Dead Island 2 survived its trip through development hell and is ready to be released. Reviews of the game so far have been a bit mixed, though it’s generally agreed that Dead Island 2 is a very entertaining take on the first game’s core concepts. So when will you be able to play it for yourself?
Dead Island 2 is scheduled to be released on April 21st at 12:00 am ET, 9:00 PM PT, and 10:00 PM MT (as well as all other corresponding time zones). Yes, that means it is following a staggered release schedule, though that only really applies to North America. At present, it seems that those in Europe, Asia, and Australia will actually be able to play the game at midnight in their local time zones.
To make matters slightly more confusing, there are still some unanswered questions regarding Dead Island 2‘s release time on a per-platform basis. While the times above seem to apply to the console versions of the game (PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S), there has been no confirmation regarding Dead Island 2‘s release time via the Epic Store. It’s certainly not unheard of for such games to release later on PC, so anyone who prefers to play Dead Island 2 on that platform may need to wait at least a few hours longer.
As always, this release schedule means that Xbox gamers will get to use the “New Zealand trick” to start playing the game several hours earlier. Here’s an explanation of how to pull that trick off.
Furthermore, console players are able to start preloading the game right now, while it seems that PC players will need to wait until closer to the game’s release to actually install it. At present, Dead Island 2‘s file size is expected to be 48 GB for PlayStation 5, 19GB for PlayStation 4, 54 GB for Xbox Series X, 26 GB for Xbox One, and a whopping 70 GB for PC. Sorry PC players.
For those who don’t know, Dead Island 2 is the sequel to 2011’s Dead Island. However, while the original Dead Island was developed by Techland (who since went on to make the Dying Light games), Dead Island 2 is being developed by Dambuster Studios.
As I alluded to above, the sequel’s development has been anything but smooth. The game has passed through a few different development hands at this point and has obviously been changed quite a bit as it moved from developer to developer. Furthermore, the original Dead Island itself was seen as a collection of interesting concepts that didn’t quite come together. Many fans felt that Dying Light represented the better version of those concepts.
Still, don’t go into Dead Island 2 expecting doom and gloom. I was actually impressed with many aspects of a recent demo of the game and found it to be the kind of wacky, gory zombie title we haven’t actually seen a lot of in the genre’s recent history. Will the full game live up to that potential? You’ve only got a few hours left to see for yourself.