Tales of Dead Island: Riptide

Dead Island was the first, most realistic, zombie game to hit the consoles. While this may seem like a saving grace, it did have a lot of issues as well. I personally was getting so tired of the Left 4 Dead series, a handful of survivors going through set scenarios where guns were just laying around. Dead Island brought gamers what they wanted, but with a bit of added disappointment.

Weapons were plenty in Dead Island, but instead of guns the players had to use wooden boards, kitchen
knives or find a bunch of every day materials to mod a weapon. This aspect of the game was absolutely amazing, not to mention the more the weapon was used the more it wore down and eventually broke. The disappointing parts of Dead Island were the shoddy graphics and the cliché story to go along with it, along with a slightly open world that the gamer really had no reason to explore the majority of. Also, skill trees to give a false sense of RPG FPS and only four pre-made characters to pick from. Dead Island sold well enough to have a sequel, Dead Island: Riptide, which is what this review is ultimately about.

Dead Island: Riptide was released in April 2013 for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 developed by Techland and published by Deep Silver. Most sequels bring something new to the table that the original didn't have. Aside from a few new zombies and one new survivor, Riptide didn't bring anything worth while to the table. Don't get me wrong, it's good for a once through but Riptide has zero replay value.

The game picks up directly where Dead Island left off with the four survivors, a native and a prisoner in a helicopter, sounds like the start of a bad joke. The helicopter lands on a ship, which the survivors think is to be their salvation. The army instead detains the player(s) and throws them into a cell so they can experiment on them. In the cell, the four original cast members meet John, the new character, but the native they saved is now gone.

Of course, the game can't possibly end this way or take place completely on a boat so something goes wrong and zombies end up on the boat. The player has to fight their way to the helm, only for the ship to crash and they end up on another island, Palanai. Following the story, the player meets up with other survivors who aren't immune and helps them move through the island, looking for safety and a way off of the island.

The biggest twist in Dead Island: Riptide was that the immune characters, when having been exposed to chemicals, go into a prolonged fury. This mutagen has a negative effect on any of the immune characters, turning them into monsters or worse. The player's character manages to get a grasp on reality and doesn't convert into some insane monster hell bent on killing everything in sight however.

Ultimately, Dead Island: Riptide should have just been released with it's predecessor and made into one game instead of two. Riptide didn't last long, as far as hours go, and seemed to just end abruptly with another bad cliff hanger, leaving the player to wonder what happened.

The graphics remained the same, which while they weren't bad they weren't amazing either for a current gen console. The music remained the same, including some rap “hits” by the character Sam B. The monsters received a massive increase in strength, and the addition of a few new zombies keeps the player on their toes, but not much else. The added mods seemed forced and half done, as there were 5 mods that had the same exact effect on weapons.

I enjoyed my play through of Dead Island: Riptide, but I think the game itself could have been done better. Riptide walks away with a 6/10, and while a part of me hopes for a sequel just to put an end to the series, another part is weary about another Dead Island game. If a sequel emerges from the ashes, hopefully they will change the game enough to make it different and for players to want to play through more than once.