Review of Dead Island: Riptide. A humble opinion. Dead Island: Riptide game review dead island riptide
It seems that zombie games have always been popular, and that there are games, movies with the living dead appearing in countless numbers. It turned out a lot of projects, some of them were good, others frankly useless, while others remained in the memory and forced to spend hundreds of hours in them. Polish studio Techland tried to create some kind of zombie hit. Dead Island's debut video, aired in 2007, produced great impression, and drew attention to the project.
The events of the game took place on fictional islands near Papua New Guinea, where, for some unknown reason, the inhabitants began to turn into zombies. We were given to play as one of four survivors who were immune to a mysterious virus and who tried to get out of the island to escape this madness. The end product was quite controversial, with advantages and disadvantages.
Name Dead Island perfect game about zombies, of course, it is impossible, but he gave the player a new gameplay and experience, which won his fate of supporters. That is why the developers from Techland decided to offer fans a sequel called Dead Island Riptide.
What happened in the end? A rather wide addon came out rather than a full-fledged sequel. Let's start with the fact that new ideas were introduced to the next part to a minimum, the existing advantages of the game have been preserved, but the disadvantages have not disappeared anywhere.
The plot starts from where it left off in the first part. No "six months later" or "not too distant". The survivors could not escape and another accident throws them to a neighboring island, where the virus is also raging, and hordes of zombies are walking. The player is faced with a rather familiar task - to get out of there and save his own life, and throughout the passage you will not leave the feeling of déjà vu.
Dead Island is still not a shooter, although it is positioned that way. Feel free to choose your melee skills throughout the game. You will have to shoot somewhere in sixty percent of the campaign, and in all kinds of closed, corridor locations, while the need to pump firearms disappears immediately if you aim at the enemies in the head, but you will need to chop off the limbs of the electric rolled dead at the beginning of the game.
It is this kind of unique gameplay that attracts the player's attention and makes the game go through, since the reptaid cannot offer anything else. All quests are very similar and are divided into two types. The first of which - find and bring, the other - do not let the zombies break into the territory.
In some places, the main quest is quite difficult to distinguish from the side quest, and, unfortunately, not because side quests are unique and interesting. You can only notice the progress of the main campaign by changing the locations, and the designation of the next chapter on the loading screen. Returning to close combat, it is worth noting that at first it arouses interest, then it gets a little annoying, but as soon as we have the opportunity to open several new skills, interest returns again.
Later, instead of a prolonged and heavy crushing of the zombie's head with his foot, the player can knock him down by pressing one button, and the protagonist will instantly jump on the dead man's head and crush it like a ripe watermelon. By killing zombies, the player gains a rage scale and when it is filled, you can activate a mode in which you can scatter all the carrion in different directions, and feel like a Rambo in the tropics.
In general, weapons are divided into 4 classes: firearms (pistols, rifles and shotguns), blunt (all sorts of hammers, clubs, bats), cutting (knives, swords), and melee (brass knuckles and rather interesting home-made devices). A range of homemade and military mines, grenades, Molotov cocktails are also available. Depending on what weapon you use when killing zombies, that class is pumped. It is best to combine different types and use them according to the situation.
Quests, although the same type, but still very rarely there are moments when the game surprises, but such cases can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Wandering around the back streets of the new island, you can find various schemes that will allow you to pump weapons in a rather interesting way. For example, on a wrench, which in itself quite effectively smears brains on the walls, you can put a welding machine, and in addition to the usual damage, it will set fire to evil spirits.
It should be noted that this whole structure looks quite believable, and suggests the reality of such a weapon in the fact that the improvement does not take place with the help of some conventions or magical runes. But this is not a unique feature of the continuation, but Riptide inherited from its predecessor. Only a few skins have been updated and new designs have appeared.
Energy is still used for each hit, jumping and running, so it is worth planning your actions and assessing the situation quickly, because you will not be able to manually reflect yourself from a dozen zombies, and only a grenade thrown forward or a Molotov cocktail will correct the situation.
