In our hands-on time with Dead Island 2, not only did we manage to get a grasp of how the game plays, and how the new FLESH system adds a dynamic layer of fun to the combat, but there’s a lot more we learned, and if you want an easy to read info-filled info dump for Dead Island 2, you’ve come to the right place!

(Note – A lot of this information is going to be revealed in other previews. Despite this, you may still find some of the information to be spoilers, though I did try to keep out the story elements. Those are marked with a spoiler text. )

Everything We Learned About Dead Island 2 During our Hands-on 

General Notes

• There are no difficulty options. This is the same as it was in the first game where zombies will scale based on your level as you enter an area, with higher-level zombies scattered in specific parts.
• There are a lot of things breakable in the environment. Small stuff mostly, but we did notice that if you break specific windows, there’s some splash damage from the glass hitting you. A small detail, but I thought that was sort of cool. 
• Breaking glass and other things will get the attention of the zombies. 

The World

• Old news, but Dead Island 2 isn’t open-world. Similar structure to the first game. 
• The game is structured to take you through certain parts of Los Angelos. We were mainly in Bel-Air and the surrounding rich suburbs for this preview.  
• Zones vary in their linearity and openness, but the zones seem to get bigger to offer some sense of freedom.
• Multiple paths can be taken in these zones that can lead to some exciting things.
• There are loading screens between these areas.
• The map for the starting area is basically a Star map, or at least is modeled after one. Looks nice, and very in-theme.
• There seems to be a lot of background lore when you aren’t focused on the main story. 
• Sometimes those are about the outbreak, and others are about characters who once lived in these places. 
• Locations are booming with variety. It is Los Angelos afterall. I’ll talk more about this in the Zombie section. 
• We’ve seen (and heard) several Easter Eggs in the world already. Hardcore fans will no doubt spot more. 

Main Story, Side Missions, and Other Activities

• STORY SPOILERS: It’s a new outbreak, so you don’t need to play the first game and its standalone expansion, Riptide.
• STORY SPOILERS: There are callbacks though, and anyone paying attention to all the marketing material thus far, probably knows about one character appearing. 
• Despite being linear, there seems to be a decent amount of side quests you can take on. You often run into these when returning from a main story mission. 
• The available side quests we did were all unique and introduced new NPCs. 
• Weapon and mod blueprints can be found throughout the world. Seems some of these may be tied to dungeon like areas. 

Slayers, Skill Cards, and Weapons

• Six Slayers are playable. These six have already been revealed by Dambuster in previous announcements, but as a refresher, their names are; Jacob, Dani, Amy, Bruno, Carla, and Ryan.
• There are six characters save slots, so you can play as each Slayer and keep their progression on a dedicated save.
• STORY SPOILER: You can’t switch Slayers once you’ve picked one, but the story explains the reasoning. 
• Each Slayer has different stats from one another, allowing you to choose a preset that is targeted towards a specific build type and to work from there. 
• Slayers have unique personalities, so their dialogue is slightly different during the campaign.
• However, NPCs do not react or offer additional dialogue based on the Slayer, though that can change potentially later in the game. 
• There’s no skill tree in Dead Island 2, as it’s been replaced by skill cards. This has also been announced already.
• Depending on which Slayer you pick, some skill cards are exclusive to them.
• We noticed that some Slayers can block/guard against attacks and others have a dodge instead. 
• There are four types of skill cards, each with a number of equipable slots
• Those being: Abilities, survivor, Slayer, and numen. We got to try a skill card in every category except numen. 
• The Abilities category also has subcategories. For example, slot one is for defense-related skill cards, whereas slot two is for kick-related abilities and three special attacks. The other two were not available in the preview section.
• Survivor skills seem related to buffs for abilities.
• Slayer skills are also buffs related to combat actions. For example, there’s a card that grants a moderate boost of damage for range weapons when you knock a zombie down. 
• You can change your skills anytime, even mid-fight.
• Skill slots unlock as you progress through the game and level up. 
• There are a ton of melee weapons that can be upgraded into deadly versions. 
• You can apply elemental mods and such to weapons. 
• Each weapon has unique melee animation and reacts differently when hitting a zombie.
• Weapons can be thrown, but only if they’re not entirely broken.
• Yes, weapons work on a durability system. You can repair broken weapons, so if you break one you like, keep it. 
• There’s character leveling, and weapons can be scaled to it by upgrading them.  
• Repairs, mods, and weapon leveling are all done via work benches found throughout the world. 
• There is a weapon safe to store weapons in. You can also claim missed ones. 
• I didn’t get to try out any of the guns in the preview portion of the game, so I can’t comment on those. 
• There are throwables called curveballs. In the preview, we had shuriken, pipe bomb, chem bomb, and meat bait. 

