Dead Island Riptide

By: Robert Murphy

We return once again to the zombie killing universe with “Dead Island Riptide”, a direct sequel to “Dead Island” and picks right up where players left on in the story after our four characters had escaped the former island paradise infested with the undead. The game features much of the same elements that the original game did with plenty of zombie dismemberment to enjoy but also features a new playable character that is picked up in the story along with new enemy zombie types and ability to drive boats which comes in handy in the new swamp like environment. Yes we’re definitely not on the pleasant or rather formerly pleasant island paradise and are deep in the jungles of Palanai in the South Pacific after the ship our players land on runs aground.

 Cue I’m on a Boat tunes

As I said before the story picks up right where we all left off in the last game and highly enjoyable aspect to the gameplay was that players who played the previous game can load their old characters and start right where they left up and continue to level up their characters even further. Continuing from there we begin to follow the same lines as the old “Dead Island” which is loot the island and corpses, upgrade your weapons and level up your character by chopping the limbs off anything that stands in your way. The story itself is pretty unnecessary, as it was with the previous game, it was there but eh did it really matter to anybody else? Well if it did I apologize to those of you who followed along with the highly intellectual story telling of how mad scientist living in the jungle behind and island resort caused a zombie outbreak, that ones on me. Essentially though you are once again just trying to survive another island of zombies and looking for a way to escape without becoming and all you can eat buffet for the waves of hungry flesh eaters.

 Say hello to John Morgan, our new playable character

Once again players can jump on into the franchises gameplay with their friends in four player co-op with all the character from the original game along with our new addition to the game John Morgan, who is the cook on the ship that you land on. However, John isn’t an ordinary cook; he is in fact quite a gifted fighter/boxer type character who like the other characters in the game has an ability that accents his fighting skills. Like before players can activate a powerful attack once their meter fills from killing zombies and John’s is pretty funny, allowing him to get up close and personal to enemies and be them down. An enjoyable feature to the game is that when you do play with your friends and you choose to start over with a new character or your friends do, enemies in the game are set to your characters level not the level of the host of the game session which means if you are a level 15 and your friend is a level 50, you will face level 15 and 16 enemies and not level 50 enemies. Speaking of enemies, I believe I told you all that there are new zombies out there to contend with? Well I wasn’t lying; the game features the same unique zombie types as before but with two new additions to the fray, the screamer whose yell freezes players in place and the drowner who plays dead in the water waiting to attack you on foot or in a boat. Also in the regards to unique zombie types, “Riptide” features new Dead Zone areas with named bosses to fight against if you are up for the challenge that is.

 Is it dead? Or just playing dead? O.o

Now the game isn’t without its faults and being very similar to its predecessor is a double edged sword because with all the original “Dead Island’s” success’s comes with its problems as well. One problem is the fact that the graphics in the game tend to pop in and out, one moment you are walking along and things are crisp and clean and then next you could be looking at blurred surroundings. Outside of this the “Riptide” plays very much like you’d expect “Dead Island” to play, you search the island going through main story missions and picking up hundreds of side missions along the way from scared survivors who are doing what they can to stay alive. It would have been nice to see something new done though with the game, either create a more grabbing story or a new setting outside an island type area, I don’t know something. But again all the original enjoyable moments and themes that players like myself loved from the original game all return, the same gory dismemberment is still a lot of fun and the ability for you and your friends to join in on the zombie slaying just makes for some downright bloody fun.

Good:

-The zombie dismembering joy is back for more

-Carrying over your old character to continue leveling is a great feature that I’m glad was included

-Plenty of new features, zombie types and areas to explore

Bad:

-The main story falls flat once again

-The graphics still need some work

-A change of scenery would have been nice

Scully Rating: 7.5 out of 10