Unlike most high-profile games released in recent times, Dead Island 2, the second entry in the series developed by Dambuster Studios, doesn’t support ray tracing in any form, which is a shame, as the game’s excellent rendition of Los Angeles would look stunning with it, as shown by a new video shared online.
The video, which was put together by Digital Dreams, showcases how great the game looks with the ReShade Ray Traced Global Illumination Beyond All Limits preset. As the preset’s implementation isn’t perfect, one can only wonder how good the game would look with proper ray tracing implementation.
Outside of the solid optimization on all formats, including last-generation consoles, many are the things that Dead Island 2 does right, as I highlighted in my review, such as the wacky setting and characters and the solid combat system that allows players to take zombies with all sorts of weapons while taking advantage of the environment. Unfortunately, the second entry in the series also feels like a step back from its predecessor, as the game swapped the original’s open world with linear locations that, while big enough, do feel limiting.
Dead Island 2’s issues haven’t prevented the game from being successful, however, as it sold one million copies globally in only three days of availability. Not bad at all for a game that has been in development hell for a very long time.
Dead Island 2 is now available on PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and Xbox One worldwide.
