As with the original Dead Island (talked about here) it’s been best to tell everyone about it… a little while after release or otherwise your game might explode in your console killing everyone within a 3 mile radius.

However, now I’ve had some quality time spent on the strictly non-sequel, sequel to Techland and Deep Silvers 2011 smash hit Dead Island I can safely say that zombies and ragdoll physics have returned amongst the Banoi archipelago.

Dead Island Riptide sets off where the original ended … spoilers: You had just saved the world. Purna will update on all this, cheers.

… Then before you know it you are on a helicopter traveling to the world you saved, you stop off on a boat, the newly crowned evil man in a suit “Serpo” locks you away… but you escape, probably because you’re playing as Sam B, because “Yo”. The boat is over-run… hawt diggidy. It then crashes upon your new haven.

Stuff happens in a jungle, then in a tunnel, then in a town before so much drama happens and then you’re on a new island… before CREDITS! … Sound similar at all?

But the story never was the strongest part of Dead Islands repertoire… however, it was slightly better in the original.  In Riptide it was filled with one… two… maybe three too many backstabbing “Oh gosh!” moments, where it got to the point that unless I had known the character from the first game I had no intention of liking them. Which kind of sets a tone for a zombie apocalypse, but in a game where you end up liking a named NPC hidden in a shack that does nothing all game more than any of your main NPC party… Because ‘Alec’ would never do anything would he? It seems a bit of a wasted opportunity.

And nothing he does.

Here we see new survivor “John Morgan” being as useful as his name suggests

But that’s not the only problem in terms of solidifying the game environment and getting you to really feel immersed, despite how overused that term is in video games. The weather system on this new island… is interesting to say the least. Some extreme local weather patterns is putting it lightly, whilst you don’t notice it at first and you think it’s cool that all of a sudden it’s monsoon weather at one point, then beautiful sunny weather the next, after spending 10 hours on the first few chapters going back and forth between areas it starts to get to you how each area has a pre-determined weather setting.

Invisible walls have also carried over from the original, maybe not quite as bad as the fat black texture marking a no-go tunnel, but your Ray Mears film starring sports drop out Logan can still be affected by the powers of an unknown force cutting your exploration at its peak.

Thankfully though, there aren’t as many graphical issues as the first game, there are still plenty of lighting issues, and particle defects, but no infamous bridge cutscene universe melt this time round, and the characters eyes tend to stay in their heads a little more, so well done you Techland.

As well as that, the majority of the audio is brought over as well, and whether they did something to it, or my speakers upgraded, they sound a lot more refined, and in certain areas a lot more spooky. Even Sam B’s quest acceptance “Yup” and other grunts beginning with “Y” sounds even more sarcastic… astonishing.

The music, whilst subtle… is still beautifully fitting, and ‘Who Do You Voodoo’ even makes its cameos.

Expect to be hopping through plenty of doors in Henderson, and yes with this much drama

This brings me onto the graphics side of things. In a world that Riptide sets, you need a nice vibrant mix, which it recycles… takes inspiration from the original brilliantly. It’s hard to tell the games apart at first, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, Riptide looks slightly dated now, and there are some points where the frame rate almost slaps itself into reverse, but there is still that wonderful mix of beautiful views, some gorgeous textures, some innovative design… but also some places are just a mix of horribly textured walls, fences and slow loading doors.

They saved some production budget on cutscenes which I’m yet to see where that extra money went… probably into a CGI trailer nowhere near as good as the original. #DemFeels

As previously eluded to, the areas you go from are worryingly similar to Dead Island, but with many more dedicated areas that require a loading screen… for some reason I’m also yet to figure out. However, the tunnel area is a lot less of a hassle (despite how much I actually enjoyed them) than the sewers everyone despised almost 2 years ago.

But that’s not the only place they seem to have listened to the fans, the main town (Henderson) is also a lot more interesting to explore than Moresby, and the starting location is a nice mix of old reassurance that you’re playing Dead Island, yet a new sensation of swampy jungles and floating towns.

Whilst they are smaller areas than the original, there are still plenty of secrets / side quests and genuine fun to be had exploring them, even the dead zones which are one of the new additions to Riptide.

These are the separate locations I talked about earlier… or at least some of them are. They require you to enter them and kill a boss inside (which is a special infected with a unique name… like “Frank” or something) and obtain some rare crafting items as well. I love the idea, just the execution wasn’t done right.

Having to load separately into the majority of them halted the flow of the game, and sometimes you’d spawn slap onto a Butcher in the jungle dead zones. Which is exciting granted, but not for the right reasons.

In these lands you’ll also find the boats that were hyped up during release of the game, and yes they are fun to captain about, but are a tad glitch ridden and in multiplayer seeing everyone kneeling down like its story time in front of you kills the mood immediately.

