His Review with Ian Abbott
Take one paradise island, administer several drops of the finest zombie mutating agent, let stew for 18 months and there you have it – the plot continuing sequel to Dead Island - Dead Island Riptide.
Currently number one in the UK games chart, with Techland (developer) and Deep Silver / Koch Media (publishers) joining forces again, the plot has all the subtlety and depth of a Luis Suarez trip to the burger freezer in Iceland. The same four immunes (Logan, Sam B, Purna and Xian) from the original game meet newbie John Morgan who makes some outlandish claims against your friendly neighbourhood rent-a-villain Frank Serpo. The immunes are taken into custody on board a prison ship by Serpo and Colonel Sam Hardy, but quelle surprise, zombies have also miraculously managed get on the ship. Serpo flees on a helicopter and Hardy is left with the immunes to evacuate and try to make it to the nearest shoreline. As the sun rained down as I was woken from my slumber by the gently lapping tide, I was greeted by Harlow - a World Health Organisation researcher - who sadly informs me that the outbreak has reached Palanai as well… and so it begins again. For those who didn’t catch our review of Dead – majorly flawed – Island, you can read it here as it will give you a context for how we approached this game.
Forgiving the pre-2006 graphics, textures and environmental detail or the grin inducing, hammy cut scene dialogue combined with repetitive mission design, Dead Island Riptide actually provided me with quite a satisfying, glee inducing body hacking time. The introduction of a new hub defence mode (protecting different bases throughout the game from wave upon wave of zombies), some super looting to enable mass weapon modding (once again my weapon of choice was the electrified machete) and the almost Borderlands 2 like pleasure derived from the four player co-op campaigns (either looking after my fellow immunes or fighting with friends and other drop-ins) was great. As the co-op matched me with people who were at a similar stage of the game or lower than me, there were no story spoilers and it’s good to see this element of the franchise continuing.
It’s also important to recognise that this game is crystal clear about its identity; what it wants to achieve and the encounters a player will have. What I experienced was 22 hours spent on an island that was filled with moments of absolute zombie pandemonium, tramping around on foot, boat and car between the numerous camps, bases and outposts. There were also the calming times foraging for supplies and side quest items. Within the 13 chapters, there was little evolution in terms of the environment, combat, mission design or enemies with original content to sustain my interest in perhaps eight or nine. I think it would have felt a much tighter and cohesive experience had the number of chapters been slashed. The NPCs were also tremendously lazy, offered little active agency and were more like moving statues. I was always instructed to go and fetch/blaze/prepare/destroy something so that everyone else can make it to the next part of the Island, whilst they passively observed. Though all the other immunes are supposedly present and by my side, they are ghostly and silent. Flying solo, the constant mission repetition was quite wearing after four or five chapters.
The diversity of special zombies has increased with the introduction of the Grenadier (who threw chunks of his own rotten flesh at me), the Screamer (who unleashed an ear piercing shriek that briefly immobilised me) and the Wrestler (with a giant club like tumour for an arm that he wielded regularly), all of which took a considerable amount of time, resources and strategy to floor them. Riptide has also introduced a series of optional Dead Zones which were a series of abandoned dwellings, housing a number of Walkers, Infected and Boss zombies with names like Geoffrey “walking carcass” Nape who once destroyed, provided some rare looty items. I basked in the Dead Zones side quests, as although they featured the same physical action of either beheading or limb removal, these spaces were tight and densely packed with foes that left me with little space to manoeuvre thereby creating an extra challenge and a break from the main quests.
Maybe Dead Island Riptide caught me in a forgiving mood, but I believe the game has significantly improved and bettered its original. Sure there were gaping chasms in the visual design, narrative and audio design but there was also an abundance of gore and ample fun when playing co-op plus the chance to personalise my own arsenal before wandering around an island full of zombies wielding my creations at my own leisure. Dead Island Riptide is no medallion of filleted steak which appeals only to video game connoisseurs, but it’s also not the offal of the first venture either. Zombies are always pleased to meet you and they’ll always have meat to please you.
Her Review with Tracey McGarrigan
Logan’s running again! Imported from my original game, winner of the ‘Sexiest Texan 2004’ vote now fully disgraced, ex-NFL star Logan Carter was ready for yet more zombie stomping after ending up shipwrecked on another undead infested tropical island in the South Pacific.
