Game news Zombies like you’ve never seen before and a city of Los Angeles like no other. Winning combo for Dead Island 2?
Believe it or not, Dead Island 2 is definitely going to be released! The app will change setting and move from a paradise island to the city of Los Angeles. Knowing that the setting of the game technically gives it its name, choosing the city of angels may seem curious. But this choice is really thought out, if we are to believe the developers.
Dead Island, without Island
What a long way since the official presentation of Dead Island 2 in 2014. The publisher Deep Silver then unveiled a game that was still as crazy as ever, but whose decor changed completely. We left the fine sandy beaches of the island of Banoï to reach the American West Coast and the city of Los Angeles. A far from disappointing choice, but nevertheless curious, knowing the premise of the original title.
After this announcement, the software experienced a hectic development. Techland passed the torch to Sumo Digital, before the studio also left the project to finally hand over the reins to Dambuster Studios. Since then, this last studio has continued the work of its predecessors and intends to deliver this second opus to us next year. Even if this new team joined the project along the way, they completely adhere to the new premise of this title. The developers of Dambuster have just returned to Game Informer on Los Angeles, the philosophy they want to instill in their game and how this new framework can allow them to do so.
In fact, if Los Angeles is not an island, strictly speaking, a little screenplay trick allows the developers to grant the City of Angels a similar “metaphorical” status. In Dead Island 2, the epidemic affecting the townspeople quickly spirals out of control. The authorities then decided to place her in quarantine. The city of American show business then finds itself landlocked, no one can enter or leave. It becomes, in fact, an “island”. A little convoluted, yes, but it works. And most importantly, this change allows more diversity for developers.
Going from Banoï to Los Angeles… it’s super diverse. There’s a ton of opportunity and potential, both in terms of environments, but also in terms of characters, and even zombies that we can put in the game. There’s a vibrancy, the sunny locations, the beaches, the exotic houses of Bel-Air, it’s a great environment to compose our combat experience. – Adam Duckett, design director.
Los Angeles and its mythology
For the developers, Los Angeles also allows surfing on a certain fantasized representation of the City of Angels, an image cultivated with the Hollywood myth and the representation of the city in cinema and in popular culture. The Dambuster Studios teams compare this representation to a “postcard”.
Los Angeles has a somewhat quirky or expressive culture and identity, and that identity is recognized around the world. Whether or not you’ve been to LA, we’ve seen it all with Hollywood, and we thought this Hollywood performance would be great entertainment while you’re running around beating up zombies.(…)
You have two or three surfaces. There’s this fantasy version of Los Angeles – the Hollywood representation. On top of that, we added the tragic collateral damage of the attempted evacuation. And finally still above, there are classic elements of the zombie apocalypse genre. But we made sure to water it down. (Artistic Director Adam Olsson) and his team have done an awesome job of… “glamorizing” this place. We’re not trying to make a version of Fallujah or some kind of war zone. It is still a mythical place, easy to navigate and evocative. – James Worrall, creative director.
A true pop culture object
Originally, Dead Island already has a referenced universe, which has an eye on the side of pulp-horror and the archetypal offbeat zombie film. A certain idea of the zombie as an object of pop culture that the developers wanted to fully exploit and above all to retransmit through the city. For the sets and the general style of the game, the artistic teams have largely borrowed from genre cinema of the 80s and 90s, from Robocop films, Freddy the claws of the night or even Predator.
I have really, really nostalgic memories of afternoon movie sessions. You then immersed yourself completely in the world presented to you, the end credits scrolled, and you left the room at sunset, you felt a real sense of having left a whole world behind. There’s a bit of a sense of loss, but also of “oh, can’t wait to see the next one”. -James Worrall
I want (players) to think “why aren’t more (games) doing this?” Zombies are fantastic. We really want to make zombies fun again. There have been so many games over 10 or 20 years that have made zombies popular, but there are so many that are simply a dark mirror that reflects the deeper sides of humanity. And I really want people to come out (of the game) and say, “That was fun. Zombies are fun again.” – Adam Olsson, Art Director.
Dead Island 2 is expected on April 28, 2023 on PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One.
