Is Dead Island 2 Open World? – Answered

These streets have dead ends

Image via IGDB Presskit

If you’ve seen the gameplay trailers of the hotly anticipated zombie-survival gorefest that is Dead Island 2, you might be wondering where the boundaries are drawn. Is Dead Island 2 open world?

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Is Dead Island 2 Open World? – Answered

If you’ve seen any trailers of Dead Island 2, you’ve likely seen one of the slayers walking down back alleys or through town, with zombies and scattered side-quests offering a smorgasbord of almost RPG-esque like options. And while it’s true that Dead Island 2 offers a long list of collectibles, missions, and side quests in a fully explorable map, this game is not open world.

Players will have a chance to explore the streets of Los Angeles, with all its bloodstained luxury and dystopic decadence. But all the places we can explore are inter-connected areas, with the ability to hop between them using fast travel. Dead Island 2 is a more linear game than its predecessor, but there are still ample optional nooks in each area, which encourages exploration and backtracking.

Related: What Pre-Order Bonuses Do You Get With the Gold Edition of Dead Island 2?

And while Dead Island 2 isn’t technically an open world, it still offers an abundance of major features to explore. So far, we’ve seen the still glitzy Bel-Air, a slowly rotting 5-star hotel, a movie studio, and even content houses for your modern-day content makers. If you could never step foot in these places before, you can now prowl around, and jump kick the local populace to your heart’s content.

While OG Dead Island fans might be shuffling and groaning that the world feels a little more restricted than they’re used to, Dead Island 2 has promised to offer a much “fuller” experience, with a hoard of things to keep your ravenous appetites whetted.

If you’re curious about who you’ll be spending the apocalypse with, check out our run down on your new favorite slayers here: All Confirmed Playable Characters in Dead Island 2.

About the Author

Daphne Fama

A Staff Writer at Prima Games since 2022, Daphne Fama spends an inordinate amount playing games of all stripes but has a soft spot for horror, FPS, and RPGs. When she’s not gaming, she’s an author and member of the Horror Writers Association with a debut novel coming out in 2025. In a previous life, she was an attorney but found she preferred fiction to contracts and forms