You can acquire guns that do have some use, but really Dead Island 2 is all about its sensationalised melee combat. The real meat of the game is the combat, and it’s as weighty, visceral and enjoyable as ever. There’s moments where this feels like an open world, but it’s often a more linear feeling game as you follow that main path through the story with the yellow dots on the HUD leading the way.

There’s Bel-Air and Beverly Hills, a pastiched Hollywood backlot, and once you get downtown, there’s wide open boulevards, the iconic Santa Monica pier and more. The city has been carved up into a dozen smaller locations from its landmarks and neighbourhoods. If you were hoping for a big, open-world rendition of LA, this isn’t it.

There’s plenty of larger than life, if trope-filled characters, and some fun and bizarre elements like the army trying to melt zombies in acid pools - I’m sure that smells lovely. It’s retreading such familiar zombie apocalypse ground and feels like it’s going through the motions as it does so, though there is a more up and offbeat tone throughout.

While this is a sequel, it really feels more like a full reboot as you chase the promise of a vaccine, getting survivors to safety, and uncover the background of the outbreak and the government and military’s inevitable role in its disastrous fallout.

Dead island 2 xbox 360 review