Dead Island Act 2 Review

Earlier in the week I reviewed Dead Island after hearing repeatedly the question ‘Is Dead Island worth buying?’. When I reviewed the game I had only made it to Act 1 and was frankly about 10% into the game. So I felt it was quite necessary to give a follow up to my original review. Let’s just quickly summarize what I had to say about the game basics and the first Act before we get into Act 2 and what it offers.

In Dead Island Act 1 you wake up after a long hard night of drinking to find yourself surrounded by the walking dead on an island resort. The first 45minutes of game play in Dead Island for me focused on ‘the prologue’ which was basically getting out of the hotel and completing some very mundane run from point a to point b type quests. In all honesty while I was playing the prologue I was very disappointed and thinking that Dead Island was a terrible simplistic game.

It’s a good thing that I did not give up becuse as soon as Act 1 kicks in when you find the life guard station its hell on wheels ( or two feet ) as you run around the island completing important missions that will lead to your rescue and helping survivors as you go. If you have not played the game yet stop here, go read my original review of Dead Island and then come back and read about Act 2.

Just as I was finally starting to realize that I had explored 80% of the beach and the surrounding hotel and was still only 15% into the game I took on a quest to go look for survivors at a Church and found myself travelling down a road to the City of Moresby and a whole new massive unexplored area.

Unlike the beach setting which is bright and warm there is nothing pretty about the City. The easiest visual description I can give you is its Zach Snyder’s world of Dawn of the Dead brought to life. Its dark, its dangerous and at times its incredibly scary. The second act brings more violence, more zombies and a new human element as you deal with the super rich who have setup a safe haven and looters who have taken over whole districts of the city and even police stations with nothing in mind but their own survival.

Act 2 takes yet another page from classic zombie movies introducing even more of the human survival element as some people unite together to survive while other unites to benefit themselves. You won’t just be fighting the walking dead in Act 2 of Dead Island you will also find yourself taking on well armed roaming bands of marauders who want nothing more than to kill you and take your gear. You will also find greedy individuals who have setup small well protected shops to sell you goods throughout the city.

Act 2 naturally introduces even more quests for you to complete that will result in your rescue as well as helping other survivors around you. You of course have the choice to do the side quests or continue on with the main story and leave the other survivors to fend for themselves. Much like Grand Theft Auto you can do as many or as little of the side quests as you want but the main quest is key because it unlocks new areas and new experiences.

Also new in Act 2 is a whole slew of new weapons for you to discover including finally some really effective firearms which I was able to loot after I wiped out my first band of marauding bandits. From pistols to assault rifles and shotguns and grenades the weapons run the gambit of lethalness. The weapons are effective but only when properly used and I will give you an actual scenario to demonstrate how they work great and how they do not.

I was running down a street of burning cars and dead bodies looting food and supplies as I went when a pack of about 10 screaming infected right out of 28 Days Later came tearing in my direction. I ran quickly into a very narrow alleyway looking for a roof ladder but of course could not find one. I had a pistol and 25 rounds in it so I quickly switched from my baseball bat and turned to face the zombies.

Still moving backwards I fired repeatedly at them doing my best to hit them in the head while still moving. If there is one thing we all know it’s that stopping means certain death since who knows how many more zombies heard the shots and are coming. My gun only holds 9 bullets at a time and as I fired my last round I realized I had only dropped 3 of them and they were already getting back up due to my horrible aim while running backwards. The pack of zombies swarmed me and knocked me to the ground as I frantically fired my weapon and in the end… I died.

After this brutal lesson that bullets don’t last and baseball bats don’t need reloading I ran into a similar scenario and handled it in a fashion you all would have been proud of. When confronted by a large horde of zombies I ran into the street and onto the top of a large DHL Courier truck.

The zombies surrounded the car snarling and biting at me and I then switched to my shotgun and played fish in a barrel. I killed easily a dozen of them and moved on my way. Unfortunately I then realized I had only 4 bullets left and that the next horde I faced would mean more thought since it had taken me easily 30minutes just to find enough rounds for my shotgun to make it even worth loading.

Dead Island is much more than just a run and gun zombie massacre and if you think you’re a tough guy and try to go head to head with the walking dead you will loose every time. With careful use of strategy, good weapons and some nifty mods you will survive Act 2 while encountering some fantastic characters, interesting stories and deadly gun toting villains.

Quite frankly Dead Island feels like it is pulled from just about every one of George Romero’s movies and there is absolutely nothing negative about that. I still give this game a 9 out of 10 despite some minor cosmetic flaws which I outlined in my review of Act 1. Dead Island offers all the things that I felt were missing from Left 4 Dead. Yes there are droves of terrifying undead and constant terrifying combat but more importantly there is a very deep story element making it a near perfect zombie game so far.