The brilliant first person Zombie survival game Dead Island: Riptide has arrived, and I managed to get my hands on a copy over the weekend and give it a try.
Set immediately after the events of the first Dead Island game, Riptide starts you off in the body of either your saved game character from the old game (which you can choose to import from your Dead Island game save), or a new character in a completely new game. I opted to play a new character, a close combat specialist. The gameplay is pretty much exactly the same as the old game, and runs off the same engine so immediately feels familiar to players. Whilst this is a sequel however, you don't need to of played the first game as the intro cutscene gave a detailed overview of the happenings in the first game. It's really not long into the game that you encounter your first Zombie either, alot quicker then I expected it would be.
The only real changes I noticed was in the water detail. Wether or not they have actually improved the water detail or just had a fiddle with the lighting, but the island definately feels alot better. Another change from the original is that the menu's have had a bit of a facelift, but colours only. Combat is the same, with players given the option of picking up various swords, pipes and guns to defend yourself with. Failing ammunition, you can also go hand to hand with the biters, though facing certain Zombie classes such as Thugs isn't recommended in this way.
From what I've had a chance to play, Dead Island Riptide is a well designed game, though the lack of improved graphics and general updates to the game does sometimes make it feel like your playing a glorified DLC. Fans of the original will I think enjoy this, and it may very well appeal to players not familiar to the series. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that when Dead Island 3 comes out (currently a whisper of a rumour for a next gen game) that they somehow make improvements to the game with the graphic design of it.
Set immediately after the events of the first Dead Island game, Riptide starts you off in the body of either your saved game character from the old game (which you can choose to import from your Dead Island game save), or a new character in a completely new game. I opted to play a new character, a close combat specialist. The gameplay is pretty much exactly the same as the old game, and runs off the same engine so immediately feels familiar to players. Whilst this is a sequel however, you don't need to of played the first game as the intro cutscene gave a detailed overview of the happenings in the first game. It's really not long into the game that you encounter your first Zombie either, alot quicker then I expected it would be.
The only real changes I noticed was in the water detail. Wether or not they have actually improved the water detail or just had a fiddle with the lighting, but the island definately feels alot better. Another change from the original is that the menu's have had a bit of a facelift, but colours only. Combat is the same, with players given the option of picking up various swords, pipes and guns to defend yourself with. Failing ammunition, you can also go hand to hand with the biters, though facing certain Zombie classes such as Thugs isn't recommended in this way.
From what I've had a chance to play, Dead Island Riptide is a well designed game, though the lack of improved graphics and general updates to the game does sometimes make it feel like your playing a glorified DLC. Fans of the original will I think enjoy this, and it may very well appeal to players not familiar to the series. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that when Dead Island 3 comes out (currently a whisper of a rumour for a next gen game) that they somehow make improvements to the game with the graphic design of it.