Dead Island Riptide, the pseudo sequel to Deep Silver's 2011 tropical zombie killing game is a lot like its source material. It shambles along, attempting to reach its goal, but frequently stumbles over its own stupidity and lack of inspiration. Dead Island Riptide is more of the same, but sadly that also means it's more of the sub-par visuals, uninspiring gameplay and bugs that plagued the first game. If you liked the first game, you're sure to find something to love here - but everyone else is bound to be disappointed.

As you may have expected, story is little more than an afterthought it Dead Island Riptide. The game picks up immediately after the ending of the first game, with the four remaining survivors on an aircraft carrier after escaping the island. Of course, things go bad and before long you're back to taking out enemies with your homemade weapons…and searching bags for deodorant. Riptide sets itself up to be a B-movie adventure that doesn't take itself too seriously at all, but it soon becomes very evident that the game does in fact take itself way too serious and the result is a game that you're going to have a hard time investing in, let alone caring about.

"The characters are absolute stereotypes..."

You see, everything in Riptide is an absolute. The characters are absolute stereotypes and the plot is born from such a stereotypical action movie that you'll swear Dolph Lundren and Wesley Snipes should be running around the island somewhere. You want character development? Would you settle for these stereotypes learning how to curse even more by the end of the game? By about the middle of the game's second act, you're bound to figure out the game's uninspired ending, but you'll trudge through it hoping it gets better - it doesn't.

The majority of Dead Island proves that Deep Silver has learned almost nothing from its experiences from the first Dead Island game, Riptide is just as poorly paced and uneventful as its predecessor. The game promises zombie killing action but a good portion of your time will be spent on fetch quests. You'll need supplies, food and items to build weapons and of course - you're the only one who can go get them. Oh, you'll encounter zombies during these quests, but their encounters are handled so haphazardly that they become a nuisance, and that's a problem where zombie encounters are the focal point of the game.

"Creating your own weapons is still great fun..."

As uninspiring and dull as the combat is - it isn't without its fine points. Creating your own weapons is still great fun, and I often found myself veering off the beaten path, and the mission itself to see if I could find more weapons to use. Dead Island Riptide is a lot more fun when you're playing with friends, and the game handles players with differing levels extremely well, everyone plays at their own level, even in the same game, making it easier for anyone to jump in and play, no matter who's on the other end.

Riptide also looks a lot like its predecessor. Sure, there are new areas to explore and new enemies to take out, but everything from the animations to the world around you looks remarkably similar, and that's not a good thing since the original Dead Island wasn't the prettiest girl at the dance. Characters animate strange and there's literally no draw distance, even on the most open sections of the island. It also doesn't help that Riptide is full of bugs; one in particular found me having to restart a save file multiple times because the game wouldn't recognize that I had completed the objective.

Dead Island Riptide could have easily been a downloadable chapter for the original game, and it may have been worth your money then - but as a near full priced retail release, it's not. Riptide is more of the same, and the small amount it does add doesn't make up for the subpar graphics, bugs and boring plot. Save your money, take a staycation away from Riptide.