Dead Island 2 is free on Epic

Monday, Mafia: The Old Country let me remind people that even the Mafia hate fascists, and we’ve got done much-needed maintenance to the site. Tuesday, It Has My Face is Mission Impossible 2, there are rumors of a GTA IV port/remaster on the horizon, and Dragon is Dead is set to get its full release next month. Wednesday, THUG might be the next Tony Hawk game, and Microsoft is laying off a small percentage (but still a lot) of people. Thursday, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Legends of the Zone Trilogy Enhanced Edition was announced, covering the late 2000s games, oh and it’s releasing next week.

Well, well, well, how the turntables. Alongside the mystery games of this week, we’ve got the Prime Gaming-ification of the Epic Games Store. Under all that we normally cover (possibly just during this sale/mystery games period), we’ve got lots and lots of “here is some free stuff from free-to-play games” and otherwise, including a month of Discord Nitro. You can pick up some gubbins for Fall Guys, Rocket League, Infinity Nikki, Rawmen, Neverwinter, Star Trek Online, SMITE 2, World of Warships, and more via the Epic Games Store.

Now that utter tripe is out of the way, let’s talk about Dead Island 2 because it turns out that this week’s free offerings on the Epic Games Store aren’t completely boring. A game so deep in development hell that, after almost 10 years between announcement and release, an idea of a game formed. It is not a great game, mind you, but certainly a game. Survival, crafting, “horror” in the sense that these kids enjoy, and a whole lot of “Aren’t my Instagram followers going to love this?” Trying to be tongue-in-cheek, Arizona Sunshine it is not.

A game forgotten by time, sadly, someone kept developing it after that time had passed. If you’re looking for another mindless zombie-splattering machine with a glitzy background of Los Angeles in ruin, then Dead Island 2 is exactly what you want. Too bad that’s all it is, and any sense of something unique about it is lost any time you move on from the announcement trailers of a Dead Island game.

Moving on to the second offering, I won’t be as happy-cheery about that either. Amanita Design’s Happy Game is what happens if you use Rick and Morty as a design document, then try to sell that game again on the premise of: “isn’t this depressing but psychedelic setting for this one moment oh so funny? Please laugh, it’s the only thing keeping the voices away.” What happened to therapy? I thought we all agreed we were collectively getting therapy during the pandemic. It’s another Amanita Design point-and-click thing. What am I supposed to say here?

All this week, you can pick up Dead Island 2 on the Epic Games Store for PC and pick up Happy Game either on PC and/or through the Epic Games Store mobile app until Thursday, the 22nd of May. With the mystery games not being a one-off thing that means it is the Epic Mega Sale, so here is several suggestions to pick up: God of War Ragnarök, Alan Wake 2 Deluxe Edition, Far Cry 5, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands is pretty good, Disco Elysium – The Final Cut, Red Dead Redemption 2, Cyberpunk 2077, and Ghost of Tsushima, to name a few.