The Ultimate Edition includes the base game and two expansions – Haus and SoLA – alongside all of the Slayer character packs (which include unique cosmetics) and the new Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 weapons pack. It also launches with Patch 6, which features Neighborhood Watch, a three-player co-op mode with new characters.

Players must scavenge for supplies and fortify defenses over several days to prepare for a massive zombie horde on the final day. The patch also adds New Game Plus, allowing players to start a new playthrough and reach a new level cap. It also contains new weapons, a new zombie breed, and more challenging gameplay.

For more details on Dead Island 2, check out our review. Once in development hell, the title has sold over three million copies since launch.

Along with the base game, both expansions for Dead Island 2, including the recently-released SoLA DLC, along with the previous Haus DLC, are also available on Steam, along with other releases like weapon packs and cosmetic packs. Celebrating the game’s Steam release, developer Dambuster Studios and publisher Deep Silver have also released a new trailer, which you can check out below.

Dead Island 2‘s most recent expansion, SoLA, was released just last week. Taking place at the eponymous music festival, players must stop the Beat of the Autophage, killing many undead hordes in the process. The DLC also brought with it new Apex Zombies, like the Whipper and Clotter.

Dead Island 2 is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

"Thanks to the variety of weapons you get to use and the incredible feedback you get from each swing – thanks in large part to the gleefully visceral and gory FLESH system – mowing down hordes of the undead is still fun."

Haus doesn’t pretend to put much weight behind its narrative ambitions. As the expansion kicks off, you’re mysteriously transported to a villa in Malibu that, it turns out, is the headquarters of a cult that was formed by its leader to avoid the zombie apocalypse by seeking immortality. As you’d expect, things didn’t exactly work out the way they had anticipated, leaving you to explore its villa and sort through the mess it has left behind. The most that can be said of Haus’ story is that it does a decent job of providing a framework for the gameplay scenarios developer Dambuster Studios has concocted here, because beyond that, much like Dead Island 2 itself, the DLC isn’t too concerned with telling an engaging story.

What it’s really concerned with, also like the base game, is getting you to smash zombie brains, which is something that the game continues to excel at. The weighty and crunching combat of Dead Island 2 might not be the deepest combat system you’ll ever find in a game, but it’s still undeniably and mindlessly enjoyable. Thanks to the variety of weapons you get to use and the incredible feedback you get from each swing – thanks in large part to the gleefully visceral and gory FLESH system – mowing down hordes of the undead is still fun.

Haus also combines its pulpy B-movie action with little doses of horror quite effectively, as the Dead Island IP has been known to do over the years (or at least the years that it’s been active). Making your way through a dark and creepy house and hearing the constant shambling and moaning of zombies through the walls and ceiling, for instance, does genuinely feel unsettling. Obviously, it’s not an out-and-out horror game by any means, but the DLC builds up those moments quite well, before capping them off with explore, gore-filled combat encounters.

"Haus does introduce a handful of new abilities and a couple of new weapons, but they feel like granular additions at best, to the extent that you could play through the overwhelming majority of the DLC without having engaged with them in any meaningful way."

That core loop is not a perfect one, however. Given the shallow nature of the combat, the repetition sets in pretty quickly, especially if you’re coming fresh off of a playthrough of the base experience. If you’re hoping for some interesting new twists to the zombie-slaying experience here in the form of, say, interesting new enemy types, you won’t find that here. Haus does introduce a handful of new abilities and a couple of new weapons (like a crossbow), but they feel like granular additions at best, to the extent that you could play through the overwhelming majority of the DLC without having engaged with them in any meaningful way.

What doesn’t help is the objective design, which only adds to that feeling of repetition. Haus sees you going through a series of trials as you explore the cult’s villa, and everything you do throughout its runtime revolves around either combat, or solving menial little puzzles that barely require any proper engagement from you, even on a superficial level. By the time the DLC is done, it feels like it’s running on its last legs, which is surprising thanks to how brief it is. I did not expect a three-hour long expansion to feel stretched thin, but that’s certainly the case with Haus.

