Fans have been waiting for Dead Island 2 for a while, but it’s finally being released next February. While many jokes have been made, the developers made a big splash as the closing act during Gamescom Opening Night Live 2022 with two different trailers.
Fans immediately had questions about the story and its relation to the past game. And in an interview with Dot Esports, developer Dan Evans and narrative designer Ayesha Kahn discussed the plot and continuation of the Dead Island series. “So story-wise, it’s fairly simple. It’s set in the same universe, it is chronologically after the first game almost as by as many years as… anyway,” Kahn told Dot Esports.
It seems that Kahn is alluding to the many years the game spent in development, which was anywhere from six to 10 years, depending on whether Dambuster is counting its four-year development. It’s not so long after Banoi that players won’t run into some old friends, though. “There might be one or two familiar faces for fans who are looking for them,” Kahn said.
In discussing how Los Angeles fits into the Dead Island theme as part of a larger landmass, Kahn refers to it as a “man-made island.” She also said “L.A. is under military quarantine, a data quarantine… That’s the island you’re trying to escape full of the dead.” The story is not explicit, but there is worldbuilding and lore to the characters for the players who go looking for it.
The game will also investigate the cause of the virus that’s infecting the citizens of Los Angeles. “We start to think about what the infection is and what’s going on there,” Kahn said.
Dead Island 2 is scheduled to drop on Feb. 3, 2023.
