Mark Buckingham: A lot of people complained about Dead Island and its expansion Riptide, but I rather enjoyed them. Being sort of like Borderlands minus guns plus zombies in a large, open, tropical paradise gave me lots of nice scenery and heads to stomp. The co-op was pretty fun, and there were tons of quests and things to do in the game. Sure, it could have used a bit more polish, but I had fun with it from beginning to end. Dead Island 2 will offer some more clever weapon crafting, some new enemies, and a new world to explore, so I'm ready to jump back in.

Tony "OUberLord" Mitera: Dead Island was a standout among the horde of zombie-themed games that are too commonplace. It was also a game that seemed to work best with its contrast of the undead versus the picturesque island resort, and it lost steam from there on out. With Dying Light set up as a very similar style of game, it'll be interesting to see if Dead Island 2 manages to improves upon its own predecessor and set itself apart. Either way, it's bound to let me craft ridiculous weapons to make the undead stay dead, and hell if that wasn't a ton of fun the first time around.

Thomas Wilde: As longtime readers may be aware, when someone asks who is still buying these zombie games after the last 10 years of arguable overexposure, it's me. They're talking about me. You're welcome.

What I'm interested in isn't just a zombie apocalypse for its own sake, but seeing what Yager does with it. This is its follow-up project to Spec Ops, of all the things they could have possibly done, and I enjoy the idea of them having fun with a California-based outbreak. As long as I get to drive up and down the beach in a pick-up truck with at least three buddies, smashing zombies for entire afternoons, I will get my money's worth from this. I'm expecting more, though.