Dead Island 2 Was Built On Making Zombies Fun Again, Gory Movies And A Nod To Hollywood

After almost 10 years of development and three different developers, Dead Island 2 is less than a week away from release. A lot of people thought that the sequel would never see the light of day, but Deep Silver stuck fat, and together with Dambuster Studios they can see the light at the end of the tunnel. It’s the second time that the Nottingham-based studio has been tasked with leading a project out of development hell, with the team releasing Homefront: The Revolution back in 2016, and although there are similarities in how both projects came together, this time around feels different for Dambuster and Deep Silver. I’ve previewed Dead Island 2 twice over the past six months and enjoyed my time slashing through LA, and recently I got to speak with the game’s creative director James Worrall about the development process and what influenced their spin on the Dead Island experience.

WellPlayed: Dead Island 2 has been a long time coming, you must be excited to see it finally release next month?

James Worrall: You have no idea! We’ve been working in secret for so long, then we revealed at Gamescom on the opening night and with a closed-door demo for the press. The response was very humbling and confirmed we’d had the right gut feeling for Dead Island 2. The fanbase have been so awesome, it was a huge relief. The press have been so positive, again a huge relief! We can’t wait for the public to get their hands on Dead Island 2!

WP: While you were able to start from scratch with Dead Island 2, this is the second project you’ve taken over from another developer. How did your experience with Homefront: The Revolution help with the development of Dead Island 2?

JW: We wanted an absolute commitment to take the time to launch a finished game, and Deep Silver gave us that support and space. We also recognised that a focused experience, that took the absolute soul of Dead Island, its essence, and delivered on that would be key to success. We’re a medium-sized studio, we want to punch above our weight, but without over-extending. I think this philosophy has been good for the game.

WP: Although it’s your own spin on the game, it does share similarities with the initial announcement trailer. Were there any ideas from earlier versions of the game you kept or expanded on?

JW: We knew, and were fans of, the original games. We spent time assessing what the key pillars were. The original DI2 trailer had a very distinct shift in tone that we really liked. We wanted to focus on the gore, on the zombie, and that tone goes well with classic gore/monster movie experiences. That was our recipe!

WP: One of my favourite features from Homefront was the on-the-fly weapon customisation, did you ever try seeing if that would work in Dead Island 2?

JW: The balance we wanted to go for was ‘a tool for every job’. Being a zombie slayer is about knowing your prey, every different mutation, their strengths and (more importantly) their weaknesses. On-the-fly weapon customisation would remove that reward from tactical players – to plan ahead, to save this weapon for that enemy, to craft that weapon for this enemy.

Then we get those delicious moments, when you have played it just right or when you realise that you haven’t – two sides of the same coin, each equally enjoyable.

WP: Los Angeles is a world-famous location that has been recreated many times in various mediums. What influenced your design of the City of Angels?

JW: We wanted to build a romantic, picture-postcard LA, seen through the Hollywood lens that players the world over would be familiar with. It isn’t about 1-to-1 reproduction, it’s about summoning the spirit of LA and using that idealised familiarity as the backdrop for something nightmarish.

WP: From what I’ve played it feels like Dambuster has really focused on the fun aspect of the gameplay, even if it is a bit ‘silly’. Was this a priority during the game’s development? To really lean into making things as ridiculous as possible?

JW: ‘Making zombies fun again’ was one of our mantras. There are a ton of zombie IPs out there that have done the gritty, realistic, earnest melodrama. We didn’t want our zombies to become wallpaper for a tale of humans-hating-humans. Ours is about humans versus zombies, about heroes fighting the zompocalypse, and doing it with swagger, confidence, and half a wink to the camera!

WP: How fine is the balance between something being too ridiculous to implement? What’s one of the craziest ideas you left on the cutting room floor?

JW: Oh, gosh, well we’ve kept a lot of our powder dry – Dead Island 2 is an exercise in establishing the baseline game and world building. We have a lot that we cut for later content, to enable us to stay focused and understand the foundations well.

An example would be the environmental system and tremors. We left one tremor in the game, choreographed in one moment. But we started out with tremors being a constant threat, everywhere! This proved difficult to contain and manage! That’s earthquakes for you! But we may see this feature return in future…

WP: What was the inspiration behind the F.L.E.S.H. system?

JW: Our Technical Art Director has an unhealthy love of gore movies. His enthusiasm is as infectious as a zombie virus and, well, we all got the bug! Once we realised that it was more than just a decorative flourish, that it could create the fundamental basis for moving zombie combat forward, it was a no-brainer. And it is a glorious achievement – there are occasions I’ve nearly died at the hands of the zombie horde simply because I’m hypnotised by the blood ’n’ guts spectacle before me!

WP: How long can players expect the game to take to complete?

JW: I guess if you were laser-focused, 12 to 15 hours to finish the story, but there’s loads of side content, and secret content, and just the fun of completing challenges, etc. You could easily take that to 25+ hours. And that’s just with one of six characters! Each of our characters have slightly different build strategies and a completely different personality and unique dialogue, so you can replay to build up another character…

WP: Was there a particular mission you enjoyed designing?

JW: The story is one long mission broken into smaller objectives, so you could say that an entire level is a ‘mission’, and my favourite is Monarch Studios – we had so much opportunity for being playful here, the different movie sets provide great ‘Narnia wardrobe’ moments as you step onto a 1970s NY street, or a Mayan temple, for example.

At the other end of the spectrum, we have ‘Treasure Hunts’ and ‘Missing Persons’ quests that can be found in the world. These require the player to revisit areas and put the pieces of the puzzle together themselves. One follows the sticky demise of a restaurant critic, trying to find something decent to eat as LA collapses under the weight of the zompocalypse!

WP: In your previous game, there was a working TimeSplitters 2 arcade where players could play the game. Given there are TimeSplitters and Homefront: The Revolution arcades present in Dead Island 2, can we expect to find a working one of either somewhere in the world?

JW: Never say never. But probably never (not?).

WP: Thanks for your time and good luck with the game’s launch.

JW: Thank you, these were great Qs! I look forward to reading the review

Dead Island 2 releases on April 21 on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC.