Dead Island 2 Gets a New Trailer, 8 Years After the Last One – and It’s Out Next Year – Gamescom Opening Night Live [IGN]

August 24, 2022 Joe Skrebels gaming

Our first look at the game since it was brought back to life (twice).

Dead Island 2 received its first trailer in 2014. Eight years later, it just got a second trailer, announcing that it will arrive February 3 next year.

Announced at Gamescom’s Opening Night Live showcase, a new cinematic trailer showed Jacob, one of six playable characters in the game, seemingly infected with a virus, bashing his way through a variety of undead. The montage shows him slaughtering his way through Los Angeles, using both a gun and a katana.

Dead Island 2 – Gamescom 2022

A second trailer showed off the first new gameplay, which has been re-built from the ground up by developer Dambuster Studios. It is incredibly gory, with brutal melee combat carving zombies in two and turning them to red mush.

It’s been a long and troubled road for the zombie-killing sequel. After starting life at Spec Ops: The Line developer Yager, the game was moved to Sumo Digital after “mutual differences” with publisher Deep Silver. Sumo worked on the game for some time, but Dambuster Studios eventually took over in 2019.

The original game was set for PS4, Xbox One and PC, and saw players taking control of over-the-top characters killing zombies in multiple Californian locations. It’s likely a very different prospect in its new form.

Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Features Editor.