Dead Island 2introduces many major plot points to not only carry the story of the franchise forward but also to help explain the containment of zombie outbreaks around the world. Through Dr. Rueben Reed, one of the few survivors that players will encounter in Hell-A, the Slayers discover a hidden truth within their own bodies, the Autophage. However, through this discovery,Dead Island 2also exposes a potential plot hole within the story that could leave many wondering if Reed was telling the truth at all.
Dead Island 2’s story slowly reveals more and more people who seem to be immune to the zombie outbreak like the Slayers. While it may seem to be good fortune at first, the game ultimately reveals that this was all part of Dr. Reed’s intended plan of finding a viable cure for the billions of people around the world. Unfortunately, the reveal prior tothe final boss fight ofDead Island 2reveals that Reed never had to do any of this since he already possessed the perfect candidate for the cure, his daughter Tisha.
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The Autophage and The Cure
Dead Island 2’s story reveals that every person on the planet is already infected with the Autophage, a sort of ticking bomb embedded into humanity’s DNA that will eventually turn most people into the undead. The only survivors would be the Numen, a group of humans who are not only immune but also have unique abilities that seem to harness the Autophage itself,something the Slayers will rely onin the latter half of the game. So, Reed decided to kickstart the outbreak in L.A. in the hopes of finding more Numen, who he believes to be the key to uncovering the cure for the Autophage, sacrificing millions to save the rest of humanity.
This is where theDead Island 2story seemingly falls apart as it is also revealed that Tisha is already the perfect candidate for creating a cure. Reed reveals that he had injected Tisha with Numen blood when she was an unborn baby, making her immune to the outbreak and storing the cure within her. With her blood, Reed should not haveneeded to seek out other Numensince he would already have Tisha’s blood which he claims to be the only cure for the Autophage, even asking the Slayers to protect her at all costs. He argues he she would be bled for the rest of her life, which is perhaps a fate he hopes to avoid, but once the cure is viable, it would likely be mass-produced with more ease. This makes his attempt at finding Numen seem questionable at best, ill-conceived at worst.
WhileDead Island 3has not yet been revealed, the cliffhanger at the end of the story likely means that players will get a chance to slay zombies in a spectacular fashion once again. It also gives the developers a chance to clean up the major plot hole fromDead Island 2by either proving Reed’s theory wrong or making the Autophage inevitable for humans. With Tisha likely to be a major character in the franchise’s next release,clearing up any confusion about the Autophageand the cure can greatly help future installments ofDead Island.
Making the Autophage an inevitability for humans may not be the best route since it would make finding a cure pointless and could potentially prevent future games from having exciting stories. So, the best path for the next game to follow would be to prove Reed’s research wrong, which would mean that Tisha is not the key to the cure, but maybe simply one part of it. This could leave room for new characters to enter the fray, including new scientists who performed similar experiments to Reed thatcould potentially serve as villains seeking Numen to experiment on.
Dead Island 2was a huge success, building critical story elements that did not feature in the first game and breathing new life into a franchise many people had written off.After surviving development hell,Dead Island 2captured the attention of gamers, and while there was one element of the story that did not make a lot of sense, the overall game was filled with comedy, excitement, horror, and brutality. With the story ending the way it did, fans will now hope that the nextDead Islandgame clears up any confusion and does not take another decade to come out.
Dead Island 2is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X\S.
