Dead Island Riptide Interviews

We have rounded up a couple of interviews for Dead Island Riptide, which continues straight off from where we were left at the end of the original Dead Island with largely similar mechanics.

Mature Gaming has an article-style chat with creative producer Sebastian Reichert:

(We gave them a lot,) Reichert says, (but they wanted more of it, so we made sure we gave them more of it and we now have more water, we have defence, and we have character-levelling.)

The defence Reichert refers to is in fact one of the key points about Dead Island: Riptide’s gameplay. Players can team up online or work with competent AI partners to fortify a structure or partially exposed location, then mow down the incoming hordes with machine guns, blow them up with improvised explosives, and when all else fails chop their limbs off with melee weapons. It’s reminiscent of the hugely popular ‘˜zombies’ mode on Treyarch’s Call of Duty games, but there are objectives to achieve and players must deal with the environments as effectively as they deal with the undead.

(We have an Island that is now completely flooded,) Reichert explains, (So we put in boat vehicles. We have a dynamic weather system, we also have a scriptable weather system, so with regards to water we definitely pushed everything to the limit and we’re very happy with the result, because now when you venture through an area you can have two completely different experiences depending on if it’s raining or sunny.

(In terms of defence, we’re very happy with the designated missions that have you defending an area. The barricade system, the mines and the mine system around it gives you a whole new feeling to the game and of course it’s the classic zombie fiction. It’s Night of the Living Dead; how do you defend yourself?)

While Xbox360Achievements goes for the more standard Q&A format:

Can you tell us more about new survivor John Morgan? You said he’s an OTT martial arts expert, so presumably the idea is he’s a hand-to-hand badass.

Exactly. He’s basically what we always thought we could have as a character that doesn’t need to use a weapon, because then you have this big advantage of a weapon that won’t break. It’s his hands, so they don’t break. He has designated skill trees in this area, and to make sure it doesn’t get boring, he has a lot of additional animations and special moves, which of course have additional effects. One of the options my personal favourite is to play with him focused on his fists and kicks.

I remember reading the press release announcing John Morgan said that he’s ex-US Navy, relegated to the job of cook… Has someone been watching Under Siege by any chance?

Of course! Let’s be honest, it’s a zombie game so we took the freedom of saying (hey, people know we are cheesy! We can do it, and we should do it.) He’s also a homage to an old 80s anime called Fist of the North Star AKA Hokuto no Ken, and after the release of the first Dead Island, using the version with the debug options still present, fans created a video called ‘Fist of the Dead Star’ with the title song from the French version of the TV show, and made Logan punch everyone and the enemies were flying away and burning. We were like, honestly guys, if you like it that much, we like it too!