It's fun if you're a fan of melee combat, but if you're expecting big changes in the series, you're in for some disappointment.
Thankfully, Riptide makes up for this with solid co-op. Like the original, you can team up with friends to send deadites back to the afterlife, and there's something quite satisfying about teaming up together to slay a huge boss or an armada of zombies. If you can, enlist some of your fellow zombie killers to take part.
For a follow-up (again, can't quite call it a sequel since it's not Dead Island 2), Riptide doesn't show much improvement in the presentation. The dialogue is just bad, to the point that you wonder if anyone put anything meaningful into the script. At least the sound effects, mainly consisting of zombie noises and weapon effects, live up to their potential, so we can't complain too much there.
But we will etch our negativity towards the graphics. They aren't horrid by any means, as there's something about roaming around an island that's not the tropical resort that it was advertised to be that's a bit satisfying. But the game has some major screen tearing and frame rate problems, along with glitches that can't help but leave you wondering just how super-powered these zombies really are. Whoa! Did that one just warp? This game is ripe for a patch – and here's hoping one comes soon.
Dead Island: Riptide isn't necessarily an awful game. Not by any means. It's just that we saw it before, two years ago, and Techland, its developer, did very little to implement major improvements. It's still fun as heck to lop off a dead guy's head with a boat oar or, better yet, a modified weapon, and even more so if you have friends tagging along in co-op. But we can't help but think the real push is being saved down the road, when Dead Island 2 will no doubt surface. If you liked your stay with the original game, you'll fit right in here. But if it's an ideal sequel you want, um…you might want to check out from this resort. You've seen it before.
Score: 7 / 10
