[Previously on DEAD ISLAND]
It’s been a rocky few years for the burgeoning Dead Island franchise. The critically panned original got off to a rough start, first with a botched PC release that saw a pre-build version make its way to Steam, then later, a Game of the Year Edition that manifested despite the lack of reviews proclaiming Dead Island as GOTY material, earning criticism from community.
Nonetheless a sequel was greenlit, and was released today on Xbox 360 and PC. How does it measure up? Does it fix the mistakes of its predecessor and improve on the formula, or repeat the errors of its past?
Dead Island: Riptide is a first person melee-based zombie masher set in the lush jungles and glittering beaches of the South Pacific. Players club, kick, and stomp their way through hordes of undead infected by a local plague that has swept through the dense tropical brush and left few survivors, among them a ragtag group of four who comprise the game’s cast. When we last saw them, the Immune were leaving Banoi on a freighter bound for Australia after a dramatic rescue by the military. Within minutes of the sequel’s opening, they soon discover the treachery of their rescuers’ intentions, and after a violent storm are washed ashore on the island of Palanai. From there, Purna, Logan, Xian Mei, Sam B and newcomer John Morgan trek through the infested paradise once again in search of answers, an antidote, and above all, escape. Along the way they meet new friends and foes, including Harlow, a cunning young woman with motivations of her own and soldier Sam Hardy who leads them in a chase for a cure that culminates in a desperate attempt to break free of their island prison once and for all.
Dead Island: Riptide‘s gameplay consists largely of melee combat, with a constant rotation of weapons that are enhanced and improved with the use of mods. Players wind through steep jungle paths, tiny cobblestone streets, and a flooded forest bog while balancing their combat with frequent weapon upgrades and repairs. As experience is gained and levels earned, points are invested into a skill tree that adds bonuses in the categories of Survival, Combat, and Fury, the latter referring to a powerful special attack the character earns after killing a number of zombies.
Fans of the original will find that money and health packs, both hard to come by in Dead Island, are refreshingly plentiful in Riptide. The Stomp move, an automated combat sequence that separates the zombie head from the body and grants an automatic kill, makes a return. With it comes a new move that allows the player to descend on a zombie from above and execute it in a single punch, and another that allows them to charge mid-run. Both add to the highly satisfying undead slaying experience that made Dead Island so fun.
Riptide introduces boat-based navigation to the series, allowing the player to travel by water to the many villages now abandoned in the wake of the outbreak. It also features a shift towards environment-based defense tactics. With each new settlement reached and established as a temporary base, the heroes resort to use of chain link fencing and turrets to hold off waves of undead. Missions revolve largely around the problems one expects to find in a zombie apocalpse, from finding shelter and supplies to pursuing an antidote for the infection. NPC specific quests, another new feature, can be accessed from the menu. There are also some new special zombie types: the hulking Wrestler, the paralyzing Screamer, the meat throwing Grenadier, and a water specific specimen known the Drowner.
And amid the various enhancements is an added weather system that allows for monsoons, a somber but welcome contrast to the game’s vivid tropical beauty. Truly among Dead Island‘s most impressive features is the stunning Chrome Engine 5. It mimicks the look and feel of natural sunlight well and impeccably renders water effects, particularly the appearance of a muddy swamp, and the surface of a pool during heavy rain.
Unfortunately, while these changes do make for an improved gameplay experience, they fail to redeem Riptide as a whole. The chaotic but addictive combat is constantly marred by clumsy narrative and frequent bugs. Save for a remarkably improved plotline, the game’s writing is plagued by poor character development and shallow dialogue. The opening sequence is cheesy catch-up montage made up of reused footage from the first game. Much of the first half comprised of lame item fetch missions, which are often awkwardly delivered and consist of confusing, unclear objectives. What story can be plucked from NPC monologues is often obscured by chaotic, overlapping audio from one of the other nearby characters. The mission delivery system, once a charming blood-spattered notebook page, is now reduced to the sterile, clunky, and unappealing format used for the game’s menu. Selecting a weapon and organizing the load list is as tedious and time consuming as ever.
The weather effects, while a beautiful addition, can be described as “comedically erratic”. I descended a flight of stairs on one occasion to find that the minute I hit the last step, the full sunlight turned to a violent downpour, with no warning.
Navigating the island is a nightmare, as paths take no instinctual course. The on-screen mini map shows icons but no roads or trails, making the journey something of a blind grope. The map does not inspire frequent use, but doing so becomes a necessity, at times even for 50 yard bursts. Exploration is allowed, but not necessarily encouraged; quest items cannot be picked up for use later, so visiting locations that will likely serve as part of a side mission later becomes a pointless task. They will also disappear from the inventory if the game is exited and thus, some missions have to be restarted if they are not completed within a session. The boats do not always respawn in their original locations (whereas automobiles can always be found in the same spot), an inconsistency that cost me a few hours of gameplay. Voice acting is still a mixed bag of decent performances and moments that clearly could have benefited from a second take. At times, the actors seemed to not understand what was going on in the scene. In many ways this mirrors the AI of the zombies, whose glitchy responses to the survivors can vary from delayed to none at all.
While the new zombie types are refreshing, they still rely somewhat on already-established tropes. The Screamer, for instance, is feminine in appearance and is characterized by a banshee-like yell, in parallel to the Witch from Left 4 Dead. The main story is plagued somewhat by genre cliches (though they do manage to add suspense with a subplot involving the mutagens and the Immune). The game’s challenges, seemingly ripped off of Borderlands, come with alerts that are distracting in their frequency. They also added little to the experience.
Bugs are a problem as well. An audio glitch near the end of the game sent shrill electronic shrieks through my speakers and I had to restart the game. Items still easily fall through floors or into unaccessible areas, making thrown weapons (a great strategy if you’re willing to take the risk) seem useless. An NPC in one area got “caught” in a desk and trembled violently until the characters left the area. As if all that weren’t enough, the game also crashed at least three times in 20 hours total on my PC. I encountered this problem when playing the original, despite having a pretty solid rig. The only solution I found was to turn off my firewall, a step that for obvious reasons I’d rather not take.
Oh, and your save file still can’t be revisited or saved after a certain point in the end quest. On the plus side, there seem to be multiple endings based on the completion of side quests.
Ultimately, the game feels less like a sequel and more like an expensive DLC pack. If you’re a Dead Island fan looking for more of the same, by all means purchase Riptide; you will enjoy having more of the addictive gameplay, inventive modded weapons, and zombie curb stomping. At a moderate $40, you won’t be taking a huge financial risk. However if you were expecting for Dead Island to move beyond the cliches and imperfections to produce a solid well polished AAA title, don’t hold your breath.
Final Verdict
Dead Island: Riptide: 6 out of 10
Dead Island: Riptide was developed by Techland and published by Deep Silver. It was released on April 23, 2013 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC in North America, at the MSRP of $49.99 on console editions, and $39.99 on PC. A copy was provided by the publisher for the purposes of review.
