Dead Island 2: Ultimate Edition

Dead Island 2 is a hilarious gore-fest and a competent zombie-slaying adventure, but lacks creativity outside of its great sense of humor.

Dambuster Studios raises the dead in a vicious sequel long thought doomed.

A straightforwardly accomplished zombie action-RPG that doesn't quite make the most of its Californian setting.

Dead Island 2 is hampered by dull design choices, repetitive combat, and a painfully weak story, with its only saving grace being its great performance on PC.

There’s an overwhelming fakeness and irony to Dead Island 2 that, without any oppositional hope or sincerity, can eventually make the experience of playing it feel like kind of a downer, similar to the feeling you get after eating a load of junk food. My partner turned to me during one of my sessions late into the game and said it looked like I was on autopilot. Instead of meaningfully engaging with its systems, I was mindlessly pushing through the hordes in search of more complexity, or a satisfying narrative crescendo that never came. Dead Island 2’s nostalgic charms can transport you back to a simpler time, but there’s often a reason why you don’t see old friends anymore.

Enjoying Dead Island 2 requires you to accept it's 95% hitting zombies with sticks – and the remaining 5% is choosing the stick

With Dead Island 2, Dambuster Studios asks little of the player – only that you enjoy a good excuse to kill zombies in increasingly gory ways for a weekend or two – and in doing so, it delivers on the promise of what this series is all about.

Hacking at the undead in post-apocalyptic LA is a lot of fun, but the game's delayed release has made it sluggish and limited

The best games ask important questions. In the case of Dead Island 2, that question is: "Do you think it's funny to chop zombies into bits?" If the answer is yes, then Dead Island 2 is a joy.

Dead Island 2 doesn't pretend to be anything other than a daft, messy romp through undead LA, and this carefree, capricious attitude is precisely what makes it fun.