But the boat and dead zones aren’t the only new additions, there is a new character to play as, John  Morgan who unfortunately isn’t as interesting as any of the other characters and his prowess is unarmed combat, so we’ll not talk him much. There are also some new weapons floating about, plus some older classics return… it’s just a shame some of the mods on these weapons have been overlooked and adding barbed wire and nails to a golf club suddenly turn it into a cloth rag… or some other non-descript modification that most certainly isn’t a bat with a nail in it.

The ‘Available from the start Fury’ mechanic is formally introduced halfway through the game… wut?

There are also some new mission ‘types’ which are incredibly fun and can be challenging … if your controller fell out the window. Otherwise it’s a case of continuing the tried and tested tradition of rotating the analogue sticks (if you’re using analogue controls, like you should be) just this time you need to protect your fellow NPCs, which adds a whole new perspective to choosing your blood filled sack of whack.

But this is even better in single player, where they have refined a bit more and you get to help Purna, Logan, John and Xian (Because you’re playing as Sam B right) with their own special quests along with the team quests the rest of the NPCs you can take, by collecting the rarer blue scraps in exchange for exploding meat. In doing so, you get a smug smile on your face, and their weapons are upgraded, from shovel, to super shovel… and the like.

And with these weapons, you need stuff to use them on right? Thankfully Techland have ripped off taken inspiration from all other aspects of zombie/mutant hybrids and crafted some more wonderful specials for you to take on… (All of which, even the unique named dead zone zombies get put into a fancy little notebook, even if I don’t agree with the majority of the toughness ratings). These range from burning versions of your standard walkers and infected, to Davy Jones versions, all the way up to the Charger Wrestler, Grenadier and my personal favourite, whilst at the same time least favourite the Screamer. Paralyzing in a game like Riptide is both hilariously brilliant and deceptively deadly.

The rest of the game it would come as expected. You follow a … plot of sorts whereby you need to obtain item X from location Y to make object Z work, so you can progress to the next location, just add in some rather angry humanoids who misplaced the TV remote inside your spleen and desperately need to change the channel amongst some leaves and you’ve got the game. It comes with the standard brilliant, if still slightly broken analogue controls everyone has come to know and either hate or love, plenty of hours of co-op gameplay, it took me 25 hours to rack through my first play through (I admit, a good 25% was screen transitions). There are also ladders to climb up to avoid the dead, but now some vines and rocks… which, seem like more wasted development time, the slightly lost in translation help tips in said screen transitions make a return, with the same menu system and inventory/map/quest screens.

This might all sound a tad bad for Riptide, but once you’ve gotten over the horrendous spawns of some zombies, the bad attempt at helping you with finding quest items with a green circle on the map, still not getting rid of the big fat red skulls telling you where zombies are , some interesting Mario-esque platforming sections, the XMB photos still letting you take sweet screenshots of the start menu, zombies can no longer drown, likewise you will drown a lot more and the majority of the above you are still left with… with the exception of the original Dead Island, the most brutally fun game this generation.

Be it with friends, or on your own, as it is slightly more refined now, you are guaranteed to waste hours mutilating corpses and electrocuting them so you can kick them down the stairs and watch your friends get hit with the aftermath of your twin stick twiggling madness.

Modifications still make no sense, but still provide quite a ‘punch’ pftpftpfptft…

As long as you don’t attempt to use the new jump off of high place to deliver world ending knee smash to zombies head in a low place… move ability, as I’m not even sure the developers knew what they wanted with this… all I ended up doing was somehow obliterating one zombie with it before sliding paralyzed into a group of his bestest buddies who didn’t seem that happy about the hay-maker I delivered to his rotting carcass. Then you will be able to enjoy yourself with the simplicity of painting the town red… Literally.

There may not seem like much of a “What are the basics of the game here” in this article… but that is simply put, because the game is SO similar to Dead Island that it’s hard to pick apart the bare bones of it without just repeating myself, and this whilst being its major strength, is also its biggest downfall.

Does it deserve a place in my heart, and my bed like the original game… I don’t know. It’s an experience I know I will play through again… I already am, but just how much am I enjoying it because it’s Dead Island… not Dead Island Riptide? But, with being able to port your save data over to Riptide, you can carry on at level 60 with everything at a respective level as well from the original game, so it really is just like continuing the game.

That leaves the score. Be it the most subjective score I have given a game I have enjoyed so much, despite its flaws, it carries on the legacy of video games and how they can actually be nothing but fun.

 

76/100

 

 The Grenadier isn’t that happy with the score it seems

 

…Oh, they now have a use for the flashlight!

 

79/100

 

And now we wait to see what either is next for Dead Island… or look ahead to see what Techland can do with the PlayStation 4s Dying Light game.