Dead Island 2 Expansions and Roadmap Unveiled

Yesterday, Deep Silver Dambuster revealed the two Dead Island 2 expansions being prepared for release. The first is set to be available before the end of the year, while the second will launch around the one-year anniversary of the base game.

• • First expansion:  How does a billionaire prepare for the zompocalypse? A techno-death cult with a healthy splash of debauchery and gore! The first story expansion, Haus, will release in Q4, 2023.
  • Second expansion:  Welcome to the SOLA festival, where LA’s party people can greenwash their way to ecstasy and save the planet, one rave at a time. So L.A! SOLA Festival, will launch in Q2, 2024.

Deep Silver Dambuster also released the first quality of life patch for Dead Island 2, which fixes a few bugs and adds the Cosplay feature. This allows players to change the character skins of their Slayers. All of the skins are immediately displayed even if they aren’t available yet.

To celebrate the Cosplay feature, the developers released the free Til’Dawn Collection. To claim the skins, players will first need to reach the Cosplay Unlock Point to claim these skins. That happens during the “Call the Cavalry” mission after the Slayer talks to Emma Jaunt. Afterward, you can go back downstairs, open the Storage Locker, and access your free skin in the Cosplay tab.

In addition to the free skins, the developers added the following premium character packs for each Slayer:

• Silver Star Jacob
• Cyber Slayer Amy
• Gaelic Queen Dani
• Jungle Fantasy Ryan
• Steel Horse Carla
• Venice Vogue Bruno

Each pack includes a skin for that Slayer and a weapon usable with any Slayer. Players that bought the Gold, Deluxe, or HELL-A editions of Dead Island 2 can access the first two packs for free, and owners of the Expansion Pass (which includes the expansions mentioned above) can also claim the Gaelic Queen Dani pack. Finally, if you watch select streamers playing Dead Island 2 on Twitch for at least 20 minutes, you can grab the Maulibu Panga machete Twitch drop.

Dead Island 2 launched in late April after an extremely long development time. The project went through two game developer changes before landing in the hands of Deep Silver Dambuster, which delivered a solid game. In Wccftech’s review, Francesco De Meo wrote:

Games that go through development hell hardly turn out great, but Dambuster Studio proved with Dead Island 2 that this is not always the case, although the game is far from a masterpiece. While the gameplay works and feels quite fun at the start of the game, things become repetitive very quickly due to the linearity of the experience and the shallowness of the combat system. Offering nothing more than some mindless fun, the game would have been more than fine if launched at a lower price, but at full price, Dead Island 2 doesn’t offer that much to justify it.

Dead Island 2 also sold over two million units to date. Parent company Embracer Group labeled it one of its greatest successes.