Dead Island 2 (Zero Punctuation) 

This week on Zero Punctuation, Yahtzee reviewed Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. www.escapistmagazine.com/star-wars-jedi-survivor-zero-punctuation/ Watch it early on RU-vid and support our content via RU-vid Memberships or Patreon for $2/month.

Let’s not forget it was 12 years ago when Yahtzee’s original review of Dead Island inspired him to write a novel in which Brisbane is covered with man-eating jam.

Dead Island 2 is exactly what I wanted the game to be. Shame I haven't wanted it for six years now.

God I remember Yahtzee and Gabe talking about this back on Let's Drown Out... I honestly just assumed it had come out already to no fanfare.

The most ironic part is that the development of this game somehow managed to make an actual functional pc port with so much change in development studios but somehow Redfall and Jedi Survivor couldn’t.

Zombies and a '50s/'90s cheerleader and her decapitated boyfriend still outweighs all of these... Man, when are we getting *that* re-release?

Man, imagine a game where The Rat Pack have to fight off zombies to a classic soundtrack. I'd play that.

"How the zombie virus affects you seems to vary based on how important you are to the plot" Well to be fair, I'd say it's more a natural choice for the plot to center on the person immune to the zombie virus.

Man is his redfall review next week going to be... heartbreaking.

Honestly, a game that works for the most part upon release is a precious thing these days.

Can’t say I found the zombies that spongy, with my brass knuckles I managed to kill the final boss before a single zombie helper spawned. I just zoomed around as a living blender with a bit of roid rage mixed in if the situation got too belligerent

Surprised you didn't make the three celebrities into Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper.

I feel like "being immune to the plague" is common because....everyone who isn't immune is either dead, or undead. The people left alive are the important characters and are, by necessity, gunna be immune (whether the immunity is their immune system or like...a big fucking bunker and a moat). A zombie game where you aren't immune would have to be a stealth game to make any kind of sense. And you don't want THAT, Yahtz.

The promo trailer at least introduced me to Pigeon John who did the song in the trailer, so that is a plus. So much time passed by, I went through a plague and transformed into a faux Ninja... that still wears glasses.

Sounds like we already have a shoo-in for the One True Bland award come end-of-year list time!

I loved the game. I didn’t find the zombies spongy, most regular zombies are 1-2 hit and special infected also aren’t to hard it you use power attacks on their heads like I did all the time. The gore system blew me away. Literally seeing every single cut in the exact spot you sliced is insane and the variety of different zombie models and outfits made it feel a lot more open I felt. Plus I personally loved how the characters interact with the player and the player’s personalities. Just standing around and listening to the conversations they have with you is a nice touch that I don’t really see in other games. Considering this game was in development hell and changed developers that many times and was able to release and be this fun, and not be a buggy unfinished mess is amazing when you see the state other games release in. The entire time I played the only bug I ran into was some car alarms going off with no battery. And even then it happened only twice the entire time

Okay an important thing to note that Yahtzee seemingly wasn’t aware of. While the different studios all worked on “Dead Island 2” it wasn’t handed around with each dev continuing where the last left off. In particular Dambuster got the project in 2018 at which point they built the game that now released from scratch. So while other devs worked on versions of the IP what is releasing was actually only made by one developer over the course of a few years.

Here's a fun thought: Kids just starting their freshman years in high school when the original trailer got out may well have finished their university bachelors at this point. A few may even have started families and gotten married. I think the devs maaaay have missed the boat on this one

4:53 is the first time I've ever noticed Yahtzee running out of breath!

Honestly I'm just glad Deep silver finally released the game after years of development hell, I'm so proud of them!

I'm surprised Yahtzee gives no mention of the fantastic gore system they created for the game. I swear, melting zombies with acid does not get old. Also, devs have confirmed that every time development started from scratch, so there's no work carried over from the previous dev.

The version that we're playing now had started development in 2019. The Sumo Digital build before that had the whole state of California, vehicles, 8 player co op and a bunch of more ambitious ideas that ultimately made the game worse, rather than better. That's why Dambuster redid the whole thing while keeping a laser focus on a tight scale.

I legitimately thought this game got released years ago

Well this was a long time coming. I'm honestly surprised it took so long considering what littles has changed. Like _Duke Nukem Forever_ but with more zombies and also pretty bland.

You know I finished the game a few days ago and I found the dialogue to be surprisingly funny and well written. Usually games that try to take a comedic tone end up like Borderlands. Quip after quip with no real heart put into the jokes. But the character I picked: Dani the Irish rockabilly, wound up being one of the most charming and genuinely funny characters I've seen in any media in over a decade. And I think that alone deserves some high praise! The game itself though? I'm not sure why the game insists on having a level system at all. If enemies scale with the player, the player never feels a sense of progression. If you go back to an area you went to before that had level 5 zombies, you'd expect to come back there and mop the floor with them and feel the growth of your character. But if you come back and all the zombies are level 18 because you're also level 18, then what's the point in leveling at all?

Wait... Dead Island 2 came out? In 2023? First I'm hearing of it...

How come I haven't seen a single person mention Dead Island Riptide? or the Dead Island MOBA that came out? Am I insane? Did those things actually happen?