If there’s one area where the DLC deserves a ton of credit, it’s its visuals and art design, which, of course, was an area where Dead Island 2’s base experience shined brightly as well. The interiors of the cult’s villa sport an impressive amount of variety and visual flair, from technology-infused torture dungeons to decrepit houses filled with clutter and viscera to a forest that’s all kinds of spooky and more. The environments being as varied and consistently imaginative they are does stave off the feeling of repetition a little bit. Of course, it helps massively that the visuals are just as impressive from a technical standpoint as they are from an artistic one.

"The visuals are just as impressive from a technical standpoint as they are from an artistic one."

When all is said and done though, is Haus good enough to warrant a trip back to Dead Island 2’s HELL-A? Well, that depends on what you’re looking for. If you just want an excuse to smash zombie brains again, then sure. Dead Island 2’s crunching combat is more than capable of providing short bursts of goofy, gory fun, and that continues to be the case here, even if it does feel like it’s wearing a bit thin by the time the expansion comes to a close, especially combined with the uninspiring mission objectives. On the other hand, if you were hoping that Dead Island 2’s first expansion would be a major chunk of content that would bring interesting new ideas to the table, you’ll likely be disappointed by what’s on offer here. Hopefully, the second of the game’s two expansions – SOLA Festival, which is due out in Q2 of 2024 – will be a meatier and more ambitious one, because Haus ultimately doesn’t do enough to justify a return to this zombie-filled world.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.

The Kult is seemingly against the undead, but there are plenty of zombies roaming in its twisted biomes. Some include a pig mask-wearing, buff individual, while another harnesses electricity. To even the odds, there are some new weapons like K-ROSSBOW and the Hog Roaster. The former can unleash explosive bolts, while the latter can ignite enemies.

Eight new Skill Cards are also available to equip and further augment one’s Slayer. Haus is only the first of two expansions for Dead Island 2, with the second – SOLA Festival – coming in Q2 2024. Stay tuned for more details in the meantime.

Haus is a new location in Malibu, with various biomes arranged in a “deranged labyrinth.” Fortunately, players have new weapons to help out, like the K-ROSSBOW, which can fire precision shots and exploding bolts and the Hog Roaster for butchering and BBQ-ing the undead. There are also eight new Skill Cards to equip.

Stay tuned for more details and gameplay for Haus in the coming weeks. It’s unknown whether the rumored Neighborhood Watch, a new three-player co-pop survival mode, is included or launching as a free update alongside the expansion.

Dead Island 2 is available for PS4, Xbox One, PS5, PC and Xbox Series X/S. Check out our review for the base game here.

Insider Gaming reports that a “new experience” called Neighborhood Watch is in the works. Set over the course of five in-game days, it sees three players scavenging for weapons and supplies, setting traps and defending their safe house. There are objectives, from one to five stars in difficulty, to earn weapons and traps, but you can also remove a zombie type from the horde.

However, as the days progress, objectives will become tougher. Sources told the publication that it can get “very hectic,” though it’s unsure whether the mode will be packaged with the Haus expansion (which launches in Q4 2023) or released separately. Time will tell, so stay tuned for an official announcement.

Haus is about a billionaire and how they prepare for the “zompocalypse.” The answer seems to be a “techno-death cult with a healthy splash of debauchery and gore,” which could mean a new enemy faction. SOLA Festival is a little weirder, taking place at a festival where “LA’s party people can greenwash their way to ecstasy and save the planet, one rave at a time.”

Further details are pending, but based on the Expansion Pass’s listing, both expansions will add new enemies, abilities, weapons and missions. There will also be new areas within HELL-A, though their exact size and scale remain to be seen. Stay tuned in the meantime for more details.

Dead Island 2 is available for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5 and PC. It has sold over two million units and has become Deep Silver’s biggest launch in revenue and units sold. Check out our official review here.