Los Angeles, or Hell-A as Dead Island 2 is known to call it, has seen better days than in Dambuster Studio’s zombie slaying sequel. What used to be a paradise made up of sunny beaches and glamorous celebrity excess has collapsed in on itself, leaving b𒅌ehind nothing but shambling corpses and etern💯al sunshine nobody is around to savour anymore.
You walk the storefronts of Venice Beach, waltz up the steep inclines of Beverly Hills, and even explore an abandoned rendition of Hollywood Hills previously exclusive to the elite. To have that obnoxious 🔯socio-economic barrier removed as we’re granted freedom to pilfer its remains is oddly liberating, and a stark contrast to how artificial the locations outside it often feel. Dead Island 2 is a deliberate satire of a city with a deservedly polarising reputation, and in many ways it fee꧑ls safer and more honest than my own experiences with the real thing.
I’ll preface that I don’t live in Los Angeles, and that I was born and raised in the UK. But I’ve been there enough times for work and pleasure to know how much of an unpredictable black hole Los Angeles can be. You need to know where you are, where to go, and where to avoid if you want to have fun and prevent yourself from getting in trouble. It’s economically rotten for the majority of people thanks to sky-high rents and an inconsistent job market, and homeless people sit on every street corner, seemingly without aꦡny attempt to aid them or protect them, only to move them along. Each year millions of people move to the City of Angels to pursue their dreams, or find their place within industries that are localised in places so few of us can afford to work, live, and be happy.
Things are changing now thanks to the advent of remote work, but Dead Island 2 is a morbid reminder of how messed up this city was before the zombies came along, and how they now serve to highl𒁏ight a societal split that has persisted for decades. Rules only exist for the poor, and to see this injustice fall apart the seco🍸nd everything starts to crumble is the game’s best piece of storytelling. I played as Dani, a fish out of water Irish rocker who reacts to most of the things around her with adorable obliviousness. Her view of Los Angeles is informed by reality TV shows and decades of cinema, so when she is tasked with helping both trapped celebrities and the working class people trying to survive alongside them this stark divide becomes depressingly clear. Going from bustling movie backlots to the local businesses of Venice Beach as you complete quests for the people who call said places home, it’s obvious that everyone is just trying to survive, albeit with varying degrees of selfishness.
Emma Jaunt is a spoiled actress you meet early on in the campaign as you both strive to escape LA. In her absence, the immigrant housekeeper has moved an entire family into Jaunt’s mansion because it’s safer. Who she is or where she comes from doesn’t matter anymore, we’re all in this together. The fight for survival in the face of a zombie apocalypse is a great equaliser, the class distinctions of old matter less when the new classes are just 'human' and 'undead'. Dialogue hints at the housekeeper being a low wage service worker whose purpose in society is now moot, but the apocalypse also serves to highlight how who these people are and the value of their humanity when we no longer consider them as disposable. Dead Island 2 isn’t very serious about its narrative, so don’t expect it to get much deeper than this, but you can’t ignore how this exaggerated version of Los Angeles reminds us of how ignorant we are to its own vapid identity.
Tourist traps and suburban neighbourhoods safeguarded against real problems aside, when the population is pulled away it feels like you’re waltzing through a dystopian theme park unable to function now capitalism is no longer an enduring factor. No more traffic, homelessness, or lacking accessibility - just a sun-scorched selection of disparate locations that fail to make up a cohesive whole. While exaggerated, being granted an opportunity to walk through spot-on recreations of it all while caving in skulls and looting belongings I could💟n’t help but think back to the real world, and how in its pursuit of parody Dead Island 2 cuts closer to the bone than it has any right to.
