Publisher(s): Versus Evil
Platform(s): Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch
Release Date: Late Summer 2019 (Switch), Out now (mobile platforms)
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Into the Dead 2 is, at its core, an endless-runner genre title. Where Into the Dead 2 separates itself from everything else in this genre, however, is that Into the Dead 2 also plays like a FPS title (complete with two weapons you can pick from per stage), grenades, and oh yeah- a voice acted storyline that comes complete with three endings. Into the Dead 2‘s distilled main story is about a man trying to get back to his family as there is a zombie outbreak flooding the area, but the voice acting is well done and the running mechanic really plays into the idea of getting back to his family as soon as possible.
Into the Dead 2 plays extremely well, and I found myself forced to constantly make tactical decisions about whether to shoot -thereby using precious ammunition- or to dodge incoming zombie hordes as I made my way across each of the fairly short levels. I mentioned very early on that Into the Dead 2 plays like an FPS, and it really does. The game runs from a first person point of view, each main/side weapon that you can equip fires and handles completely differently, and hunting down ammunition is always a factor to take into consideration when determining which way to go on the screen in a level. This put me in a severe spot of judging constantly whether to kill or try to dodge enemies, and it made the gameplay tense as I was constantly trying to aim for the next ammo refill pack. The one thing that I was really disappointed about was that I couldn’t really ‘aim’ the weapon. I really wanted to choose my running direction with one Joy-Con and aim with the other Joy-Con before pulling the trigger, and I was more than a little surprised to find out that I couldn’t do so at all. I feel that the lack of this one feature, which was clearly a consideration for the original mobile platform, would have really served to enhance Into the Dead 2‘s gameplay for the Nintendo Switch, especially with the Switch Pro controller being enabled for the game.
The scenery is beautiful in Into the Dead 2. I found myself looking more than once at the post-apocalyptic world flashing by me, and I found myself wishing that I could take a bit more of a deeper look at what I’m seeing across the three or so levels (out of sixty) that I played. The levels themselves are short, but I found that they were the perfect length for the pick-up-and-put down nature of the Nintendo Switch, and I kept wanting to do just one more. I also tried two of the three available side stories for Into the Dead 2, Untamed and Frostbitten, and I enjoyed them as well – especially the animal companion that I had to assist me in Frostbitten, which added yet another layer of mechanics and strategy. My animal companion would run fairly self-sufficiently on his/her own, and they each have special abilities that get to be used as well. The core mechanics of the two side stories I played were the same as in the main story, but in wildly different environments (and places in the plot!) from the main storyline.
Overall, I genuinely liked Into the Dead 2, and I really liked that PikPok actually wedded an effective story to what amounts to an FPS/endless-runner hybrid. And honestly, it is hard to believe that this game was, at first, a mobile title. There is simply too much polish and customization options to be on anything but originally as a console release. This game is just that impressive overall. Into the Dead 2 is coming out for the Nintendo Switch in Late Summer 2019 for physical and digital platforms.
Did you play Into the Dead 2 in its original mobile form? What do you think of the upgrade for the Nintendo Switch?
Let us know in the comments below!
