What a baffling game. I’m tempted to just paste my Dead Island review here, as for all intents and purposes this is just more of the same. Unfortunately, “the same” is foundationally flawed, and this standalone expansion of sorts is incapable of fixing the framework it’s built upon. The positive: if you liked Dead Island, it’s safe to say you’ll probably like Riptide, and you can ignore the rest of this review. While it takes a few steps back, there are a couple of neat additions like fully voiced player dialogue and a spattering of new perks to play with. For those that didn’t like Dead Island, read on as I try to make sense of why this thing exists.

As our four heroes – and friendly neighbourhood convict-turned pilot – escape the island, we take a quick pit stop on a naval vessel to refuel. Big bad generic billionaire however is having none of this survival business and throws us in a cell, where we undergo tests to investigate our immunity. The ship titanic’s itself and we end up on the island Palanai where the virus has spread to, and reestablish a point I’ve already made: “more of the same”.

Only, the beautiful backdrop of Hanoi has been replaced with the murky, sludgey, half-uninhabited jungle of Palanai. Visuals are one of Dead Island’s strengths. Bolstered by the Definitive Edition upgrades, the fifteen year old game is a looker, which I believe goes deeper than being screenshot fodder. Despite my misgivings towards the game, I think the tonal juxtaposition between spooky zombies and the idyllic resort in that game gave off a stronger vibe than the gameplay ever did, which did ultimately retain my interest for longer. Bikini clad survivors fleeing atop beachside festival stages and suitcase strewn pools emmenate pure panic. Palanai conversely is more akin to the original game’s Act 3 jungle area, though even less interesting. Its colour palette rarely includes those outside the dark, murky shades. Abundant bogs of dirty green water occupies much of Riptides environments. Algae, moss, and other messy foliage envelops the tatty submerged slums, and where there is colour it usually ends up sticking out like a sore thumb given its scarcity.

My main complaint with Riptide isn’t that is looks like literal dookie of course, though the fact the world we explore is so turgid is definitely part of the reason I couldn’t even muster a full four hours of playtime. Sprinting in Dead Island was never a fun experience (especially without the “essential fix” mod which removes the horrid motion blur) mostly because you have to keep your eyes partly focussed on the stamina bar. WoWhat a baffling game. I’m tempted to just paste my Dead Island review here, as for all intents and purposes this is just more of the same. Unfortunately, “the same” is foundationally flawed, and this standalone expansion of sorts is incapable of fixing the framework it’s built upon. The positive: if you liked Dead Island, it’s safe to say you’ll probably like Riptide, and you can ignore the rest of this review. While it takes a few steps back, there are a couple of neat additions like fully voiced player dialogue and a spattering of new perks to play with. For those that didn’t like Dead Island, read on as I try to make sense of why this thing exists.

As our four heroes – and friendly neighbourhood convict-turned pilot – escape the island, we take a quick pit stop on a naval vessel to refuel. Big bad generic billionaire however is having none of this survival business and throws us in a cell, where we undergo tests to investigate our immunity. The ship titanic’s itself and we end up on the island Palanai where the virus has spread to, and reestablish a point I’ve already made: “more of the same”.

Only, the beautiful backdrop of Hanoi has been replaced with the murky, sludgey, half-uninhabited jungle of Palanai. Visuals are one of Dead Island’s strengths. Bolstered by the Definitive Edition upgrades, the fifteen year old game is a looker, which I believe goes deeper than being screenshot fodder. Despite my misgivings towards the game, I think the tonal juxtaposition between spooky zombies and the idyllic resort in that game gave off a stronger vibe than the gameplay ever did, which did ultimately retain my interest for longer. Bikini clad survivors fleeing atop beachside festival stages and suitcase strewn pools emmenate pure panic. Palanai conversely is more akin to the original game’s Act 3 jungle area, though even less interesting. Its colour palette rarely includes those outside the dark, murky shades. Abundant bogs of dirty green water occupies much of Riptides environments. Algae, moss, and other messy foliage envelops the tatty submerged slums, and where there is colour it usually ends up sticking out like a sore thumb given its scarcity.

