Despite severely outdated game mechanics, Dead Island is often regarded as one of the most beloved open-world zombie RPGs in the market. Dead Island was originally released on September 6, 2011, for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. Since the first game, there have been two main sequels to the first entry. Which one is the superior sequel, let’s find out.
History of Dead Island
Mantle
Dead Island and Dead Island: Riptide were developed by Techland and published by Deep Silver. However, after Riptide was released and a numbered sequel to the first game was announced, fans were shocked to discover that Techland wouldn’t be the developer of Dead Island 2. But instead, Deep Silver chose the game developer, Yager, to work on this project. When asked about it, Techland stated that the IP for Dead Island belonged to Deep Silver, so they ultimately had the final say on who they wanted to work on the game and chose Yager. Heartbroken, but humble, Techland decided with stride and moved on to create another amazing IP: Dying Light.
Development Hell
To say that Dead Island 2 was a troubled development is a massive understatement. For almost a decade straight, it was in development hell, although details on why development was so difficult are not well known. The most likely factor in it was the lack of meaningful direction. No one knew where to take the game from here, at least properly, from Riptide. The devs scrambled to create more creative and original ideas for the sequel, so far they were off to a rough start but were determined to create a great sequel. Yager managed to create a pre-alpha version of the game which was also featured in Gamescom 2014, after that, however, not much word on the game. Yager was replaced by Sumo Digital as the developer in 2015, Sumo was then replaced by Dambuster in 2019, and Dambuster went on to carry the game through development to completion in late 2023. Without further ado, let’s compare and contrast the strengths and flaws of these games.
Gameplay
Basics
Fundamentally, Dead Island 2 and Riptide play the same way, basic movement system, and melee weapons that can be found in the world or be bought by vendors in the game. Lastly, said weapons can be upgraded and modded for added effects. Now for the differences, like most recent trends in games, Dead Island 2’s weapons operate on a rarity system along with the player level upon acquisition. Even mods and upgrades have a different rarity to them that cannot be upgraded and requires the player to find the blueprints for better mods, so if you have a particular mod that you like, you have to suck it up and hope you can acquire a better mod that has the same properties. The rarity system works as follows: Gray=Common, Green=Uncommon, Blue=Rare, Purple=Superior, Orange=Legendary, this applies to all melee weapons and firearms in the game. Weapon mods, consumables, items, and collectibles mostly range from common to rare with a few exceptions.
For the most part, this system is well-implemented and doesn’t require a specific level to unlock rarities, only the weapons themselves require a specific level to be able to use. This, however, has the unfortunate downside of having a favorite weapon or good weapon being outclassed quickly once the starts leveling up. This problem isn’t exclusive to Dead Island 2 however, as this was also present. Like those games, the players can pay a certain amount of money to match the weapon of choice to their current player level. This isn’t recommended, however, since leveling up weapons can get very expensive, especially when you get to the higher levels. Back in the previous titles, it was easy to just ditch them for stronger weapons, but now, since the higher rarities allow for more modifications that are unique to their rarity, the decision becomes much more difficult.
Combat
Now we’re getting into the real difference between these two games. Dead Island 2 has an impressive roster of enemy types, from the common walkers and runners to the apex zombies. Ironically, the game’s problem is the lack of variety and diversity of enemy types despite the expansive roster. Almost half the roster consists of walkers, runners, and their variants, except the weakest enemy type: the shamblers. The different variants don’t play any differently whatsoever, they all act like regular walkers and runners with modifications that give them resistance and even immunity to certain attacks. This can be infuriating considering that many of these variants love to pile together in the later half of the game, which can lead to a lot of pace-breaking in combat. Different variants also unfortunately apply to the apex zombies, with literally no difference in variety either.
This severely limits your weapon options as now you need to dedicate some weapons to be able to fight different varients all at once which goes against the core principle of Dead Island: find and create with whatever at your disposal to survive. Not a single zombie in Dead Island 2 is truly unique, meaning you can encounter them just about anywhere in the open world once you’re introduced to them, yes, even the “boss” zombies that you can encounter. Take the mutator for example, he’s the final boss fight of the main game, he’s strong and tough as one would expect from a boss fight. Once you defeat him, however, you can find more mutators around the open world, albeit rarely, which takes away the uniqueness and significance of that type of zombie.
Contrary to Dead Island Riptide, there are only a handful of different variants of the walkers and runners, although they can have resistance to certain attacks based on their elemental properties. None of them are immune to any type of attack, however, regardless of weapon type and modifications. There was also more variety in enemy types than in Dead Island 2, more importantly, there were many different types of enemies all at once in the later half of the game, instead of many different variants of the same enemy. It’s more challenging and fun as the player has to think more strategically about how to approach fights rather than often just swinging their weapons violently toward anything that moves, which is strangely the only viable strategy in Dead Island 2. Riptide had the bonus of balancing realism with detail, it’s much more effective to slice or break zombie’s limbs in Riptide than it is in the second game if the player is skilled enough, they can even slice the heads off of walkers and runners with their variants as they move towards you for a one-shot kill, which is much harder to accomplish in the second game.
