The game's story picks up right where the initial Dead Island left off, with the survivors landing on a military ship after their flight from Banoi. However, they are kept imprisoned inside the ship and experimented on individually. The Heroes thought that they had escaped the terrors of Banoi and survived the approaching apocalypse, but their fate takes a turn for the worst. After meeting John Morgan in the ship, the heroes awake one day to find the ship overrun with zombies. After fighting through the ship, they reach the bridge and deal with The Captain, who is now undead. Colonel Hardy attempts to steer the ship away from the rocks, but it crashes and strands them on Palanai, located still in the Banoi archipelago. Palanai has also been struck by the infection, and the island has been overrun with zombies. The survivors are found on the beach by a woman named Harlow Jordan. She instructs them to head to the survivor camp called Paradise Survival Camp.