Upon hearing the point about "resilience" in the video, my son asked me what it means, at which point I discovered that the dictionary definition of it literally includes the word "toughness". Dafuq, who thought that was a good design concept?

I genuinely thought this was a remake of the game that came out 9 years ago

Me: Well, I'm sure zombies will come back like any fad, like bellbottoms. Zombie game developer in 2023: I have never heard the word "fad" before and looking up the definition makes me extremely uncomfortable.

This to me feels like the typical game that is inoffensive. It wouldnt surprise me if it is a contender for blandest game of the year if Yahtz does that this year. I may pick it up on sale if im bored enough.

I'm having great fun playing this exclusively co op. All criticisms are completely accurate though

My god... Afte all the years he lost his breath once. 4:51

I am sorry....trains vs zombies...2....what?

Dead island and Dead island riptide were a couple of the first games I played when I got internet and a 360. I do tend to look back at them fondly for the memories of me and 3 randos dying to the straight jacketed wall sprinting dudes over and over, then blaming each other for the screw ups. However I do recognize that objectively speaking they weren't the best, I had fun with them yes and I still do on the odd yearly or so replay I do of them. However I will not pick up dead island 2 until I see a decent sale. Do I think it will be awful? 50/50, Do I think I will enjoy it? Probably but I'm not expecting the longevity I got from the other 2 as I dont have the advantage of not having played games like it before.

I just expected a gore sim with a shit story, and thats exactly what i got, if you wanted this, you got it, and you had fun, but now you're replaying dying light 1 because you remember how good it was in comparison

I know it's not a big deal at all, and probably didnt even ohase yhatz, but im a bit sad he didnt mention the gore mechanics. Theyre hands down probably the best I've seen in a zombie video game, and hell, maybe even any.

I literally thought this was a reupload or a retro review, I knew for damn certain that I had played a second Dead Island game already. Little did I know that Dead Island: Riptide apparently didn't fuckin count as a sequel. And I can say I am completely underwhelmed by this game I just found out existed because there seems to have been absolutely no social profile on the run up to release, so thank you Yahtzee, you raised my hopes and dashed them quite expertly, Sir!

Game is good and definitely fun if you enjoy slaying zombies.(the flesh system is epic) But it is a bit lack luster. Was hoping for a bit more variety.

With all of that being said, I'm enjoying the hell outta Dead Island 2.

Of the 3 new ‘AAA’ games we picked up this week, Dead Island 2 has proven less buggier and less disappointing than either Redfall or Jedi Survivor, it’s not an amazing game, but it’s competent and was the cheapest of the three to boot

"Last of Us was Zombies with Mushrooms" I can only guess that was what Neil Cuckman was smoking when he made TLOU2...

"And then Yager had it for a while the Spec-Ops: The Line lads, but I guess they had a PTSD flashback at some point and stopped replying to e-mails"

I can understand the fatigue, especially for a game reviewer... But dead island 2 is exactly what I want out of a zombie game. The combat is incredibly satisfying and the game plays/runs/looks great

I always find your input extremely entertaining

What about a game with zombies and a mermaid conspiracy?

God the game sounds so horrendous. Does this stuff even sell? Are there any people left on this planet who haven't played this exact game 30 times already?

Does the Z in Zero Punctuation stand for Zombies.

Oh boy. Saved me a buy there

Dambuster started off with a fresh build, they didn't add to any of the previous developers' existing code

My experience with Dead Island 1 is I liked it, it felt fair and balanced and then I 1 shot the final boss with my 3% to one shot on a crit weapon.

I'd love to see Zero punctuation's review of The Room series by Fireproof Studios.

Blandlist, but where?

I was sure this game had come out like 10 years ago.

goddamn, zombies are so overdone yathzee has gone all the way back around to being mad about them again, in a way isnt it nice that even passive hopelessness about things changing can ALSO get overdone? i find this a welcome development, i also like getting mad about things that dont really matter! (within reason of course). FUCK NIHILISM! LONG LIVE ABDSURDISM!

I feel that a FPS or escapist podcast episode with SkillUp and Yahtzee talking games would be entertaining based off their differing views in this one.

5:48 He just can't resist to give TLOU 2 another kick in the stomach

I don’t know as a fan of the first game this is exactly what I wanted out of the dead island sequel

I genuinely hadn't realized this hadn't come out yet, for some reason I thought he'd already done this one and it was time for the third installment.

Came here directly from the Jimquisition. I gotta say, JSteph was way, WAY nicer in their review of the game. You want to send your angry emails, whiny Dead Island 2 fanboys? Send them to Yahtzee! He'll eat you alive for breakfast!

Originality is becoming a foreign phrase in this day and age evidently...

Perfectly sums up why I won't be getting it, so the gore system looks nicer big fucking deal, what is actually new and good enough to be worth spending money on it? Absolute sweet naff all

I know it's bland but honestly I'm still looking forward to the PC release in a year when the Epic Games Store deal is over and done with, I enjoyed the previous games in the series.

Often lately I've watched these reviews and thought "Yahtzee's been stateside too long with all these Americanisms creeping in" but this week, with "Saint BER-nard", "courgette" and "aluminium" it sounds like he remembered he's still a Brit deep down.

