waste of time.

🔄 Gameplay loop ☐ Boring ☑ Average ☐ Good	Get a fetch quest (main missions also feel like fetch quests), kill zombies on a way to the objective, return with the object. Rinse and repeat. We need to visit workshop benches to repair our weapons and craft ammo, visit safe houses to dump junk we carry to the trader. The co-op part of the game works well.
🪄 Abilities ☑ Basics (walk, jump etc.) ☐ Magic / powers ☐ Advanced combat	Run, jump, shoot. No parkour. Each charactter can choose one jump-kick, scream, and ground slam modification. But they feel more like cosmetic changes than gameplay-altering abilities. There is an infection mechanic, where specific ability cards contribute to infection progress. No/low infection means we have normal health regen. High infection means we have no health regen (and health items don't heal us as much), but can stay in the fury more for longer and deal more damage.
🎮 Controls ☐ Clunky and stiff ☑ Adequate ☐ Fluid and enjoyable	They work, nothing extraordinary. There is noticeable auto-aim with keyboard and mouse, which can be turned off.
📇 Inventory and menus ☑ Basic ☐ Detailed ☐ Over complicated	Inventory space is very limited, and weapon management is not great. There is "external" strongbox where we can keep overflow weapons, but it's not possible to reorganize it without taking items out first. Weapons are organized in storebox in order they were put in, so if we have more stored weapons than free inventory slots... it's not possible to organize efficiently. But then we constantly get slightly better weapons, so any form of management is not necessary. We can also pay to have weapon level-up to our current character level, which boosts it's stats. Menus are also not easy to access, with inventory, notes, journal etc. feel like they were designed by separate people without communication.
🥊 Combat 🏹 ☐ Boring and generic ☑ Average ☐ Good ☐ Great	The combat is eh. Enemies are brainless and too bullet-spongy. Having to slash zombie's arm 2-3 times before it falls off, when there are multiple zombies around us, is not fun. Blocking also doesn't feel useful. We focus on getting headshots with weapons, or hacking at zombie's torso. Or just running past enemies later on, just to get to the next objective faster 😂

💸 Microtransactions ☑ None ☐ Skins ☐ "Time-savers" ☐ Direct purchase ☐ Custom currency (gems etc.)	🏆 Achievements ☐ None ☐ Story progression ☐ Few collectibles / easy to get ☑ Grindy collectibles / hard to get ☐ Require multiple playthroughs	💾 Save system ☐ No saves ☐ No saves, progress carries over ☐ One checkpoint, too rare ☑ One checkpoint, frequent ☐ Manual saves
📊 Performance ☐ Can run on potato ☑ Medium requirements ☐ High requirements ☐ Too low for what is visible on screen ☐ Optimization disaster	🌌 Graphic ☐ May look good 10 years ago, but not now ☐ Blurry textures / geometry problems ☑ Average ☐ Good ☐ Beautiful	🔊 Sound ☑ Nothing to remember ☐ Good voice acting ☐ Good weapons & effects ☐ Good OST ☐ Music flows well with the action
🦚 Customization options ☐ Resolution, volume only ☐ Basic graphic settings ☑ Advanced graphic settings ☐ Adjustable HUD ☐ Accessibility options	🧭 Map ☐ No map ☑ Basic ☐ Detailed ☐ Minimap ☐ Fast travel	Details: