Dead Island Riptide - Xbox 360

Zombie-Killing Bliss With Some Rough Edges

2013-04-22T07:00:00Z

Some of this generation’s most beloved open-world games are riddled with bugs. Even the truest fans of Skyrim, Fallout: New Vegas, and Assassin’s Creed III must concede their lack of polish. Deep Silver’s 2011 hit, Dead Island, also falls into this camp. The sequel, Dead Island Riptide, suffers the same affliction. The changes to its zombie-slaying formula improve the action, but this follow-up also comes with more issues than the original.

For better and worse, Riptide plays almost exactly like its flawed-but-fun predecessor. The melee-centric gameplay is still weighty and satisfying. Landing deliberate blows on a zombie’s head or limbs feels great, especially when you break an arm or lop off a head. Dead Island’s undead are just threatening enough to keep you on your toes without ever becoming too frustrating. I love watching damage points tick away above enemies’ heads as I dismantle them. Leveling up and progressing through each character’s skill trees is addicting. Teaming up with three friends makes slaughtering the hordes of shambling dead even better. No matter how seasoned your teammates are, all players see enemies scaled to their level, removing the headache from matchmaking.

Importing your survivor

Players can import characters from the first Dead Island – whether you beat the game with them or not -– as long it’s on the same profile. These characters transfer over with nothing but their previous skills and level. This is great for dedicated players who maxed out their Dead Island characters, and there are even a few new skills to learn. If you’re starting fresh in Riptide or your previous character is fairly low-level, you can start a new character with 15 skill points free to allocate how you see fit.

After Riptide was announced, some confusion spread over whether the game was a true follow-up or an expansion. Riptide is indeed its own standalone sequel to the original Dead Island. The survivors of the Banoi Island incident end up on another island in the same archipelago riddled with zombies. The story is still crudely delivered through in-engine cinematics that make the bottom-barrel horror films on Netflix look like works of genius. Thankfully, Riptide’s narrative mostly stays out of your way, allowing you to focus on the joy of slaying zombies.

Between the multiple characters and bountiful side quests, Riptide packs hours of entertainment. New elements make battling the resurrected dead more intense. Boating through a flooded jungle while your teammates beat back waterlogged zombies is thrilling. The new hand-to-hand specialist character is the most enjoyable of the bunch, with punishing claws and a sprinting kick that sends zombies flying. Defense scenarios are an engaging change from the series’ bread-and-butter fetch quests, requiring you to place barricades or man turrets as zombies rush the fortifications.

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Despite the additions, Riptide suffers from the same bugs and blemishes as the first game – and then some. Enemy behavior is erratic, but not in a purposefully scary way. Zombies spend minutes tearing at a barricade, only to wander away the moment it falls. Foes phase through obstacles, glide up walls, and land hits from improbable distances. The mini-map is geographically barren, and objective pathways flicker on and off, requiring you to frequently pull up the full map. Even worse, your treasured and customized weapons can inexplicably disappear from your inventory – a rare but frustrating problem.

The Edge

I found distracting bugs in all the versions of the game, but playing Riptide on our high-end gaming PC results in a smoother framerate and improved visuals

Riptide’s framerate is worse than its predecessor. Things slow to a crawl when the action heats up, especially after tossing an explosive near a large group of zombies. One strange bug occurred when an online teammate left the game, sucking the remaining three players into a choppy vortex of looping deaths that only stopped after resetting. These issues may sound insurmountable, but the game’s highs still compensate for most of the embarrassing lows.

Riptide’s flaws are many, but they couldn’t hold me back from having a blast. Few games nail the visceral feel of melee combat and co-op fun like Dead Island. At its worst, an annoying hiccup breaks the immersion of the grizzly trek through a zombie-infested paradise. At its best, Riptide hits the same high notes as the original.

Trailer Shows The Worst Is Yet To Come For Dead Island's Survivors

2013-03-21T14:00:00Z

If there's one thing that consuming countless hours of zombie-themed entertainment has taught us, it's that there's no such thing as a simple rescue. Even if your saviors are armed to the gills and have access to an impenetrable fortress, social collapse (or slate-wiping nukes) is just around the corner.

