You and your trusty crew of immune-infecteds make it off of that horrific, zombie-infested island only to end up... on another island! Yay! Looks like you're stuck here until you find a way out. Again!
1. Gameplay
Dead Island was an interesting idea with an amazing trailer. The concept was cool but the execution left me wanting something more… refined. It wasn’t a horrible game, and at times it was pretty awesome, but there were some design elements that I really thought could have used an extra month or two of polish. Dead Island: Riptide is exactly the same as its predecessor, except with more boats. Water combat and boats were two of the things that Dead Island needed to refine. In a game where you constantly fight neverending waves of enemies, situations where the player was mired in knee-deep water were brutally punishing. Getting into a boat, especially when the player was panicked, was a chore. And, unfortunately, it still is. On the other hand, there were certain elements that made the game too easy that made it back as well. Eventually, once I reached about the middle of the game, I picked up a few heavy axes and fully upgraded them with shock damage and a few other effects. If enemies were approaching me, regardless of what type they were, I would throw the axes into them. Almost all enemy types would be killed, and the few that weren’t would stumble, giving me more than enough time to equip another axe and send it flying. Here’s the annoying bit, my character was built for firearm-based combat. I was a gun expert throwing around axes and swords because I couldn’t get any real ranged weapons until well after halfway through the game. My only ranged weapon in the first half of the game was a nailgun, which was pretty awesome, but I felt like my character’s abilities were completely underutilized. And once I did get ahold of guns, what was the point? My axes were ranged, did more damage, had full stopping power, and could be used to quickly dispatch whole hordes of enemies with a few swings. I did use firearms somewhat regularly toward the end of the game, but they were always secondary to my axes. The reason why I specifically bring this up is because this was the same way I ended up playing the first Dead Island. Nothing has changed in Riptide. If you liked Dead Island, you’ll probably like this. But frankly, I was quickly pushed to the “boredom” side of the spectrum. New games, even those within the same series, are an opportunity for the developers to stretch their brains and come up with something fresh and interesting. It’s a time to take some risks and see what pays off. Nothing drastic, just enough to see if there’s a new direction that future games can take. I saw none of that here. I saw a quick and dirty grab at a few extra sales. There wasn’t anything experimental or innovative. There weren’t even noticeable improvements made to the core mechanics. Dead Island: Riptide comes across as passable but overall a lazy attempt at a sequel / expansion pack (I still can’t really tell what this was trying to be).
Dead Island: Riptide lasted me around 18 hours, which is pretty good all things considered. But I made sure to complete almost every mission in the entire game. I found all the loot, grabbed all the items, and killed all the bosses. I have very little desire to go back and replay this game.
Most of what I want to put in this section would just end up rehashing what I said in the “overall fun” section. However, I want to reiterate one thing just to be clear. If a game includes a character whose specialization is “ranged weapons”, the developers need to be sure that there are ranged weapons available at all times. It’s flat out unfair to allow a player to choose a class that is not represented for 50%+ of the game. The only other thing I will mention is that the player has the ability to start Riptide with the character they created in the first Dead Island. I made the mistake of trying this and was forced to deal with high-level common enemies before I had any viable weapons. This made the early stages of the game extremely difficult, and as a result I found myself dying far too often. One or two hits from even common-level enemies would kill me. 2. Parental Notices
Dead Island: Riptide is an extremely violent game. The player will use a wide variety of melee and ranged weapons in order to kill different types of enemies. Different weapon types will have different effects on enemies. For example, blunt weapons can break bones. If a zombie gets a broken arm, they will continue to try and attack the player, but the arm will flop limply to their side. Blood is extremely common in this game, and sometimes areas can get very bloody. The amount of blood and gore is increased if the player uses bladed weapons against enemies. Bladed weapons have a chance of severing a limb from a zombie completely. Sometimes this can lead to a severed arm or leg, but severed heads are also entirely possible and sometimes frequent. Eventually, once I became more powerful and had access to larger bladed weapons, I began to throw my weapons at the enemies. This could lead to situations where an enemy’s torso would sever itself from the rest of the limbs, leading to some odd results. If the player manages to knock down an enemy, there is an ability that allows the player to stomp on the zombie’s head, crushing it and killing the enemy. I made use of this frequently throughout my playthrough. Ranged weapons could have similar effects. Most hits would result in some blood, but the amount of gore would depend almost entirely on the part of the body that the player hit and the strength of the weapon. Pistol shots to the head would only result in a small amount of blood, whereas shotgun blasts to the head would result in a bloody stump where the head once was placed. The player can also upgrade weapons to have additional elemental effects. These effects could be acidic, electric, fire, or explosive. Each has a different lasting effect on enemies, but I tended to stick to electric or explosive damage.
Some of the zombies wear bikinis. That's all.
Substances are included in this game but mostly in relatively mild forms. Health comes in a few different forms in this game but most of them are from items that can be commonly found in the real world. Small snacks, such as apples and granola bars, are commonly found in the game world and do give a small amount of health when consumed. Energy drinks give a slightly greater amount of health. There is no consequence for what would be seen as overconsumption of any health-related item in this game. There are also first aid kits of different size that can be both found and crafted in the game. When the player uses a kit, the player injects himself with some unknown healing substance. There was one mission where the player finds a survivor who asks for narcotics. The player is then given a quest to find a nearby drug dealer’s shack and get the drugs. In the process of getting the drugs, I was given what may have been an optional quest to switch the real drugs with a placebo. The game forced me to take the fake drugs (I’m not sure if I was even really given the option). The zombie mutagen, the substance that turns people into zombies and monsters, is brought up a few times in the story. There is at least one scene where the player can see a character injecting themselves with the mutagen in order to make themselves more powerful. The player will also have to inject their character with the mutagen in order to combat the final boss.
A few of the characters are playing some sort of card game early in the game. The player cannot participate in this game. 3. Other Factors
There are mods available for this game, but all of the ones I could find were gameplay enhancements or changes that made the game more like a George Romero movie. They're actually fairly interesting and don't increase any of the mature elements.
There were a couple of crosses in an abandoned, run-down church. Other than this, religion is not a factor in this game.
Since all law enforcement has broken down in the city, anti-law is not a factor in this game.
The little time I spent with the online community for this game was pleasant. Other players would either help me complete missions or mind their own business. There may be some trolls that come along every now and then, but they would not be the norm.
The player will constantly engage in some mildly “extreme” activites. Driving fast, both in cars and in boats, will be fairly frequent since it’s one of the most efficient ways to travel from location to location. The player can also jump from some fairly tall heights without taking damage. This includes the player’s ability to jump from a height onto an unsuspecting enemy down below in order to deal heavy damage.
Magic is not a factor in this game.
Human Disfigurement This is a zombie game, so human disfigurement is to be expected. Most of the enemies are disfigured forms of humans. There are also many that have mutated from a recognizably human form to something much less so. There was one form of zombie that I found especially disturbing though. The “screamer” has some sort of apparatus on its head. Its brain is completely exposed (it looks like it had undergone brain surgery), its eyes are being held open by metal clamps, and it wears straps on its wrists. Weapons of Mass Destruction
The virus turns out to be some sort of a weapon that is being tested on a series of island chains. This is a key element of the plot, but the direct distribution of this virus is never shown.
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