"Dead Island probably won't win any game of the year awards. It's got visual bugs, the controls take a bit to feel normal, and the presentation in general isn't up to snuff. But the game gets a lot right. There is a huge world to explore, thousands of zombies to kill, and tons of side quests to take. Here on the other side of a 25-hour playthrough – where I skipped a lot of side quests after Act 1 – I'm anxious to get back into Dead Island, and despite the game's flaws, that's not something I say often."
These concerns rarely dampened the fun I had with both games. The bugs, too, while not totally extinct, usually only bothered me when some zombie got stuck on a beach chair or something. This is certainly the best version of Dead Island for newcomers to jump into, and it certainly doesn't hurt that the base game enjoys many of the interface improvements that came with Riptide.
When I did start to get bored, it was more from the unchanging design of it all. The stories and acting in Dead Island and its quasi-sequel Riptide have ever been the stuff of 1:00 AM B-movies, and the quests never really amount to much more than kill this, fetch that.
As a returning player looking for new content, I had the most fun with the 16-bit sidescrolling beat 'em up that comes with the collection. It's called Dead Island Retro Revenge, and it features a Jack Black-soundalike trying to save his cat by rushing down what looks like Venice Beach with zombies. (It sounds a hell of a lot like the setting for the AWOL Dead Island 2, at least judging from its trailer from E3 2014.) Retro Revenge itself is fun enough, although its combat and settings are highly repetitive. (In other words, it's a lot like Dead Island.) It's a lane-brawler that automatically shuttles faux-Jack along as he taps out the proper kicks and punches for this or that type of zombie, all while hitting them at the right time for multipliers. In practice, it feels a little more like playing Guitar Hero than Double Dragon. It's simple stuff, but it was the best time I had with the whole package.
The Verdict
With the Dead Island Definitive Edition, Dead Island and Dead Island Riptide have never looked so good. The use of Dying Light's graphics engine means almost every setting looks better and more realistic than it did at the start of the decade, but it unfortunately doesn’t run any better now than it did then. With around 35 hours of gameplay packed in and a fun little retro beat 'em up to complement it all, though, it's the best way to play if you missed these zombie-smashers.
