Dead Island 2 Reviews

Dead Island 2 is ranked in the 60th percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
7 / 10.0
May 12, 2023

Dead Island 2 offers a great mixture of elements while playing it, making weapons and fighting zombies is fun, especially in the phase of cooperation between friends, but it lacks a strong story and a variety of missions in it.

Review in Arabic | Read full review

8 / 10.0
Apr 17, 2023

Dead Island 2 has finally arrived after eight long years of waiting. This experience proposes us to slaughter zombies in the best possible ways with our huge arsenal of weapons. Visit HELL-A and destroy every abomination that crosses your path. Quite a vacation, isn't it?

Review in Spanish | Read full review

8.5 / 10.0
May 1, 2023

Despite the fact that the game is simplistic, it turned out that this is precisely the great strength of Dead Island 2. With a drop in, drop out co-op system, it is a good place to be. There is nothing to complain about in terms of graphics. On current-gen hardware, the 60fps graphics flow across your screen. The detail in the environment is sharp and the audio is wonderfully creepy with muffled screams in the distance and gurgling zombies up close.

Review in Dutch | Read full review

7 / 10.0
May 8, 2023

Caked in brain-matter, coinciding with its barrage of a bloody good time, Dead Island 2's quirks are what make it an insanely fun campaign to dive deep in.

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6.6 / 10.0
May 6, 2023

Dead Island 2 is a bloody good time for the most part, but lacks the sense of scale I had anticipated in a sequel despite there being such a gap in time.

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3.5 / 5.0
Apr 25, 2023

Dead Island 2 has its fair share of technical issues but there is still an extremely satisfying, if imperfect, zombie-slaying adventure here.

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9 / 10.0
May 4, 2023

The wait was long... but really long! However, the wait was really worth it! With a greatly improved gameplay, very charismatic main characters and a cooperative mode available, it is a pleasure to immerse oneself in this world. Despite the farewell to the open world and its missions being repeated and the story a bit cliché, the end result is quite positive and is, in our opinion, a must-have game for all Survival Horror fans.

Review in Portuguese | Read full review

8 / 10.0
May 3, 2023

All of the dialog is well written, the story is well thought out, and never takes itself too seriously. The character’s motivations are always clear and you understand what you are doing and why you are doing it. At times the story feels like a satire on The Last of Us, but it is never just a bunch of dumb jokes. In a time when a lot of games have begun to lean toward movies, Dead Island 2 just tries to be a video game. Dead Island 2 is a game that I would recommend to just about anyone. With some bugs aside. It is not a 100-hour RPG that is going to absorb your life but it has solid RPG mechanics. It is, not a “lifestyle” FPS like Destiny but it is a fun time with friends online. Dead Island 2 is not a cinematic masterpiece with a survival horror narrative but, there is a story and setting here that is a great time. While not mastering anything, Dead Island 2 has somehow found a way to be just good enough at everything.

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No Recommendation / Blank
May 24, 2023

Despite its stunning visuals and smooth gameplay, Dead Island 2 ultimately falls short in terms of depth and originality, offering little more than another run-of-the-mill zombie game to play with friends in cooperative mode.

Review in Portuguese | Read full review

Worth your time
May 3, 2023

Dead Island 2 is one of the pleasant gaming surprises of 2023, although you'd expect it to come out full of problems and with a confused identity after ten years of delays. The end result couldn't have been further from those fears. The experience is technically flawless with no problems, gorgeous graphics and consistent performance, and most importantly: highly, highly entertaining and satisfying gameplay!

Review in Greek | Read full review

9.5 / 10.0
May 1, 2023

Dead Island 2, regardless of bouncing between developers, has risen like a phoenix. The punchy combat and campy dialogue coalesce to give birth to an addictive and joyous romp. The humor tickles my fancy, giving me a warm feeling in the tum tum.

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7.5 / 10.0
May 1, 2023

Dead Island 2 manages to surprise by proving to be solid and, above all, fun, thanks to an excellent co-op segment and a great dismemberment system. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said at the narrative level, and the gameplay suffers from excessive repetitiveness, but it still remains a worthy zombie game for fans of the genre.

Review in Italian | Read full review

5 / 10.0
Apr 27, 2023

The best thing I have to say about Dead Island 2 is "It's a zombie game that released in 2023.". It's a generic, repetitive title that thinks it's funnier that it really is. After 15 hours, I was begging for it to be over.

Review in Portuguese | Read full review

Unscored
Apr 27, 2023

Dead Island 2 is a first-person action game whose mission is to make us release adrenaline and have a good time breaking zombie skulls. It is an entertaining game that does not seek to give more than what it offers, because what it does, it does perfectly. Graphically it is impressive with well created settings, good character modeling and five tons of gore. In addition, a great soundtrack, being motivating for us to enjoy even more.

Review in Spanish | Read full review

8 / 10.0
Apr 18, 2023

Dead Island 2 is a production that focuses everything on immediate and genuine fun. It achieves this by employing superbly crafted world building, immediate and fun gameplay, and a disengaged narrative studded with undoubtedly exaggeratedly characterized characters. While this is a more than convincing restart of a franchise that was now considered dead and buried, some 12-year-old smears remain that will hopefully be cleaned up in a future new chapter in the saga. For the time being, however, all that remains is for me to thank Dambuster for a job well done.

Review in Italian | Read full review

Liked-a-lot
Apr 23, 2023

Dead Island 2 brings blood, brutality and bloody good fun. It is a thrill-ride from the opening credits with its use of hard-hitting weapons, good characterisation and stunning backdrops. A limited plot and constraining development options aside, this is the Dead Island you remember and one we’ll likely never forget again.

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Essential
Apr 24, 2023

Punching, bashing, slicing, dropkicking, and exploding virtual monsters have never looked and felt this beautiful, gory, brutal, and satisfying. Dead Island 2 is truly impressive and I highly recommend you play it.

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7.5 / 10.0
Apr 21, 2023

Dead Island 2 is a wild, frantic and fun experience. The game focuses on what makes us love video games: the feeling of adventure and uncompromised fun. In the midst of so many great works, with perfect scripts, cutscenes that look like cinema, Dead Island 2 just wants you to take control, crush some skulls, rip off some limbs and have a fun and exciting game, without compromising to explore new areas for the franchise, playing the role that a reboot would have in modern cinema, reintroducing old elements and presenting it to new audiences. Indeed, a pleasant surprise this year.

Review in Portuguese | Read full review

XGN.nl
Top Critic
8.5 / 10.0
Apr 18, 2023

When a game is delayed for a long time, it usually doesn't bode well. But Dambuster Studios has delivered a strong zombie-slayer in Dead Island 2, with a lot of content, loads of weapons and anatomically correct zombies. It does have some technical issues, but that doesn't stand in the way of fun.

Review in Dutch | Read full review

6 / 10
Apr 19, 2023

I would like to get more out of Dead Island 2. But unfortunately, neither the narrative emptiness, the uninspired mission design nor the repetitive gameplay loop can really pull me along. Yes, I had fun, especially in the first few hours, enjoying the gore effects and just bluntly beating my way through hordes of zombies. But the poorly balanced progression also let me go just as quickly. The humor, too, unfortunately didn't pick me up in almost any minute. The overall solid combat system is the lynchpin of the title, though. If you had a lot of fun with the first game, you might also like part 2, because despite the long development time, it is very close to the original. However, if you need variety, a growing battle system, and generally anything beyond that in terms of story and interesting characters, Dead Island 2 is at best something for the Christmas Sale at the end of the year. After 9 years of development rollercoaster, the action game is not a disaster, but it still dares frighteningly little to stand out by anything.

Review in German | Read full review