Dead Island 2 shows off gameplay in gory new showcase

Eight years since its initial unveiling and multiple delays later, Dead Island 2 is finally almost upon us – and ahead of its launch next April, publisher Deep Silver has shared more of its open-world, zombie-pulverising antics in a new digital showcase.

Those with itchy fast-forward fingers will be pleased to know the vast majority of Dead Island 2’s 15-minute showcase is taken up by largely uninformative live-action sequences, featuring a group of zombie apocalypse survivors as they stumble across a copy of Dead Island 2 in a fancy LA mansion. It’s entirely inessential fluff, but, tucked between all that, Deep Silver does manage to squeeze in a few minutes of gameplay.

Admittedly, there’s little that’s particularly revelatory in there – the publisher basically just used the time to reiterate the obvious fact you’ll mostly be maiming various zombie types gruesomely until they’re dead – but it did give us a decent new look at Dead Island 2’s appealingly sun-kissed gore, as well as a taste of its weapon roster, including hammers, machetes, bear claws, a “shit-tonne of guns”, and various makeshift tools of destruction.

And just as promised, Dead Island 2 most certainly is gory, with its rapidly disintegrating cast of reanimated undead (some of which are virtually walking skeletons) having to suffer the indignity of poles through heads, fists through skulls, and more. Additionally, players can make use of their own zombie powers – thanks to a bite on the arm – letting them enter a devastating frenzy state for additional zombie mutilation.