Sometimes the game doesn't tell you which item you can "throw away". So, for example, for a long time you don't understand why they throw signal lights in such a large number and in general what they are for. But only then, getting into the dark corridors, you understand all their value, however, you don't have to complain about their absence in the dungeons themselves, they are scattered generously and the next portion appears even when you still do not have time, it is imprudent to throw out the previous portion.
The game still has a co-op for four people. And as you know, not even too much good game decorates joint passage in friends company. It does not differ in anything special, four characters can walk side by side and complete quests, which only simplifies the task of destroying zombies and does not provide any unique gameplay. During the entire passage, the game issues a message that such and such a player is next to you and when you press one button, soon you are fighting the zombies shoulder to shoulder. The option can of course be turned off and on.
In the game there is also an exchange of created weapons, both with the same players online and with NPS. This aspect is intended to make it easier and more comfortable to play. The wicked player can boldly walk past this system.
Dead Island Riptide still suffers from bugs and strange features. And if the fabric that cannot be bypassed and which is more likely associated with a concrete wall can be forgiven, then the NPS, which will stand in the doorway like a ram and under no circumstances will move without allowing it to pass, is very annoying. And the only way out of this situation is rebooting from the last saved point. The car is generally felt like a tank.
Regarding the enemies, here the situation is the same as in the end of the game - the old ones were left, and several new ones were added. On our way, there are ordinary zombies who cause trouble only when they are crushed by the amount, among them there will be both slow ones, as well as rather fast ones, which are not so easy to knock down. Thug is a tall, slow zombie that kills with a few hits, although not agile, but gives a lot of trouble, and takes a relatively long time to destroy.
Suicider - a bony zombie covered in growths, explodes when it gets close. Ram is a battering ram, a large zombie wrapped in a straitjacket. Since he chooses a target and runs towards it, knocking down everything in its path, until it reaches it, or crashes into some kind of obstacle.
Floater is another parallel with L4D, a fat zombie that vomits toxins. Butcher, or the butcher, can be described as a very annoying version of Thug, he does the same amount of damage, he is also difficult to kill, but he is very, very fast. There are also ordinary people with firearms... This group of infected people is known to us from the first part.
Riptide proposed several new types of enemies, among which: Drowner is a very annoying zombie that is found near water bodies, and each time rushes at an unexpected moment from under the water. Grenadier is another copy of the Charger, but this time a visual one, has a mutated hand that tries to knock on the head well, but is relatively slow. Screamer is an interesting zombie variant, but could have been done much better.
As for the graphics, it is worth noting that the game engine has remained the same. Riptide uses the same Chrome Engine 5, and there is simply no point in expecting something new from it. The picture leaves mixed feelings, on the one hand, the landscapes of the tropics look very, very good, on the other hand, you come across some very terrible texture, and the characters resemble mannequins, and there is a feeling that they have something plastic. The first-person combat animation is pleasing, but it is not clear why raising the canister, or some special movements in missions, implemented their "Teleportation".
The locations are really new, but again they look more like an addon setting - the style is also, only their number has increased. What's really great about the game is the sound. The characters are beautifully recorded, even John Morgan's British accent sounds natural, and his jokes make you smile from time to time.
Another declared characteristic feature of the engine is the dynamic change of day and night, and the system of weather effects. In fact, you don’t notice the dynamic change, and you simply don’t pay attention, but about the weather effects, the downpour looks pretty good, but there is another side of the coin. It seems that this downpour is tied to specific places on the location, so when driving past a small settlement you get caught in the rain, and already having passed it, the sun is shining brightly in the sky.
Opinion: Dead Island is a game of one idea. Fortunately, this one idea was - unique gameplay. Having implemented an interesting gameplay feature, the Poles forgot about the game. This was once the first Assassins creed... Not that the game was bad or not interesting, just at that time it was technology, a new engine. The game was repeated in many ways. In the next part, having a foundation, a giant step forward was made and all the features of the assassins were improved, improved, and used in the game itself.
