Bucking the trend of popular open-world games on the market, Dambuster Studios' Dead Island 2 is a sequel that sets players on a structured path through several questing hubs. While some may be surprised to find an experience that tends to be more linear, it's a deliberate design choice. The zombie-survival series has historically given equal attention toward curated story beats and optional content, connecting major locations with branching paths, and Dead Island 2 continues that trend.
After many assumed that Dead Island 2 was lost in development hell, the final product retains most of the hallmarks of the first Dead Island. However, Dambuster attempts to strike a balance by restricting exploration around decidedly tighter levels, which might raise questions about the quality of its side quests. The prioritization of map design over seamless exploration has the potential to take the focus away from player freedom, but in most cases Dead Island 2's world still has a lot to offer. Each hub comes packed with hordes to fight and environmental puzzles to solve, and this gameplay is pushed even further in side quests that reward those bold enough to seek them out.
How Dead Island 2's Side Quests Reward Exploration
Whether exploring Dead Island 2 in single-player or co-op, players will discover a total of 10 districts, with most areas providing a variety of tasks and characters. New paths become available as the game progresses, including side quests that are unique to each district. Generally, completing a side quest rewards players with rare weapons, mods, abilities, and tactical curveballs that can be thrown into the fray. But what's more interesting is often the characters who surround some of these tasks.
Upon accepting a side quest from an NPC, it's sometimes possible to rescue them so that they join up with one of the larger safe houses located in that district. This is yet another way that Dambuster highlights Dead Island 2's setting and locations, with one side quest entitled "#Clickbait" specifically lampooning the extremes of Internet culture - rewarding players with a skill card for ripping apart zombies to gain social media clout. Side quests like these give players the opportunity to practice combat in entertaining ways as well, which can help break up the grind at times when other games might falter.
Meeting the Oddball Survivors of Dead Island 2
Alongside the main cast of slayers in Dead Island 2, Dambuster's sequel features several NPCs who embody classic, archetypal Hollywood heroes. The fictionalized Los Angeles, dubbed Hell-A, has been torn apart in the chaos of the zombie outbreak, but much of its charm still shines through. Almost immediately players can seek out an aging actor named Curtis Sinclair who comes off as cool as the blockbuster roles he's starred in. That's just in the Bel-Air area, and players will find even more mysterious figures as the entirety of Hell-A opens up.
Everyone from influencers to movie stars might be found in players' travels, and interactions such as these add personality to a world that feels like it's on the brink of extinction. Dead Island 2 has already found success at launch, meaning Dambuster's vision for the long-awaited sequel is paying off. The developer managed to pull together a relatively consistent adventure that is more than competent at delivering exciting, impactful zombie-slaying action. Much of this happens to be carried by its short-but-sweet side quests, which for some fans may suffice as a worthy diversion from the main storyline.
Dead Island 2 is now available for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
