Other survivors present just as much of a danger as the undead army, with heavily armed raiders forever chasing you down, desperate to steal your ammo and gear. Unsurprisingly, the power of these attacks improves as you level up, although there’s a cool-down period to prevent you from wading through an entire level, tossing zombies into the sky. There are four character classes – hunter, berserker, speeder and bishop – and each will have their own Fury attacks. This being Dead Island, it’s as comical as it is vicious and, according to the developer, if you time it right you can send a zombie flying onto the roof of a nearby house. Armed with a sledgehammer, you kick a nearby zombie to give yourself room to swing before delivering a powerful uppercut that sends it flying into the air. Only one was shown in the demo, called the Zombie Launcher. One of biggest additions to the combat are Fury attacks, extravagant combos that finish an enemy with a flourish. But while they’re down they’re not out, crawling relentlessly until you put a bullet in their brain. A well-placed high blow will slice off the top of your enemy’s skull, exposing the rotting brain beneath a low swing has enough power to chop off a leg, causing the target to topple and fall. Maintaining the original’s visceral close-combat is a given, and hacking a zombie to pieces with a machete is as brutal and gory as ever. Instead, a separate video showing a far more detailed world gave an indication of what the final game will look like, with the main demo illustrating the improvements made to the combat. Surprisingly, the version of the game I saw is from 2013 and is therefore very early, with none of the polish and finishing touches you’d usually expect at this point. For the purposes of this demo we’re holed up somewhere in the suburbs, driving through deserted streets in an RV. California’s most recognisable landmarks will feature throughout, from San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge to the Hollywood Hills.

Dead island 2 e3