Zombies

• Not going to list out all the zombies; know that there are a ton of different variants.
• The game has alpha zombies, basically more advanced zombies than your typical walker variant. 
• What I found most impressive about the zombies is how many different models there are. While you’ll see some zombies that look the same occasionally, Dambuster does an excellent job at ensuring a variety of the same variants, making them look a bit different.
• Their appearance also reflects on the location. As mentioned, the world is filled with various places, and zombies will reflect that.
  • Examples – A hospital will have more zombies in nurse and doctor gear, wandering inside and outside, whereas public places will have everyday civilian zombies. One location we were in had a pool with a few zombies in their bathing suits, and just around the corner was an indoor gym with zombies dressed in gym wear. Honestly, this is a great touch, as it made me feel like these were people at one point before they turned.
  • It’s not just for looks. A military person turned zombie will, for example, have body armor. A construction worker may be charged with electricity, while a water and sewage worker might have a washing or toxin-filled container. They’re the same variant types you’d run into, just with additional hazards or protection.
• Zombies will react in specific ways depending on how you hit them. 
  • Using a blunt weapon with left and right swings will cause them to stagger in that direction.
  • It seems a lot of work went into their animations because they’ll fall in specific ways too. They don’t just clip through the environment either, and their bodies will react to hitting things as a real person would if they were to fall and hit stuff along the way.
  • I noticed with bigger zombies that need more damage to take down, if you hit them in the head with a blunt weapon, they’ll get dazed and have an animation showing this as they slowly try to regain composure. They’ll stumble about. 
• Despite being slow, it’s easy to get swarmed by them. 
• They do spawn into the world, and the team has worked at making sure they spawn in a believable way. Like a zombie crawling out of a sewage drain and other openings around the world. 

Gore and Disembodiment

• Possibly the most advanced gore (known as FLESH) system in a game I’ve ever seen.
• FLESH procedurally breaks skin and bones. 
• Depending on what weapon you use, gore will react differently.
  • Sharp weapons like a sword or machete leave gashes and cut limbs off. 
  • Blunt weapons like hammers and pipes will bruise zombies up and break bones. Zombies can walk around with their limbs still intact, flailing around, hanging by what little flesh they have. 
  • You can use your fists to break bones and peck away at flesh. 
  • Zombies’ skulls can be caved in with enough force. 
• Expect to see lots of intestines and other organs spilling out of zombies.
• Exposed brains can be pecked at with individual chunks breaking away from it. 
• You can sit there and remove all the flesh and guts from a zombie, leaving them entirely as a skeleton. If you cut off a limb, you can cut away everything until it’s a bone.
• You can also peck away at flesh but keep it intact enough so the guts don’t spill out.
• If you kick the body around, you can see all the guts behind the rib cage bouncing around. Individual organs are modeled and have their own physics.
• I punched a zombie so hard in its face that its eyes popped out with the retinal veins still connected. Another zombie’s eye got so swollen that it reminded me of that scene in The Walking Dead (you know, the one). 
• Jaws can be broken and hang from the zombies. Their growls sound different if you do this, and if they grab you, their animations will reflect having a broken jaw, daggling back and forth as they try to bite you. 
• If a zombie is fat or has big muscles, then it has more flesh you can cut into. 
• Zombies can be lit on fire, causing their flesh to burn up.
• Different weapons react differently to each zombie. A rake will pull the flesh off in multiple spots. A butcher knife will feel harder to cut limbs off than a machete. A hammer will stun them, and more. 
• Weapons can be thrown at zombies, and some get stuck on them. Throwing a knife at their head may not be an instant kill, and you can pull the knife out of them during a fight. 

Visuals and Early Performance

It’s important to note that my experience may, and most likely, differ from other press members. This build of the game also isn’t the final one, so things may be different come release.  

• The game visually looks as good as it does in the trailers on PC.
• FSR 2.2 was available in this build, but no word on DLSS or ray-tracing support. 
• Reflections use screen spacing on both PC and consoles.
• PC – FoV slider in, as well as several other options. 
• Support for different controls; Xbox One, Xbox Series, PS4, PS5, and, wait for it, Stadia (Stadia bros unite!) 
• Using an RTX 4090 GPU paired with an AMD 7900X, performance does appear to be solid at 4K 60FPS with minor hitches here and there. I can’t comment and mid-to-lower setups.
• Early feedback from other users points to the Xbox Series version running well too. 
• No PlayStation feedback – We assume this is due to PlayStation not having a way to push out early test builds on public networks like Xbox and PC. We’ve tested out plenty of other titles in the past with similar situations, so don’t take that as an indicator that something is wrong, it’s likely only what the studio could provide. 

Whew! That’s about it! Based on what we know so far, Dead Island 2 should be on your radar! Dead Island 2 is set for release (for real!) on April 21 for the PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series, and PC.