Story
We pick up with the "Immune Fab Four" directly after the events of Dead Island. They are on an aircraft carrier on their way to perceived safety when another nefarious plot is dropped right on them. In the mix of everything, the infection spread about the boat forcing it to beach itself; a zombie captain is not well suited for the high seas. Once they survivors come to again, they find themselves on yet another island paradise that has been overrun by the shambling hordes. Can they survive yet another paradise of the dead?
Hated
Let's get the ball rolling with something I was hoping to be fixed this time around, graphic and audio issue. For me they weren't as bad as I found them in the first game, but I still had to sit and wait after the loading screen for textures and audio to kick in for instances. I for one thought that is part of what the loading process was supposed to handle, but not in Riptide's case. For the most part it wasn't too big of annoyance but in certain instances you are thrust into a room that has infected ready to swarm right away without warning. There were quite a few times I found myself being attacked by a brown humanoid blob I couldn't hear coming just because everything wasn't finished loading.
Now I'd give this a pass a bit more if I was playing online, but this seemed to be the issue playing online or completely disconnected from the world. In fact sometimes it would happen by just running around the open world, but this mainly stuck to the audio side of things. Not overly game breaking, but still an issue that should have been ironed out a bit more before going gold.
Another thing that seemed to rub me the wrong way again, and it started from the very beginning of the game, is the fact that most of the NPCs in the world should really be put down. I understand that we are playing a RPG style game, but is greed really that rampant in the human condition that even in crisis you get charged currency to help the group survive? Even after you have saved groups of people, they show their gratitude by letting you buy things from them after you get your mission reward. Why could we not go a more barter system for this? Does that NPC who is malnourished really need $1400 for a baseball bat with nails in it or wouldn't they care more for the 80 snacks and energy drinks I am lugging around?
Loved
This was one of my original gripes in the first Dead Island but the driving this go around was exponentially better in Riptide, even the new boats. It is still essential to get around the island quickly and safely, but I found myself going on a driving rampage everywhere I could get my vehicle. It is easily one of my favorite ways to clear out most of the zombies in an area now. No more are the days of the car getting stuck or jerking around for little to no reason. Vehicles are now one of my favorite weapons in the game.
Speaking on weapons, just as in the last game there was a myriad of weapon combinations; this is the case again and in some cases I found the list a bit better. It seems like such a small thing for a game, but giving me more customization over my weapons then my avatar is a huge plus. Not to mention seeing how they were put together in the 3D model has inspired me to ignore the "don't try at home" warning. A blade surrounded by four blow torches, hells yes. Time to try and not blow myself up. That is just one of amazing combinations and you will be kept busy trying to find all the crazy ways to kill the zombie hordes.
This brings me to my last in the 'loved' list, the killing of zombies. In an industry where the mentality usually ends up "We need to fill some time, throw zombies in," it could easily be seen as another shoveled out zombie game. Somehow though Techland has made the constant waves and roaming zombies fun to slaughter and get out some personal aggression. If you need only one reason to pick up Riptide this could easily be said reason. It was fun the first go around and it still is fun to the point where I enjoyed ignoring the main story just to go on personal rampages.
Overall
At the end of the day, is Riptide worth you money and time? I'd have to say that it completely worth it. Yes it does still carry over a few of the faults from the original title, but there have been some great improvements. There is still room to grow for sure, but Riptide doesn't feel like a sequel just pumped out but it could be its own stand alone title. I fully recommend picking it up and you'll want to not rent it. Even if you aren't into the multiplayer here, it's worth it just to have an updated zombie slaying RPG to pop in whenever you need to kill some zombies.
Dead Island: Riptide was developed by Techland and published by Deep Silver on April 23th, 2013 for PS3, Xbox 360, and PC. A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for reviewing purposes. I carried over my Logan character from Dead Island and played both online and offline.
