Mixed or average reviews - based on 35 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 35
  2. Negative: 5 out of 35

There are no positive critic reviews yet.

User Score

Mixed or average reviews- based on 349 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 48 out of 87
  2. Negative: 21 out of 87
  1. May 31, 2013
    if u loved the original dead island then you will love dead island riptide.

    if on the other hand you hated the original dead island then
    you will hate dead island riptide as well. Full Review »
  2. Apr 24, 2013
    Personally I do not agree with a lot of the complaints regarding this game. First off, I have no problem with any of the multiplayer features and I bought, downloaded and started playing this within 2 hours of release. 2nd, I do not agree that this is just a re-hash of the 1st one. They have made a great deal of game play enhancements to this game that have made it more like the difference between Farcry 2 and 3. The weapons have been expanded and the more advanced weapons are very cool. The modifications that you can add to your weapons after collecting a blueprint are fascinating and a number of them enhance the stopping power of the weapon greatly especially after you have upgraded it to the 4th level.
    The comments about collecting from the same boxes/suitcases, etc... multiple times is irrelevant. In order to collect enough money to get the later weapons and upgrades, naturally the costs skyrocket, so they have made it easier by resetting some of the collection areas randomly (so you never know what you will be getting), but the amount of money you collect from the average drops do go up and the number of drop sites goes down dramatically.

    I have been having a great time with this release, playing for nearly 12 hours nonstop. It's a lot of fun! Having some 350 games just on Steam and another 500 elsewhere not to mention the disks, I rarely play one game for such an extended period. Not sure if I would be up for a replay once it's complete as it's a very long and complicated set of quests and side missions intertwined.

    I do have some negative comments, they are all not positive, few games will ever get that treatment. The primary question I have is whether the map should be bigger and the map system better adapted to see more of the area you have already explored. The current map is very detailed and if the mission takes you across the map, you can't see where you need to go nor map a route to get there. This adds to the frustration of playing, however you will eventually memorize the map and know the correct route eventually. I just think that with a better mapping interface, they could have made a bigger map and we would not have to visit the same areas so many times (areas, not exact locations, locations are visited once, but if the guy there sells weapons, you may not have the cash to buy the weapon you want and have to return once, max.
    There are issues with the sound, I believe them to be related to their generation of the torrential rains that this kind of jungle would naturally get. However, sometimes, the sound is more like static rather than pounding rain. I am sure that this could be fixed soon. I honestly do not have any bugs that are in anyway annoying other than the rain. However and as with all other games there are issues, but not something worth bashing the game over. This is a solid game and you will get many many hours of game play out of it, as much or more that the average game of this type. (can't say for sure as I haven't completed it).

    I appreciated the plot, the missions and the side quests and it's very satisfying to get all the XP for completing most. Which gets to my last issue. The side quests come at you about 8 at a time and all ask for a specific item and quantity. These missions are all completed while doing the main quest, so when you eventually find yourself back at the main base turning in your quests, you can rack up 3 or so levels. I think that we could go for less of that as it is redundant, but as I said, they are all completed in the process of doing the main quest, you just have to explore, something that a lot of people these days seem to want to do less and less of and more run and gun. I, myself, have always been the kind of player that takes his time and looks in every nook before heading on and there is a distinct advantage here should you enjoy that play style.

    Finally, they have enhanced the skill tree for this game. It is much more detailed and the 3 vines are intertwined quite well so as to prevent you from putting all your skill in one tree which gives you the opportunity to experience some of the abilities that you may not start spending SP's until late in the game.

    Finally, Driving is very well done, very smooth, it is very hectic once you get in a boat as the water is teeming with zombies floating who wake up when they hear your boat, but you can easily plow through them with accelerate and easily rack up XP if you spend the appropriate amount of time to learn how to steer and accelerate fluid. Definitely not any sort of negative or reason for taking away a star(s) for sure.

    Also, it is very easy to pick up a single player mission and turn it into a coop mission when you get to the boss or mass zombie fights, no issues with that and I think it was done seamlessly.
    Full Review »
  3. Apr 23, 2013
    The story is nice just as it was in the first one so that boosted the rating. And fixing things like appropriate zombie levels to scale with characters is nice. However...Meh... Same game (and bugs somehow). There is nothing new or amazing about this. It really is just the next chapter to a story without any other twists or surprises. When considering getting this game think to yourself, "would I read the second book to this series"? Full Review »