It seems like we have reached an evolutionary state where most games include some form of a photo mode. Entire communities of video game enthusiasts spend a ton of time trying to capture that perfect landscape photo without a huge broadsword or disembodied hands gumming up the works. But even juggernauts like Elden Ring can be criminally negligent in offering a photo mode, despite offering such a gorgeous game world ripe for the sniping.
So I guess it shouldn’t have been surprising to learn that the recently released Dead Island 2 lacked any semblance of a photo mode. Running around this version of Los Angeles — or Hell-A — I was often struck by the majesty of a the recreation of a famous overlook, or of any of the several landmark areas in the City of Angels (itself a bastion of film and photography), yet I was unable to capture it in all of its grandeur again without a bloody, toxin-spewing baseball bat photobombing my pic.
For example, I happened upon Dambuster’s take on a very specific spot on the Santa Monica pier where I took several lovely real-life pictures of my partner. I thought it would be a nice opportunity to relive that experience and share it with her. Although she was delighted by the replication of “our spot’ in the background, she was also a bit perturbed by the instrument of death looming large in the foreground.
And not only is the visual fidelity of this hellish version of L.A. screaming to be captured in ways other than the default first-person viewpoint (to say nothing of being able to take selfies, perhaps), but the amount of viscera and gore on display from the Flesh system in Dead Island 2 would make for great pics as well. Capturing the final moments of a zombie’s flesh melting off, leaving a sizzled corpse forever locked in a death knell? Well, I can’t think of a better subject for still-life aficionados.
And quite frankly, it should be pretty easy to patch in. There’s still plenty of time to rectify this oversight and strike while the Dead Island 2 iron is still hot. I can’t imagine I am the only one that wants to snap a pic of a huddled mass of gelatinous ghouls mid-grenade-explosion, if for no other reason that to be able to pause the action, remove the HUD, and really linger on the amount of work put in to making this Flesh system so gooey and juicy to savor.
