One Thing That'll Be Different In Dead Island 2? Freeze Rays.

You know how they say that there’s more than one way to skin a cat? Well, there’s more than one way to kill a zombie, too. In case you thought you’d run out of new ways to lay the living dead to rest, Dead Island 2 is here with a new gameplay trailer to try and convince you it’s still not out of ideas.

https://lastchance.cc/so-theres-a-new-dead-island-coming-out-1588418063%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E

Publisher Deep Silver released some alpha footage in preparation for Dead Island 2’s presence at Gamescom. The video insists that this is early footage that could be subject to all sorts of changes, but the trailer will look familiar to anyone who’s slogged through the first two beautiful and supremely gory games in this open-world zombie-killing series. There’s plenty of first-person hacking, slashing, and blowing faces off with shotguns, of course. But the one flourish I noticed that seemed genuinely novel was one moment when the player freezes a zombie in its tracks. Like, actually freezes it. With some sort of tricked-out ice gun. And then shatters it with another shot of the ice gun.

I, for one, am still partial to the “creative brutality” promised by Dying Light, another upcoming zombie-killing game done in a very similar vein to Dead Island. But shattering a zombie like an icicle does look like a lot of fun too. I guess we’ll just have to wait for both the games to come out before we can give a definite take on which one offers a better experience with some serious next-gen gore.

Dead Island 2 is being developed for the PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and PC. The game is being made by Yager Development, the studio that previously made the gritty and divisive first-person shooter Spec Ops: The Line. You can learn more about the game on its website

To contact the author of this post, write to [email protected] or find him on Twitter at @YannickLeJacq

🕹️ Level up your inbox

Don’t miss the latest reviews, news and tips. Sign up for our free newsletter.