The latest trailer for Dead Island: Riptide is a perfect example of how things fall apart. If the flesh-eating ghouls don't get you, the government will. The clip's also a showcase for some of the new themes and gameplay elements, such as the increased importance put on water and boating. You aren't trying to bring a trophy back to your yachting club, though – you're just trying to band together with your allies to get off this horrible island once and for all. We'll see how that works out.

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For more information on the game, check out our video interview with Dead Island: Riptide's producer, Sebastian Reichert.

The game is due on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC on April 23.

New Dead Island: Riptide Screens Feature Zombies, Violence

2012-11-30T03:15:00Z

I'm beginning to think that the sequel to Deep Silver's Dead Island might be gunning for an M rating. But judge for yourself with these new screens.

Dead Island: Riptide is developed by Techland and is slated to release for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC on April 23, 2013. For more on the game, check out our exclusive video interview with the game's producer Sebastian Reichert.

Details On The New Character And Town

2012-11-02T18:30:00Z

If you read issue 235 of Game Informer, then you learned about Dead Island: Riptide's introduction of new playable character John Morgan and the new city of Henderson. For those not in the know, here's a quick rundown on the melee-focused fighter and swanky resort town.

John Morgan (above)

He's the most prepared out of the bunch for a zombie apocalypse. John had aspirations of joining the Navy, but a series of unfortunate events landed him a job as a cook on a ship stationed near the archipelagos where the zombie outbreak hit.
John is skilled in unarmed martial arts, having trained himself when he wasn't busy cooking for his crew mates. He finally gets to put these skills to use when the zombie outbreak effectively dissembles his navy crew.
He represents an entirely new class, complete with his own skill tree and attacks.
Deep Silver was inspired to implement a melee fighter by a fan video named Fist of the Deadstar.

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Henderson

A different island than the original Dead Island's Banoi, but it's in the same archipelagos. Banoi was a slummy city surrounded by resort beaches perfect for rambunctious college kids on spring break. Henderson is a luxury town for the wealthy themed after Mediterranean port towns. It's a much more beautiful vacation destination than the sleazy Banoi.
Dynamic weather can rock Henderson at anytime. Blinding sheets of rain obscure lurking zombies and turn the city's low ground into a water-logged hell. Undead lie in wait underwater, making water a hazard in Riptide.
An enhanced vertical element makes climbing to the tops of Henderson's buildings easier. You can also duck into buildings like movie theaters without load screens.
Where Banoi was mostly crowded streets and narrow alleyways, Henderson will have more wide-open plazas to mix up environmental variety. Deep Silver also plans to implement more landmarks to make Henderson less repetitive than Banoi.
Henderson isn't the only location; Riptide will have other environments like jungles, flooded rivers, and more to explore.

Dead Island: Riptide hits PS3, 360, and PC April 23, 2013.

For more on Dead Island: Riptide check our hub for our Five Under the Radar Games Worth Watching

Another Gorgeous, Depressing CG Trailer

2012-09-18T17:25:00Z

The first Dead Island wowed zombie fans with its sad and unconventional CG trailer. Publisher Deep Silver and developer Techland are back to build hype the same way for the brand new, full retail sequel Dead Island: Riptide. In addition to the new trailer, we now know a fifth character will be joining the returning cast.

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Dead Island: Riptide takes place on another island in the same archipelago as the original Dead Island. The game features a renewed focus on co-op, allowing players to team up regardless of level. Four players will team up to defend safehouses against waves of zombies during the campaign, delivering Horde mode-like chaos. Details are scarce on the new fifth character, but Deep Silver says he'll have a unique skill set.

Dead Island: Riptide hits 360, PS3, and PC in 2013.

Dead Island Riptide Screens Shamble Out of PAX

2012-08-31T17:28:00Z

As part of Dead Island Riptide's appearance at PAX 2012, a handful have new screens have been made available.

We still don't know a whole lot about the game, but we did write up what we would like to see in the game. Dead Island Riptide is due next year.