Coming to
PC Steam on 22 Apr
Played it for a bit.
- Gore system is something I haven't seen before anywhere. They managed to make it very detailed, but also not disgusting
- I haven't seen ranged weapons, but melee combat is good
- There is a lot of emergent gameplay when it comes to combat. Reminds me a bit of Dark Messiah. You can pour liquids anywhere you want to create traps. You can even wash other liquids with water (including blood) if needed
- The game feels more linear and the maps are a lot smaller than the first game, but much more detailed. The first map is probably 1/4 of the beach area in Dead Island
- Movement is much more fluid than the first Dead Island, just no parkour
- Graphics, sound and music are all very good and it also performs very well: 4K with FSR on 3070 Ti with 60fps, but afaik it can be played even on 1060 in 1080p
- I had a lot of crashes on the workbench screen. Some say you need to disable FSR. There is a mod that replaces it with DLSS, but it still crashes for me
- You still pay money to workbenches for repairing your stuff
- Writing is generally okay for 2023, with the exception of main characters. Amy's one-liners are terrible and I'm sure other characters aren't much better. Dead Island protags were mostly silent and sometimes less is more
- So far leveling and skill system were meh and modifying weapons is a lot more interesting
- The game never takes itself too seriously, but knows about it
Overall feels like an accomplishment for Dambuster Studio (former Crytek UK). I would be a shame if layoffs from Embracer will butcher the studio. I feel like they could do even better.
Also, they hired a studio who specializes in TV show openings to create one for DI2: