Any gamer worth their Cheeto dust remembers the E3 debut of the Dead Island 2 trailer way back in 2014. Coming hot off the heels of the smash hit Dead Island (and its less lauded pseudo-sequel Dead Island: Riptide), Dead Island 2 looked to be a slam dunk in the making for developer Techland: more gore, more zombies, more of everything gamers loved in the early 2010s.
Unfortunately, the game was almost immediately plunged into development hell: layoffs, studio replacements, and fickle publishers ensured that neither hide nor hair would be seen of Dead Island 2 until its surprising re-announcement last year. It looked to be more or less the same kind of game that had originally been teased – including the baffling change of locale to Los Angeles, meaning that, yes, Dead Island is no longer even on an island. Now, after nearly a decade of waiting, Dead Island 2 has gone gold… meaning that in a few short months, gamers everywhere will soon see if it was worth the wait.