For a long time, I considered Dead Island 2 to be something of a guilty pleasure. It almost felt a bit embarrassing – or dare I say it, a bit ‘basic’ – to get all misty-eyed about a mere, semi-open-world zombie slayer. But overtime, it’s only gotten better and my love has only grown stronger, and now that Dead Island 2 Patch 6 is out in the wild, I’d say it’s one of the most complete and enjoyable co-op action games around.
While the base experience was enough to convince me that Dead Island 2 is one of the best zombie games of the last few years, its post-launch run has only strengthened its position. Alongside some great paid expansions (one of which our very own Danielle described as the “perfect” DLC) it’s received lots of improvements and new modes for free. However, nothing compares to the incredibly generous Patch 6, which delivers two essential new experiences.
The first – which admittedly is one that should’ve arrived in Dead Island 2 a lot sooner – is New Game Plus. You can now relive the game’s main campaign with all your existing gear and skills intact, but of course with a much, much harder level of difficulty. In Dambuster’s own words, it “isn’t taking any prisoners.” As well as just generally scaling up the health and lethality of the regular enemy types, New Game Plus adds the game’s toughest enemy type yet. Revenants are a new form of Apex Zombies (which were the previous toughest enemies before today’s patch) that have new mechanics and behaviors that make them incredibly hard to slay.
The second is Neighborhood Watch, which is a cross between a horde mode and tower defense games. Each run of Neighborhood Watch lasts five days – you spend the first four days fending off moderately challenging hordes and completing specific objectives in order to earn as much high-tier gear as possible. As well as just having better guns and melee weapons, this also manifests itself in the way of traps and defenses that you can strategically place around the building you’re trying to protect. Why do you need such a vast amount of gear? Well, on day five, a relentless and brutal wave of enemies will throw themselves at your base.
Neighborhood Watch also lets you pick from three bespoke characters that each act as a different ‘class.’ One is a medic, one is a toxic gas specialist, and the other is a sharpshooting marksman.
The release of Patch 6 also coincides with the launch of the Ultimate Edition of Dead Island 2, which bundles the base game together with its two premium story expansions and some extra cosmetic goodies. When I look at Dead Island 2 now, as a complete package, I don’t think I can really say it’s a ‘guilty pleasure’ anymore – it’s just a damn good game.
Once you’re done with all the new content hitting Dead Island 2, why not check out some other brilliant co-op games that you can play with your pals. Alternatively, take a look at our list of the best FPS games if you want some more first-person slaying.
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