Not a single mention of the Flesh system. Not mentioning it at all seems fairly idiotic given that is arguably the game's main strength and quite well accomplished.

Well this did have the flesh system which was fun I spent most of my time seeing just how much I could fuck a zombie up and have them still be alive.

TF2’s dev time was to polish what they could see and then they updated when player feedback came in. The source spaghetti often comes from all the years of development and updates making tons of mechanics, and going through it is like going through ancient history. DI2’s dead time was to make an unpolished product with tons of weird code hiccups because it went through 4 different devs! Even then there was no innovation on the formula save a pretty gore engine, so what probably happens is each team it got punted to scrapped what they didn’t like, inevitably left it, and so on until the fourth group finished it. DI2’s total development time was long, but the guys who made the finished version only had 2.5 or so years of work on it.

yeah...sounds about right. btw i hope you don't get to review redfall cuz that thing is.... somtheing else.

Well, if Days Gone was zombies and a twat, wouldn't this game be "zombies and an entire city of twats"?

Wait…..this is the same game? I thought it was a remake. I remember that crappy trailer from so long ago. Holy crap

I know how much yahtz hates sentiments like this , but I am surprised how begrudgingly not harsh this review was. I was expecting it to be RAKED over the coals. Instead it's functional, just nothing new and even got a bit of VERY overqualified praise. Prolly end up on the Bland List. Still better than Duke Nukem Forever.... 🍀

hey yazhee mate I have been watching you for shit I don't know how long and I want to say a big thank you for keeping up the quality content I was watching you shit a long time ago I am old now haha. keep up the quality content mate!

Sad that the big releases recently are meh in this case, totally unplayable for Redfall, and barely playable for Jedi Survivor (PC anyway)

So I’ve played through Bel-Air, the hotel, and just got to The Hills. I’ve gotta say, this game really is perfectly functional, with good melee combat and well designed interior sections of levels that do actually loop back into each other. I think the game is at its best when it places you in tight corridors and forces you to be crafty with how you engage with zombies. It feels more dull when it places you on an empty street or rooftop and throws tons of zombies at you. One thing the game does really well is the aesthetic design of its interiors. Each mansion I’ve gone through thus far has felt unique to its owner. However, as nice as the layouts of these mansions are, there’s really not a whole lot to interact with in them. Makes me miss the days of condemned when I could grab a specific set of weapons from the environment and go to town on enemies.

Funny how it still runs better than Jedi: Survivor and is better made than Redfall.

oh, we have the blandest game of the year contender and a strong....ehm, blandly strong one to boot

This game is so bland that even half way through a Yahtzee review I zoned out

With the multiple devs this game swapped spit with and the development hell, I guess this means we can laugh at an industry that never learns anything tee hee hee

Having watched people, including Yahtzee, play this game in the last week - this review is pretty much perfect

Huh i guess yahtzee doesnt appreciate a return to the olden times. Most people i have listened to review it have liked the sort of "retro" feel it has. Personally i give it a 9/10. Its really solid. Agree completely it doesnt add anything new to the genre but it doesnt have to. Absolutely hated dead island 1 though.

All I can say for dead island 2 is…at least it’s not Redfall.

"Did Dinead's people call back?" *that one didn't age too well.*

Yahtzee you should review Advance wars Reboot camp!

Zombies & Development Time.

You know, the only reazason I'm positive about the game is because it came free with my graphics card I bought a couple months ago. I can't imagine spending $70 USD on it though

4:46 you just described every multiplayer game of project Zomboid

Yeah, sounds about right / what I was expecting.

One of the best outro comics ever! Took me a while to realise on the last image there's Dad Island, too! XD

Dead island 2 was brilliant. It’s exactly what I wanted from a game. I don’t want a pointless lifeless open world for the sake of it. The environments are detailed, large enough, and varied. Exploration is fun. Combat system is adequate. The gore system is the best I’ve ever seen. Even the story was fun. The characters were all unique, and it was just fun, dumb and satirical. I for one am glad it went full release!

I smell a strong contestant for blandest game of the year here...

wonder if this will make his boring list

Dead Island 2: The Sequel to Staten Island

So, after over a decade of asking, "When do you reckon this game will come out?", and it has even less impact than the first.

They should have called it _Arizona Bay._

I like to imagine all of the half finished assets for this game were on a single hard drive that operated like some kind of cursed ring. A developer would just leave it randomly in a public place waiting for someone else to touch it and transfer the angry ghost to.

Dead Island is just a great time with friends, like a real Shaun of the Dead experience of knocking tanky zombies around as you whittle their health down with silly weapons and get sent flying by a big angry special. Playing alone I imagine loses most of the appeal without your friends laughing along like a bunch of hyenas at all the absurdity.

Oil all over LA for some reason. Imagine that.

Today I found out that Dead Island 2 ever existed.

I was honestly confused for a second. "Why is Yahtzee reviewing such an old game out of the blue?" Until I realized that between the announcement and dying light games this hadn't actually released yet

Did the sunglasses sprite for ZP always have little white circles or is that new?