Dead Island: Riptide feels like a game of contradictions.  Alternately entertaining yet frustrating, it left me feeling quite a bit cheated as far as a sequel to Dead Island went.

Gruesome zombie deaths; blood and gore galore; ability to import characters from the first with skills intact; updated inventory system; more carrying capacity

Rehashed environments from the first game; no real improvements in game play; underuse of old zombies; overuse of some new zombies; environments purposefully made difficult to navigate; glitches in cooperative play; zombies seemed slightly overpowered; new missions seemed like a lot of the same old...

This game isn't so much a sequel to the original Dead island as it is an expansion. Here you'll find more of what made the original fun, as well as what made it challenging and frustrating.

The same fun zombie action as before - not much more though; Co-op; A new character

Some of the same bugs as before; Graphics aren't anything special; Combat can be frustrating

Zombie outbreaks aren't known for their ability to stay contained, so it's no surprise the epidemic that swept across Banoi in the first Dead Island didn't stay put. Neither did its survivors, who now find themselves in a new paradise-gone-wrong: Palanai, a more rustic resort island filled with old...

+ Excellent variety of weapons, skills, and environments; tearing zombies apart somehow never gets old, + Boats and sieges are fun additions, when the latter aren't crashing the game

? Who keeps refilling the suitcases with money

Dave takes a fresh look at Riptide from the eyes of a newcomer. How did the console version stack up?

+ Loot and upgrades; + Online play

Combat is repetitive; Assumes you played the first game

After completing Dead Island I was so frustrated with some of the baffling design choices that I wrote an article detailing the seven things the game would have to do in order to be game of the year material.

There's a mission entirely about shutting off Sam B's awful damn song

The nearly-immortal chainsaw maniac final boss

I enjoyed " Dead Island: Riptide " despite myself. Its a fun loot grind and leveller, but it does nothing new. It's no better than the first game, and is in many ways worse. That isn't to its bad, but there is no reason to buy this unless you are gagging for more zombie killing action and have...

Much like the original then, Riptide is casual fun when approached from the viewpoint of a group of players that aren't averse to grieving their own kind, but don't expect much more than a tense slog otherwise.

Rip currents are strong currents of water at beaches. Caused by shoals beneath the waves channeling flows of water, they are able to drag people out to sea. ‘Riptide' is a misnomer for rip current as well as an unnecessary sequel that drags the Dead Island property even further from originality.

The original Dead Island was glitchy and had some significant design flaws, particularly if you were crazy enough to try to play it alone. The idea behind it was absolutely solid–an open-world action game with a lot of RPG and survival horror mixed in, where you leveled up and scavenged parts for...

The first Dead Island was an interesting breath of fetid air, and one that made for a novel take on zombie survival. Dead Island: Riptide takes all of the worst elements of that title, removes some of the better ones and adds a few features that are average at best to create something that is wholly...