Dambuster Studios and Deep Silver have now finally released Dead Island 2 on Steam, after previously being Epic Games exclusive and they're boasting about Steam Deck support.
About the game:
A deadly virus is spreading across Los Angeles, turning its inhabitants into ravenous zombies. The city is in quarantine and the military have retreated. Bitten, infected, but more than just immune, you learn to harness the zombie inside of you. Only you, and the handful of other swaggering assholes who happen to be resistant to the pathogen, hold the future of Los Angeles (and humanity), in the balance.
As you uncover the truth behind the outbreak you’ll discover the truth of who – or what – you are. Survive, evolve, save the world – just another day in LA!
While it does look really good, I do want to touch on an issue. Their new Steam trailer, which I can't embed here due to it being age-restricted on YouTube, boasts pretty clearly "Steam Deck Support". However, Valve has only given it a Steam Deck Playable rating which notes:
- This game sometimes shows mouse, keyboard, or non-Steam-Deck controller icons.
- Entering some text requires manually invoking the on-screen keyboard.
- Some in-game text is small and may be difficult to read.
Why in 2024 is font sizing still an issue? It's such a basic accessibility feature.
Additionally the first-time setup requires an active Internet connection (Denuvo Anti-tamper) and lesser so an issue since it is primarily a handheld, it doesn't default to external Bluetooth/USB controllers on Deck so you need to manually switch. Their own forum post on it also goes over some other issues like the first launch of the game is likely to fail and cross-play with Epic Games needing some setup.
If you're going to boast about Steam Deck support, I generally would expect a lot better, to actually have the game running properly from the first load without issues. Otherwise, it's not supported in any sense of the word. It's just another game released on Steam, that runs thanks to Valve's effort with Proton.
Anyway, that aside, it will likely run quite well on Desktop Linux too thanks to Proton.
Dead Island 2 can be purchased from:
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Last edited by Pyretic on 22 April 2024 at 5:12 pm UTC
Quoting: basedIts the company that made me hate zombie games, and I still don't want ANYTHING zombies anymore. Dead Island 1 and Dying Light were a suffer to go through with bad gameplay design and glitches.I don't generally enjoy Zombie games, but I thought Dying Light was well worth finishing. And "The Following" DLC was even better than the base game. I don't remember having any major problems with the native Linux release either.
Quoting: basedIts the company that made me hate zombie games, and I still don't want ANYTHING zombies anymore. Dead Island 1 and Dying Light were a suffer to go through with bad gameplay design and glitches.
Technically you're blaming Techland. Dead Island 2 was in development limbo for long time after Techland departed and started developing Dying Light. Dead Island 2 was handed over to different developers (Yager and Sumo Digital) few times before Dambuster studios finished the game. AFAIK Dead Island 2 is more tightly focused and level based compared to Techland games that are more or less open world games.
That I don't know if you would actually like it. Based on the review some people hate the Epic Online requirement as it's unstable. Or just because it's from Epic. I would add annoyance of having to create Epic account. Connection problems will probably be sorted out, not sure about the other things.
StalePopcorn 
Apr 22
Apparently not required
Last edited by StalePopcorn on 23 April 2024 at 10:46 pm UTC
Haven't tried it on my Deck yet. With the known problems, I don't like the way they advertise it either.
Epic Games Store account linking is not required and can be skipped [1].
However, the Epic Games Online Service is installed in the background.
[1] https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3229797640
Quoting: pantherWorks fine for me on my Desktop PC, Install - Start - Play.
Haven't tried it on my Deck yet. With the known problems, I don't like the way they advertise it either.
Epic Games Store account linking is not required and can be skipped [1].
However, the Epic Games Online Service is installed in the background.
[1] https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3229797640
I wouldn't be surprised if this is the same way whenever Alan Wake 2 gets released on Steam someday (or never).
https://steamcommunity.com/id/mgregor/recommended/934700/
Make sure the Epic Store program is uninstalled then do this:
Before launching the game for the first time, go there -> "C:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Dead Island 2" and delete the EpicGameLauncher folder.
Then open the "DeadIsland.ini" file in notepad and modify the "NoOperation=0" to "NoOperation=1"
If the epic game launcher is already installed on your computer, uninstall it before doing the steps above.
Play the game without that bloatware = ez
So far runs great on Linux Mint using GE-Proton-9-2.
Last edited by MaximB on 24 April 2024 at 5:33 am UTC
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