Recent reviews by Spython

Dead Island 2 has several good upsides to it, but also flaws which unfortunately make me not consider this game a worthwhile purchase. I'd even recommend obtaining the first one over this.

One of the features that is certainly upgraded is the gore and dismemberment, not only is it more detailed but you can remove zombie's legs without it being an instant kill like in previous titles, if you wish to be sadistic. You also will be rewarded later on for going specific kinds of dismemberment with special parts used for crafting when you progress enough in the story.

The weapons are fairly varied enough to sate most people's needs, though modifying them is somewhat lacking with there not being too many variants. While old titles did have upgraded versions of certain kinds of mods too, here they are not uniquely named. Helps with knowing which one is the most optimal at least, though I don't recall the mod itself being visually different when compared to lower tier version of same one. And most of the time blunt impact weapons are just a more reliable choice in most situations without any real downsides, but more on that later.
On top of mods, you can also equip perks, which are very plentiful and varied, one of the biggest upsides of this new crafting system in my honest opinion.

Skill trees have been replaced with card deck building system. Even though I do not play any deck building games, I was able to look past that fact and focusing on what each card provides, as the system lets you easily swap out and test different abilities on the fly. It provides different kinds of fury you can use, you can choose between flying kick or drop kick to choose either heavy damage or knocking down zombies. You can choose to charge forward or perform a battle cry by pressing a certain ability button etc.
The system is not without it's own downsides of course. Some cards are specifically only equippable with specific abilities they enhance, such as one card boosting only flying kick and another one boosting drop kick. Then there is also the annoying trend of stat boosts not being specific, but instead listed as "MINOR, MODERATE OR GREAT" increases. This also extends to weapon mods and perks. I guess it is to encourage experimenting with different builds, which people would do anyways with all the perks you can have to go through and having only limited slots for putting them on each weapon.

The story and characters are sometimes on par with BL3 levels of writing, which is obviously not a good thing. Not much to say on that front since I did not pay too much attention to it.

The levels are at first fairly linear, but do become more open later on, and unlock new pathways to make some of then more maneuverable. There are still spots early on where you are going down same path several times until you unlock a fast travel option.

The enemies have a good deal of variety to them, especially since I love it when most of the zombies are shamblers or walkers, with a few runners thrown in to try and catch you off guard, rather than them all being infected runners like in L4D for example.
But then the special ones which can be immune to certain damage types creates an issue that annoyed me in Doom Eternal: Having to use specific weapons to not waste time and resources, when previously you figured out yourself what would be the best weapon for each situation, or what you would prefer to specialize in this game's case.

Overall I have to say that this game does have potential, and can be enjoyable for one playthrough if you just wish to experience a visceral and brutal play through with story that is mediocre at best, since there is no new game+ in this one. At least beating up the zombies remains a fun activity and bullying this game's version of thugs by breaking both arms is actually encouraged with the rewards you get from breaking/ chopping up body parts.

Requires xbox live to play in the first place, and makes you need to add your friends there to play multiplayer with them instead of using steam as an option. I was willing to put up with this like I've done with many other games, but then there was practically no way to allocate and customize your characters stats, or even how they look. And who is the moron that thought making each player only loot specific containers instead of them all being able to loot any single one they wanted was a smart idea? I may be missing a point behind it, but in the end it did not help the already poor first impression from the beginning.

One of the best co-op experiences I've had in a long time, with a community that is not filled with toxicity, but mostly consists of decent and well-mannered players.
While the amount of classes and weapons may not be great quantity-wise at the moment of writing this review, they are mostly balanced and unique enough to stand out from each other. The devs are also aiming to avoid power creep that often plagues other co-op games like Payday 2, even if there is always a loud minority complaining about well deserved nerfs. Though they really screwed the pooch when they moved Warthog's accuracy upgrade to tier 2...

If you are interested in a 4-player cooperative FPS with fully destructible environment, and wish to support a game that actually left early access in a good, stable state instead of remaining a buggy mess, then I recommend buying this game.

Rock and stone!