![]() ![]() Dead Island: Riptide loses sight of that frequently, and the experience as a whole suffers for it. We frequently consume stories about space aliens and magic and other things that probably don’t exist, and the ones that we buy into are successful because they recognize the importance of telling a coherent stories within the constraints of the fiction. There’s always going to be a suspension of disbelief required when you’re talking about something like zombie fiction, but the beats at least need to make narrative sense. Joining together with the other survivors is never even mentioned as a possibility. In every case, the saved survivor chooses to go it alone on this sparsely populated, zombie-infested island. Dedicated explorers will encounter 20+ of these over the course of the game. Moments when Riptide‘s video game sensibilities get in the way of telling a coherent story.Ĭonsider this example: you’ll frequently encounter mini-missions that involve saving a trapped survivor from a horde of zombies. ![]() There comes a point, however, where the leaps in logic become too great to ignore. Riptide‘s multitude of narrative shortfalls all become inconsequential as you fall into the fun rhythm of whacking zombies upside the head with an assortment of weapons and weaponized objects.The absurd plot gets a pass on one level since Dead Island: Riptide is basically just riffing on cinema’s own gratuitously gore-fueled zombie horror stories, much like its predecessor did. The outbreak results in a shipwreck that leaves our immune heroes and a couple of other survivors stranded on the nearby island of Palanoi. How exactly would zombies overrun an entire ship filled with armed soldiers who have no doubt been briefed on the undead situation? And why would the immune so vehemently resist the idea of cooperating with researchers who are presumably looking into a cure for this epidemic? It’s not long before Serpo’s plan goes sideways and zombies overwhelm the military ship, one of this story’s many leaps in believability. The newcomer fits right in alongside our established four in terms of how he plays. John Morgan brings along a new hand-to-hand combat-focused set of skill trees and a new personality, but there’s no mystery here for Dead Island veterans. The original game’s foursome meets up with Riptide‘s fifth playable character – a fellow immune – during the opening cutscene. ![]() A corporate weasel by the name of Serpo is running the show, and he intends to conduct research on the four immune people – now five, but we’ll get to that in a moment – in an effort to save humanity. After escaping the zombie plague that swept across the island of Banoi in the first game, they find themselves captured and locked away aboard a military ship shortly after Riptide opens. It may boil down on the most basic level to Dead Island 1.5, but Riptide proves that such a designation doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing. Techland’s just-released sequel builds directly on the simple first-person brawling pleasures that worked so well in the studio’s 2011 original. No progression in co-op for players that aren't at the same point in their storiesĭead Island: Riptide is at its best when it gives you a horde of zombies and a nail-studded baseball bat – or some other lovingly crafted instrument of close-quarters re-death – to swing in their direction. Numerous bugs and stone-dumb AI turn simple tasks into a slog It's hard to escape the feeling that you're playing Dead Rising 1.5 ![]()
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