Game Reviews

Dead on Arrival 2

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Dead on Arrival 2
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| Dead on Arrival 2

Dead on Arrival 2 is the archetypal free-to-play twin-stick zombie shooter, save for one important addition.

It plays as you'd expect, with a grind-heavy emphasis on grabbing and spending coins, and an arsenal ranging from a dirt-cheap pistol to a re-mortgage requiring rocket launcher.

But there's an extra level of fun added by the inclusion of multiplayer. Even by-the-books zombie murder is more entertaining when you're doing it with another human being.

The obsession with currency still grates, but there are some nice touches to the co-op blasting that just about raise Dead on Arrival 2 above the horde.

Gold in them there corpses

A stick on the bottom-left of the screen controls your movement, while a stick on the bottom-right controls your aim. If you're aiming you're firing, and conserving bullets is important because once you run out you'll need to pay some in-game currency to bag some more.

The game is set in an industrial complex blocked by a series of doors. You need to pay some coins to unlock these. They close after you die, and you'll have to pay to open them again in your next play.

There are gun shops around the levels as well. You pay to unlock these, and then pay even more to get the weapons they're hawking. You can only reload a gun at the shop you bought it from, so you need to decide whether to explore or make a stand.

It's all a bit unwieldy, and doesn't really make sense. There are traps to squish the undead with - these cost cash too. Boosts and buffs cost, and single-use power-ups can be bought at the start of every playthrough.

Of course, you get cash for every zombie you kill and wave you survive, but it's not enough to get you the best gear.

Cold dead cash

Plopping a friend alongside you goes some way to make you forget about the rampant coin-gouge that's happening around you. And there are some nice weapon combinations that only work in multiplayer - one of you wielding a freeze ray, the other waving around a mini-gun, for example.

The single-player side of Dead on Arrival 2 is a bit of an unbalanced slog, but the multiplayer is good enough that you might suck a couple of hours of fun out of the game before you the grasping payment model eventually overwhelms you.

Dead on Arrival 2

Despite a bland single-player experience, Dead on Arrival 2's multiplayer is just enough to make it worth a look
Score
Harry Slater
Harry Slater
Harry used to be really good at Snake on the Nokia 5110. Apparently though, digital snake wrangling isn't a proper job, so now he writes words about games instead.