Dead Island 2

Dead Island 2

Developers
	Dambuster Studios
Former (2012-2016)	Yager Development
Former (2016-2019)	Sumo Digital
Publishers
	Deep Silver
Engines
	Unreal Engine 4
Release dates
Windows	April 21, 2023
Reception
Metacritic	75
OpenCritic	75
IGDB	74
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Microtransactions	None
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	First-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Action, Open world, RPG, Survival horror
Art styles	Realistic
Themes	Zombies
Series	Dead Island

Dead Island
Dead Island	2011
Dead Island: Riptide	2013
Escape Dead Island	2014
Dead Island: Epidemic	2016
Dead Island: Definitive Edition	2016
Dead Island: Riptide Definitive Edition	2016
Dead Island: Retro Revenge	2016
Dead Island 2	2023

Dead Island 2 is a singleplayer and multiplayer first-person action, open world, RPG and survival horror game in the Dead Island series.

Initially announced in 2014, the game was set to be released earlier but due to various issues during development, it went through multiple developers, to finally land under Dambuster Studios. It was then announced to release in February 3, 2023, and then delayed to April 28, 2023, and then moved a week forward to April 21, 2023.

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Epic Games Store		Ultimate Edition also available. -epicportal parameter required to launch the game from executable.
		Ultimate Edition also available.
Humble Store		Choice between Epic Games Store activation and Steam key. Ultimate Edition also available.
Microsoft Store		Included with Xbox Game Pass for PC. Ultimate Edition also available.
Steam		Ultimate Edition also available.

Denuvo Anti-Tamper DRM was removed on October 23, 2025.

Monetization

Type	Notes
One-time game purchase	The game requires an upfront purchase to access.

Microtransactions

Type	Notes
No microtransactions	None

DLC and expansion packs

Name	Notes
SoLA	Included in the Expansion Pass.
Expansion Pass	Included in the Ultimate Edition.
Haus	Included in the Expansion Pass.
Character Pack: Venice Vogue Bruno	Included in the Ultimate Edition.
Character Pack: Steel Horse Carla	Included in the Ultimate Edition.
Character Pack: Jungle Fantasy Ryan	Included in the Ultimate Edition.
Character Pack: Gaelic Queen Dani	Included in the Expansion Pass.
Character Pack: Cyber Slayer Amy	Included in the Ultimate Edition.
Character Pack: Silver Star Jacob	Included in the Ultimate Edition.
Red’s Demise Katana	Included in the Expansion Pass.
Pulp Weapons Pack	Included in the Ultimate Edition.
Golden Weapons Pack	Included in the Ultimate Edition.
Memories of Banoi Pack	Included in the Ultimate Edition.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II Weapons Pack	Included in the Ultimate Edition.

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

Delete or rename video files[citation needed]
Go into the <path-to-game>\DeadIsland\Content\Movies. Delete or rename BootAMDLogo.mp4, BootLogo.mp4, BootLogo_4K.mp4, BootLoop.mp4, and BootLoop_4K.mp4. Go into the <path-to-game>\DeadIsland\Content\DI2\Movies. Delete or rename Intro.mp4, Intro_4K.mp4, DeadIsland2_Titles.mp4, and DeadIsland2_Titles_4K.mp4. Notes Doesn't skip legal and autosave information.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%LOCALAPPDATA%\DeadIsland\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/934700/pfx/

Save game data location

System	Location
Epic Games Launcher	%LOCALAPPDATA%\DeadIsland\Saved\SaveGames
Microsoft Store	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\DeepSilver.578840CD64788_hmv7qcest37me\SystemAppData\wgs\
Steam	%LOCALAPPDATA%\DeadIslandSteam\Saved\SaveGames
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/934700/pfx/

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Epic Games Launcher
Steam Cloud
Xbox Cloud

Video

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen		Use Lyall's fix to remove pillarboxing in cutscenes.
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)		70º-100º.
Windowed		Use this mod to allow resizing the window.
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)		FXAA, Temporal Low, Temporal High.
High-fidelity upscaling		FSR 2.1 DLSS and XeSS support can be modded in through OptiScaler.
Frame generation		FSR Frame Generation Support for frame generation can be modded in through OptiScaler.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		Triple Buffering
60 FPS and 120+ FPS		Option to limit FPS at 30, 60, 120, 144 or 240 is available.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		HDR experience can be improved using: RenoDX Sliders for brightness, UI brightness, black and white point calibration. The last two measure in actual HDR display output nits. Can be improved with RenoDX
Ray tracing (RT)
Color blind mode		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

The game engine may allow for manual configuration of the game via its variables. See the Unreal Engine 4 page for more details.

Input

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		F1-F4 and ~ cannot be remapped.
Mouse sensitivity		Sensitivity is decreased while sprinting.
Mouse acceleration		Disabled by default. Can be enabled and adjusted in advanced control settings.
Mouse input in menus
Keyboard and mouse prompts
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support
Controller remapping		Provide limited presets to choose from.
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts		Xbox 360 and Xbox Wireless button prompts supported in the Gamepad Profile setting in the Gamepad Layout menu.
Impulse Trigger support

DirectInput-compatible controllers

PlayStation controllers		DualShock 4, DualSense, DualSense Edge
PlayStation button prompts		Xbox One button prompts is selected by default. DualShock 4 and DualSense button prompts supported in the Gamepad Profile setting in the Gamepad Layout menu.
Motion sensors support
Light bar support
Adaptive trigger support
DualSense haptic feedback support
Connection modes	Wired

Nintendo controllers

Tracked motion controllers

Other controller(s)

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Input prompt override
Haptic feedback
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Audio

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound		Microsoft Spatial Audio API is supported.
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio		Has streamer mode which blocks licensed music. However, while launching the game, players will first watch the Cinematic Title Sequence, which also has licensed music.

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
Czech
French
German
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Polish				Polish lector [1]
Brazilian Portuguese
Russian
Spanish
Latin American Spanish

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
LAN play
Online play		3	Co-op

VR support

3D modes	State	Notes
Native 3D		Dual-View Rendering (3D Ultra) and Single-View Depth Reprojection (3D+). Use TrueGame for Acer SpatialLabs and NewAxis for TrueGame mods on other Eye-Tracked Lightfield displays.
vorpX		User profile, see vorpx forum post for introduction.

Issues fixed

Opening inventory or trading menu crashes the game

Turn off FSR 2

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	12

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Turn off Epic Online Services in the Steam version

Instructions
Go into the <path-to-game> and delete EpicGameLauncher. Open DeadIsland.ini with a text editor and change NoOperation from 0 to 1. Notes It's recommended to follow these instructions before launching the game for the first time.

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum		Recommended
Operating system (OS)	10
Processor (CPU)	AMD FX-9590 Intel Core i7-7700HQ		AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Intel Core i9-9900K
System memory (RAM)	10 GB
Storage drive (HDD/SSD)	70 GB
Video card (GPU)	AMD Radeon R9 390X Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB of VRAM DirectX 12 compatible		Radeon RX 6800 XT Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super 8 GB of VRAM

A 64-bit operating system is required.