Punch a hole clean through a zombie's head in Dead Island 2's new gameplay trailer

Dead Island 2
(Image credit: Deep Silver)

Do you ever dream of putting your whole hand inside a human skull, while all the blood, brains, and flesh drip down your arm? If not, congratulations - you've probably avoided a few government watch lists. But if you do, you'll probably want to take a look at the latest Dead Island 2 gameplay trailer.

Now, if you click the play button on the video below, you might be confused by the part where I said this was a "gameplay trailer". You're going to see a lot of live-action footage with production values somewhere between a primetime CBS drama and mid-2000s pornography, but don't worry, an actual gameplay trailer kicks off around the 3:42 mark of this 15 minute(!) video.

It keeps in tone with our previous looks at the game, presenting a whole lot of violence and a goofball tone. But I really  wanna zoom in on the punch at the 5:31 mark, punctuated by a "BRUTAL COMBAT" title card. Just a flat out Mortal Kombat fatality in here. We're not over it here in the 12DOVE offices. I don't know that we're ever going to be.

Dead Island 2 has been in various forms of development hell for... years? It feels like decades at this point. The game resurfaced at Gamescom Opening Night Live earlier this year, with a release date set for February 3, 2023 - though that was recently, perhaps ironically, delayed a few weeks to April 28. Either way, it certainly seems like Dead Island 2 is actually for really real coming out this time.

Our Dead Island 2 hands-on in August suggested plenty of promise in the game's irreverent take on the zombie apocalypse.

Dustin Bailey
Staff Writer

Dustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently based in Missouri. He's been covering games (with occasional dalliances in the worlds of anime and pro wrestling) since 2015, first as a freelancer, then as a news writer at PCGamesN for nearly five years. His love for games was sparked somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Knights of the Old Republic, and these days you can usually find him splitting his entertainment time between retro gaming, the latest big action-adventure title, or a long haul in American Truck Simulator.

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