Dead Island 2’s new expansion sees Coachella meet zombies

22 March, 2024

'Dead Island 2' expansion SoLA artwork

Deep Silver has confirmed a new story expansion for Dead Island 2, with SoLA set to overrun the ultimate Californian music festival.

The SoLA expansion is the second DLC available for Dead Island 2 and will be available April 17, bringing a new storyline to the action role-playing game.

SoLA will take place at a “visceral, gore-drenched music festival in the heart of LA” and see players contend with “the sound of The Beat, which threatens to turn the living into zombies, and has the potential to be heard across the world.”

“A deadly virus sweeps through The Valley, turning its inhabitants into ravenous zombies as a chthonic rhythm calls from beyond: the beat of the Autophage. Lured to the festival by an enigmatic warning message, players must explore SoLA’s ruins and put a stop to this otherworldly menace,” reads the description.

As well as battling undead ravers, the new expansion will bring a number of new enemies including apex variant the Whipper, which has been “driven mad with self-loathing by the Autophage.

Their compulsion to self-mutilate has turned them into a horrific nightmare of disembowelled intestines, allowing them to lash out at range,” said Deep Silver. Players will also have to deal with Clotter, a zombie which can protect itself from damage by “decomposing into a revolting pile of gore,” before it reforms elsewhere. They’re also “capable of firing a powerful jet of putrid blood from their heart.“

Luckily, a number of new weapons will also be coming to Dead Island 2 as part of SoLA, including the ripper, which is described as a “deadly fusion of a baseball bat and circular saw” while the sawblade launcher is capable of firing sawblades at the approaching undead.

SoLA is due for release April 17 for PlayStation and Xbox consoles as part of Dead Island 2’s expansion pass. Dead Island 2 is also due to launch on Steam on April 22.

In a three-star review of the base game, NME wrote: “Dead Island 2’s devotion to truly gross zombie gore is commendable, but its bland, stereotypical characters, and tired, genre-rehashing plot make it more difficult to appreciate its inventive combat than it should be.”

In other news Larian Studios, the developer behind Baldur’s Gate 3, has confirmed that it will not be making a highly requested expansion or Baldur’s Gate 4.

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