Very happy to see this game see the light of day after all the issues it ran into for years, and to it's credit; it did extremely well for having the massive amount of weight on it's back.

They kept it simple and refreshed instead of trying to go hog wild on a gigantic mechanic overhaul that may not have worked nearly as well. They focused entirely on what made the series stand out to begin with: a zombie kill simulator.

Each character has their own build for different playstyles that branches out much further than the original, "this guy good at hammers and this woman good at gun". Now they're all pretty proficient at most things with various other skill scales. I do think that some characters have more OP abilities than others, but getting swarmed by a barrage of zombies tends to obliterate all of them in the same way.

I played it with a friend and it was a blast through and through, but I wish it were a bit longer. I really feel as though if we didn't do the side quests, we would have been done with it in two sessions.

The plot is moreso what I expect from a Dead Island game, just a goofy romp around from place to place picking up whatever diabolical weapon I can find. The only unfortunate thing is that they felt the need to try to explain the character's immunity but kind of skirted over it just to set up DLC expansions down the line, which makes the ending feel incredibly abrupt for a game that's already very short.

It's still very fun and I hope they're able to make more now that it's finally released.