In-depth at E3: Dead Island 2

Dead Island 2 is the first game to motion capture a cat. True story.

As awesome sounding as that is, does that fact – or, the hilarious trailer we saw for the game at the Xbox media briefing – really set the tone for the game? While competent, my biggest disappointment with the original Dead Island and its reveal trailer was that they were chalk and cheese; nothing alike.

According to the developers we spoke with during a hands-off demo, Dead Island 2 won’t suffer that same fate. Like the trailer, the game will be tongue-in-cheek — not slapstick, but not dark either, Dead Island 2 seeks to play up the idea of Venice Beach, California as a zombie playground. “Cool and kick-ass”, in fact, were the words continually used to describe the game.

In this paradise-meets-hell setting, several of the game’s protagonists have flocked to Venice Beach, now quarantined and cut off from the rest of America — so kind of like an island, in its own way — in hopes of having some fun. Mostly immune from the zombie plague, the Berserker, Speeder, Hunter and Bishop of the game want to bust in some decaying heads. They’re aided by Max, the character seen in the van during the game’s reveal trailer, and his aforementioned cat, Rick Furry.

Get it?

Max and Rick are NPCs and basically provide players with the game’s main quest line. Also interwoven with that is an emphasis on human survivors and factions – there are groups of escaped convicts, scavengers and more, and they’ll be a bit tougher to deal with this time around.

As in the original, melee is still the combat system of choice, though there are more environmental options this time around. You can choose to shoot a red gas container and have it explode, or simply can break down a barrier to dispatch a pack of zombies toward a human scavenger camp.

Players can now dual-wield, with my preferred combination of choice a machete in one hand and shotgun in the other. More weapons can be constructed by tracking down and following blueprints, and crafting can be done anywhere and anytime.

If stuck in a grapple, players have multiple options as well; punch an attacker repeatedly, stab with a bladed weapon or simply pushing the attacker back, opening up new opportunities to finish off those looking for their literal pound of flesh.

Finally, the game will feature 8 player co-op, and it’s up to those in the same game to determine if they’re like to play co-operatively, competitively or by merely co-existing.

We’ve been promised some hands-on play of Dead Island 2 at Gamescom in Germany.