Dead Island 2: PS5 Review 

Developed by Deep Silver, Dambuster Studios
Published by Deep Silver and Plaion
Platform: PS5

Zombie games are a dime a dozen.

The hack and slash mentality of many of them makes the genre itself feel like it needs some kind of reinvention or to at least ensure the latest game plays well and does what it needs to.

Deep Silver's Dead Island 2 is a sequel to the 2011 game which has taken some time to arrive and in truth, while it's playable enough, it doesn't quite do what it should to reinvent the franchise - but it does provide some relatively playable braindead thrills.

Set 10 years after the events of Dead Island, you find yourself quarantined in Los Angeles as the zombie outbreak continues around you. As LA settles in to life under strict controls, it all goes wrong when an evacuation flight's shot down and you find yourself back where it all started - with the bitey undead snapping around your ears, trying to take you down.

As you shamble from one location to the next, a variety of weapons and paraphernalia are all available to your player of choice but in truth, all you really need is the ability to craft a few weapons and then the dead can be dispatched in very similar ways.

Yet, if you're in a creative enough mood, you can work out better ways to kill them off rather than just punching them or slicing them. Early on, there's a chance to use an environmental kill as an offing tool as you can chuck a battery into a swimming pool. It's this kind of anarchy that Dead Island 2 needs a little more of, rather than its fairly generic and repetitive go here, unlock this, upgrade that mentality that persists in much of the game's execution.

There is a very real throwback quality to this arcade beat-em-up and if you're in the right mood, it can prove to be a persistent thrill that's puerile and amusing enough to wile away the hours. With skill cards to collect and play styles to adjust, there's much to keep those looking for simpler pleasures amused - and graphically, the game has the feel of something of an arcade game you'd get in olden days.

Ultimately, Dead Island 2 is better when it doesn't try to be something it's not - while its protagonists (whichever one you choose) mocks your own style of play, the game doesn't take itself too seriously. It may be a little too underdeveloped for some and not risky enough given its genre, but there's still fun to be had punching zombies in the face when the mood takes.