GamesActionDead Island 2After a year marooned on the Epic store, Dead Island 2 debuts on Steam to ‘mixed’ reviews for a very silly reasonWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
GamesActionDead Island 2After a year marooned on the Epic store, Dead Island 2 debuts on Steam to ‘mixed’ reviews for a very silly reasonWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
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After a year of exclusivity on the Epic Games Store, the zombie survival game Dead Island 2 is now available onSteam—and not everyone is as excited about its arrival as you might expect.
Dead Island 2 didn’t knock our socks off when it debuted in 2023, thanks to “dull design choices, repetitive combat, and a painfully weak story,” as we put it in our55% review. Even so, the long-awaited sequel was generally well-received and did very well for itself, surpassingone million salesover its launch weekend on the way to becoming “the biggest launch” in Deep Silver’s history despite its Epic Games Store exclusivity, which—without getting into the merits of the debate—remains a sticking point for some gamers.
As you can see from thisSteamDB list of games that use Epic Online Services, it’s a widely-used SDK: PUBG, Rust, Warframe, Elden Ring, Rocket League, Palworld, TESO, Mount and Blade 2, Sea of Thieves, Payday 2, and Hades represent just a small handful of the games that make use of it, some of them extremely popular. But the presence of Epic in any form or measure is apparently a bridge too far for some gamers.
In response to one user who complained of “Epic’s trash,” a Plaion developer clarified that the Epic Games Store launcher is not required to play Dead Island 2 on Steam. “If you prefer enjoying either single-player or multiplayer with other Steam users, you won’t need the Epic Games Launcher,” the devwrote. “However, for crossplay with players who own the game on EGS, the launcher will be necessary to sync up friends lists.”
(Image credit: Steam)
The Steam release of Dead Island 2 has hit a couple other minor bumps: The SoLA and Haus DLCs included with the Gold Edition of the game were delayed slightly, although should be available now, and some users have reported difficulty connecting to the Epic Online Services servers. I’ve reached out to Plaion for comment and will update if I receive a reply.
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Dead Island 2 on Steam is currently on sale for half price, taking it to $30/£25/€30 until April 29. The Steam release is currently verified as “playable” on Steam Deck—it runs, “but might require extra effort to interact with or configure”—and for those who want to pick up where they left off, Plaion said onTwitterthat existing saves “should be” compatible with the Steam version.
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