Home Gaming Dead Island 2 has a five-year-old playable build that has risen from the grave

Dead Island 2 has a five-year-old playable build that has risen from the grave

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Much like its rotting flesh-hungry antagonists, Dead Island 2 is kind of super-deceased as a game, even though its current rights holder Deep Silver wants you to know that it’s totally coming. Any day now! It’ll be waving goodbye to the fellas in the vaporware club, like that new Batman game and Rockstar’s Agent.

Anyway, for a game that was announced all the way back in 2014 with one of the best trailers ever at E3, its development has been a bumpy one while Dead Island originale studio Techland went on to crack out the superb Dying Light and are hard at work on a sequel currently. Which is also hovering around the entrance to Club Vaporware.

Was Dead Island 2 ever in a playable state? Yes, yes it was! Shambling around 4Chan like a lost fart in a perfume store, Eurogamer got wind (heh) of a 2015 build of Dead Island 2 that first appeared on 4Chan of all places. There was a download available of a rough build of the game, and while a lot of assets are missing and the entire project is filled with placeholder content, it still runs. Here’s a look at what the game would have looked like then, if Yager Development hadn’t been dropped from the sequel project:

So what’s the deal with Dead Island 2 then? It has been through development hell and back so far, as what started with Techland was eventually handed to the aforementioned Yager studio, then to Sumo Digital and again in 2019 it changed hands to Dambuster Studios. “Look, Dead Island is a very important brand for us and we’ve got to get it right,” said Kundratitz in an interview with gamesindustry.biz back in November 2019.

It’s just a testimony of our dedication to get it right. It’s a great story to tell everyone that it’s on its third studio, but we like to be judged on the end result and we’re really confident that when it comes out it’s going to be a kick-ass zombie game. We’ll certainly give it all our power.

It’s still a crying shame what happened to Yager. The studio behind Spec Ops: The Line deserved better, but after they were booted from Dead Island 2 they eventually closed their doors for good.

Last Updated: June 8, 2020

6 Comments

  1. Kromas

    June 8, 2020 at 09:03

    To be fair the true sequel to Dead Island is called Dying Light.

    Reply

    • The D

      June 8, 2020 at 09:39

      Ah, I see you are a man of culture as well.

      Reply

    • OddSockZA

      June 8, 2020 at 11:39

      AND MAN WAS IT GOOD

      Reply

      • Pariah

        June 8, 2020 at 11:39

        You could say it was to die for. 😛

        Reply

  2. HairyEwok

    June 8, 2020 at 11:07

    By today’s standards that video shows a AAA game that is ready to be released as a live service.

    Reply

  3. HairyEwok

    June 8, 2020 at 11:07

    By today’s standards that video shows a AAA game that is ready to be released as a live service.

    Reply

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