Dead Island: Riptide Definitive Edition

About Dead Island: Riptide Definitive Edition

Dead Island: Riptide is Techland's follow-up to Dead Island, published by Deep Silver. It first came out in April 2013; this Definitive Edition, a remaster, came out on May 31, 2016 for Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, with a Linux version on June 3, 2016. The remaster runs in full HD with improved models and lighting and includes all the DLC released for the original.

The story picks up straight after the first game. The immune survivors of Banoi are taken onto a military ship, the infection breaks out on board, and the ship runs aground on Palanai, another island of the same archipelago. The outbreak is already there. A fifth playable survivor joins the four from the first game: a hand-to-hand fighter with claws and a sprinting kick, whom Game Informer called the most enjoyable of the bunch.

Like the first game it is played in first person with melee at its heart: you break limbs and take heads with the weapon of your choice, level up and spend points in each character's skill trees. Guns appear, but most fights are close and physical. Two things are new against Dead Island. Much of Palanai is flooded, so you get around the jungle in small boats while waterlogged infected grab at the sides, and some missions have you hold a camp of survivors, placing barricades and manning turrets while a horde rushes the defences. Later the story moves on foot into the town of Henderson.

The horror is in the gore and the press of bodies: infected walking out of the monsoon rain at night, swollen mutated ones in hazmat suits that take a beating, and a lot of blood on bright boardwalks. It is closer to an action game with a horror setting than to Resident Evil or Silent Hill. Reviews of the 2013 original were mixed: Game Informer found it plays almost exactly like its flawed but fun predecessor, praising the boats and the defence missions but listing bugs, erratic enemies and a crude story.

The co-op is the reason many play it: up to four players online, and each player sees enemies scaled to their own level. If you have not played the series, Dead Island Definitive Edition is the place to start; Dead Island 2, from Dambuster Studios, moves the outbreak to Los Angeles with a newer engine and more dark comedy.

How to play Dead Island: Riptide Definitive Edition

1. Buy it on Steam (Windows or Linux), the PlayStation Store or the Xbox store and start the story.
2. Pick one of the five survivors; each has a skill tree, and the new hand-to-hand fighter fights with claws and kicks.
3. Explore Palanai in first person, on foot and by boat through the flooded jungle, taking main and side quests.
4. Fight the infected up close with the melee weapons you find, and use guns when you have them.
5. In defence missions, place barricades and man turrets to hold the camp while the horde attacks.
6. Invite up to three friends online to play the story together if you want company.

Tips

• Do not let a crowd surround you; back off and take the infected a few at a time.
• Aim blows at heads and limbs: breaking an arm or a leg takes a zombie out of the fight faster.
• On a boat, keep moving; the infected grab on and try to pull you off, and speed shakes them loose.
• Do the side quests for the survivors in your camp: they fight better in the defence missions afterwards.
• Fight in a group of players where you can; the co-op makes larger hordes manageable.

Questions