Dead Island 2

Dead Island 2 is the easiest horror co-op game on this list to actually get a group into, which matters on a Tuesday night when nobody wants a steep onboarding process. Three players, gorgeous gore physics, and a campaign that plays more like a theme park ride through zombie Los Angeles than a dread simulator. I enjoyed it more than expected, mostly because it never really asks you to be scared, just entertained. That's also why it ranks here and not higher. Horror shows up in the setting and creature design, but tension never builds because the tone stays playful even mid-dismemberment. For light, accessible zombie carnage without much fear attached, this delivers exactly that.

Dead Island 2 is a genuinely fun zombie co-op game, and it's also the entry on this list I feel least good about including. Cross-platform multiplayer here is really just same-family cross-generation support, PS4 to PS5, Xbox One to Series, not the actual PC-console-Switch crossplay every other game on this list delivers. I nearly cut it entirely. The reason it stayed is honest: the pool of qualifying cross-platform horror games thinned out fast once I checked crossplay claims properly, and this was the strongest near-miss left standing. The combat and gore are excellent, genuinely one of the better zombie loops around. Just don't buy it expecting to squad up with a friend on a different platform, because you can't.

Dead Island 2 is the most fun I have had on this list that I would also feel least comfortable defending as a horror game. The gore is excessive in a way that tips from unsettling into almost theatrical, and the writing is actively funny in places. But the drop-in co-op works smoothly on PS5, the campaign is a proper length, and slicing through zombie hordes with two friends on a sun-drenched LA beach has a specific kind of stupid appeal that I appreciate. Think of it as the action-horror palate cleanser between the genuinely scary entries. If your group wants tension, start with the top three. If they want spectacle and a good time, this is where you land.

Dead Island 2 is the shooter I'd hand to someone who says they don't really play shooters. The combat feedback is immediate, limbs come off, zombies stagger, headshots feel like headshots, and the game never punishes you for not knowing a meta that doesn't really exist here. I played the opening two hours on a weeknight and never once felt lost. It leans more on melee than pure gunplay, so if you came for precision shooting, look elsewhere on this list. Co-op drops in easily and doesn't require voice coordination to be fun, which matters when you're playing with someone who just wants to smash zombies for an hour. Breezy, forgiving, and genuinely funny in places.

Dead Island 2 has some of the best melee combat on PS5. The dismemberment system is ridiculous in the best possible way, and three players tearing through a sun-drenched LA nightmare together is a genuinely entertaining few evenings. It missed the main list because the world structure is open-zone rather than open-world, the map is smaller than most games here, and once the campaign is done the reasons to keep returning are limited. If your group wants something that delivers immediate, polished fun over a weekend rather than a long-term project, Dead Island 2 absolutely delivers that.

Dead Island 2 took over a decade to arrive and landed as a competent, polished co-op action game rather than the horror experience some people hoped for. The zombie dismemberment system is technically impressive and genuinely grim, and the three-player co-op runs well on PS5 with good performance and stable connections. What it lacks is dread. Los Angeles in sunshine is not a horror setting regardless of how many undead you fill it with. I am ranking it here because the co-op structure is solid and it is a reasonable recommendation for groups who want guided campaign play with some visceral horror-adjacent content, but it would not survive on this list if the horror purity criteria carried more weight.

A three-player online campaign with drop-in support, gory combat, and more humor than you'd expect from a zombie game. Dead Island 2 is genuinely fun with friends who enjoy a breezy action-RPG loop. It fell just outside the top ten because co-op doesn't unlock until roughly an hour into the story, and quest progress handling between host and guests is inconsistent enough to warrant a careful read of the in-game rules before you start. No crossplay outside the PlayStation ecosystem. Worth considering for trios who want a story campaign that doesn't take itself too seriously.