I cannot believe I’m typing these words but Dead Island 2 will finally launch this week.

It has been years and years in the making. Some even say a decade, and, as such, it’s a game that many believed we’d never see. But this is a significant moment in an absolutely loaded few months that sees just about every major franchise get a new release.

Surely it can’t possibly have been worth years of wait, can it? Well to answer that question fully, we’re going to need a bit more time. We were fortunate to receive an early copy but only just this week and have only just started scratching the surface, but we wanted to get something out now to give you a bit of perspective.

And the very early verdict is that this is a well polished, balanced – and very bloody – video game. We’re just a few chapters into our playthrough but already it’s clear that the proper time has been taken to get this feeling right.

From the handling of the weapons, to the impact on zombies, the different vibe each slayer brings, even the setting just oozes style and detail.

You’ll remember the first Dead Island cast you in a hotel on a faraway tropical island, and really created a sense of tension as you moved from room to room, but equally developed character and illustrated a life led away from the inquisitve eye.

These are games that have always pushed graphical limits and in the first few stages, following a plane crash, into Bel-Air and beyond, you see that in full force.

Everything from flowing flowers, buzzing flies, the flickering of an outdoor heater and the absolutely grotesque deconstruction of a zombie as you bash their skulls in with a crowbar. This is a game designed to just stun and shock at every turn.

And it is very much a next-gen game, through and through. The visual quality is first rate, and as you dive in you’ll feel very much like you’ve taken a trip away to LA with the vibrant lighting, the attention to detail of the rooms, houses, and outdoor layouts.

As you move around these massive houses, you’ll also learn a ton about the characters and people who lived there from posters on their wall, to stuff on their desk, pizza boxes strewn around everywhere and even back garden scene setups with hot tubs and makeshift streaming backdrops.

Your character feels like a stranger intruding on a lifestyle they would never normally be privy to. You catch behind the scenes peeks of celebrities, personalities, and see these people at their most scared, vulnerable and concerned, all surrounded by their millions of wealth.

That perspective speaks to the emotional layers the original game and its trailer tried to achieve. And it perhaps sets an unrealistic expectation of the game ahead. The reality, though, is this is a relatively simplistic, easy-going, bludgeon-fest.

The campaign isn’t screaming deep elaborate plot at me, and the ties to the previous game, so far, seem relatively minimal. The essence, for now, just seems to be pick up a big pipe and aim for the head while swinging.

And that’s totally fine. So long as you’re not expecting a game that redefines the industry or the genre after being so long in development, you’re going to have a great time. A better time than you may expect, actually.

That’s something Plaion and Dambuster Studios get that 3D Realms didn’t about Duke Nukem Forever. I liken these games because of the similar community base and the similar journey both games have taken. But where Duke Forever tried too hard to be something it wasn’t, Dead Island 2 is playing to its strengths. For better or worse.

This is very, very close to the first game. Which might surprise you. It might even disappoint you. But when all the chips are down it’s probably the smartest play they could have made. Sticking to what works.

You can pick up anything from pool cues to shovels, chef knives, even swords and fight your way through legions of walkers, runners, shufflers and everything else inbetween. And you just keep hitting your zombies until your weapon breaks or their skull does.

This doesn’t lean into the parkour element like Dying Light 2, though there is an intriguing card based system which we’ll dive into a bit more deeply when we finish our coverage. You just fight alone – though it’s probably recomended you grab a buddy – and take on an entire cities worth of the undead.

And the reason I call that last part out is, I already died a few times playing solo and can feel this is a game that will be better played as a team. It’s a numbers game mixed with a little bit of monotony just ploughing through, whereas if you’re working together, you can communicate and take charge of different sections of the map.

But yeah, familiar features are back like tweaking weapons at a workbench and the levelling up system as you fight increasingly tougher foes over the course of the game.

Yet the thing that really sticks with me after my first few hours of the game is how grotesque it is. In a year where we’ve had Isaac Clarke severing limbs, and Leon Kennedy fighting abominations with spider claws coming out of their heads, Dead Island 2 is just genuinely messed up.

White bathrooms caked in blood. Bodies sliced open with guts falling out. Jaws dangling off the face and skulls dented and cracked open after repeated strikes. Even curb stomps that turn the stomach. Dead Island 2 might just be one of the most graphic games ever made, and in a year where Survival Horror is having a bit of a rennaissance, that alone is something.

So far, though, it’s satisfying and enjoyable but we need more time to see it in more detail. Expect a more detailed deep dive in the coming days. But what we have so far is that if you loved the first game, you enjoy a good zombie slasher and you want some really satisfying combat with the right level of gore to accompany it, this one is good bloody fun.