With Riptide, the situation is quite similar, but instead of taking into account their own mistakes and improving, and releasing a worthy sequel, Techleds decided to make money quickly and did the same only a little on a large scale.
It's up to you to play Dead Island: Riptide. What should be taken into account is that Riptide will not offer anything fundamentally new, and it is not worth expecting that the next part took into account all the mistakes of its predecessor, and has grown in the corresponding parameters. But, if you are not yet familiar with the universe, this game can be a good option for acquaintance, so by skipping the first part, you will not lose anything for yourself. In the absence of high-profile releases, you can safely launch a cooperative with your friends and while away a few evenings in a friendly company.
DeadIsland: Riptide starts where the first part ended. The four survivors fly off by helicopter from Banoi Island and land on a warship, hoping to finally be safe. Dreams collapse in a moment: the heroes find themselves in handcuffs, listen to the unintelligible speech of the new main villain about biological weapons, and end up in prison.
| System requirements |
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Win XP 32 Dual Core CPU 2.70GHz GeForce 8600 GT 512MB / Radeon HD 2600 XT 7 GB HDD |
| Recommended Requirements |
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Win 7 64 Dual Core CPU 2.70GHz GeForce 9600 GT / Radeon HD 5670 4 GB RAM 7 GB HDD |
Flesh eaters
The sequel to the action movie about the zombie apocalypse at first resembles an Italian film Zombi... The first meeting with the infected happens at sea, the further action unfolds in the tropical jungle, and along with civilized people, locals who are somewhat distant from civilization are fighting off the infection. Unfortunately, it is impossible to draw a parallel further: the developers did not radically change the surroundings, so in Riptide, in addition to zombies, the first part crawls out of all the cracks. Here are the dead in breeches and Hawaiians, here are the same wrenches, sticks and baseball bats, apples and chocolates, first aid kits and pain relievers. The gameplay of the sequel, by and large, also remained the same and is unique with a strong role-playing bias, in open world and about the dead.
Leading role in everyday life Riptide playing crafting. The only way confidently overcome the infected - scour the area in the hope of collecting all the trash, get to the workshop and transform, say, a simple shovel into an electric shovel or wind barbed wire around an ordinary wooden stick. Any weapon wears out over time, which means it does less damage and takes more strength. Therefore, those who do not check the condition of the weapon run the risk of being in a crowd of zombies with a broken baseball bat, and this is certain death.
There are really many modifications, but before attaching a circular saw to a wrench, the player must find the corresponding blueprint. It would seem that the ideal conditions for pumping inventory: a huge world with objects scattered all over the place, know yourself look and modify right and left. However, the authors of the game killed all the interest: the steeper the piece of reinforcement in the hand, the stronger the dead man waiting for prey behind the neighboring bush. The same applies to leveling. By raising your own level, you will only achieve that the dead will hunt you more ferocious and strong, and in this case there is no point in wasting your time on secondary tasks and looking for blueprints.
Such a rather stupid approach to the role model raised questions even in the first part, but several million copies sold and 80 points on Metacritic, apparently, inspired the authors that they did everything right the first time. Perhaps the constantly increasing level of zombies would not be so annoying if they changed, including externally, but only the numbers in the parameters change. Before execution story quest the level of enemies is tenth, after - twelfth.
"But there is no change in them, everything in them is on the old model"
Riptide in general, it is completely based on the principles laid down in the original, and very quickly the question arises: "What is new here at all?" There are exactly two innovations. The first is the so-called base defense. The survivors occupied certain territories, which are safe for most of the playing time, but sometimes they are attacked by the dead. The defense of the complex looks simple: 80% surrounded by insurmountable barriers, the space has several cracks that need to be barricaded. This will not hold back the dead, but it will slow down, and you will have time to group. Attacks take place in waves, giving you the opportunity to take a break between battles, patch up health and test weapons.
