

If I had been playing singleplayer, I have no idea what I would’ve done. There was literally no way for me to get around it or over it. The worst of it was undoubtedly when I respawned on the edge of the playable area during a boss fight, right behind a fence. Sticking out of walls and hands not wrapping around the rungs of ladders are the least of your concerns.

However, the beauty of watery Palanai can’t quite eclipse the glitches peppered throughout Riptide. I had fun teaming up to kill the infected with a friend, and I was able to appreciate the stunning visuals and fluid movement that a true gaming rig can produce. You enjoy moments of triumph throughout your adventure, but wrapping things up is anticlimactic.ĭon’t get me wrong, I did enjoy some of my time with Riptide Definitive, though I imagine much of that was due to co-op play. Clearing out the Santa Maria Mission and dealing with waves of undead on the roof of the theatre were grueling, but the end battles felt effortless. More often than not, no quest tracking will appear on the minimap, so you’re left trying to figure out a path until you’re only 30 meters away.

Overall the difficulty feels very unbalanced. Thugs are confused and less aggressive, making them easier to kill, and most Butchers are less frightening than in the original, save for the boss monster you meet called Ogre. The Infected were a bit better at staying on target, but Rams tended to get lazy, leisurely strolling around and walking into walls. I did notice a few AI problems, much like in my Dead Island Definitive review. Even walkers seem to do more damage and have a greater reach. Besides tiring quickly, certain types of zombies were an absolute chore to kill. I imported my high-level character from Dead Island Definitive when playing, but it felt like all the skills I’d unlocked made no impact. If that weren’t bad enough, hit detection in itself is spotty, and stamina seems to drain much faster. The mouse even lagged on menus and when trying to swap between weapons. This is particularly puzzling as the two games seem to have identical system requirements.Įven though I chose “best performance” when playing on my nothing-special laptop, combat and exploration were still negatively affected my character walked slowly, with sprinting only helping slightly, and it constantly felt like I was swinging blindly at enemies. Riptide, on the other hand, begs for a top-performing computer, otherwise you’re going to have a bad time.
#Dead island vs dead island riptide Pc
With Dead Island Definitive Edition, the video settings could be optimized for everything from the average PC to a more powerful machine. One visual mistake they did make was altering the color of zombie blood it sprays out fairly realistically, but it’s always a black or chrome shade that feels very out of place. In fact, when you put it side-by-side with the old version, the difference is striking. The graphics have been fully remastered and the game utilizes a new lighting system. However, this review isn’t about my disappointment with the content itself, but about whether the Definitive Edition improves the game or increases its draw. The maze-like areas serve to artificially lengthen the game, half of the main quests are centered around mowing down waves of zombies, the side quests are largely uninteresting, and there are only two additions to the skill trees.
#Dead island vs dead island riptide series
The original Dead Island started the series strong in 2011, whereas Riptide in 2013 made for a fairly weak follow-up.
