Dead Island: Riptide takes all the fun out of killing zombies and makes it a more tedious and boring affair. Congratulations Techland and Deep Silver for developing and publishing an eagerly anticipated title and then stomping all over it.
Riptide starts off promisingly and teases a lot of action and suspense in its opening minutes via the first cut scene. But that's about it. The game never comes close to delivering anything close to what it shows in the opening minutes.
Video games these days are just about a character's quest or facing opponents with guns blazing. Now they are also about the interacting realisticly with NPCs (non-playable characters), storyline and, of course, well-delivered drama. Riptide falls short in these departments.
The game is an uninspiring and shameless rehash of the previous game. The first game was a revelation and fans were expecting something even bigger from the sequel.
The new storyline is just a revamp of the old story albeit in a new package, with in-game combat that's only fun for about five minutes. On the way, the NPCs are as good as dead since they show little to no emotions. Add some terrible voice acting and you're left with a cheesy zombie spoof or a sad B-movie.
The game does try to bring out the horror of a zombie apocalypse with the new island of Palanai, but it still lacks the qualities of the previous island - Banoi. Banoi was a picturesque island and the environment went hand-in-hand with the story and the style. Palanai, however, lacks any such substance.
A few questions for Techland here - Why can't I sell multiple items? Why does the voice acting fail to sync with mouth movements? And why do side quests create more side quests to a point where it feels like the game is just one massive fetch-quest?
Moving onto the in-game bugs, the game (I played on the Xbox 360) tends to crash a lot after the 15-hour mark. It also tends to become slow and sluggish in areas where an endless horde of zombies runs toward you, which are numerous.
The focus of the game remains largely on melee weapons with your survival depending on how you upgrade your weapons (say a simple metal machete to an electrically charged machete). However, these are just the basic things that have been overshadowed by the disappointing nature of the game and its lackluster ending.
Now we all understand that zombies are basically undead folks who love to chew on your flesh and there's nothing new in that, but couldn't the game provide a bit of variation on how the zombies work or react? I mean, the undead will attack you the same way as it did in the rest of the game (let alone the first Dead Island), until you finish it.
Riptide is a dumb game and not only does it fail to address the original Dead Island's shortcomings, but it also leaves a bad taste in your mouth.
