Soak up sunshine and slaughter in the first Dead Island 2 gameplay

By Will Fulton August 11, 2014

Yager, the studio behind the critically acclaimed Spec Ops: The Line, has released the first gameplay footage of Dead Island 2, its open world follow-up to Techland’s zombie-slaughtering. loot-driven RPGs, Dead Island and Dead Island: Riptide. The game follows a new set of zombie-immune protagonists — Beserker, Bishop, Hunter, and Speeder — as they hack, slash, blast, and burn their way through a quarantined California. The sunny sandbox will be open for up to eight players to compete, collaborate, or simply coexist.

The trailer is non-stop zombicide, showing off the wide variety of weapons that will be at your disposal to destroy the undead just how you want to. Mechanically the game introduces dual-wielding, which opens up a combinatorially wide space of tactical options as you can pair one-handed melee weapons with one-handed projectiles.

Related: Dead Island: Riptide is a rough-edged sandbox that doesn’t go far enough (review)

For instance, you can freeze a zombie with a frost gun and then shatter them with a wrench. In practice it looks similar to BioShock’s system of exploring combos between Vigors/Plasmids and weapons. You will also be able to cobble together weapons from found objects in the world, crafting electrified crossbow bolts that chain lighting between nearby zombies, or what looks like a whirling outboard motor with handles.

As this is the developer’s first outing with the franchise, we have a lot of questions. Open world multiplayer zombie survival with loot gathering and item crafting worked well enough in the previous games, but how can Yager innovate?

The studio have proven itself as more than capable of breathing surprising life into another over-iterated genre, as we saw in its contemporary military shooter Spec Ops: The Line, so we are cautiously optimistic about what the team — a new group, it should be mentioned — can bring to zombies. Dead Island 2 arrives in spring 2015 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. The developer will be sharing more gameplay and story details at Gamescom 2014.

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Will Fulton is a New York-based writer and theater-maker. In 2011 he co-founded mythic theater company AntiMatter Collective…

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How to get fuses in Dead Island 2

A group of survivors looking stressed and annoyed.

eThere are going to be tons of things blocking your progress when trying to escape LA in Dead Island 2. Aside from the, you know, hordes of zombies, you will find plenty of gates and doors that need power to open. Most can be worked around by installing a battery or circuit breaker, but some require something else. Fuses aren't required at any point in the main story, but instead are limited keys that hide away some of the game's best loot. If you've been spotting all these gates and garage doors taunting you to open them, but lack the fuses to do so, we'll tell you how you can get your hands on some in Dead Island 2.
Where to get fuses in Dead Island 2

Unlike batteries or circuit breakers, fuses won't be found anywhere on the map while exploring. Instead, the only way to get these electrical devices is to purchase them. Obviously, your local hardware store isn't open for business anymore, so your options are limited to the vendors you come across such as Carlos in Emma's house or Ezekiel on The Pier. No matter who you get them from, you're going to be paying a premium. Each fuse costs $1,500, and the sellers usually only hold a few at a time. Even if they had the stock and you had the cash, your character can only hold three fuses at a time before needing to spend them to get more.

Gaming

How to fast travel in Dead Island 2

Dead Island 2 zombie

In a somewhat curious design choice, Dead Island 2 doesn't feature a fully connected open world. Instead, you go to individual zones that are connected via loading screen as you progress through the game. Early on, this might lead you to think that there's no fast travel function, however, that isn't the case. You don't get the ability to quickly zip between locations for longer than you would in most other games, and it does have restrictions, so here's everything you need to know about fast travel in Dead Island 2.

Gaming

How to complete the Resurrect the Rex quest in Dead Island 2

Dead Island 2 zombie

Despite the world literally and figuratively falling apart around you in Dead Island 2, some (or rather most) of the cast of characters you come across don't seem to take the whole "zombie apocalypse" thing all that seriously. One couple you meet early on in your escapades through the undead-filled streets of LA are particularly nonplussed by the undead horde surrounding their house. This old rock star isn't quite as sharp as he used to be, so when he plans to go pick up some old recordings of his band from a friend's house, what else can you do but step in and offer to do it for him? If you're having trouble finding this washed-up star his old tunes, we'll show you where to look.