Dead Island: Riptide - Things You Should Know

Dead Island: Riptide - Things You Should Know

It’s monsoon season in Zombieland! Welcome to WatchMojo.com and today we’re exploring you should know about “Dead Island: Riptide”.

Developed by Techland and published by Deep Silver, this second installment is once again centered on the survivors from the previous game. Having escaped their zombie filled vacation resort via helicopter, they found refuge aboard a military ship.

Unfortunately for Sam B., Logan Carter, Xian Mei and Purna, the vessel becomes infected, transforming the crew into flesh hungry creatures. As if that’s not bad enough, a violent storm shipwrecks them on an island called Palanai.

John Morgan, the ship’s cook who was the only member of the crew not infected, will join the survivors this time around as the 5th playable character, skilled in hand to hand combat.

For those who decide to carry on with their favorites from the previous title, they can import their old stats and continue the experience exactly where they left off.

As this horror adventure begins, players find themselves not just surrounded by the undead, but an unpredictable and violent storm pattern.

Venturing inland, the survivors soon discover a flooded church, which becomes the main game hub. There, the primary goal soon becomes finding a way to clear water out of its connected underground tunnel system, and to locate the town of Henderson.

A new element to the experience, players must set up defenses around their base. These defenses range from generic chain link fences to minigun emplacements and a wide variety of mines. The mines range from poison, to sonic and the conventional variety that go boom. Essentially, in Riptide, you aren’t just given a safe heaven, you have to earn and defend it.

Water also plays a large role in this game. Much of the exploration takes place afloat, as sections of the island have become waterlogged. This means that you will eventually have to face submerged zombies throughout your journey. As if this wasn’t challenging enough, you will have to contend with battles during periods of reduced visibility with the screen becoming filled with torrential rain and fierce winds.

Adding to the fun, there are all-new mutated zombie types, which will try to grab your boat to slow you down or force you out of it entirely. These new enemies include such variations as Grenadier zombies, who have the ability to toss explosives at you. Overall, there will also be many more zombies on screen simultaneously then ever before.

To counterbalance this, the zombie re-spawn system has been dramatically overhauled. While zombies still reappear in areas that have been cleared, the game will take numerous factors into consideration; such as if you are currently on a mission, how recently you last visited the area, your health status and whether or not you are traveling alone.

Like before, the action once again still focuses on melee combat over ranged weapons, even though guns now appear almost immediately. There are also many more schematics and weapons to experiment with then before, and you will be encouraged switch regularly, rather than hoard items.

The four-player co-op returns as well with several welcome refinements. Zombies will now display their level more clearly to all players, while player-level limitations between co-op partnerships have been removed. Moreover, the game now rebalances itself to find a difficulty middle ground, so players of varying experience can still have a good time together.

Speaking of which, connectivity with friends has also been made easier, as those on your friend list can now seamlessly join your party, and players will be properly prompted when one of their party disconnect.

The highly anticipated continuation of the thrilling zombie franchise, Dead Island Riptide is available for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. To sweeten the deal, since it’s arriving at the end of the current generation console cycle, it features a reduced price, despite the added content, features and production values.

What do you think, are you gonna take a swing at this one? For more great videogame run downs, be sure to subscribe to Watchmojo.com