Dead Island: Riptide Review - Another Zombie Paradise

03 July 2013

Daniele's Dead Island Riptide review, searching for a way out of the zombie nightmare.

Dead Island: Riptide

Written by: Daniele Casadei

Date Published: 07/03/2013

75 / 100 stars

Another island, the same problem - a perfect (bloody) holiday for our four immune heroes. After 18 months we can finally check if there’s really a way out of that zombie “paradise”. In Dead Island: Riptide we will find again the same four, unlucky characters arrested on a military ship for medical tests. But (as if the plague wasn’t enough) the ship is hit by a huge storm that causes a shipwreck on another island with two big problems: zombies and flooding.

As such, the characters have to find again the way to fly away from Palanai (an island in the archipelago of Banoi). Some new weapons, some new zombies and a big island full of dangers…will we survive again?

When we review a new chapter in a saga the first thing we look for are the innovations made by developers. And the first thing you think playing Riptide is: “Never change a winning team“. A great point for the fans but a limit for the other gamers. In Dead Island: Riptide we can find the same gameplay and tasks that we loved in the first videogame. But there are some new additions which enrich the game. We can import the save file of Dead Island to start with the same skills that we had at the end of the game and trying to reach the level 70.

By opening the skill tree we can easily notice some new options for the weapons leveling system. We will increase our experience in a single category of weapons with use during the game, which is also the same system used in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (for example). But the real big news is the defense missions. In these missions, we will have to defend a point from waves of zombies, fortifying the weak spots with barricades, mines and other things. As such, we have to kill zombies, restore the barricades and defend our friends (if one of them dies, it’s over).

“If single player can be boring after a few hours, in co-op with friends Riptide it's still a great game”

During the game we can activate some specific missions to upgrade our friends’ weapons (if we play in co-op we can upgrade only the NPCs); these are “simple” objectives that involve the search for items like engine pieces, flowers and other stuff. These missions are very useful to help us during defense situations. The other change that we can find (the last one) in Dead Island: Riptide is the heavy rain that can suddenly hit the island. These weather changes are used to emphasize the moments of tension and to limit the general visibility, but they remain only as an aesthetic element from the engine. In fact, when it rains we will not see any effect on the water, soil, vehicles, weapons and enemies.

As I said in the beginning of this Dead Island: Riptide review, the game seems only a big expansion of the first one with some new weapons and a new playable character, the Australian Defense Force Sergeant John Morgan. We have to do the same things, there’s the same final goal and we can find the same problems, like bugs and flaws in the animations.

The quests are almost all alike: “Go there and kill the zombies … Go there and bring me this”. We are just killers and/or delivery boys. But Dead Island: Riptide (like its predecessor) is still a very funny game, especially in co-op. If the single player mode can be boring after a few hours, in co-op with friends Riptide is still a great game.

Bos

“If single player can be boring after a few hours, in
co-op with friends Riptide it’s still…boring”.

At least for me. And the reason is just one: no death penalty.

This game really needs a game over screen, something you need to reload when
you die, not just a “5 seconds until next respawn”, it’s so stupid.
You can actually complete the game (and the first Dead Island as well) just
running, dying, running, dying…

With a REAL death, I will just rate this game among the greatest, something
that can be voted 9, but I consider that a gamebreaking gameplay issue.

I was bored around the 80% of the first Dead Island, and I got bored again with
Riptide (this time coop too, and it didn’t help..) around 30%. A
zombie-survival themed game with no care for your life, it’s just like a War
Game with infinite ammo.

75

You may also like...