Dead Island: Riptide

Excellent open world zombie horror with great crafting slightly let down by unimaginative bosses and minor bugs.

No summary available

Dead Island was one of the surprise hits of 2011. It might have been as ropey as a zombie’s skincare regime in places, but it made up for it somewhat by offering a brutal and atmospheric open-world survival horror romp set on a tropical resort island. So has developer Techland fixed those flaws and delivered on the series’ huge potential this second time around?

Is Dead Island Riptide a fun game? At times, yes. In terms of raw combat and power fantasy, it’s just as good as Dead Island … and it’s just as bad at the same time. The bottom line is that there’s no excuse for it not being superior. Being “just as good” isn’t good enough, especially not when Dead Island had things on its side that Riptide doesn’t. Those new to the series entirely will likely not notice the problems quite so much, and be as forgiving to it as newcomers were to Dead Island. While Riptide banks on you having loved the first, in actuality you have a lot more to gain if you’ve ne...

Combat still needs work, but is unique enough that players will still find some entertainment in the limb chomping and weapon customization/upgrading. But don't be surprised if, just like with the first Dead Island, Riptide starts to overstay its welcome after a few hours. In a lot of ways, it feels like Techland doesn't know what they have with Dead Island (who it appeals to, and why people might find it appealing), and so they ended up sending out a similar product in the hopes of getting back a better result.

Dead Island: Riptide continues the adventures of the four heroes from the original game. Inquire within to find out if the game is as bad as the horrors they will surely face.

Much like the original then, Riptide is casual fun when approached from the viewpoint of a group of players that aren’t averse to grieving their own kind, but don’t expect much more than a tense slog otherwise. There’s little to Palanai’s shores that you might not have already seen in Dead Island, and there’s not much in the 10-12 hours of Riptide’s campaign that exceeds the first foray into the undead. This is still a satisfying melee combat experience that pulls no punches on an...

The opening segment of Dead Island: Riptide is monstrous, and not because it involves a stereotypically sleazy exec talking about bioweapons. Not because of zombies either. In fact, aside from the hideously ugly cut-scenes that seem to be animated in flipbook style and the drab story, I was actually hit by a complete absence of sound only ten minutes in. Not wanting to let my co-op colleagues down I soldiered on because, hey, the game has subtitles right? Yeah, then the subtitles stop progres...

Online coop works a treat. The game notifies you when someone is near and all you have to do is press on the d pad and 20 seconds later you’re in their game. I enjoyed playing the game with a group of people, something I really didn’t do with the original. I really liked the fact that they kept the mechanic where enemies scale to your level. I wish more games did this instead of making you pick a difficulty level.