The defense of the camp does not last long, and most of the time you will have to run around huge maps where rivers also meet now. This is the second innovation: not only land, but also water transport is used to move around the island. Motor boats are controlled in the same way as cars - with the only difference that on the water at a key moment (when a flock of dead people rose from the bottom in front of you), you can turn on the gas, accelerate and chop enemies to pieces. Zombies regularly rise from the depths of the water, cling to the side and try to climb; you can throw off a dead person using the same acceleration or by giving him a kick when he gets very close. In case of failure, the creature will throw you into the water, and this is the worst thing that can happen: whether you are on the boat or not, the dead will still rise from the bottom in large numbers, in the water the character moves more slowly than usual, and there is simply no risk of saving land get there.
***
The player can find temporary consolation in cooperative mode, which would be even more addictive if this game could be played by four people in front of one TV. When you break the limbs of the dead in the company of friends, everything that happens on the screen is a farce and you perceive it properly - that is, like a farce. A good mood will be enough, probably, for an hour and a half - this time will be enough to study the game in all details, get tired of monotony and get bored. Until that happens, fun is almost guaranteed, but overall Riptide very monotonous. Identical tasks suggest running from one point to another for an important item and bringing it back, although the dead are divided into several types, they basically still repeat the assortment of the first part, the types of weapons have not changed. It looks like someone in Techland also understands the dubiousness of the idea with this sequel, and therefore the main character every now and then he repeats: "I shouldn't have been here at all." We agree, it shouldn't.
If you've enjoyed playing the original Dead Island, then the new Riptide expansion will help extend the fun of the game.
Screenshot from the game Dead Island: Riptide The new location is almost no different from what was in the original - an identical tropical island filled with some unrealistic number of zombies. In addition, there was an opportunity to ride on boats, new regime- defense of the base, and new character named John, a fan of waving his fists. Actually, this is where the innovations end.
The plot still plays a secondary role, and rather serves as an excuse for all this uncontrolled extermination of hordes of people who like to feed on human brains. What is all the same plot plot? Our heroes from the previous part successfully hit the road from the island by helicopter, but could not fly far, because they ran out of fuel. They landed on a warship, where they were instantly captured, and then thrown into a new "tropical paradise". Actually, then the whole action develops along the knurled path - to find a way from the island, simultaneously exterminating a ton or two of walking ghouls. The zombies, by the way, also replenish the ranks, but here everything is without revelations.
We still do not the most interesting missions, during which the main fun is the extermination of zombies. Bits, crowbars, knives, chainsaws, gunshot - all this and much more is used. Cold steel, as before, has its own safety margin, and breaks after a certain number of broken heads and pierced bodies. Also, any weapon has its own levels of "coolness", which determines the damage and durability. Naturally, the character leveling has not gone anywhere, which, in fact, does not represent anything interesting, as it did not represent in the first part. Upon reaching a new level, we choose perks, most of which are aimed at more sophisticated extermination of zombies. But in this case, another unpleasant problem emerges - this is the automatic adjustment of the monster levels to the player's level, which noticeably reduces the interest in further passing. The situation is saved by the cooperative mode, for the sake of which, in fact, this game is worth buying. It's fun to play with friends, and thanks to the sophisticated system for adjusting the difficulty depending on the level of the players, you don't have to suffer from too much strong zombies if you accidentally get into the team of a high-level player.
What will be the verdict? Game process and the plot have not undergone significant revision. As a result, the game is of at least some serious interest exclusively in cooperative mode. So if you liked the first part and you have a couple of friends who are ready to bash the heads of the living dead in the entourage of a tropical island - buy Riptide's "self-sufficient supplement". In other cases, you can safely walk by - don't miss anything.
