Dead Island 2 has had a torrid road to release, coming to PS5, Xbox Series X/S, last-gen consoles and some PCs nine Years after the game first came out – but a surprising level of technical polish is evident in every console version. Dead Island 2 also does more than you’d expect from a typical Unreal Engine 4 release, with some novel tech features added by developers Dambusters that are definitely worth covering.
In this article, we’ll tackle those novel additions — and how the game plays out on last-gen consoles, including the PS4, PS4 Pro, Xbox One, and Xbox One X. We’ll also take a look at what visual upgrades you can expect. By selecting current-gen versions on PS5, Series X or Series S.
Let’s get the bloody stuff out of the way first. Set against a golden LA backdrop, Dead Island 2’s focus on extreme gore is its trademark – with heavy violence, mutilation and body physics, all enabled by the game’s ‘FLESH Engine’ or ‘Fully Local Evacuation System for Humanoids’ Are. This proprietary technology simulates the physics of body decomposition to horrifying levels of detail, from clothing and skin down to muscles, organs and even the skeleton. This is serious, disgusting stuff achieved with real technical skill. Suffice it to say that the swords, guns and elemental hazards all have terrifying real-world consequences on the zombie hordes, making this easily one of the most impressive parts of Dead Island 2’s technological makeup.
Being a project that started before the release of current-gen consoles – in fact, the game is announced for PS4 (!) It’s for PS5, Series X or Series S, but none toggle graphics modes Is. The biggest complaint, then, is that the game lacks a bit of ambition on even the most powerful console, but at least the level design is beautifully dense with detail, with volumetric effects, screen-space reflections and body physics, depending on your chosen one. All are included, regardless of machine. ,
Let’s go through each console in turn, starting with the base Xbox One version – the most constrained last-gen console. The Xbox One runs at a native 1600×900 resolution with a 30fps target that mostly stuck – there are occasional stutters and single frame drops triggered by UI changes or weapon raises, but it’s a surprisingly smooth experience. which shows evidence of lots of optimization and no sign of dynamic resolution scaling during our testing.
Switching to the base PS4, it’s positive again, with a native 1080p presentation and the same basic visual settings as the base Xbox One. However, the 30fps frame-rate target isn’t quite held, with slightly more aggressive throttling in places – but most areas remain undisturbed to 30fps. Note that the PS4 or Xbox One are not capable of hosting online games at launch – hosting sessions requires a PS4 Pro, Xbox One X or a current-gen console, although Dambusters will be available in the weeks following launch. aim to address this restriction.
The next advanced machines are: Xbox One X and PS4 Pro. Both consoles use the same visual settings as their older counterparts, with textures, shadows and alpha effects all matched, but with a native 2560×1440 presentation pushing a crisper image. Again, the frame-rate target is 30fps, with each machine sticking almost perfectly, with rare occurrences of a frame off, but overall a strong feel.
There’s even more good news for current-generation console owners. The PS5, Series X and Series S each get a push to 60fps, and there’s also a big resolution boost in the PS5 and Series X’s case. The PS5 version runs at native 3072×1728 with a perfectly held 60fps, while the Series X targets the same resolution and also hits 60fps outside of some brief drops when using elemental attacks. Jumping over to the Series S, performance remains excellent with only the occasional drop from the 60fps target, with heavy effects causing frame-rates to drop into the high 50s in rare instances. However, the resolution is low compared to other current-gen machines, with a native 1920×1080 presentation – a fair trade for 60fps, I think it’s fair to say.
Improvements to shadow quality and effects work on PS5, Series X and Series S, as well as environmental animations for trees – where last-gen versions render them as static objects. However, all consoles use cube-mapping in places where SSR isn’t applied, and the result is low resolution, static textures in some areas – which look particularly out of place on the PS5 and Series X. Still, the shadow, effects and animation upgrades are neat extras, even if they don’t significantly alter the look of the game, while the 60fps move is much more impressive.
Faster loading times are another reason to choose the next-gen release, with the PS4 needing around 76 seconds to load the Halperin Hotel, compared to seven seconds on the PS5 – a difference that the fragmented world design and quests let you bothers. Often return to previously explored areas.
Comparing all seven console releases of Dead Island 2, there is a clear pecking order that sees the PS5 and Series X come out on top, with 60fps gameplay, faster load times, better resolutions and higher settings. What’s surprising though is how well the polling is for the last-gen machines, which are limited to 30fps but otherwise perform extremely competently.
Given its long development saga that saw the game change hands several times, the fact remains that Dead Island 2 works as well as it does on every last-gen and current-gen Xbox and PlayStation machine. game of course feels Like the last-gen release, a PS4 and Xbox One game has been ported for the new system, but its ‘awesome fun’ principle and its engaging body physics shine through regardless of platform – making it a sequel worth playing. makes it worth it.
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