Dead Island 2 is a game full of all sorts of different things for players to do (either solo or cooperatively). Basic activities such as simply completing Challenges, to more complicated tasks such as going through the main Story Quest, or even just focusing on clearing Side Quests. The Message in a Bottle Side Quest is one that begins when players literally find a message in a bottle on the beaches of Santa Monica, not far from where they'll end up at the end of the Blood Drive Story Quest.

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This Quest is all about hunting down a food critic in Hell-A that, for some reason, is still reviewing restaurants even after the Zompocalypse. In his first note, food critic Anthony R. Oliver mentions being stranded in the place he most recently reviewed. So, Dead Island 2 players are tasked with using these reviews as 'guides' for where he went next, following his trail, and hopefully rescuing this stuck-up foodie.

Updated October 7th, 2023 by Jacob Buchalter: With Dead Island 2's DLCs apparently on the way (the website mentions Q4 2023 and Q2 2024), players are starting to come back around to their progress in this game. The story of surviving the Zompocalypse in Hell-A is a silly one, for sure, but that's a big part of Dead Island 2's charm. And, one of the sillier side quests in the game overall is the Message in a Bottle side quest that players will end up doing while exploring Santa Monica. So, let's dig through all the details of this mission once again, make sure everything is clear, and clean up the details so players can quickly get their save files ready for the Haus and LA Sola Festival DLCs in the coming months.

Location 1: Bucket O' Fish

The first location is a pretty simple one to solve by reading Anthony's initial message, as he directly uses the term 'bucket' in it and mentions seafood/fish multiple times. The main difficulty of this quest, in general, is figuring out where these locations are on the Pier. Half of this Pier is a recreation of the Pacific Park in real-life Santa Monica, while the other half is a slew of fictional army encampment tents and general restaurants.

To get to the Bucket O' Fish, players just need to go up onto the section of the Pier that's covered in military tents andhead through the narrow 'tunnel' underneath the Ocean Park sign. After passing through they should see this Seafood restaurant right in front of them and the objective of the Side Quest should change to 'Scrape the bottom of the Bucket O' Fish for the arrogant critic'. Players will then explore this 'fishy' location, watching out for the tripwire at the bottom of the first set of stairs.

After following this hallway they should reach the Staff Only door with puddles of oil surrounding it, head inside, and progress through this under-the-Pier maze. At the end will be a small stretch of puddles with electricity coursing through and the Bucket O' Fish Review sitting on top of a crate. Players can then grab this, read it, figure out where it's telling them to go, and then start heading to the second location.

Location 2: Pier Grill

Upon reading A. R Oliver's next note, it becomes clear that the guy has started to go mad with hunger and is hopping from location to location in an attempt to find any safe haven with food he can dine on. In his note, Anthony mentions knowing of a place with a military landing pad near its front door, and anyone who has explored the Pier a decent amount should immediately know where this is, the location in question being the Pier Grill. From the Bucket O' Fish, head back to where the Ocean Park sign is and turn left towards the crashed military helicopter that should be clearly visible to the player's left.

Go around the right side of this crashed 'bird' and players should see the Pier Grill right in front of them as their objective changes to 'Scour the Pier Grill for any sign of the arrogant food critic'. There's much less to 'scour' here, as it's really just a front patio seating area, but there will be a decently-sized group of Zombies to fight, including a Crusher. Once players have a second to breathe, they'll find Oliver's next piece, the Pier Grill Review, sitting on the table to the furthest southwest area of this patio. Other than the fact that Oliver gave this place a brutal two stars, he also mentions how he couldn't manage to get their frozen food down and how he had to fight with a monster for his meal (AKA a Zombie). So, Oliver, who is now pretty piping mad at this point, heads to his third location, which is a place that specializes in greasy, unpleasant, and quickly-made food.

Location 3: Hot Dog Shack

For his final location, Anthony R. Oliver heads to the Hot Dog Shack, a place that has the highest chances for there to be any sort of edible food at all. To get here, players will want to head east of the Pier Grill, following the line of buildings until they run into another line of buildings running perpendicular to them, one of which is Luigi's Pizzeria. From this Pizzeria, head south and players should see the Hot Dog Shack on their left after a short run.

As they get closer the objective will change from 'Find the arrogant food critic' to 'Cut the food critic down to size' as they round the Hot Dog Shack and see A. R Oliver standing there, ready to hurl undead vomit at them as a variant of a basic Slobber Zombie.

Defeating Oliver & Completing The Quest

After finally finding Oliver, players will then need to kill him, sadly, as they're probably already acquainted with doing this to just about every NPC at the end of most of these survivor-hunting Quests. Oliver is a basic Slobber Apex Zombie, and there aren't too many other basic mobs nearby to get in the way, so the fight against him should be easy overall.

After killing the food critic, he should drop some more notes on the ground. Players will then be asked to 'Save the food critic's final review for posterity' while also being rewarded with the Caustic Blight Skill. Pick up Oliver's final memoir titled Review, Hotdg Shak: Twelvteen Strs, and the Quest is completed, rewarding players with a lump sum of 3,000 XP.