Dead Island 2is all about gore. Dambuster Studios has been all about blood, guts, and viscera since the re-reveal, showing off the game’s FLESH system that realistically tears zombies all the way down to their bones. It’s such a core part of Dead Island 2’s identity in fact, that its first trailer had a warning label over all the bloody carnage. Cringe, but I can see where it’s coming from.
To be honest I’d been rolling my eyes when hearing about the FLESH system for quite some time. Trailers and screenshots did show a lot of blood, sure, but Dead Island 2 isn’t the first game to promise us gaming’s most detailed dismemberment system (Dead Space and The Callisto Protocol instantly come to mind), so I wasn’t buying into it.
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Then it saw its face, now I’m a believer - a bloody-knuckled, tendon-tearing, crimson-goo-covered believer.After getting my hands on the game for a preview, Dead Island 2’s gore isn’t just its standout feature - it’s the best gore system I’ve ever seen in a video game.
Granted, I didn’t get that sense when I first started playing. The opening 20 minutes take place after a plane crash at night, which meant that I could barely see any of the blood and guts spilling out before me. Zombies were still being splattered and slashed with my makeshift weapons, but try as I might to see something gnarly, it was all for naught.
When I finally made it past the introduction and into the sunny vistas of Beverly Hills, everything clicked in place. Or, more accurately, bones did. My first run-in with a horde of zombies left me feeling equally impressed and green in the face as my katana accurately lopped off limbs, my plank of wood left a zombie’s jaw barely hanging on, and bloody viscera sprayed everywhere. Grim.
Later on in my preview as I unlock more weapons and modifications, I’d get to see even more of the FLESH system in action as my electricity-infused pipe made the undead smoke, sizzle, and char, and a conveniently-placed barrel of acid turn my enemies into sizzling piles of goo. I thought I was desensitized to gaming gore after playing Splatterhouse, but Dead Island 2 never failed to make me wince with glee, no matter what weapon I was using.
I’m aware of how American Psycho this is going to sound, but the moment this FLESH system really made sense to me wasn’t some emergent gameplay sequence or extravagant finishing move. Rather, it was during the downtime of one of my first zombie battles - after bashing my way through a crowd, I singled out one of the undead and decided to put Dambuster’s money where its mouth is and see how extensive the FLESH mechanic could be by smashing the ever-loving shit out of a zombie to see every beautiful, bloody detail.
I must have mauled that poor undead fucker for a good 20 minutes, managing to rip through his clothes and skin with nothing but my fists, leaving only a mashed skeleton with a pair of flashy red kicks behind. Again, American Psycho here, but it’s the first time a game’s gore has impressed me since watching Logan heal himself in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. How far we’ve come.
It’s been some time since a game has made me question my moral compass, but as my roommate gave me a weird look while I gleefully pointed out a dead zombie’s jiggling brain and how it realistically squashed, stretched, and jiggled as I punched it, I had to briefly reflect on who I was as a person. Take that The Last of Us Part 2. No matter how the rest of Dead Island 2 turns out, I have a feeling that its gore will continue to be talked about for some time to come.
