Proto:Dead Island 2

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This article is a work in progress. ...Well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editor's notes. Notes: Make comparisons with final game.

Zombies in L.A., baby! This sequel to Techland's controversial Dead Island underwent a long bout of development hell ever since its memorable 2014 announcement trailer, finally achieving release in April 2023 after being handballed between at least three different studios being involved at different points - Yager Development, Sumo Digital, and Deep Silver Dambuster Studios. This build of the first iteration, leaked June 5 2020, is dated June 19, 2015 - one month before Yager were removed from the project due to their vision for the project supposedly "[falling] out of alignment" with that of publisher Deep Silver.

Sub-Pages

Weapons Weapons, arrows and gradual erosion.

Unused Areas

Accessible through the game's console are numerous areas for the game. While some may load into complete nothingness due to missing files, others will load into something interesting, such as developer rooms.

PBStartup

A developer room with a blue temporary material. There are numerous warps to different areas in the game including Los Angeles, Redwood, and San Francisco. It is also possible to start a game through 127.0.0.1. It's possible to change your character's class. Unfortunately, attempting to teleport to Redwood or Los Angeles will not work but teleporting to San Francisco will teleport you to the very beginning of the game.

PBPlayground

To do: This map has a lot, split it into another page later.

A developer room featuring the ability to spawn enemies in the game as well as spawns for each weapon in the game. There are also two drivable vehicles present in the game as well as a player vs. player zone.

Splitscreen Mode

It seems at some point during development, a two to four player splitscreen mode was planned to be featured although what remains of it is extremely unfinished with each individual player's controls other than player one not working and the majority of the screen being filled in an obstructive red.

Unused Videos

Repeated six times in the PBGame/Content/Movies file directory is a set of videos with "Serum Ending" in the file name. It's a very early and unfinished cutscene showing the Radioman Dude (the Jack Black impersonator) singing Escape by Rupert Holmes before shouting "It's serum time!". Its most likely the serum is the same one that Cliff threw into the ocean at the end of Escape Dead Island.
The filenames for each ending are as follows: Serum_Ending.bk2, Serum_Ending_SF.bk2, Serum_Ending3.bk2, Serum_Ending4.bk2, and Serum_Ending5.bk2. Each video is identical. There are also several Loading Screens which are unused.

Serum Ending	Loading Screen 1 (0:20)	Loading Screen 2 (0:21)
Loading Screen 3 (0:21)	Loading Screen 4 (0:20)	Loading Screen 5 (0:20)

Special Zombies

To do: Better images, more research too! A lot of the directories listed below have a lot more information.

Found in the game's files are models of several Special Zombies.

Stomper

Could have been a miniboss or a Bruiser-type enemy. He appeared in Dead Island Retro Revenge! as an enemy who shit fire. The files in the directory PBGame\Content\VoiceLines\Custom\Zombies\Stomper and PBGame\Content\Generic\Weapons\EnemyWeapons\Stomper give a few hints as to some attacks this enemy has:
Play_Voc_Stomper_CombatGroundStomp_Match.uasset and MA_Stomper_Melee_GroundStomp.uasset indicates that the Stomper was capable of doing a Ground Stomp... Hence the name!
Play_Voc_Stomper_CombatRoarSprintKick_Match.uasset indicates it could also do a Sprint Kick move.
As indicated in the PBGame\Content\Animations\PairedAnimation\PlayerVsStomper directory, the Stomper was capable of initiating a quick-time event with the player upon grabbing them.

Floater

The Floater from the previous games with an apperance closer to the Spitter from Escape Dead Island. Would've had a projectile attack, as indicated within the file directory PBGame\Content\Generic\Weapons\EnemyWeapons\Floater with attacks such as:
WP_FloaterAcidCloseProjectile_BP.uasset
WP_FloaterAcidLong_BP.uasset
WP_FloaterAcidLongProjectile_BP.uasset
WP_FloaterAcidShort_BP.uasset
The role of each attack being pretty self-explanatory.
In the PBGame\Content\Animations\Zombie\Floater directory, the enemy seems capable of vomiting, indicated by the files SLOB_Vomit_VAR01.uasset and SLOB_Vomit_VAR01_AM.uasset
The Floater also seems to go under the name Slob, indicated by internal files.

Hyena

The Hyena debuted in Dead Island Retro Revenge! She would've most likely been similar to the Bouncer from EDI. The PBGame\Content\Animations\Zombie\Hyena directory indicates the Hyena could run and pounce on foes. The Hyena is also able to grab the player as indicated in the file directory PBGame\Content\VoiceLines\Custom\Zombies\Hyena. These files are:
Play_voc_Hyena_A_PlayerVsHyena_Grab_BiteAttack_VAR01.uasset
Play_voc_Hyena_A_PlayerVsHyena_Grab_Idle_VAR01.uasset
Play_voc_Hyena_A_PlayerVsHyena_Grab_KickAway_VAR01.uasset