Announced just a few years after the release of the first Dead Island and just over a year after Dead Island Riptide, Dead Island 2 was the unforgettable and repetitive sequel that at least continued the story of the first game’s survivors. Publisher Deep Silver released a few spin-offs after Riptide, such as Escape Dead Island, Dead Island: Epidemic, and the 16-bit beat ’em up Dead Island Retro Revenge, but a full, numbered sequel hasn’t come out yet, although it has been announced was almost a decade ago.
The first iteration of Dead Island 2 was led by Spec Ops: The Line developer Yager, as Dead Island developer Techland had parted ways with the property and was working on Dying Light. Deep Silver then handed development of the game over to LittleBigPlanet 3 developer Sumo Digital in 2016, but then, in 2019, Deep Silver announced that Homefront: The Revolution developer Dambuster Studios would be handling Dead Island 2. And this studio has been working on the game since 2018. During my cover story trip to Dambuster’s studio in Nottingham, England, various members of the team told me that it started with a fresh, clean slate for Dead Island 2. But oddly enough, Dead Island 2, set for release in April, is still set in Los Angeles, California, the setting revealed in the game’s first reveal trailer back in 2014.
While Dambuster appears to have had the opportunity to make Dead Island 2 exactly how it should be in every way, he stuck with LA, affectionately referred to in the game and by the studio as Hell-A. I asked Game Director David Stenton about this decision, and apparently a different setting was never really an option.
“I don’t remember there being a lot of discussion about doing anything other than LA,” Stenton tells me. “I think for us we really wanted to focus on the game… on the combat, and that extends to the setting as well. LA is such an amazing iconic place that we didn’t really feel like we needed to bring in other areas.”
Stenton is likely alluding to the game’s original logo when it was first revealed in 2014. The D in “Dead” shows the Golden Gate Bridge, the symbol of San Francisco. Dambuster tells me that Dead Island 2 will take place exclusively in Los Angeles, so don’t plan on heading to San Francisco or other locations in California in the main campaign.
“It just gives us so many options…for the game we wanted to make, so it wasn’t a big debate,” says Stenton.
It’s important to note, however, that despite what the team says about sticking to LA, using the same location from the original reveal — the location fans assume Dead Island 2 has been set for almost a decade — owes marketing no harm this game. While the team is confident that LA is the location for their zombie game, they may have simply made the decision to stay where fans have long assumed this sequel would be set.
“We started from scratch, with our own vision,” says Stenton. “We don’t look too much at what’s happened in the past or look at too many other games out there. We’re just really focusing on the question, “How are we going to make Dead Island 2 absolutely phenomenal?” and bring it up to speed and deliver a game that we think fans will really enjoy.”
For more information, check out our feature on why Dambuster Studios think Los Angeles is a great Dead Island experience, even though the city isn’t an actual island.
Do you think Los Angeles will make a great Dead Island setting? Let us know in the comments below!
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