A fresh gameplay preview of Dead Island 2 has revealed a wealth of brand-new information about the upcoming zombie game. The Dead Island 2 demonstration includes a tonne of zombies shambling across Hollywood’s streets and is cut with a live-action featurette created by the game’s creator, Deep Silver, as a tribute to many of the zombie movies that served as the game’s inspiration.
On full display in the gameplay video is Dead Island 2’s “advanced gore system,” which really does seem to allow you to melt zombies down, layer by layer, to the bone. Jawbones dangle off blasted faces, limbs fly off in every direction, and there are multiple shots of fists going straight through zombie faces.
The video confirms that we’ll be facing several different zombie types, as well. While there’s no detailed breakdown of what sets them apart, the narrator explains that there are big ones, little ones, loud ones, pretty ones (which is gross in a whole new way), and even “smart ones.”
Fortunately, to deal with these, we’ll have a wide range of increasingly wacky weapons scrounged from the abandoned homes of Los Angelenos. Melee weapons include a variety of swords, hammers, and other tools and martial arts equipment – but there are plenty of guns, too.
Dead Island 2 also features a weapon crafting system that allows modification to your arsenal, somewhat similar to what you’ll find in the Dying Light games – you’ll be able to bolt components on to hammers and machetes to give them bonus damage from fire or electricity, which allows for further experimentation with that gore system we mentioned earlier.
The video also features some of Dead Island 2’s voice integration – players will be able to shout certain commands into their mic to swap weapons or taunt zombies to get their attention.
The Dead Island 2 release date is set for April 2023, and it’s been a long and winding road to get here. First announced in 2010, it was delayed several times – but Deep Silver promised it was still in development, even after splitting up with development studio Yager, which had been handling Dead Island 2 up to that point. The game passed to Sumo Digital before ultimately ending up at Deep Silver’s Dambuster studio in Nottingham. We’ll be looking forward to finding out whether it’s been worth the wait.