It has been said throughout time that “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Apparently, the developmental minds at Deep Silver took this a bit too literally with their release of “Dead Island: Riptide,” the sequel to 2011’s “Dead Island.”
Although officially labeled a sequel, “Riptide” is almost a complete copy of its predecessor, as the game features the same characters, gameplay mechanics and unfortunately the same bugs and mistakes from the first.
Players take control over the same heroes from the first game: one-hit-wonder rapper Sam B., hotel receptionist Xian Mei, former football star Logan, ex-cop Purna and soldier John Morgan, another immune survivor and new playable character. Each character has their own special abilities, allowing players to adjust their characters’ skill trees to their liking.
Having escaped the zombie outbreak on Banoi, the survivors find themselves landing aboard a military ship. After the ship is struck by the zombie plague and thus getting sunk amidst the chaos, the survivors find themselves washed ashore on the island of Palanai, which too has fallen victim to the plague. Joined by numerous allies, the survivors look to once again escape the nightmare that is the zombie virus.
However, the zombie virus isn’t the only nightmare that infects this game. Armed with many of the same bugs and glitches from its predecessor- including rendering problems, inconsistent gameplay mechanics and lazy character animations- “Riptide” is literally a chip of the chip off the old block. Storyline syncing issues between co-op players online and the game occasionally freezing are just a few of these issues.
Despite the multitude of problems the game has, “Riptide” is most similar to its predecessor in the way that it’s unbelievably fun. With an open world complete with all-new areas to discover, players are subject to hours upon hours of gameplay, giving the game serious replay value- as if its $50 dollar price tag didn’t save you enough money. Players have a vast arsenal for zombie-extermination- from bats and crowbars to sniper rifles and rocket launchers, zombies have never been in such a world of hurt.
Like the installment before it, “Riptide” has 99 problems… but amazingly enough, these issues hardly take anything away from how addictively fun the game is. The storyline isn’t great, the gameplay can be choppy and clunky at times and you’re pretty much paying $50 for a copy of its predecessor, but one thing proves to be true: going ham on zombies is fun but it’s even more fun with friends.
Rating: 3/5