After a year of Epic Games Store exclusivity, Dead Island 2 will launch on Steam on April 22. And in celebration, Valve is giving away Techland's 2013 co-op horror game Dead Island: Riptide for free for a (very) limited time.
As announced on Steam, Dead Island 2's upcoming Steam launch is accompanied by a scary good freebie that takes the price of Dead Island: Riptide - Definitive Edition down from $19.99 to a grand total of $0.00 for just 48 hours. Although, it's worth noting that the 48 hour timer is already ticking at the time of writing, so if you're interested, head to the game's Steam storefront now to claim the game.
Dead Island: Riptide is a direct continuation of the story in the original Dead Island, taking place immediately after its predecessor's conclusion. The original four survivors are back once more, this time joined by a new survivor to rid yet another island of hostile undead. The game received mixed reviews at launch and was remastered in 2016 for the Definitive Edition, which is the version you're getting for free now.
Dead Island 2, of course, released 10 years after Riptide and takes place about 15 years after the first game. It also inexplicably stars a whole new cast of survivors and takes the zombie-slaying action to Los Angeles, which has been quarantined under threat of... well, you know.
Dead Island 2 again saw mixed reception from critics, but if you're a fan of the original, you're likely to find plenty of violent fun in the long-awaited sequel. The main difference is that it ditches its skill tree for a deck-building system that lets you tweak your abilities, but otherwise, it's just newer, shinier Dead Island, which to me at least it all it ever needed to be.
