Dead Island: Riptide – Game Analysis and Review
By Dan Maurer
Developer: Techland
Publisher: Deep Silver
Distributor: Square Enix
Engine: Chrome Engine 5
Platforms: Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Release Date: April 23, 2013
Genre: Action role-playing, survival horror
Modes: Single-player, multiplayer
Rating: Mature
Captain John Morgan, the ex special forces soldier, martial arts master, potty mouth and owner of the most annoying Australian accent this side of a Foster’s commercial, is having a bad day. While rummaging through bins looking for bits of barbed wire to wrap around the plank he’s using as a makeshift weapon, he’s been jumped, infected and ended up as zombie food. Again. Welcome once again to the world of Dead Island where in this game (Dead Island: Riptide) you find weapons and kill zombies with them. Need me to run that by you again? No really that’s about the moral of the game.
Graphics:
This is literally the same as the last game, nothing improved graphics wise. I will go so far as to say the same background/character models were used for this new game. Screen tearing is even worse in this game than the last one and that’s a crying shame. Freezing issues are aplenty here as I had the game lock up on me several times causing me to restart my system and lose progress. Everything seems so bland and uninspired.
Gameplay:
You grab weapons and beat the crap out of zombies. Oh and there are cheesy side missions thrown in as well. The characters are just as boring as the first game and the animations are just as hit or miss as well. I had moments where for no reason what so ever my game would crawl to a mind-numbing less than 30FPS and have me wondering why I was cursed to play this game. Major glitching/freezing issues that should have been addressed before this game went to press and I am shocked they haven’t been addressed with a patch as of yet. In this state of the game, it’s a buggy almost unplayable mess.
Multiplayer:
The multiplayer is practically unplayable at this point. Out of the 8 separate attempts I made at playing online with people, I was able to connect to one match. In that one match, I was able to play a total of 7 minutes, yes 7 minutes before the game froze and I was kicked back to the dashboard. You know you are in for a treat when the multiplayer is EVEN WORSE than the buggy single player campaign.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
This game, I cannot recommend to anyone, even fans of the first one. If you want an idea of how bad this game is read all the various reviews around the internet. Another idea to its badness is that Best Buy is selling the Collector’s Edition currently for $34.99 and the two I was at had TONS of unsold copies. Please do yourselves a favor and save your money for a better developed game. If you are really desperate for zombie action, hunt down a copy of Left 4 Dead 2. It’s about half the price and 10 times the fun.
FINAL SCORE: 2 out of 10
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