Dead Island 2, on the other hand, is decidedly not an open-world title. It also feeds into the game’s streamlined nature, where you’re focused solely on killing zombies.īanoi Island in the first game is considered an open world – aside from some areas gated by story progress, you could explore freely. The team felt this worked well with the setting and characters instead of the “dark and serious direction” several games picked. Narrative designer Lydia Cockerham told WCCF Tech said the Los Angeles setting resulted in wanting this “whole pulpy, irreverent tone that is a love letter to B-movies from the ’80s and all these kinds of things that we all have in our psyches.” With Dead Island 2, Dambuster Studios is taking more of a light-hearted, satirical feel to the tone. Let’s look at 10 of the biggest differences between Dead Island 1 and 2, and how things have changed.Įvery fan remembers the initial Dead Island 1 cinematic trailer, and though it didn’t quite hit the same emotional highs, the game was still pretty serious. Even more interesting is how the formula has changed compared to the first game, which launched in 2011 and developed by Techland, who would subsequently make Dying Light. With Dead Island 2 finally releasing on April 21st on Xbox One, Xbox Series, PS4, PS5 and PC after years in development, it’s been a hell of a journey.

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