Dead Island Riptide picks up the plot at the exact point where the original Dead Island ended and is almost identical in its aesthetics and atmosphere. Time it would seem is a great healer as the bitter memories of disappointment and frustration that lingered upon leaving the golden sanded, turquoise pooled location of the first game, have thawed slightly and become fuzzy. The hammy dialogue, grainy handheld camera cut scenes, repetitive missions and predictably foes continue to be present and accounted for but perhaps my venturing out with the lowest of low expectations resulted in discovering some surprising moments where I found I was enjoying myself…
After an intense opening that offered up a very different scenario to the stumbling bikini clad boobs-on-legs or the brutish-tubby-thug enemy encounters in the holiday resort, mohawked Logan and his motley, immune crew awoke (simultaneously, despite being medically probed at different times – never forget where the expectation bar is set here) on a massive military vessel whose captain and crew have fallen foul of the still mysterious zombie outbreak. Of course there were glitches from the start; dead limbs were unaffected as sliding doors ran through them and the music completely disappeared whenever I went in the mess hall but clanging through the confines of the floating prison where unnerving gargles or whines from unknown threats lurked in the confines of the dark, narrow corridors (similar to the awesome Resident Evil: Revelations which coming soon to the Wii U) finally installed some true horror into the franchise. It served as a reminder that even though the egotistical ball bag Logan had the opportunity to quickly amass a large collection of industrial and military weapons, all would be useless if the boat sank in the middle of the raging sea. Immediately, I felt a different connection to the characters and their situation. Turns out the boat did sink and the troop all survived but I was already in suspended belief mode and brief ship section was good whilst it lasted.
Now to the palm tree lined beaches and shanty beach huts; cue the hacking, slashing, stomping and (as it’s my speciality) throwing – I preferred to keep a distance between me and those that want to nibble on my fleshy bits. Armed with a feeble police baton and a pair of bloody trainers, the familiar pattern of raiding wicker baskets and rooting through the Bermuda short pockets of the fallen for DIY items like duct tape, nails and batteries soon set in. The same linear restrictions on how to complete missions was also in place so I didn’t bother exploring (Sorry Mr Survivor who needed petrol that HAD to be from a specific garage that I HAD previously visited but couldn’t interact with at that time, or the lady who promised me a good home cooked meal if I could seek out supplies, which happened to be a specific can hidden under a car and not from the un-interactable 24 pack of tinned spam I came across in an abandoned bungalow; you’ll both just have to want). Thankfully, there were also Team Quests that allowed me to trade in some items I’d pick up along the way in exchange for special weapons which went someway to restoring a balance. The plot was still as flimsy as a bamboo boat oar and the hacking slashing action remained crude and raw in places but none of this is to say that Riptide is as bad as its predecessor.
The hub defense missions that Ian mentioned were no more than erecting, maintaining or throwing wire fences against hoards of the infected as they attacked, however, protecting a large group of companions was more exciting, satisfying and rewarding than rescuing pathetic guys marooned on top of caravans that I’ve seen easily flip over in a gust of wind on the M3 but here couldn’t be toppled over by an enraged gang of Zombie thugs. Those I failed to liberate I saw suffer in the closing scenes and the entire game was a violent bloodfest. In fact, many parts of Dead Island Riptide were more sadistic than I remembered. Bloated corpses were shredded and carved up as I powered a small boat over them whilst the undead piled up during the bonus dark shed scraps as limbs were frantically butchered with my modified melee weapon of choice, a spiked staff. Logan revelled in knocking back attackers with a hard kick before removing their heads with a couple of power stomps, swearing triumphantly. I had to have eyes on the floor in order to find the sweet soft spot to carry out his special move and there was no escaping the impressive spray of blood that followed. He’s immune and arrogantly celebrating his regained status, regardless of how it’s been obtained. These are no longer poor holiday makers in the wrong place at the wrong time but are simply lumps of consistently threatening disease to plough through and exterminate so the emotional attachment is null and void. With the addition of acid-spitters acid and suicide exploders, it’s brutal and numbing but stays perfectly true to the human mutation idea without straying into Bio-organic crazy lizard ceiling creepers seen in other zombie sequels.
Turning a blind eye to its faults, it’s easier to see what Dead Island Riptide is trying to achieve. With a superb original soundtrack by Pawel Blaszczak, a better balance of bright beach and dark hut confrontations plus a relentless supply of human related flesh to annihilate, Riptide has come closer to delivering a gritty hack and slash zombie gore fest without pretending or promising to be the poignant, cinematic and unique experience many expected from the first outing. Rip up the book of expectations, grab a knife and ride the waves.
Dead Island Riptide is out now for PS3, X360 and PC.
Not had your zombie fill this week? Check out the compelling apocalyptic viral outbreak movie Dead Weight at the festival!