Does Dead Island 2 have difficulty settings? Answered

Dead Island 2 just came out today after a long wait, so fans of the first game can finally find out if the sequel holds up. If you haven’t played the original Dead Island, however, you may not feel comfortable with taking on difficult zombie hordes just yet when jumping into the sequel. Because of this, you might want to know ahead of time what difficulty options the game may feature so you can set the challenge to a level that suits you best. But that assumes that Dead Island 2 even has difficulty options, to begin with; does the game include such a feature?

Can you set the difficulty in Dead Island 2?

Unlike a lot of other zombie action games, Dead Island 2 does not provide players with selectable difficulty modes. For the most part, Dead Island 2 sports a set level of challenge that players have to work with from beginning to end. Of course, players can still make things easier for themselves by using powerful skill cards or weapon loadouts. This approach echoes that of both the original Dead Island and Dead Island: Riptide, so fans of the series will undoubtedly be used to this by now.

Although Dead Island 2 lacks traditional difficulty modes, this does not mean that the challenge remains completely static. The game happens to boast a dynamic difficulty system that changes based on the player’s current level. So if players level up to a considerable degree, then the zombies will become quite a bit tougher to compensate. Theoretically, this should mean that more skilled players will still find challenge in Dead Island 2, although that may not be necessarily true in practice.

Ultimately, you will have to try things out for yourself to see if the default difficulty level in Dead Island 2 feels appropriate for you. But if you find it too easy or too hard, hopefully, you will still get some enjoyment out of the experience.

Image via Deep Silver