My main complaint with Riptide isn’t that is looks like literal dookie of course, though the fact the world we explore is so turgid is definitely part of the reason I couldn’t even muster a full four hours of playtime. Sprinting in Dead Island was never a fun experience (especially without the “essential fix” mod which removes the horrid motion blur) mostly because you have to keep your eyes partly focussed on the stamina bar. Worse in Riptide are the aforementioned pools of water, populating a great deal of Palanai, necessitating a boat to navigate for even short distances, since sprinting through water is, naturally, out of the question. There’s also a weird vertical design choice with much of the island’s architecture. For sure, given the high water level, it makes sense in universe for shacks and slums to exist propped up above eye level, but for a game with an awkward relationship with movement, it makes moving around quite a chore. In a game like oh, I don’t know, Dying Light, this would be a dream, leaping from rooftops, utilising the game’s instant death drop attack etc. But here, Techland’s parkour prowess is still many years in the making.

As for other changes, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. Some notable inclusions come in the form of enemy variety. A new menu entry notes all the types of the undead we fight, with new unique types (which in my experience where just the beefy “thug” zombies) given a little backstory. However, all of my issues with the first game remain issues here, and are perhaps amplified. For one, you can import your character from the first game, which in my case was a level 20 odd Sam B. My heaven-kissed sledgehammer may have been stripped from me, but all my perks and stats are there. One of my primary complaints with Dead Island was its level scaling, which made combat a largely fruitless endeavour, one by the end of the game I ended up ignoring if I could. Riptide is substantially more combat focussed, and while I think Dead Island’s intentionally floaty combat is fine, combined with zombies of ridiculous levels, many encounters last way too long. These special names undead in particular are given so much health I had to just walk away from them, my puny sticks and flimsy hammers incapable of making a dent in their HP. One way in which Riptide puts combat more front and center is through these sort of “defend the area” missions, where undead will swarm you in waves and you, often with the help of NPC’s, hold the line. In theory quite fun, but much like the escort and retrieval missions which still make up the entirety side quests, they tire quickly.

It ends up feeling like for every step forward Dead Island Riptide makes, it has another step back to ensure they stay firmly planted where they began. Playing Riptide immediately after the original doesn’t help my perception either. Already weary of the game’s banal mission structure and shoddy writing, their presence in this pseudo-sequel makes it abundantly apparent how this is simply more of the same. The structural issues are still here, rotting and on the verge of collapse, held together by the same redeeming qualities of the first game. It makes sense then that Techland’s next attempt abandoned the series completely. To echo what I said at the end of my Dead Island review: Just play Dying Light.rse in Riptide are the aforementioned pools of water, populating a great deal of Palanai, necessitating a boat to navigate for even short distances, since sprinting through water is, naturally, out of the question. There’s also a weird vertical design choice with much of the island’s architecture. For sure, given the high water level, it makes sense in universe for shacks and slums to exist propped up above eye level, but for a game with an awkward relationship with movement, it makes moving around quite a chore. In a game like oh, I don’t know, Dying Light, this would be a dream, leaping from rooftops, utilising the game’s instant death drop attack etc. But here, Techland’s parkour prowess is still many years in the making.

As for other changes, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. Some notable inclusions come in the form of enemy variety. A new menu entry notes all the types of the undead we fight, with new unique types (which in my experience where just the beefy “thug” zombies) given a little backstory. However, all of my issues with the first game remain issues here, and are perhaps amplified. For one, you can import your character from the first game, which in my case was a level 20 odd Sam B. My heaven-kissed sledgehammer may have been stripped from me, but all my perks and stats are there. One of my primary complaints with Dead Island was its level scaling, which made combat a largely fruitless endeavour, one by the end of the game I ended up ignoring if I could. Riptide is substantially more combat focussed, and while I think Dead Island’s intentionally floaty combat is fine, combined with zombies of ridiculous levels, many encounters last way too long. These special names undead in particular are given so much health I had to just walk away from them, my puny sticks and flimsy hammers incapable of making a dent in their HP. One way in which Riptide puts combat more front and center is through these sort of “defend the area” missions, where undead will swarm you in waves and you, often with the help of NPC’s, hold the line. In theory quite fun, but much like the escort and retrieval missions which still make up the entirety side quests, they tire quickly.

It ends up feeling like for every step forward Dead Island Riptide makes, it has another step back to ensure they stay firmly planted where they began. Playing Riptide immediately after the original doesn’t help my perception either. Already weary of the game’s banal mission structure and shoddy writing, their presence in this pseudo-sequel makes it abundantly apparent how this is simply more of the same. The structural issues are still here, rotting and on the verge of collapse, held together by the same redeeming qualities of the first game. It makes sense then that Techland’s next attempt abandoned the series completely. To echo what I said at the end of my Dead Island review: Just play Dying Light.