Story
Characters
Both games have an impressive cast of characters, but the real difference is their likeability and significance to the story. The first game featured four main characters, that serve as the driving force for much of the game’s narrative because they were immune to the HK virus responsible for the zombie outbreak in the first game and Riptide. All four characters interact with each other throughout the entire story except for the prologue. They each have interesting backstories and special circumstances that led to each of them ending up in this situation that makes sense. They have their own goals and ambitions to escape the city, and considering their immunity and strength as a group, they could very well ensure their survival. They were willing to help out other survivors in exchange for other things, almost all relationships were mutually beneficial to both parties. All of this leads up to one of the best twist villains in gaming history, with his own DLC that fleshes out his character. Not to mention the lore and world-building of the islands, the virus, and the natives that live there, it’s all well presented in interesting ways.
On the contrary, Dead Island 2 has the opposite of this. There are 6 playable characters in the game, however, they NEVER interact with each other despite the game’s intro stating otherwise for some of them. Whichever character the player chooses, it’s a solo act from beginning to end, story-wise. The main playable characters are a complete joke, they’re diverse, sure, but ironically, they have no sense of personality that differentiates them enough from the other characters in the game. Almost all of the interactions in the game can crumble down to this: “Hello hero/heroine, do this for me.” “No, I don’t want to.” “Wow, I thought you weren’t a selfish person, guess I was wrong.” “Fine, I’ll do it.” or “Hey hero, do this for me.” “No, I don’t want to.” “Please? I’ll give you something in return.”Fine, I’ll do it.” Completely bland and boring interactions.
What’s more infuriating, is when the character does something that they’re actively warned not to do, does it anyway, and ends badly. They act shocked EVERY TIME it happens, which is annoying because it essentially negates everything the player did, effectively feeling like a massive waste of time. You will meet many characters that you will grow to hate for all the wrong reasons, biggest offense is the character Emma Jaunt. She’s completely selfish, self-centered, arrogant, naive, and just generally unpleasant to be around. Unfortunately, the player is stuck with her throughout the entire game. There’s never an option for any alternatives, you have to go where the story takes you. The first game and Riptide were formatted in a linear story too but at least their stories were much greater and more interesting than the second game. Overall, the story is not that good, the DLCs are a little better but still not as good as the previous titles.
Storyline
The story of Dead Island 2 is recycled from the first game: the player is attacked by zombies, discovers their immune, contacts an authority figure to be extracted to make a vaccine or a cure, gets betrayed, and leaves on their own accord. In the original Dead Island, the story was well-fleshed out and fresh at the time, the interactions with the main and side characters were fluid, natural, and fulfilling. The characters visited many different and unique places, discovering more about the world of Dead Island. Ending with an interesting epilogue chapter in a prison which features an amazing twist villain. Riptide went in the proper direction, a new 5th main character was introduced in Riptide and featured a brand new location for the open world. More importantly, there is more weight to the consequences of your choices in the grand scheme of things. It’s a ride from beginning to end.
Dead Island 2 is the complete opposite, despite the interesting setpiece of “Hell-A”, it’s ironically empty and barren, it’s clear that the devs were relying more on the fact that this takes place in Los Angeles than actually doing something with it. The player has the goal of getting out using the character’s immunity, despite being warned by Sam B, a returning character from the first game, and Riptide, that he’s gone through that routine, not once but twice. Because the character doesn’t listen, it leads to the most redundant, boring, and complete waste of a story in the series. Nothing really interesting happens, the only semi-interesting thing to happen is the autophage aspect of the virus, even then it’s not fully explored nor fully realized. It feels like it’s more about exploring the city of Hell-A rather than progressing through the main story. This would be fine had they gone with the approach of the city of Hell-A and what’s happening to be the main focus of the story instead of just a repeat of the first game. The story DLCs follow this format and are slightly better than the main game as a result.
Final verdict
Despite Dead Island 2 having the upper hand graphics and attention to detail in gore, it ultimately falls short in every other aspect when it comes to the core principles of Dead Island and makes it unique. Dead Island Riptide may fall short in-game mechanics, with it being outdated by today’s standards. It more than makes up for it with a far more interesting story and open-world setpiece. The enemy variety makes the gameplay more interesting and fun, especially with the inclusion of one-time enemies that can only be found in specific areas, which encourages exploration and adds depth to the world. Dead Island Riptide is the far superior sequel, and worth checking out.
Departing Thoughts
It’s a shame that Dead Island 2 was released in the state that it was in. There was so much potential for it to be great, but since the direction of the game was never properly realized and the development hell it went through for almost a decade straight, it was only inevitable. Hopefully, any story DLCs will maybe pump some new life into the game. Dambuster hasn’t abandoned this game yet, so here’s hoping for the best in the future Dead Island 2.
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