Writer Deep Silver revealed Useless Island 2 in 2014 and Los Angeles was its major setting (with a tease within the recreation’s brand that San Francisco is likely to be in it as nicely). Followers had been excited in regards to the sequel for a number of causes – that authentic reveal trailer was nice – however the query on many minds was this: Why is Useless Island 2 set someplace that’s not an island?
I traveled to Nottingham, England to go to Dambuster Studios, and this was one of many first questions I requested. Unsurprisingly, contemplating that is the staff that is been creating this recreation since 2018, lead narrative designer Khan had an in-depth reply.
Merely put, Los Angeles has grow to be an island, metaphorically talking.
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Useless Island 2 begins within the remaining days of the evacuation of LA after the zombie outbreak has swept via town. She says some features of this evacuation have been surprisingly environment friendly, so the whole metropolis has been cordoned off unexpectedly nicely. The ultimate resolution from authorities is that LA should stay quarantined in order that the an infection can run its course and, hopefully, die off. Because of this quarantine, no person can go in, and no person can go away. As if solely surrounded by water with no entry to boats or different methods to flee, individuals (and zombies) inside LA can not escape town. Whereas not geographically an island, authorities have lower LA off from the remainder of the world.
That’s the lore clarification for why Los Angeles is the setting for a recreation collection about being caught on an island with zombies. There’s additionally the sensible motive sitting someplace between the strains: Los Angeles is an iconic location, straightforward to market, and options extra selection than a resort island like Useless Island’s Banoi. I wouldn’t be shocked if Los Angeles is the setting just because designing a zombie recreation within the metropolis is nice enjoyable. It definitely appears to be the case if my conversations with Dambuster are any indication.
“Going from Banoi on a resort island to Los Angeles… the reply is… it’s tremendous various,” design director Adam Duckett tells me. “There’s tons of alternatives and potential, each by way of environments, but in addition by way of characters, the personnel, and the zombies themselves that we are able to put into the sport. There’s that vibrancy, the sundrenched places, the seashores, the unique mansions of Bel-Air, and past. It’s an excellent surroundings for us to have that fight expertise.”
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Artistic director James Worrall echoed Duckett’s sentiment, citing that LA is a superb alternative for giant characters by way of location and precise individuals.
“Los Angeles has fairly an eccentric or expressive type of tradition and id, and that id is acknowledged all world wide,” he says. “Whether or not you’ve been to LA or not, we’ve all seen it via the lens of Hollywood, and we thought that form of Hollywood lens can be a good way to entertain whilst you’re operating round punching zombies.”
All through my conversations with the staff at Dambuster, builders referred to the sport’s setting as “postcard” LA. The open-hub design of Los Angeles will take gamers to the long-lasting places you’d probably see on a postcard in a California airport: Bel-Air, Hollywood, the Santa Monica Pier, Venice Seashore, and extra. Given the sport’s tackle pulp action-horror, every of those postcard places has been caricatured to a level, which is sensible – the places have to match the over-the-top gore of the zombies and the larger-than-life characters that selected to stay round in Hell-A.
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“You’ve obtained these two or three layers,” Worrall continues. “We’ve obtained this fantasy model of LA that everyone’s seen – the Hollywood lens. We’ve obtained stamped on high of that, the tragic stays of the evacuation try that failed… after which on high of that, we’ve obtained your form of traditional zomb-pocalypse. However we’ve been very cautious to lift the vibe and the colour of the place. [Art director Adam Olsson] and his staff have finished an excellent job in… glamorizing this place. We’re not taking a look at a model of Fallujah or one thing like that or a conflict zone. It’s nonetheless a fantastical, simply navigable, and relatable area.”
Olsson says on the visible facet of issues, he and his staff have labored to construct up the virtually mythological being that LA has grow to be as a metropolis, which additional brings out Useless Island 2’s pulpy ambiance. Worrall mentioned Dambuster’s inspirations for the Useless Island 2 vibe in LA return to 80s, 90s, and 00s horror, particularly within the extra schlocky realm, like Robocop, Nightmare on Elm Road, and the Alien and Predator franchises.
“I’ve actually, actually nostalgic recollections of going to observe a film within the afternoon, and also you’d be immersed on this world, and the credit would roll, and also you’d come out into this sunshine, and there was this actual sense that you just simply left an actual place behind,” Worrall remarks after I ask him what he desires gamers to really feel when Useless Island 2’s credit roll. “And there’s slightly sense of loss, however slightly sense of, ‘Effectively, I can’t look ahead to the subsequent.’”
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As for Olsson, he desires gamers to really feel dazzled by all the colours and the way every thing in Useless Island 2 comes collectively.
“I would like them to say like, ‘Why doesn’t extra stuff do that?’” he says. “Zombies are implausible. Actually, what we wish to do right here is simply convey again the enjoyable with zombies as a result of… we’ve had so many video games for 10 or 20 years the place it’s been fashionable, however so lots of them are simply that darkish mirror held as much as present the deepest depth of man. And I simply type of need individuals to come back out and assume, ‘That was enjoyable. Zombies are enjoyable once more.’”
Worrall, Olsson, Duckett, and the staff at Dambuster consider Los Angeles is simply the place to do this.