GamingPickz
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Dead Island Definitive Edition vs The Evil Within 2

Dead Island Definitive Edition is an FPS horror game from Techland (2016) while The Evil Within 2 is a horror open-world game from Tango Gameworks (2017).

Quick answer: The Evil Within 2 rates higher, 7.9 to 7.2 on the GamingPickz Score, and Dead Island Definitive Edition is the cheaper at $19.99.

Dead Island Definitive Edition

2016 · Techland

7.2GamingPickz Score

$19.99

Steam: Very Positive

The Evil Within 2

2017 · Tango Gameworks

7.9GamingPickz Score

$39.99

Steam: Very Positive

What each one is

Dead Island Definitive Edition is filed under FPS and Horror. In contrast, The Evil Within 2 under Horror and Open-World.

Dead Island Definitive Edition

Welcome to the zombie apocalypse experience of a lifetime – and now more beautiful than ever. Caught in the midst of an epic zombie outbreak on the tropical island of Banoi, your only thought is: Survive!

Description from its Steam store page

The Evil Within 2

Detective Sebastian Castellanos has lost everything, including his daughter, Lily. To save her, he must descend into the nightmarish world of STEM. Horrifying threats emerge from every corner, and he must rely on his wits to survive. For his one chance at redemption, the only way out is in.

Description from its Steam store page

Story, characters and reception

Dead Island Definitive Edition
Plot

Riptide takes place immediately after the ending of Dead Island , with the four immune survivors landing on a military ship after escaping from the prison island. They are immediately taken into custody by the Australian Defence Force Colonel Sam Hardy and Frank Serpo, a civilian VIP. Passing out from sedatives, the player's character wakes up to find the ship overrun with zombies. (Wikipedia)

Reception

Reception Dead Island: Riptide received mixed reviews, with most critics praising the gameplay and new setting, but criticizing the many unfixed issues found in the original, as well as the lack of new content. Aggregating review website Metacritic gave the PlayStation 3 version 62/100, the PC version 61/100, and the Xbox 360 version 57/100. IGN s Greg Miller stated that although he found it to be 'great gory fun', it still contained bugs and glitches… (Wikipedia)

The Evil Within 2
Plot

Three years after the events of the first game, Sebastian Castellanos (Marqus Bobesich / Hiroyuki Kinoshita ) has left the Krimson City Police Department, haunted by his experiences at the Beacon Mental Hospital. His only child, Lily (Kiara Gamboa / Sakura Sakai), supposedly perished in their house fire, and his wife Myra (Elizabeth Saydah / Rika Fukami ), unwilling to accept her daughter's death, abandoned him. This, coupled with his trauma, results in… (Wikipedia)

Reception

Reception Critical reception The Evil Within 2 received "generally favorable" reviews from critics, according to review aggregator website Metacritic . Ray Porreca's score of 7/10 on Destructoid said it was "Solid and definitely has an audience. There could be some hard-to-ignore faults, but the experience is fun. (Wikipedia)

At a glance

Dead Island Definitive EditionThe Evil Within 2
GamingPickz Score7.2/107.9/10
Steam ratingVery Positive (82%, 28,183)Very Positive (92%, 30,959)
Critic aggregate61/10080/100
Price$19.99$39.99
Install size10 GB40 GB
Steam Deckplayableverified
Released20162017
DeveloperTechlandTango Gameworks

Prices and Steam ratings are read live and move over time.

Dead Island Definitive Edition vs The Evil Within 2, point by point

Each facet side by side. A round is marked won only where a figure settles it; feel and "which is better" carry no mark, because no number we hold decides them.

  1. Genre and premise

    Dead Island Definitive EditionFPS horror game
    The Evil Within 2Horror open-world game

    What each is filed as. Each game describes itself in full above; we do not judge a premise.

  2. How it plays

    Dead Island Definitive EditionZombies, Open World, Co-op
    The Evil Within 2Horror, Survival Horror, Psychological Horror

    The tags players apply most, in order of votes. A read on feel, not a verdict.

  3. Reception

    Dead Island Definitive EditionScore 7.2 · 82% on Steam · 61 critic
    The Evil Within 2Score 7.9 · 92% on Steam · 80 critic

    The GamingPickz Score is a composite of player sentiment, critics and popularity, computed the same way for every game.

  4. Content and scale

    Dead Island Definitive Edition28,183 reviews · 10 GB
    The Evil Within 230,959 reviews · 40 GB

    Reach and footprint, not quality: more reviews or a bigger install is not a better game.

  5. Price

    Dead Island Definitive Edition$19.99
    The Evil Within 2$39.99

    Read live from Steam and subject to change.

  6. On a Steam Deck

    Dead Island Definitive EditionPlayable
    The Evil Within 2Verified

    Valve's own Deck compatibility rating.

