The recent release of Dead Island 2 continues to engage groups of fans, with the zombie-infested survival horror game wowing many with its eccentric motifs and wacky gameplay. Given its unprecedentedly long time in development, it is no wonder that long-awaiting fans want to enjoy as much of the title's offered experience as they possibly can, but some may already be looking toward what other contemporary titles could carry the torch after they are finished with the new release.
Outside its bombastic themes and locations, the core gameplay of Dead Island 2 is typified by its close-quarters combat, exploration, survival mechanics, and horror motifs. There are of course many other titles that offer comparable experiences to what Dead Island 2 portrays, but one recent title in particular seems like the most logical and attractive next gaming step for fans who have exhausted Dead Island 2 of its content.
Dead Island 2's Take On Survival Horror
The shaky and longstanding development of Dead Island 2 has not meant that the game has forgotten about the roots of the franchise, with the new release maintaining a lot of the core mechanics and themes of its 2011 predecessor. While the game can offer genuinely tense and horror-saturated gameplay, Dead Island 2 goes against the grain of what the genre usually offers by adding elements of comedy and light-hearted relief to its involved narratives and experiences.
By giving players the ability to modify their weapons in Dead Island 2 with exciting elemental features, and with its affinity for co-operative play, many of the darker themes of the game are complimented well by lighthearted segments that make the title rather unique within the wider genre. While not many other games can offer the same kind of experience as Dead Island 2, there are other releases within the genre that foster the same kind of expansiveness and co-operative play, offering a fantastic follow-up experience for the game.
Dead Island 2 and Sons of the Forest
Sons of the Forest recently released on February 23, being another hotly-anticipated addition to the survival horror genre. Like Dead Island 2, Sons of the Forest is a sequel to a well-received launching franchise title, with The Forest releasing in 2014. With fans waiting a long time for the subsequent release which also maintains a lot of the core mechanics of the original, Sons of the Forest possesses a lot of inherent similarities with Dead Island 2, as well as many implicit ones.
For example, Sons of the Forest also fosters co-operative play in the same way Dead Island 2 does, with both games subsequently offering the same kind of replayabiltiy and excitement as one another. While Sons of the Forest offers a more muted horror-centric experience when compared to Dead Island 2, the game's more in-depth co-operative gameplay brings the game up to the same kind of overall lightheadedness as Dead Island 2.
Both games of course feature a deadly humanoid threat and close-quarters combat, and while the exploration and crafting of Sons of the Forest may be more in-depth, the layered environments and greater interactivity of Dead Island 2 does well to offset this. While Dead Island 2 has a lot to offer, fans who finish the game and have not yet played through Sons of the Forest have a perfect title to explore, one that will carry forward the same kind of survival themes and co-operative play that the recently released title possesses.
Dead Island 2 is out now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
