Dead Island Riptide Preview

Another preview for Dead Island Riptide is out, courtesy of Eurogamer. Interestingly, to define the place of Riptide in what I suppose is now the Dead Island franchise, Deep Silver’s producer Sebastian Reichart compares the title to Fallout: New Vegas. Eurogamer doesn’t really seem to agree entirely, though:

Dead Island’s status as one of 2011’s most successful new IPs would prove that despite its critical reception, there was love out there – and a fair amount of it.

Which brings us, barely a year after the first game’s release, to Riptide. It’s not a sequel – by Techland’s own admission, there’s not enough that’s really new to warrant the number two – but it’s not an add-on either, with a campaign that goes well above the 5-10 hours that tag would usually imply. “It’s definitely much, much more,” insists Reichart. “We’re in this grey-zone – like Fallout: New Vegas wasn’t the next Fallout.”

Unlike New Vegas, though, this isn’t a new perspective, or a new voice for the disenchanted of the zombie apocalypse. Riptide is being developed by the same core Dead Island team, and it’s unashamedly more of the same. A lot more of the same. Not that the millions who were enamoured by the original will be complaining.

It’s a straight-up continuation of the first game – you can import your old character, who retains their level and is free to pile on more and more perks and skills. There’s new stuff, of course – the four main characters of the original return, joined by a fifth more physical one inspired by the Fist of the Dead Star fan video, and they’ll all find themselves in the same tropical archipelago as before.