Grave Gamer News & Views — techland

Dead Island: Riptide Cheaper Because of Its End-of-Console-Cycle Release

We’re a short while yet away from learning anything of value about Techland’s Dead Island sequel (a full reveal is scheduled later this Summer), but oddly enough, we already know how much it’ll cost.  Thanks to a representative at Dead Island: Riptide’s publisher, Deep Silver, the sequel’s price point has been confirmed to be $49.99 – a whole $10 below the average new game release price tag.  You’re tempted to look outside to see if the sky’s falling but I assure you everything is nominal.

The sequel isn’t operating on a stunted budget and none of the content retreads the original game (not literally, anyway).  Deep Silver attests the pricing was set lower than norm due to the fact that this console generation is coming to a close.  If that’s the case, Dead Island just might be a trendsetter – a trend I fully support.

With next-gen dev kits already being distributed by the big manufactures, we won’t have long to wait until we see new consoles.  Sony and Microsoft want us to believe otherwise, but if Deep Silver’s decision is any indication, companies are already gaining way for what comes next.

Dead Island concept art.

Dead Island’s Ryder White DLC Trailer Hits the Right Tone

Out February 1st, this seemingly substantial bit of DLC doles out a single player prequel to Dead Island’s tropical apocalypse.  One can only hope Ryder himself brings more characterization to the table than “That bitch was HUGE” when traversing the island.

Revisit Dead Island with the “Ryder White” Story Heavy DLC

Remember Dead Island?  Came out in September.  Yeah, you got it before six dozen other glorious attention-stompers came out in the Holiday time.  Yes, it had that backwards-motion trailer everyone was talking about.  No, the game’s nothing like that.  Anyway, Techland thinks it time for you to yank it from beneath the deluge of games in your backlog.

The “Bloodbath Arena” DLC brought us the Horde Mode we were missing from the initial release, but the “Ryder White” addition pegged for February 1st supplements Dead Island’s story.  The name’s familiar because Mr. White is the mysterious voice guiding you along the island as you learn new ways to get unfriendly with the locals.

Playing as Ryder, we’re given his take on the zombie infestation of Banoi while learning more about the character, his family, and (without giving away any spoilers) why he ends up such a bastard, all in a package that includes a few extra hours of gameplay and some new weapons to play with.  Unlike every other mode in the game, the “Ryder White” add-on forgoes four-player co-op in favor of a solo experience (which, admittedly, is how I played the majority of the game).

For as meaty – if repetitive – as the bulk of Dead Island’s run time was, it came up severely short in the storytelling department.  Techland nailed zombie killing with flying colors, but if they can address story failings with Ryder White, it’ll definitely be worth dusting off this undead opus.

Again, Ryder White drops Feb.1st, and it’s yours for either 800 MS or $9.99.

3 Things I Want from Dead Island’s Eventual Sequel Dead World:

1. A better narrative.  I was able to deal with Dead Island being more hack n’ slash than gut-wrenching emotional turmoil as the infamous backwards-motion trailer would have consumers believe.  One dimensional leads, a story I couldn’t affect, and a limp dicked ending, however, left room for a football field of improvement and left me feeling lukewarm about Techland’s brand of storytelling.

2. Better mission structure.  Borderlands is by all rights a dose of amazing yet was marred by laundry list-like missions that had you checking off fetch quests and area sweeps that never changed the path the story took like in Bethesda or Bioware’s titles.  Dead Island saw fit to mimic this approach to missions with even less success.  The core mechanics of the game – such as exploration and creating zombie crunching weapons of doom – were enough to keep me playing but there was no meat to the game besides what I was slicing through.

3. Bring on the apocalypse.  The very environment of the game – you know, a friggin’ island – limited our first hand experience to one zombie outbreak; a singular, isolated incident.  A lot of zombie games take this route, especially some of my favorites: practically every Resident Evil game is an isolated locale bombarded by the dead.  You’re stuck within the confines of a mall in Dead Rising and then a Vegas Strip-ish plaza in its sequel.  And while Valve got closer to the armageddon I wanted to go out fighting in, the focused linearity of Left 4 Dead’s levels had me yearning to see more.

I want to see a full-blown-no-turning-back-hide-what’s-left-of-the-kids-apocalypse.  Not to be mistaken with a post-apocalypse (similar to Rage or Fallout) but an end of days in progress scenario akin to Romero’s earlier undead flicks.  I want to be thrown in with emergency vehicles racing around panicked cities that are under siege from an invading force of corpses. Let there be distant fires on the horizon and chaos as far as the eye can see.  Now throw in a more varied stat leveling system, broader options for exploration, and I’ll reserve a spot in my collection for Dead World.