‘Dead Island 2’ Devs Worked With Diversity Council To Best Represent LA

Dead Island 2’s art director has been speaking about how the game seeks to best represent the diversity of the Los Angeles population - even as it’s both parodying the place as ‘Hell-A’ and, y’know, turning a whole load of folk into brain-hungry zombies.

In an interview with The Loadout, Dambuster Studios’ Adam Olsson reveals that the Nottingham-based developers have consulted with a diversity council to ensure that they’re presenting the population of their fictional city - one grounded in reality, of course - in an appropriate way. 

Here’s the latest Dead Island 2 trailer, as debuted at 2022’s Gamescom Opening Night Live…

“It was a really interesting exercise trying to break down what makes something LA and what stands out as a truly unique LA experience,” Olsson told the website’s Jess Wells. “We were very cautious to take anything that would feel like a hurtful stereotype and that’s why, in the studio, we have a diversity council that helps us understand whether we’ve pushed something too far.”

Olsson added that the diversity council is there to oversee any game-in-development’s cast of characters, the script’s main story beats and overall tone, and much more. He continued: “The council worked closely with us to make sure we’re pushing out a good tone because we want to make sure we bring Dead Island 2 into the 21st century. We want to be contemporary, and we want to be representative.”

Which all sounds like a very good thing to us. In related Dead Island 2 news, its makers have also outlined their intention to make it the goriest game ever, and it’ll also be controllable using your Alexa device. Which is… a choice, isn’t it. The game comes out for PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series consoles, PC and Stadia on February 3, 2023.