Dead Island 2

It's been nine years since Dead Island 2 was announced, and the zombie bash-'em-up has finally been dragged out of development hell. Is it worth your time... or dead on arrival?

- Alan Wen

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Los Angeles is many things, but one thing it most definitely isn't is an island. That might make it seem a curious choice for the setting of Dead Island 2, but the sands of Venice Beach certainly suit the theme of a zombie-ravaged paradise.

Rather than letting you loose to find a way to escape the city, LA's fairly large and detailed districts follow a linear pattern of way-points barred by missing circuit breakers or locked doors; but traversing them on foot isn't as engaging as the parkour in, for example, Dying Light.

You'd be cross too if you'd had your head dipped in boiling poo.

The game clearly wants you to engage with the undead rather than running away, and there is fun in brutally maiming zombies if you want to admire all the gory injury details, but the impact of melee attacks feels inconsistent. And while it's also possible to use the environment against the undead, it's too easy to get caught by your own traps.