The Evil Within 2 takes 2 of the marked rounds to 1. That is only what a number can decide, not which you will enjoy more.

The two on the grid

Compare the whole catalogue

Dead Island Definitive Edition and The Evil Within 2 on the axes the GamingPickz Score is built from, on the full 0 to 100 scale so each dot is its real position. Change either axis to compare them on any measure.

2 games have both

01000100PlayersPopularity

Players. The share of Steam reviews marked positive, pulled toward the catalogue average in proportion to how few reviews stand behind it. A game with 200 reviews moves a long way toward the average; one with 200,000 barely moves at all. Without this a title sitting at 100 percent on nine reviews outranks Half-Life 2 at 98 percent on 278,000.

Popularity. A blend of two things that are not the same. Audience is how many people wrote a Steam review, which is a floor on how many played it. Reach is how many language editions of Wikipedia document the game, which is cultural footprint rather than sales. A game can score high on one and low on the other: a huge free-to-play title has audience without reach, and a landmark console exclusive has reach without a Steam audience at all. Where both exist they are averaged; where only one does, that one carries it.

  • PC

Every point links to that game's entry. The value map and the reception map are fixed views of the same data.

See the whole grid

How positions are decided

No paid placement, no favouritism, live third-party data
  • Placed by the published method, not by us. Every coordinate is computed from the axis definitions and weights printed on this site. Nobody moves a point. See the axes.
  • Nothing here is paid for. No sponsored placements, no promoted slots, no arrangement of any kind affects a position. If that ever changes it will be labelled and sit outside the ranking.
  • No favouritism, including our own. The 16 games we have written full reviews of are scored by exactly the same formula as the other 1,510, from the same third-party inputs, and they land where it puts them. Our own opinion of a game does not enter its coordinates.
  • A position is not an endorsement. It says how a game was received and what it costs, not that we recommend it. Where we do recommend something, it carries a written review with a name on it.
  • Fetched from live third-party data. Player sentiment from Steam, critic aggregates as published on store pages, prices checked hourly, attention from Wikipedia. Each figure carries its source and the date it was read, and we do not adjust any of them.

Which to pick, by what you want

  • The higher-rated of the two: The Evil Within 2 (GamingPickz Score 7.9)
  • The cheaper right now: Dead Island Definitive Edition ($19.99)
  • Better on a Steam Deck: The Evil Within 2 (verified)
  • Lighter on storage: Dead Island Definitive Edition (10 GB)

What they have in common

Both are tagged by Steam players with:

ZombiesOpen WorldSurvivalActionGoreHorrorFirst-PersonSingleplayer

Where they differ

Dead Island Definitive Edition is also

Co-opMultiplayerFPSOnline Co-OpCraftingRPG

The Evil Within 2 is also

Psychological HorrorStory RichAtmosphericThird-Person ShooterThird PersonStealth

Tags players apply to one game and not the other.

Difficulty and who each is for

By the tags players apply, Dead Island Definitive Edition is middle-of-the-road on difficulty. The Evil Within 2 is middle-of-the-road on difficulty.

Accessibility features

Steam store pages declare 1 accessibility feature for Dead Island Definitive Edition and 4 for The Evil Within 2. A declaration is a floor, not a review.

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Common questions

How different are Dead Island Definitive Edition and The Evil Within 2 in scope?

Dead Island Definitive Edition has drawn 28,183 Steam reviews and installs in 10 GB. The Evil Within 2 has drawn 30,959 Steam reviews and installs in 40 GB.

Is Dead Island Definitive Edition or The Evil Within 2 better?

By the GamingPickz Score, The Evil Within 2 rates higher (7.9 to 7.2). That is a composite of player sentiment, the critic aggregate and popularity, not our taste. "Better" also depends on price, length and platform, which the table above lays out.

Which is cheaper, Dead Island Definitive Edition or The Evil Within 2?

Dead Island Definitive Edition is cheaper right now at $19.99, against $39.99. Prices move, so this is read live from Steam and can change.

Should I get Dead Island Definitive Edition or The Evil Within 2?

The Evil Within 2 rates higher, 7.9 to 7.2 on the GamingPickz Score, and Dead Island Definitive Edition is the cheaper at $19.99. It also depends on what you want: the "which to pick" section above calls out which is cheaper, lighter on storage, better on a Steam Deck and the safer bet by weight of reviews.

Do you rank one above the other for a fee?

No. Neither game, nor anyone else, pays for placement or a verdict here. The order and every figure come out of the same public data the rest of the site uses.

How we compare, and what we will not do

The GamingPickz Score is a composite of player sentiment (adjusted for sample size), the critic aggregate and popularity, computed by the same code every ranked list on this site uses. The Steam rating label is Valve's own, reconstructed from the positive percentage and review count. Prices are read live. We do not write an opinion of which game is "better": we report the numbers and say which wins each measurable question above.

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