Let's start with the good things, namely, that the Poles from Techland held back. In the new Dead island there are new vehicles, new enemies, and even the character development system has been reworked. Who is in the tank, I explain - these are three branches of development: survival skills, combat skills and rage. So, the system from (which, by the way, it was a sin to complain about) has become even more convenient. In addition, a new character was added - John Morgan... The scene has also changed and differs from the island of the first part. Palanay much darker Banoya: dull colors and eerie sounds pump up the atmosphere, all this is done for a solid four.
Now, let's move on to the fly in the ointment. Namely - to the balance. It remained unchanged. Any weapon breaks with a couple of three hits. A stick, a bat, a metal rod are sent for repair after the same amount of time. And that's bad. I personally did not understand how hard it is to hit the rotten meat in order to break a baseball bat in 20 strikes. Maybe I just don't understand something?
Of the new jambs, the level of your enemies has been equated to the level of your weapons. On the one hand, this is good, but on the other hand, the super gun created on the workbench is not so super-duper anymore, and it is not very different from the rest of the weapon ... Yeah, that is, the craft can be thrown away. More precisely, it seems to be there, you can use it, but there is no vital need for it!
And again about the good! You don't notice any of the listed shortcomings if you play in a cooperative... The game is still focused on playing with friends and it's still fun. The atmosphere of the new island is being lost, but it becomes really interesting to play through the game, especially when you consider the fact that new quests have been added to the standard "bring it in".
In the end, everything is not as bad as it could be, but not as good as it should be. The game has not gone forward or backward - it just stands still. And here a reasonable question arises, is it worth its 600 (599)
KONSTANTIN 'BOBIK' FOMIN
Four in the boat
Adventures in the open world don't help either. You will not explore it for your pleasure - there is nothing to look at. Side quests even dumber than in - solid "go-fetch." Fortunately, there are minor improvements... For example, the weather now changes dynamically, and the enemies are not so brazenly reviving in the "cleared" zones.
One has to travel around Palanai not only on foot and by car, but also by boat. It is difficult to ignore this type of transport, because the heroes wander in water up to their waist at a snail's speed, and it does not interfere with the ghouls. However, there are not very many flooded areas, and the river fleet here, contrary to advertising, is not at all in the forefront.
Another "hyped" novelty - episodes in which the team must defend the camp. By themselves, they are primitive and boring: block the passages with wire mesh, place mines and sit down at machine guns (if there are any) - that's all the "tactics". In, of course, everything was much more tense: death is irreversible there, but here they just write off a little money from the account. But all members of the squad and NPCs participate in the defense, which helps to better perceive when playing together. The authors clearly took into account the experience where comrades appeared exclusively in the screensavers. 
View the Dead Island: Riptide Screenshot Gallery
Spa Infection
Heroes, by the way, are five. A certain John Morgan, a native of these places, was added to the familiar quartet. You can't call him a very interesting person, although remarks like “and in this area my former lived, to find out what happened to her ”and sound lively.
As a specialist in hand-to-hand combat, from weapons he prefers brass knuckles, but his most useful technique is a running kick, which knocks the enemy back and allows not to waste time in vain. There is no need to get involved in a fight for the sake of "pumping" anyway - the level of enemies grows with yours.
Those who don't like the newbie can import older characters. If there are no saves left, the game will immediately offer 15 skill points. You can distribute them yourself or use one of three ready-made templates.
However, no matter what you choose, the gameplay will not fundamentally change. The battles still impress with their "dismembered", but quickly tire with monotony. The balance, of course, tightened: edged weapons break more slowly, "firearms" are issued earlier and do not spare ammunition.
* * *
Few differences from the original are usually unfortunate. Only the final video is good, throwing a bridge to the continuation, which, apparently, will become. Although I am afraid of its quality - it seems that I am happy with everything in the current formula.
| Minimum Requirements | Recommended system |
|---|---|
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Core 2 Duo / Athlon X2 2.66 GHz |